Final+Exam

Final Exam Essay

This year in Photo 2 I have developed many new skills. I have been able to further develop as a digital photographer from my own independent experiences in digital photography. I have learned more about photoshop in this class, as in Photo 1, back in freshmen year when i took it, it was still film, and i didn't do much with digital. In this course I looked at many inspirational photographers, that helped mold what I wanted to shoot, and a style that i would like to use. The first of these photographers would be Dorothea Lange. She had photographed the great depression, and other things, and was considered to be a photojournalistic photographer. I had used her photos for inspirsation in photographing my documentery series project. Some of her photos that influenced me the most are: Theses are just a few of her photographs that were inspirational to me, others include photos of farmers on the field working, and familes sitting on porch. Her photos grasped what peoples emotions were during the great depression, and I liked that about her. The first photo I have attached is one that I like the most, and found to be most inspirational, and most comprehensive. I tried to reproduce that in my own work while doing my documentry by capturaing the village life and people emotion in the small village, during, what the locals say is the hardest economic time period since the great depression, and they are just starting to fell the effects now, not a few years ago. I took a photo of a dad and his son outside a movie theater trying to show the emotion and emptiness of teh streets, even at a place where alot of people may go to hang out. I also took a shot of the building with an empty street.

Furthermore there where other photographers that had an impact on me. One of these photographers is Berenice Abotte. The photograpic series of hers that influenced me the most was the shoots of her in new york, these photos had a great impact on me. To take a look at some of these photos, you can look at my journals page, and she is the last photographer in my first journal. She has inspired me, and this is why for my documentry, I tried to capture the lifestyle behind a village life of upstate new york, and when I got there, I realized how I could also incorportae some of Dorothea Lange's styles into this assignment as well.

Then came my next project, the thematic series. I enjoy the outdoors a lot, and spend a lot of time outdoors, and because i travel to upstate new york at least once a month, i decided to take a few extra trips in late march early april, and shoot the beautiful scenery of the mountains and lakes in the area. This project was influenced buy the photographer, Ansel Adams. This photographer shoot these pictures that inspired me and convinced me to shoot in a similar way, when I had done my thematic series. The one thing that this photographer did that I didn't do is make the pictures black and white, looking back and from critic, I think my picture would have looked better in black and white. Agian these are just a few of his many photographs that inspired me. I really enjoyed doing this project, and probably found this to be one of my favorite projects all year. I think I liked this project so much because the outdoors was a big part of my life and I was able to get involved and go visit upstate new york more often than usual. I enjoyed it because I felt the connection between photography and what I enjoy, the outdoors.

The last unit, the fashion unit, i felt rushed in, and it is a unit I would like to explore more. It is something I have never really gotten involved in before, and I enjoyed the brief experience I had in it. I wish I had more time to shoot, as in my shoot, i didn't really have many strong photos, and it made the assignment harder. I really wanted to do another shoot, but I had no time. This is definitly an area where I need to continue to grow as a photographer, and explore it some more. I really think that the project that was my strongest was my documentry. The picture that I like the most from that series is the one of the dad and son outside the movie theater. I don't know why I like it so much, I just do. I also fell as if that is my strongest picture in that series.

I have definitly grown as a photographer in that I have tried both film photography and digital photography. Through my experiences with both I was able to learn different styles of photography that only made me a stronger photographer. Although I have learned a lot in photo 2, I still have a lot to learn, as I still am unhappy with some of my finished work, and fell as if it could be stronger and better. The biggest thing that has shown I have grown from the beggining photo 1, to the end of photo 2, is that I have been able to collectivly plan and shoot a entire series and group them together, rather than just focussing on one individual piece that doesn't fit in a series. I think I have also grown in that I have better been able to develop my high depth of field, and now in photo 2, I actually shoot most if not all of my work with a high depth of field. Back in photo 1, and even very beggining of photo 2, i was not able to shhot a high depth of field shot with good quality.