Blog Prompts #23

1. In what ways do you “construct” your identity? In what ways do you “perform” in your daily life?
    The basic ways to construct my identity are through things I value and the way I behave. Value is more about spiritual identity. The way i view the world and the way i think have a huge influence on my behavior which guides the way I "show" my identity. The music I listen to, the friends I am around, the clothes I wear, the magazine I read and even the food I eat are all demonstrating my identity and revealing a part of my attitudes.
    Cooking is performance in my opinion. The Asian cultural background I come from has a big emphasis on the food. Food and cooking are not a simple a they are seemed. Even the way I put my noodles in the bowl will follow a certain pattern, which shows a lot of my identity.


2. Describe some ways in which your personal culture and social environments are “constructed”.
    As I mentioned before, food place a tremendous significant role in Chinese culture, even the whole Oriental Asian culture. The daily meals I have everyday contributes to construct my personal culture. And the social environment is constructed by the people, the community and social class I am interacting with.
 

3.   Describe some ways in which your physical environment/space is “constructed”.
     the physical environment/ space is more about geographic location: like which country you are at. The climate/season you are experiencing, and the time of the day. Also the smaller scale locations where you are in: the street, the building or the room.


4. In your daily life, what would you consider to be “real” and what would you consider to be “constructed/fabricated”?
    Things that are not planned and happen naturally can be considered as "real".
    Things that are planned out with a certain purpose is "constructed".


5. Describe a narrative tableaux that you might create to be captured by a photograph. A narrative tableaux can be defined as “Several human actors play out scenes from everyday life, history, myth or the fantasy of the direction artist” ( Constructed Realities: The Art of Staged Photography Edited by Michael Kohler , 34).
     I will probably ask people to act as they were in other culture... if that is possible.... By the way they dress, I think it could create a sense of other location, even times. I would live to ask my friend to wear her Yukata or my Chipao and go to an Asian restaurant to make it look like where are on the other side of the world.


6. Describe an idea for a photograph that includes a miniature stage or still life. A description of such an image is “The tableaux reconstructs events as in the narrative tableaux, but in miniaturized format, using dolls and other toy objects” (Kohler, 34). 
I would like to make a miniature stage in my empty glass jar! It was a kimchi jar, and after I finished the kimchi i cleaned it. I would make some paper work: like trees, animals, little human-being and hopefully i could find materials to make them look 3-D. but also i want to use real soil, or some plants in this miniature still life and make it a combination of real and constructed.


 

Assignment#4(final)

Advertisement

Composition: in this image i placed the figure in the center to create a main focus on her. the cropping is designed for a billboard. her eyes actually help direct viewers to notice the text on the top right.

Concept: the idea is about studio portrait. it was not easy to ask your model pose naturally. I was trying to create this image as a combination of characteristics of both snapshot and studio portrait.

Method: there were two lights on each of her side and on the front right I made a soft box to get softer reflection of the light on her face and hair.

Motivation: to create a natural looking studio portrait.

Context: creativity. As an ad for nike, i think the brand image is to express and encourage the imaginative and creative of the young generation.

PART II Critique:

Evaluation: the exposure, lighting and cropping all worked well for the billboard. the simplicity works well for the concept.

Interpretation: the facial expression really expressed the excitement and emotion.

Jump-off Point: make a series of photos of neck-above portraits.

 

Food Magazine Cover

Composition: in this image i place the soup bow on the side and left the right part blank for more text information.

Concept: the idea of this image is very simple: make my food look delicious!

Method: I just put the bowl on my desk and there was a light right above it. I used large aperture to get a close detail of the ingredients in the soup.

Motivation: this is an inspiration from all the cooking channels and blogs i've been following for years. I wanted to make a collection of my recipes for a food diary.

Context: Health and Diet .... Food and Joy... food is something makes me happy and i enjoyed cooking and sharing food with friends. But nowadays, a lot of people, especially girls are suffering from eating disorders and self-image problems. I wanted to show a health eating habits for people to enjoy food as well as life.

PART II Critique

Evaluation: soft lighting and good arrangement of the objects.

