ePortfolio Post for Introduction to Photography: Week 1

4.4.14 (Week 1)
Casey Chong (0318756)
Introduction To Photography
Exercise 1: Presentation of 10 of your best-liked pictures


Lecture:
This morning, Mr.Vinod gave us a lecture on the introduction to photography. He gave us an introduction to what photography is. Mr.Vinod told us that the purpose of this module is to teach students how to use their cameras to take better pictures. The module will also teach the basics of camera operation
and exposure techniques to allow students to produce pictures that are rich in tonality and depth. Mr.Vinod told us that we will be taught basic editing and composition formulas to further enhance our picture making skills.
The teaching objectives of this module is for us to learn to take pictures using the manual mode of our cameras and to be able to achieve good composition and exposure.
Mr.Vinod also told us of our learning outcomes from this module, which are for us students to be able to use the following exposure settings: Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO, to use the Zone System exposure technique to achieve desired results,to be able to distinguish a bad exposure from a good exposure, to apply the Rule of Thirds for composition, and also to be able to use Adobe Photoshop to edit pictures at a basic level.
Mr.Vinod said that the modes of delivery will be in the form of lectures, demonstrations, tutorials and self-study. He also told us that TIMeS will be used as an important communication tool and information portal for students to access module materials, project briefs, assignments and announcements.
After that, Mr.Vinod proceded to tell us about the Taylors Graduate Capabilities, which have 5 outcomes. Taylors Graduates will also have capabilities in knowledge, cognitive capabilities and soft skills.
Next, Mr.Vinod told us about the general rules and regulations, which include the penalties for late submissions of work, compulsory attendance, the penalty for plagarism, and also to give credit to others whenever neccesary.
Mr.Vinod told us about the types of assessment we have to do in the near future of our module and that he will give us feedback on our work.
Mr.Vinod also showed us the marking rubric and coursework that we would be doing in this course. He also showed us the marking and grading table.
Furthermore, Mr.Vinod told us to prepare some materials for our upcoming classes such as, cameras (DSLRs or mirrorless cameras), a tripod stand, a hardcover file for keeping the hardcopy of our ePortfolios such as this one, and a laptop or personal computer (preferably an Macbook) if we don't have one. He also kindly suggested a few good cameras and tripod stands that we could buy and suggested some places in which we could buy them. He told us that second-hand cameras and tripod stands are allowed too and taught us how to check if the quality of the cameras and tripod stands are good.

Last but not least, Mr.Vinod assigned us some work to do, which are to make an ePortfolio of the lesson that he has just taught us, and also Exercise 1 of the coursework that he had showed us, which is the "Presentation of 10 of our Best-liked Photoes", 5 of which are our own photoes and another 5 of which are 

photoes taken by famous artists.

Instructions:

Instructions for Exercise 1:

The instructions for ''Exercise 1: Presentation of 10 of your best-liked'' pictures are to explain the reasons we like the chosen pictures, what we found interesting when or after taking or choosing the picture. We have to choose pictures that are not our own as well but must credit and explain the circumstances of the picture. We will have to present 5 pictures of our own and 5 pictures of 5 different photographers. By this process, we will be able to exercise our ability to discern and reflect on what makes a good picture theoretically.

   Photographs taken by me:

    This photograph is taken at Tanjung Aru Beachside at Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

    I like this photograph because it gives an impression to me that it is very tranquil and peaceful by the beachside. I also love the pop of red colour that appears in an otherwise neutral-coloured background.

    This photograph is taken in my room on my writing table back at my home in Sabah.

    I like this picture because it is colourful. This picture shows a variety of colours against a black background and it portrays excitement and a happy feeling to whoever is looking at this photograph. This photograph also helps me to express my love towards bright and vibrant colours.

    This photograph is taken in Singapore. This picture is actually one of the exterior walls of a building called Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. The myriad little pieces of rectangles on the wall of the building are actually reflective surfaces and will sway gently if a small gust of wind blows on them, creating a beautiful and undescribable effect of reflection on the entire exterior wall of the building.
    The reason why I like this photograph is whenever I look at it, I can remember and imagine the beautiful reflective effect that the wall gives off and it feels as if I am back in Singapore all over again.
    Furthermore, I like this photograph because it is just a simple picture, and sometimes, simplicity is all it takes to make a breathtaking picture come to life.

