More pictures

To see my complete portfolio of images check out: http://flickr.com/photos/uwmlax15/

Portrait

I was able to take an alternate route with the portrait project. I thought that my identical twin brothers would make for an interesting portrait that would be different than the portrait most are accustomed to seeing. I wanted to make sure that their course details such as facial expression, stance, dress and emotion were the same, but at the same time I wanted to make sure that their subtle differences were expressed as well. These are two very different people, however, they share an incredibly similar life.

The person I did not know was an interesting yet awkward exercise. I knew nothing about the person so I did not know where they felt the most comfortable, or where they felt the most uneasy. But looking around the house and property, I tried to place him in situations that I thought would be befitting.

Document

Creating the document was a lot of fun. I discovered that it didn't neccessarily matter what you were documenting, so long as it was a realistic representation of that thing or institution. The document assignment was a great lead up to the photo essay because of the similarities between the two topics. Documenting the creation of an apple pie worked out really well for me because it was a small scale, yet rather intricate task. After doing this assignment, I wondered how photographers that don't have control of the subject manage. They must just keep their finger on the capture button and don't let go until it's all over. Nowadays with digital cameras this is much easier, but back in the day of the Hindenburg, it was an extremely difficult task.

Photo Essay Article

Considering the technical aspect associated with my project, I will try to describe the process without going into details. I started out at about 5:30pm after getting home from work. My father had not yet gotten home, so my brothers and I pulled “Speedy” the sailboat out of its winter hibernation and into the driveway where it could be power washed and detailed. The only obstacle to the progression was a large wasp nest, of which I am allergic. Valuable sunlight was exhausted as one of my brave brothers sprayed the nest and removed it from the boat. Twenty miles and three towns later we had arrived at the shore of the Long Island Sound just in time for the beginning of the beautiful golden sunset. Raising the mast and attaching all of the parts proceeded with little interruption seeing as how we have five seasons of bickering and complaining under our belts already.The procedure was completed when we finally put “Speedy” in his summer lounging spot and admired what we had spent all afternoon and part of the evening working on. This is the story of how, with hard work and motivation, something that had appeared lifeless for nine months was transformed into a functioning member of marine society.

Rights to Privacy: The American Way

Here in America we are graced with the ability to make use of the court system. In this day, paparazzi photographers go arguably too far, laws are quite neccesssary to protect the safety of individuals, regardless of celebrity status. The list at the end of the article outlying the laws pertaining to shooting from and towards different locations is largely, i feel, appropriate. Pertaining to schools though, I don't think that photographers should be allowed unless a newsworth event is taking place on the property itself and at that time. Photographing a student involved in a newsworthy event while he or she is at school is wrong and photographing children of celebrities, or celebrities themselves, is wrong. The main cause for concern here is that it needlessley involves other children and detracts from learning. The rules for schools would be better off changed to (if no objections). This would allow the freedoms of the first amendment, but if somebody is hurt or bothered, the action would cease.
Personally, there is a lot that I would not shoot. To start, I would never shoot anything if someone's life or health was in danger. I would certainly be trying to assist that person in any way that I could unless there were trained officials such as fire, medical, or police officials that were already in place. The list is very broad and only focuses on locations and not actually the people being photographed. The Jackie Onnasis example was one that I would certainly not, as a photographer, engage myself in.
I think a good rule of thumb would be that if you kept your distance, not a whole lot would be out of the question. What angers people the most is when photographers swarm them or stake out around them. If anybody has ever seen the show "Dirt" on FX, they show how bad the paparazzi can be. On the other hand, the last thing I would want, is to inhibit the freedoms of people to do as they please. The only thing that would be more dangerous to society than people taking unethical pictures, is people not being allowed to take unethical pictures if they want to.

Light

My favorite examples of light came at night. While the sun and sunsets and sunrises are all very beautiful, the sheer darkness of nighttime allows us to really see the true essence of light. My favorite picture that I took was of a shadow of my friend against a brick wall playing lacrosse. The light came from the headlights on my car and the camera was rested on his back so I could get the direct shot instead of an angled shot. With a couple minor adjustments on picnik.com, I was able to enhance the texture and the feeling from the light, and make it a little easier on the eyes.