Interpretation: advertisement for cooking magazines or books.

Jump-off Point: add magazine/restaurant logo to the image; lower the text on the right, things seemed heavy on the top, balance needed; place a roll of sushi on the bottom right.

Fashion Ad

Composition: i put my model on the left and made the right empty in order to add text or image to create an ad for perfume or other products. I really love making images that has the Gold Mean concept.

Concept: the idea of my image is about showing the portrait face and mainly focus on the human expressions.

Method: it is the same as the first image, which was with the lights in the studio.

Motivation: you create an image that creates tension and catch people's eyes

Context: Feminism. i don't know why this word just flashed through my mind while i was looking at it. I love the expression on the model's face. It's a little bit intense but not too much. She seemed very confident. I love the idea that girls being more independent and competent in their careers and personal lives.

PART II Critique

Evaluation:good exposure and lighting.

Interpretation:magazine portrait.

Jump-off Point: woman's magazine or feature story about the girl.

 

Yearbook photo

Composition:the figure is placed in the center which make her the main/only focus in my image.

Concept: senior portrait.

Method: the studio lighting and background. low ISO and flash lights with a soft box for reflection.

Motivation: use the soft lighting for a better looking portraits

Context: self-identity. most everyone's senior portraits look the same.... same position, facial expression. it's not about the real personality.... why do people look like they are made from a manufacture. 

PART II Critique

Evaluation: typical yearbook/senior portrait. good position,lighting, and contrast.

Interpretation: her facial expression seemed really sad/bored.

Jump-off Point:maybe took another series of photos with people having serious faces.

Blog Prompt #22

A. Series: Brainstorm various ways to make a “series” of photographic images.


1. taking photos of the same subject for a long period of time. For instance, a family picture every year for decades.
2. taking photos of the same subject but at different locations
3. taking photos of a theme in a similar context: daily life of different people
4. using the same camera techniques for different images, such as same lighting, color, angle or aperture

B. Final Project: Your final project in this class will be designed by you. If you could tackle any photography project, what would it be? You could combine other media with photography (video, sculpture, drawing) or you could take one of your earlier assignments and expand it to create a larger project. If you are expanding an earlier project or creating an entirely new series of images, shoot for a series of at least 5 images. Describe an idea you have for your final project.

I would like to do a project of food, and handcrafts and other media with my photo series. I wanna to make it a series of portraits and food and make it a  invented narrative series about different lifestyles. That is I want to use the food/handcrafts or the other media to reveal personalities.

Assignment#4(1)

Assignment #4(0) Recreation

 14'Standard/Hitoshi

Recreation: The original image from Hitoshi's flickr has a very nice shallow depth of field and the tone of the image is very soft. The background is more neutral colored —black, white and gray, however the focus of the image is the little green plant in the glass jar. The tender green color really stands out. The picture was taken inside and there were big windows in the room letting the lights come in. The room seemed a little dark.  The photographer appears to be trapped indoor. This makes me feel a desire to go out and enjoy the nature.   I really like the emotion conveyed by this photo.

My recreation has the same theme with an opposite setting. I still have plants and glass jar in my image, but the lighting is from outdoor (bright sunshine), the plants are rooted in the ground, and there are a bunch of colored pencils in the glass jar. I imaging this is a continue of the original image, and the photographer went outside using the pencils to draw/sketch the nature scene. 

   

another recreation: Domo-kun, official mascot of Japan NHK television station, is a mysterious creature that hatched from an egg. My recreation is about Domo and his friends.

 

Blog promps #20

1. Describe some common aesthetic aspects of "news"-related photographs.
    News related photos are usually about recording a moment. They are very realistic. There's no posing, or special setting of lighting. The beauty of news photographs is the authenticity. Usually news photos are not heavily digitally altered, which keeps the origin of the history moment.

2. Describe some common aesthetic aspects of "snapshots".
I love snapshots. They always captures the unexpected, the surprising, and the excitement. The aesthetic aspect is about the freedom and the natural emotion conveyed by the shots.