    This photograph is taken somewhere in the sky above Kota Kinabalu city in Sabah. I remember that I had taken this photograph on the plane as it just started to fly and depart Sabah. I had taken this photograph on the 26th of March, the day that I was coming to Taylors Lakeside University to check in on my first day here. I was so excited.

    I like this photograph because it looks so serene and relaxing and one will feel like one can almost touch the clouds outside the window of the plane. The shadows between the clouds shows how dense the clouds are and the striking blue colour of the sky at the edge of the picture is so beautiful and bright.

    This photograph was taken at my home in Sabah. The cloth my baby turtle, Buttons is sleeping on is actually a tiny light pink handkerchief.

    The reason I chose this photograph as one of my best-liked photographs is because of the detail of the photograph. If you look closely, you can see the lines and patterns of the turtle's shell and how one corner of her shell is white and slightly chipped. Another detail one can see is how small and tiny this baby turtle is compare to the already small sized handkerchief that she was sleeping on. I also like this photograph because it shows the baby turtle's fragileness, vulnerability, calmness and trust in me as she sleeps peacefully while I took this photograph of her.

Photographs taken by famous photographers: 

    This photograph is taken by a famous photographer named Ansel Adams. He is famous for his black-and-white photographs. I chose this landscape photograph as one of my best-liked pictures.

    I like his photograph because it shows the vastness of the land of rocks by the way the rocks grow smaller in size the further they are in the photograph. This also shows how large the mountains are because even in the far distance, the mountains still loom large compared to the tiny rocks in the distance.

    This is a photograph of Anne Hathaway taken by a famous photographer named Annie Leibovitz. She has this collection of photographs of where she uses famous people and portrays them as Disney characters from the disney series "The Disney Princesses". But this picture of Anne Hathaway is not one of those pictures.

    I like this photo because there is so much emotion portrayed by Anne Hathaway in this photograph that you could almost feel what she is feeling. It is as if her eyes are staring right into your soul. Anne looks so vulnerable in this picture, it's as if there is a hidden message that Annie Leibovitz wanted to let us know through this picture, which is to show the vulnerability of humankind. I also like the fact that Anne has minimal make-up on, which shows the true beauty of natural beauty. 

    This photograph is taken by another famous photographer named Jerry Uelsmann. He mostly takes fantasy photographs and he too takes mostly black-and-white photographs. 

    I like this picture because it is like as if the photographer is giving us his version of Heaven. This photograph also shows the wild imagination of the photographer. I also like this picture because I find it very creative that he merged both the land and the sky together in one photograph and there is a certain beauty in that.

   

    This is a photograph by a famous photographer named Jay Maisel. I like all his photographs because he uses simplicity as his main theme in all his pictures. Jay doesn't use much photoshop or filters and keeps his pictures simple and precise and that is also how I like it.

    I like this photograph because it shows the clarity of the glass. It is so clear that it can have a reflection of a house on it. I also like this picture because it is simple and  it shows that there is beauty in a photograph eventhough it is simple. Also, this photograph is just simply named "Glass".

         
   

    This last photograph is taken by  famous photographer named Dorothea Lange. Dorothea took "documentary photographs" and she took photographs of  people during the Great Depression. Her main purpose of taking these photographs is to document the lives of the people during the Great Depression. This is a photograph of a grandfather carrying his grandson on his back.

    I like this photograph because it gives a feeling of nostalgia. It also has the emotion of the love of the grandfather towards his grandson a she gives a piggyback to his grandson. It also has the emotion of tiredness of the grandfather because he has to endure a lot of hardship during the Great Depression. The feeling of tiredness can be seen by the wrinkles that crease the grandfather's face, especially around his eyes. Lastly, this photograph seems to show the strength of the grandfather to go through life everyday even during difficult times, because his strength is fueled by the power of his love towards his grandson.

    Here is the original size of the photograph so that you can see the photograph more clearly :

Screenshots of Exercise 1 :

The marking criteria for the above exercises are as follows: 
Exercise 1 (5%): Presentation of 10 of your best-liked pictures
1. Content (3%):

Marking Criteria: The presentation must showcase a variety of pictures: personal(5 self shot), landscape, 
portrait, still life, etc. AND from 5 different photographers. All pictures must be credited and explained. 

