Margaret Bourke-White

Pics are first, sorry
The first thought that comes to my mind when I see this picture is how the heck did she get that angle on that building?? It's of the Chrysler Building, of course, and I think that that composition is breathtaking and the contrast is great too.

This one is in Moscow, and I think it shows such devastation and creepiness in a really cool way. I'm not sure of the story behind what this place is, but to me it just looks so lonely, like everyones trying to run away from it.

This picture is pretty sweet too. It's in Germany, and when I first looked at it I didn't realize that it was people walking on the street. It looks to me as if there's some kind of event going on, but what ever it is, this is a really cool way to show a crowd.

This is in a steel factory from the 1930's and although the picture of the giant gears might seem a little cliche now, im pretty sure that it wasn't so back then. I love the warm tone of the whole picture.

This picture is pretty freaking cool too. It might even be my favorite. Again, how the heck did she take this? anyway it looks like the plane is just barely skimming the tops of the tall buildings, and the optical illusion is pretty sweet.

Margaret Bourke-Whtie was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1904. She grew up in New Jersey and loved to learn. Her father was from an Orthodox Jewish family, her mother was a protestant. In 1922 she began studying herpetology (the study of reptiles) at Columbia, and while doing this she developed an interest in photography. In 1928, after graduating college she moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where she started a commercial photography studio and did architectural and industrial photography. She was determined to always get the shot that she wanted, and rarely backed down from a challenge.

Margaret was very good at getting in and taking pictures of things that very few people were allowed to see. She exposed many different sides of life that were otherwise unknown to most people. In 1930 she became the first Western photographer allowed into the Soviet union, and she also became the first femal photojournalist for the Life magazine. She photographed drought victims of the Dust Bowl during the 1930s and was the first woman to be allowed to work in combat zones during World war II. Due to the intense nature of her photographing style, many of her pictures are of significant things during the early to mid 19th century. She also, however manages to make these images beautiful and intriguing, changing something ordinary into somethign interesting. She uses beautiful contrast and composition to make this happen.

Assignment 1

I forgot how much I liked film! It can be quite difficult at times, but i love being in the darkroom and processing the film and everything. This first assignment was really realy different from anything we did last year or in eighth grade in film. There was so much less focus on creating an image and much more on the technical parts. That I think made it all the harder, but I was happy with how it turned out. The two similar images that I took were of one of those curly lightbulbs. I think that this probably was not the best picture to take as far as being able to compare the ISO 100 and 400 since it is mostly just all blacks and really bright highlights, but there was still a difference as far as the 400 being more grainy. I like working on the bigger pieces of paper, because I love the big white borders it gives the pictures. This assignment went pretty well overall I thought though!

Self Evaluation

I think that I really have learned quite a bit about what kind of photographer I am and what kind I would like to be, this term. I'm really good at taking random inanimate objects and making them into interesting pictures, but I would like to be able to take pictures of an entire scene better. I think that I have certainly improved in my picture taking skills this term. They are almost as awesome as my nunchuck skills. (Napoleon Dynamite) I really think that the things I learned this year in this class will carry into my phototaking career. I also have learned how to Ultimate Punch the crap out of anything also, which I think is really important too.

Brooklin does not approve of my ultimate punch comment, so just disregard the foresaid comment. "May they protect you"

I feel that this term has gone very well and I am happy with the pictures I took for the most part. I think that next term I will be even better because of all the stuff I have learned.

P.S.
Brooklin has been fun to work with. It's too bad that I will have to kill her next week

P.P.S JK i will not kill her only if she tries to attack me first, so don't call the counselor or anything ok.

P.P.P.S. Brooklin's mom goes to college.

FINAL PROJECT!!!!!!!!!!

I really have mixed feelings about this project. In a lot of ways I think that I just kind of did the same thing that I have always done, which Iam good at, but still. I always do close up pictures of inanimate objects in the exact same spot in my room. I can make pretty good pictures by doing this, but I really wish that I had done something more exciting and new.

Not taking that aspect of it into consideration though, I think that the project went really well. I think that the whole color wheel idea turned out cool. My favorite image is the orange one. I think the composition and lighting are way good, and it just turned out cool. The ones that I wish i could reshoot or come up with different images for are blue, green and purple.

I think that this assignment was actually good for me because I was able to figure out what I like and don't like about my style of photography, and next term I can put that information into practice. :)

FINAL PROJECT IDEA

OK......
Here is my idea
ready

ROYGBIV

I am going to do all the colors of the rainbow, each color represented by a monochromatic image. Yep I know cool huh. :)

PANORAMAS :O

SO...... Panoramas.

I actually really like doing these. Once I got the technical parts like putting them together and saving down, it was really quite fun. I like the horizontal ones here much better, not because they're horizontal but just because they are better pictures I think :) My favorite one overall is definitely the one of the bookcases/mini-library in my aunts house. I also really like them better when there is a black background, and in most cases I liked them better not cropped, because the rough edges give the picture more character. :)

PORTRAITS

So I had kind of given up all hope on this assignment on Sunday, but I think it actually turned out kind of good. All of my pictures are super serious, but I think it kind of gives it an overall theme. I love the ones of my neighbor, Shairose, even if they are "snapshotty". I also like my self portrait and the one of my dad. They both have very pretty light and the one of my dad has this light blue thing going on and I think its really pretty. The ones of my brother playing the bass are also good I think, because for me they are really a portrait of him, because that is what he does. I like it!

Best 6

I really love this one of the water. It might be a little bit cliche, but the colors of gray and blue are so pretty in it and it fit the monochromatic assignment so good. I dont usually take really abstract pictures like this one, it's of the reflection of clouds in the water, and I like it because of that. There is really good contrast and lighting in it. It is second only to my one of the blue hand and the uno cards.

This is also another one of my favorites. Well I guess they're all my favorites, its supposed to be my favorite six :). I did this for the analogous colors assignment and I think the colors and the focus are really beautiful, and I think the overall composition is really good. All I did as far as lightroom was to make the contrast a little bit more pronounced. I think that the analogous assignment was my best one by far, since half of my best 6 are from it.

This was my only freeshoot image that I would even consider putting on here. I think its different from a lot of the other stuff I do, and I think that it kind of works for this one. The light is a little bright in the top right corner but it turns out okay. The contrast is amazingggg!

This one is so creepy! I like it though :) I did this for the analogous colors assignment and I didn't follow the rules because its the three primary colors instead but slade said it fit the general idea well enought that I could keep it. I think that it is really pretty with the trees and the dead leaves in the ground also. CREEPER!

I really really like this one. There were all these different trees that were dropping leaves so there were all of these different types and colors on the ground. At first I couldn't decide whether or not it was complementary or analogous, but I think for the most part it is complementary because of all of the yellow and purple. I love it.

This one is by far my favorite picture that I have taken all term long. It was for monochromatic (obviously). I painted my little brothers hand blue with acrylic paint and then just picked out all of the blue uno cards I had out of the deck. the contrast is awesome and the composition just works. BY FAR MY FAVORITE!!!!

Freeshoot

I really did not like this assignment. It was just too hard to find things to take pictures of. I also had a lot going on this weekend so it was hard to find time to take pictures. But enough excuses. Here it is :)

ASSIGNMENT # 4 - CONTEMPORARY COLOR

So it is pretty much amazing that I got this in on time. I liked it but I have had a crazy weekend and week so it was hard to just get some images to work with. But I did! my favorites are the tube and the merry go round, and I kind of like the lime and the leaf. That one is the kind of thing where you either love it or hate it and most people i've talked to hate it. :) but overall I thought this turned out okay! I found a lot of good light and some good colors to work with.