3. Describe some common aesthetic aspects of advertisement photographs/fashion photographs.
They are super eye catching and perfectly beautiful. They are informative and aiming at the right target audiences. Those pictures don't tell stories, but they promote themselves. This aggressiveness sometimes make advertisement photographs beautiful, and also there are other sorts of commercial photos which are very subtle but thoughtful.

4. Describe some common aesthetic aspects of year book photos and/or senior pictures.
I feel the photos in a year book(or senior pictures) are showing the best of a person in his/her teenage year. The memory kept in those photographs are precious.

Assignment #3 Final Images

  

#1 Social/ Cultural Document

      Composition: In this image, I put my camera on the table and took a very low perspective/ an unusual angle. It helped to make the book stand out. Also I included the curtain in the background to achieve the repetition of the strip pattern.
      Concept: The main subject is the Bible in the left top of this picture. It's a cultural/spiritual icon for a population. Taking a different angle/perspective to look at the "stereotyped" bible is interesting. And the sharp reflection from the glass table is totally a surprise.
      Method: I set my camera on the table, and since the indoor light was limited the shutter speed was a little bit lower. But the longer exposure brought more details into this image.

      Motivation:  I cleaned the glass table before I took this picture and my goal was to capture the sharp and detailed reflection of the Bible.

      Context: I guess this is image is more about religion or identity. 

Part 2 Critique

       what works: the sharp reflection of the book is very impressive and seems almost unrealistically detailed.

      suggestions: maybe alter the right side of the image (the curtain) and make it all straight. 

   

#2  Man-made Landscape
      Composition: In this image I chose to take a bird's eye view of this play ground. There was no actual emphasis in this photo since I wanted to include everything clearly. It created a sense of chaos.
      Concept: I wanted to use this image to explain "man-made landscape". Those toys are probably the origin of an architect's inspiration in the future. The toy railway, cars, trucks ad animal residents created this community(landscape).
      Method: I used small aperture in order to contain as much information as possible in this image.
      Motivations: My intention was to show the chaos of this man-made landscape. My goal was to challenge my viewers to see landscape in a smaller scale.
      Context: this map-looking image reminds me of typography.  maybe people who are interested in maps will find it exciting.

Part 2 Critique

what works: the angle of the "landscape", the map view

suggestions: show the complete picture, including more information of the railroad track, and keep viewers eye direction

   

#3 Undiscovered Territory

      Composition: I took a look at the inside of a lamp, and focused on the light bulb when it was on. I have never taken such a close look at a light bulb. The emphasis is definitely on the light bulb, because it's placed in the center of the photo and the background is nearly pure black.

     Concept: another small scale landscape. The idea was about a place which was always out of people's attention. I only enjoy the brightness the light brings but I never thought about how the light bulb works, or what the light bulb looks like.

      Method: since I took the photo while the light was still on and the straight intense light source from the light bulb, I used the lowest ISO and as fast as possible shutter speed.

      Motivation: this is totally an experiment. I never tried to shoot a light source before.

      Context:  it reminds me of the first invention of light bulbs. Even though the world changed so much of centuries, but we still use light bulbs which were invented by Edison.

Part2 Critique

 what works: the high contrast of this image, different view angle.

suggestions: maybe try a little bit cropping

 

      

 #4  Place of the Imagination

        Composition: this image was taken while I was kayaking. the angle was low since I wanted to show a part of myself in it. The angle of my feet echoes the shape of the kayak. It's a very subtle repetition of a pattern.

        Concept: I wanted to depict this place in my imagination where I had to live on this small boat with limited food. There wasn't a planned destination, but I enjoyed the adventure. It's a journey of self-seeking or just general seeking of life.

        Method: lowest ISO and smaller aperture. The focus was on the feet. The background water without a destination kind created a feeling of uncertainty. However, it also has a feeling of peace.

        Motivation: my intention was to create a image that viewer can also share their imaginations. There was a person in the photo, but viewers can't see the face of the person. There was a river/lake and a kayak, but you can't see the destination.

      Context: identity.

Part2 Critique:

what works: the perspective, the boldness of the photographer, the shoes really reveal the subject's personality

suggestions: try subtle burning and dodging, and make the edges of the kayak natural and softer.