Paul Strand

Post-Assignment Assessment: This assignment was based on the artist Paul Strand. His photographs are abstract shadows and portraits of people. Most of the time the portraits were of people unaware of the camera. For my photographs, I tried to get some cool shadows. Shadows that naturally made odd shapes or patterns. I loved that in one of my photos the shadows of the shades on a window made parallel lines on the wall. I actually had some trouble with this one because I wanted to get my photos like Paul's but I just couldn't. Paul focused on the light in his photos and I just couldn't figure that out. I would definitely improve how I incorporate light into my photos, I feel like the light and shadows are what make a photo great.

Get Close

Oct. 7 - Oct. 11

Pre-Assignment Assessment: The assignment that we're doing this week is Get Close. I plan on using the Aperture Priority to take photos that are focused on the closest thing to the camera. To find inspirations I Google searched "Close Photography" and looked at the images that came up to get ideas of what to photograph. 

Artist of the Week: Imogen Cunningham is the artist that we're focusing on this week. She was born in Portland, Oregon in 1883. Imogen attended The University Of Washington in Seattle. Her professor had told her that she should have a well rounded background in science if she wanted to be a photographer, so she majored in Chemistry.  In 1914, her first one-person exhibition was held at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. Imogen was known for her botanical photography, nudes, and industrial landscapes. She eventually died June 24 of 1976.

Post-Assignment Assessment: During this assignment I focused on the Aperture Priority setting. I used the manual focus because it just seemed easier for me. This assignment was probably my favorite so far. I like the fact that the photographs were focused really well on one thing. Taking photos up close is great because you can see all the details in what your photographing. The only thing I really had trouble with was keeping my arms steady. Most of the photos came out blurry and I kept having to retake them. If I were to work on anything I'd try to find techniques that keep my hands and arms more steady.

About Paul Strand

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pstd/hd_pstd.htm

Paul Strand

I like how he focused on the lighting in the photos. He has many photographs of abstract shadows, this is my personal favorite.