8th Blog Post

For my project I picked this image because I thought it had a lot to work with in terms of picking out pieces and identifying elements from our text. I spent lots of time going through the different pages of pictures trying to find one that I felt I could relate to and get a lot out of. My top two images were very similar in the sense that they both had lots of children and colors.

The given information on this image is that it was created/published in October of 1940 and the photographer was Russell Lee. There is not any other info given to set a story for this picture except for that it was found in the categories of classrooms and also in children singing.

The wallpaper and the children's clothing helps set the stage of the time the photo was published, or taken, which again, was 1940. The wallpaper is definitely dated and old fashioned. Also the girls are found wearing little collared, flowered dresses and the boys in overalls. I would infer that the song they would be singing an older song as well. I wish they gave a little more info about where they are located, I mean I know they said it was in a classroom but I would be curious to know if it was a music class or a practice and what they were singing.

When you look at the children's faces most look happy or just neutral. A few are smiling or else they just look pleasant. Their main feature that stands out are their eyes. The white of their eyes stands out a lot. Also the boy on the far right of the picture is smiling with teeth showing and the white of his teeth stand out as well.

From our text we learned the term "vectors of attention" which is very obvious in this image. This term talks about where the photographer wants the attention of the audience or viewers to look. If there are people in the picture usually their eyes take the direction of the focus to where the photographer wants it. If there aren't people, there is usually a specific color or object that is obviously the focal point. In this particular image, the focal point the author wants is very clear that it is to the right of the picture, or the children's left. The missing piece is what they are looking at. It is not included in the image so we have to try and infer what it could be. From the context I would assume that either the teacher is over there or something that they are reading off of is over there, such as the words to a song. They are literally all looking over there so it is definitely something important to the situation occurring. There is one little girl in the front that looks a little distracted, but yet she is still singing.

Overall, there is a lot that you can infer from just looking at this picture, but yet there are a lot of pieces missing that would clear up or make a specific story. But part of the fun is that you can make it whatever you want when you aren't given all the info.

7th Blog Post

I can't say that I know that much about photography. That doesn't mean I don't like it or that I'm not a fan of it, I just haven't had the opportunity or taken the time to become interested in learning about it. I personally enjoy looking at pictures a lot! Whether it be an artistic photograph or just a picture of me and my friends. One thing about photography though is that I think you can take an image and make it mean whatever you want to yourself regardless of what the artist was trying to portray.

One aspect of photography is the art of being the photographer. I envy people that are really good at this and take the artistic pictures. They know what objects to capture and often do it with very interesting subjects but in the end it is a great photograph. Photographers that do this have to understand the importance of lighting and spacing and obviously how to work the camera. They are specialized in that they can usually make an object turn into an artistic photograph. A gift I once received was a frame of my name being spelled out by different photos. It is so creative and I think it would be fun to go around finding the objects that make up the letters that are turned into names or words. I know that the photographer that did mine doesn't go around looking specifically for the letters, but rather just takes pictures and then turns them into something after studying it.

Although I don't have much experience with photography, I still am able to capture moments just as well. I take a lot of pictures when I'm hanging out with my friends. Working my camera isn't difficult like I presume a fancy photographers camera is. The only knowledge I have to have to use it is when to turn the flash off (although it is on auto flash) and being able to center the subjects I am taking the picture of. These pictures will in the end mean a lot to me, just like artistic photos mean a lot to other people. They each hold their own importance in peoples lives. One thing about photography that I love is the black and white option. Some pictures just look better that way!

As far as our upcoming work with photography goes, I am a bit apprehensive to say that I am confident in working with photography. Since I don't have that much knowledge with it, I am hoping that I will be able to gain more as we go along and develop more of a deeper understanding for photography.