Introduction to Photography: Week 12

20.6.2014 (Week 12)

Casey Chong Jing Ping (0318756)

Introduction to Photography

Presentation: Final Project

Lecture

No lecture this week as it is the mid-semester break for us.

Exercise: Final Project

These are the 5 photographs I took over the semester break:

This is a very messy photograph, but it shows all the thrown away things, all bundled into one place. Look at the perfectly usable guitar case, even when it's still usable, it is still neglected, like us sometimes. We feel unwanted and neglected. We feel like there is no use of us in the world, but we do. We have a use, people just don't see it because humans are not perfect.

This is the road with broken glass on it. The texture of the road is so vivid and beautiful. And the tonality shows its roughness, while the glass, even when it is broken, it is smooth, and the tonality is soft, unlike the rough and dark toned road.

This photograph is of the inside of an unwanted car. It shows that nothing is perfect. Even an expensive car like this BMW gets thrown away to rot. Nothing lasts forever. 

I just want to show the simplicity of this picture. The gate from the old days. From the old times when we were young and life was simple, just like the lines of this gate. Always remember our roots, where we came from and who we are. 

This is a photograph of the road and part of the sidewalk and the inclined plane from the road to the sidewalk. Again it shows simplicity, even when there is three surfaces in here. It's not too busy a photograph. It also shows shade and light, which adds a nice touch to it.

This photograph below is a result of a test, the Learning Style Inventory that Mr.Vinod requested we take through Facebook. My results say that I am a Auditory Learner.

Screenshots for Hardcopies:

Learning Style Inventory

Final Project

Reflection

Observations:

This week, I have observed that a lot of my other classmates are too caught up with all the other assignments during the week to update their photography ePortfolio, even though it is the mid-semester break, we still have so much assignments to do, it is very easy to think that they are much more important than the ePortfolio, but I know that this is equally as important as all the other assignments. All subjects are equally important and we cannot neglect any of them. Photography was the first thing I did during the breakas to me, it is the easiest thing to do, and it is the fastest to finish. All I need to do for the blog was to take 5 photographs and post my reflections and what we learned during the lecture, and I took the photographs on Saturday as it was the only time I get to go to church to the old abandoned building. So for me, it was quite fast to finish writing the new post on the blog. Next, I observed that it is much better to do the blog and ePortfolio the first thing right after the class ends and also right after I am finished with taking the 5 photographs and to record the lecture and experiences that I had, because the thoughts and experiences will be fresh in my mind and I can remember more, rather than waiting until the next Wednesday or Thursday to do it, then forgetting what I have learnt during class. I also feel like I can recall more things and therefore can write more thoughts if I do it fresh out of my mind rather than procrastinating. Lastly, I have just now observed that this ePortfolio and blog is very similar to a diary, a Photography Diary. This is because we record all our thoughts, feelings, and experiences in this blog. It is much like the way we record our thoughts and feelings on our experiences into our diary or journals, or our personal blogs or even on tumblr. I have found that doing this is very important and helpful as we can always look back to what we have learnt in the past, and we also can learn from our past mistakes. Whenever we need help or guidance in our current assignments or final projects, we can always look back and recheck the past lessons that we had. We can also see how we have improved in photography as the weeks and lessons pass, and see our progress through this ePortfolio.

Experience:

