It's Timeless To Me

When I think of the word "timeless," I think of something exquisite and valuable. I think of something that literally stands the test of time and wear. I think of something that's old-fashioned yet not dated, something that anyone can relate to, something that evokes sentimental emotions and feelings of happy nostalgia.

I was very excited about taking several "timeless" pictures for this assignment.
I personally love the classic eras of the forties and fifties. There was such a sense of positivity and carefree joy back then that I loved. When I think of the forties and fifties, I think of the story of my grandparents' meeting for the first time and the happy life they continue to live today. I think of "I Love Lucy," too, and the carefree attitudes of the show's cast.
In taking these pictures, I kept those ideas in mind as I hunted subjects down. In the end, I decided on the following shot:

This is the shot that I think exudes timelessness. There's something about an empty bench that's very intriguing to me. I feel like there are so many possibilities that come with an empty bench: if two people sit in a bench, will they become friends, or best friends? Will they fall in love and have a future together? Or will they just coexist? It may just be my romantic mindset, but my imagination runs wild when it comes to pictures like this. That's why I consider this my main "timeless" shot.

The following pictures are outside the assignment, but they were taken within the time frame. I just wanted to post them here because I really liked the way the shots turned out.

I'm not sure why, but this fountain reminds me of "The Sound of Music." It reminds me of the scenes in that movie within the lavish courtyards of the Von Trapp family. Although that movie is not in black and white, there's a timelessness about it that seems to transcend age. That's why I like this picture of a fountain.

While I was taking photos, I thought of the Bell Tower. I've had a couple of generations go to Lipscomb before me, and I thought that the Bell Tower would be a good symbol of generations past, present, and future. In trying to create an "older" feel, I played with my ISO. I bumped my ISO extremely high (1600, the highest my camera can go) in order to get a grainy effect. I like the result a lot, I just didn't think it was "timeless" enough for me. I'm glad I was able to play with my ISO settings again, though.

In conclusion, I think timelessness is an important quality to have in a photo. I also enjoyed experimenting with what is truly "timeless" and capturing in on film. If I can capture a feeling of happy sentiment in a photo, I think I've succeeded.

Take a [Glimpse] Through My Blue Eyes

According to glimpseblog.blogspot.com, a glimpse is defined as "a type of photograph consisting of a glimpse, a frame, and a background scene" and the "…area of a photograph which is partially or completely surrounded by the frame and offers a view of the background scene."

I love the concept of a "glimpse" photo. The heavy use of frame in "glimpses" is intriguing to me. So, in taking these pictures, I did my best to follow the definition of a "glimpse" and create a sense of intrigue in my own photographs.

For this photo, I experimented with the idea of using my hand to create a "telescope," much like when I was a child. I absolutely love the result. The chandelier is a decal on my dorm room wall. I used my hand cupped around my lens to give my audience a "glimpse" of what appears to be a silhouette of a chandelier. I love the idea of a "telescope" because it gives the picture an almost childlike quality.

This picture came as a surprise to me. During my art class, rain began to pour down heavily onto the tin roof of our portable. Our whole class went outside to hear and feel the misting rain. I pulled out my camera to take some pictures. In this photo, I positioned my camera so that the wooden pole and the side of the shed created an off-center frame that enclosed the two-by-fours and trash cans. I like this picture because of the mystery behind the pieces of wood and trash cans strewn across the gravel. What could the wood be used for? Why are there so many trash cans? I enjoy the fact that I can ask those questions when looking at this picture.

In conclusion, "glimpses," for me, have an air of intrigue and mystery when created in photography. The results yield curiosity from the audience, a quality that is very important when creating pictures.

Sillhouettes/Shutters/Slinkies/Hearts

I'll just go ahead and say that this project was a lot harder than I expected. However, it really challenged me to play with my camera and really get to know its features.

For this project, I had to create two silhouette-style photos. The concept is fairly simple: take a photo that's lit from the back and is completely shadowed or blacked out in the foreground.

As challenging as this was, I really enjoy the results.

My first "silhouette" picture is of a slinky (or, rather, the shadow silhouette of a slinky). The slinky I happened to have in my dorm cast an interesting shadow on my dorm wall.

This second picture is one I'm extremely proud of. As simple as making a heart with my hands looks, I had to do a lot of work to create this shot. My camera is at an ISO of 1600, with a halogen bulb-like sensitivity setting, and no flash is used at all. I used a self timer in order to make my hands free.

In conclusion, this assignment showed me that I could really create good pictures by fiddling and tweaking the inner components of my camera. Because of the pictures I took for this post, I learned so much about what my camera can do.

Design and Elements of it

Elements of design serve a twofold purpose: they serve as a guide for physically taking pictures and they allow the photographer to make his or her pictures more interesting and appealing to an audience. When using the elements of design, pictures become more structured and intentional as opposed to mindlessly pointing and shooting with a digital camera. When thought is put into the way a picture is taken, there is most likely an element of design involved.

The two effects of design I will be covering in this post are Filling the Picture Space and Amputation.

The act of Filling the Picture Space is to use a subject to fill the entire frame of a photo. According to Freeman Patterson, "The size of important objects in a photograph should be determined by the theme of the photograph." So, if the subject matter is, say, a flower, then that flower basically dictates the nature of the picture.

In this picture, my subject is a flower. Although it is fake, I really wanted to experiment with filling the frame with it, so I took a few test shots.  I have absolutely no visual effects on this picture except for the flash on my camera (samsung point and shoot). I love the way this turned out because not only does it fill the entire frame, it also saturates the color in a way that makes the flower look interesting. This picture represents Filling the Frame in that its subject (the pink flower) fills the entire space and catches the reader's attention.

The act of Amputation isn't actually "amputating" anything, but leaving out a body part when creating a composition. Patterson claims that "amputation weakens the composition only if it interferes with expression by drawing attention to itself," but it can be "offset...by placing lines or shapes or colors on the opposite side or corner to establish balance."

When I think of the design element Amputation, I think of the times when I've had to retake pictures because my friends claimed "their head got cut off." I wanted to do something different besides leaving out a hand or a foot. In this shot, I decided to get a picture of my nails (they are press-ons). Again, no effects whatsoever, save a bright flash. The flash made the biggest difference in this picture because the black in my nails stands out against the white of my laptop computer. The white background is what allows the composition to remain artistic, even when the "amputation" is intentional. This picture represents Amputation because the whole hand is not represented in the frame, but is instead "amputated" in the final composition.

In conclusion, Elements of Design are used in order to make photography more appealing to an audience and to guide the photographer in creating his or her picture, along with making the composition more appealing as a whole.