2. Clarity of presentation (2%): 
Marking Criteria: The student must be clear and concise in their delivery and explanation of their pictures. 

Evidence of understanding can be deduced by their analysis, explanation and confidence of their delivery.

Feedback:
Specific Feedback:
    Mr.Vinod said that overall, my work on the exercise was good. But that I need to be more concise when I'm writing about the lecture and that I don't need to write too much about the lecture part. He also said that the reflections are very important in the class and to put more thought into it and to write about what we have learned in class and to write our thoughts into the reflection part.

General Feedback:
      Mr.Vinod told the class to be aware of the words we use, and also that some of us mention things that have not yet been taught in class in our reflections. He said that people chage through experience and that we had to observe more of our surroundings. He also mentioned that part of design is thinking a lot in our brains, especially creating things, and sometimes, us designers tend to think too much. Mr.Vinod also explained to us that the "findings" section in the reflections is the results of the experience and observations combined.



Reflection:

Experience:

From this module, I gained experience in using camera. I have also gained more experience in taking better quality pictures and I know how to choose a better quality camera for myself. Furthermore, I know about  the different settings of the camera and all the uses of the different aspects of the camera. I also know how to use those settings to my advantage as I have never used those myriad uses of the camera before. I have also experienced in choosing the best photographs as I had to choose only 10 out of a never-ending list of photographs for Exercise 1. I have also experienced in making a video because it is required of me to make a video for Exercise 1 too. Moreover, I have also had the experience of making an ePortfolio, which I have never made before. Lastly, I have experienced making a blog to go with the ePortfolio.

Observations:

From this module, I have observed that better pictures can be taken in better lighting and better positions. I have observed that a camera has a lot of abilities other than simply taking simple photographs, it can also change the white balance of a photograph and change some other aspects or settings to an otherwise boring photograph. The camera's abilities are almost never-ending. I have also observed that some cameras are not as good at stabilization as others, which is that the SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera is better at stabilizing than the mirrorless camera, meaning that the SLR camera is better to be used by those who are less stable in taking pictures. Moreover, I have also observed that using a tripod could both be good and bad things. The tripod has its advantages and its disadvantages. The advantages of the tripod are that it helps to stabilize the pictures taken by the photographer whereas the disadvantages of the tripod is that it might get in the way if one desires to take a photograph of something in a small space as the tripod takes up quite a lot of space. Lastly, I have observed a lot more of my surroundings than I usually would. I have observed that anything and everything can be taken as photographs. There is no limit to photography. As long as you have a camera, you can take as many photographs of as many things, living and non-living, as possible.

Findings:

From this module, I found out that there was such cameras called the mirrorless cameras and the "SLR" cameras, which are "Single Lens Reflex" cameras. Before this module, I only knew of "DSLR" cameras, which are called "Digital Single Lens Reflex" cameras and normal digital cameras. I found out that the "DSLR" cameras and the "SLR" cameras have mirrors in them, so they tend to be larger and heavier. I also found out what a viewfinder is and that all "DSLR" and "SLR" cameras have a viewfinder but only some mirrorless cameras have a viewfinder. Moreover, I discovered that a camera has a manual mode as well as an automatic mode, and that it is always better to use the manual mode as the settings of the photographs can be adjusted to our own liking rather than the automatic camera helping us set a certain setting that is always the same. Before I attended Mr.Vinod's "Introduction to Photography" class, I did not know that taking a simple photograph needs so many aspects such as lighting, aperture, resolutions, white balance, ISO speed, shutter speed, and stabilization, but now that I have done the module, I found out about all these great uses of the camera that I have never known before. Also, I now know that some cameras nowadays tend to have touchscreens and wifi, which is more convinient as the photographs can be sent directly to another device such as a phone or a laptop without the need to use a USB cable to connect to the computer. I have also discovered that not only "DSLR" cameras can have changable lenses, but a smaller sized mirrorless camera also has changable lenses too. Last but not least, I find that I tend to observe more of my surroundings than usual and I have noticed a lot of things that can be taken as photographs, because I normally don't notice a lot about my surroundings. From that, I have discovered that my surroundings are filled with beauty and that I should take more notice of my surroundings more often, and I will.