After I did last week's blog, since I took quite a few photographs, I only posted the writing on my lecture and reflections first. Then, I rechecked, cropped, and then chose the best 5 photographs before I updated my ePortfolio with the 5 photographs that I have chosen. The next week, which is this week, Saturday comes, and I went to church. I went to take photographs of the abandoned buildings and cars opposite the church again. This time it was more challenging as I already took photographs from the exact same place last week, so now I have to find new spots to take photographs and also new subjects to take photographs of. I also need to improve from last week's photographs and get better angles and exposure this time. This took quite some time, but at last I managed to take quite a few good photographs. This time, it was quite a different experience from last week, and that is because I arrived at church one hour early. I do not own a car, and so I need someone to transport me to church every week. This week, my ''driver'' has to go to church early as he is serving in church and has to prepare for the service in advance, meaning he has to go to church early to prepare for the service. This is perfect for me because when we, my driver, two other girls who need transport too, and I, arrived there was nobody at church yet, only a few people who went early because they too were serving that day. The outside of the church was basically empty, and so I could take photographs to my hearts content without anyone staring. When I did not immediately go inside the air-conditioned church, my driver and the two other passengers did question me and ask me what I was doing, but I quickly explained to them that I was doing this for an assignment, and they left me alone after that. Taking photographs outside alone was very fun as I could do anything I wanted at my own pace, but the only thing that stopped me from doing it slow and easy was that it was 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and it was scorching hot and humid outside, so I had to take the photographs with the sun beating down on me, and I was sweating profusely, it was not fun at all. But I still took some time taking the photographs, choosing the angles, choosing the subjects and the exposure, positioning the camera sometimes. At last I finished taking the photographs and I could finally pack up and go inside the cooling and comfortable church, but not before I caught a worker from the shop opposite staring at me, wondering what I was doing in the hot weather, taking pictures of some ugly unused cars. He's a worker, a mechanic from the car workshop opposite the church, and I was taking photographs of the cars that he and his colleagues could not fix, and I felt quite bad as it seems like I was taking photographs and recording all his failures, but that is just my imaginations, as he was just curious as to what I was doing there all by myself, but as I was already done with taking the five photographs, and he did not question me directly about what I was doing, I just packed up my things quickly, gave an awkward smile at him, and went into the church without a word. I found out that I like it when I arrive at church early to take photographs as there are no, or less people there to see me and question me, and I like the fact that I do not have to rush and can take my time with taking photographs as long as I want, even under the sun. I hope that I get to go to church early every week so I could take photographs contentedly from now on.

Findings:
This week, I found out that I can share anything in my blog regarding my photography. If I don't know something, I can always share it in my blog, because it is okay to share, and also to find an answer by asking. Asking is good, like a detective, and you learn much more from sharing and asking rather than just thinking by yourself and not sharing. Also, if we are confused or are not clear about something, we can always ask Mr.Vinod and he will always reply and help us if we need any guidance. Moreover, I have also learnt that photography is not necessarily a serious thing. It can be very fun if you do it right, especially when you do it with your friends. Furthermore, I found out that anyone can do photography, it is either professionally or amateur. Everyone can take a camera or a camera phone and snap some pictures with the camera, but the picture can come out good or better. Also, anything can be a subject of a photograph. You just need to see the beauty in it and have the passion for photography. There is a beauty in "ugly" broken things too, for example the abandoned cars and buildings that I am using as my subject for the final project. You just need to look closely to find the beauty in those objects. There is no ugly subject, becasue with photography anything is possible and we can push the boundaries. There is even photoshop to help us with correcting photographs. All that sai, I also realized that photography is not as easy as it seems. There are a lot of aspects we need to look into for a "perfect" photograph, such as the exposure, which already has 4 different things to learn about, and also composition, with even more difficult and complicated things to know if you are not familiar to them. You can take a random photograph of food, or even a selfie, and you are already a photographer, albeit an amateur one. Nowadays, everyone can take good photographs with their advanced smartphones that help them to take photographs automatically, except for the placements of their subjects, but the photographs only come out great in good lighting and exposure, because automatic cameras in the phones can only capture the pictures at zone 5, when the lighting is neutral. When the lighting is too bright or too dim, the photographs will come out not as good, and most phone's front camera gives out grainy results in the photographs. So in order to take great and awesome photographs, you need to have a DSLR camera with manual mode and you need to adjust the exposure yourself, especially when the lighting conditions are too bright or too dim, or the subjects are in different zones, more or less than zone 5. The camera on a phone can only take good photographs in neutral lighting conditions.