Photojournalism, our final project. My friend Trevor and I decided on going to the airport to photograph the many different people, and situations that are a part of the unique culture associated with the airport. Photographing the arrivals turned out to be easier than photographing departures, probably due to the large amount of people arriving on big flights, and the lack of people departing on them at the time we were there. We wanted to capture the genuine moments of people being reunited, and the happiness and joy that precedes. Personally, I found this project quite challenging. I felt awkward taking pictures of random people, and I’m sure I succeeded in making them feel awkward too, by taking pictures of them right when they got off a long flight. Something that remained difficult throughout the whole time shooting, was our timing. People were rather quick to greet each other, often with just a quick hug, as they rushed out to get home, or wherever they were going. This made photographing them quite a challenge, as there was very little time to focus the camera before the initial moment ended and they rushed out of the airport; this lead to us missing many of the initial happy moments associated with greeting a loved one (although we got some). Overall, I found that we were generally quite successful in capturing what we went to the airport looking for!
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Excuse the extreme graininess, I had quite a difficult time getting the right lighting. An explanation of every item might be cool? The Lightning Thief: My favourite book, and the first book in my favourite series. It's definitely the reason why I like Greek mythology. Golden bookmark: A souvenir that an exchange student named Jimmy gave me in fifth grade. The knife: I love cooking, and this is one of the knives that I like to use. The measuring tape: It's opened up to the number six, because I'm about six feet tall. The wooden shoes: I'm dutch, and my dad brought them back from Holland when I was about two. They fit me at one point in my life. The camera: It was my dad's camera, and it's something I hope to learn how to use in the future. The car: It's a Mustang, and it's just cool. Disney's Cars: My favourite movie of all time. I like animated movies better than real life ones. The butterflies: To commemorate my childhood obsession with bugs. My brothers friend made it for my birthday one year. Yeah, they're 100% real, and I have one with grasshoppers and beetles too. Strangely, I am quite opposed to bugs now that I've grown up. The boots: I like them, nothing really special about them. The beanie: Or is it a toque? I got it from Urban Outfitters. It's just ordinary, like the boots.
Some people don't see graffiti as art, I question as to why. Taking a dull, bland alley and turning it into a colourful estuary of vibrant stories strewn about. Art is definitely the word I would use to describe such magnificence and transformation. Bland, definitely made into something beautiful. A time when dew drops appear, and the bright coloured leaves light up the otherwise dull days. In between the transition of the bright and sunny days of summer, and the cold and dark days that come as a supplement to winter. Personally, Fall (or Autumn, whatever you prefer) is my favourite season, with Spring not too far behind! Some days, the weather turns out to be nice and sunny, and others the opposite with a bit of rain, but it's never too hot or too cold to just throw on a hoodie and go. Here's to Fall, the beginning of sweater weather! "Autumn is a second spring, where every leaf is a flower." - Albert Camus This is definitely not a real time post, as biology has been consuming most of my time in the past couple weeks. After looking at the results that my friend Trevor and I achieved from our homemade pinhole lens, I was actually quite pleased. To make the lens, we used a body cap for the camera that had a hole drilled in the centre (thankfully our teacher Mr. Choy already had one, cause I'm definitely not a handyman of any sorts). Tinfoil was placed in behind the body cap, with a very small hole in it, that believe it or not, we used a pin to make. I found that the photos taken with the pinhole had a classic look to them, as if they were taken maybe a century ago. Through the opportunity to experiment with this method, and researching the history of photography and the many techniques they used to take photos before the digital age, it gave me a bit more drive to experiment with camera techniques that may be obsolete in the digital age we live in today. Experimenting with vintage techniques should be a must for any photographer who wants a greater understanding of photography in general, and how it has progressed through the years to achieve what we have in the present. On a completely unrelated note, today I stayed home sick from school and watched Mary Poppins. Although I should have been writing a paper for psychology class, Julie Andrews portraying a magical nanny is a lot more important in my books. And yeah, I could totally be writing that psych paper right now, but it's just not as fun as this!
If you don't know what HDR (High Dynamic Range) is, I'll tell you, and even if you do know, I'll tell you anyway. What it is is taking three (or more) photographs of the same subject, at different levels of exposure. The first being underexposed, the second being perfectly exposed, and the last being over exposed. When merged in Photoshop, the one photo takes on all the elements of the three differently exposed ones, making for a very dramatic picture (with editing included of course)! Overall, this was a very interesting, fun, and relatively simple method of photography to learn, that yielded what I think are pretty decent results. I wish however, that I went out on more cloudy days, as thats when the most dramatic HDR photos are taken (ex. old UBC building with blue sky above VS. church with rippled clouds). The film camera. Something of the past. Something I wish I knew more about. Recently, I was in West Vancouver along the stretch of beach known as Spanish Banks. My buddy and I were walking around with a camera, when an older gentleman with a camera came up behind us, and posed us with a question: "Are you guys old enough to remember film?", and I'm glad he asked it. My answer to that question is slightly. I do remember my mom taking photos with an automatic film camera, and going with her to get them developed, but that hasn't been the case for a number of years. It brought me to the conclusion that film photography is turning out to just be something of the past, and almost no one is still taking on the challenge. He also added in the fact that on a nice day like the one we were having, he'd be shooting around 500 dollars worth of film. That may be why almost everyone has switched to digital photography, due to the sheer price factor, and how much cheaper it is for someone to shoot digitally. Personally, I think it would be great if more people from younger generations (like mine) would attempt shooting with film. It's almost a lost form of art, that relies on precision, rather than experimentation. A way to master camera technique without the help of digital aids: pure, raw skill. I think film photography is something I want to tackle in the near future: test myself, and see if I really do have the raw skills and technique to take photographs without the safe haven of the LCD screen that shows me what I'm doing wrong.
Minimalism. What is it? Is it boring? Is it simple? Is it easy? The truth is, it can be all of these, but also none of these; all dependent on how you interpret the images, and what you put into creating them. A lot of the time a minimalist image will be overlooked, solely due to the lack of content. People of generations that are a lot more... distant from what we live in today, don't seem to understand the real power behind minimalism, and don't see the art behind the simplicity. I told my grandma about the basics of minimalism and she couldn't seem to wrap her head around the idea of it. Minimalism is definitely a modern form of art; one that the people of the younger generations appreciate a lot more than that that of the older generations. It's a way for people to hyper-focus on a single subject, without the subject being overshadowed. It's a way to show hidden detail, or details that would otherwise go unnoticed. Some may see minimalism as boring, but to the trained eye, minimalism can tell a story as deep as the ocean is wide.
I thought I would kick everything off with a photo of my set up. I bought my DSLR in around grade 9, and I've been taking photos casually ever since. Before all this, I received a point-and-shoot camera for my birthday, and tried my best to take artsy photographs, but wasn't really getting the best results. This drove me to get my DSLR, a Nikon D3100, which I bought solely because it looked cool in commercials. And just a fun fact; I managed to take this photo with my iPhone, with my white t-shirts as the backdrop.
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