Masters Photos

     Gordon Parks

          At the age of twenty-five, Parks was struck by photographs of migrant workers in a magazine and bought his first camera. His photographs caught the eye of Marva Louis, the elegant wife of heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis. She encouraged Parks to move to Chicago in 1940,[12] where he began a portrait business and specialized in photographs of society women. Over the next few years, Parks moved from job to job, developing a freelance portrait and fashion photographer sideline. He began to chronicle the city's South Side black ghetto and, in 1941, an exhibition of those photographs won Parks a photography fellowship.

Our group was inspired by him because he took many interesting photos of poverty. In most of his photos none of his people in his photos were smiling, they all had straight faces. He also seemed to capture the intensity of the exact moment he took in the picture.

Here are some photos that I took inspired by Gordon Parks;

Here is a link to my website portfolio including these photos:My Website Portfolio

Portrait Links

• 19 Portrait Tips

• How To Take Great Portraits

• 20 Fast Tips

• 101 Portrait Photography Tips

• National Geographic Portrait Tips

• Photography Life Portrait Tips

• Nikon How to Take Great Portraits

• Pop Photo 7 Tips

• Portrait Positioning Tips

• NYTimes 6 Tips for Better Portraits

Three things I learned about taking portraits are too use the right lighting for your portrait, a lighting that compliments the subjects features, framing can enhance the viewer's attention to a specific part of the subject's body and or face, and to be creative with your portraits. Experiment with different angles, colors and clothing in the photo.

Rules of Composition

Rule of Thirds:

• If an image is divided into 9 equal segments by 2 vertical and 2 horizontal lines then you should position the most important elements in your scene along these lines. Doing so will add balance to your photo.

Balancing Elements:

• By placing your main subject off-centre it creates a more interesting photo but you must fill the empty space with another object of lesser importance.

Leading Lines:

• When you place lines ( curvy,straight, diagonal, ec.) in a photo it can affect how people view the objects placed in the photo.

Symmetry and Patterns:

• Using symmetry and patterns can really catch the viewer's attention. One way to use this rule is to have the symmetry and pattern break, causing tension and making one point in the photo the focus.

Viewpoint:

• Considering what viewpoint you want to take a photo from is very crucial. From ground level to side view, where you position your object can have a huge affect on the message and or image you are trying to convey.

Background:

• Make sure u find a plain and unobtrusive background and make sure that the background does not direct attention away from the subject.

Depth:

• You must choose your composition carefully in order to convey the sense of depth that was present in the actual scene of the photo. To create depth in a photo you can and objects to the foreground, middle ground, and background. You can also overlap different layers to demonstrate depth in a photo.

Framing:

• When placing certain object, such as; trees archways and holes, around the edges of a photo you can isolate the main subject from its surroundings. This draws the viewers focus on the point of interest.

Cropping:

• By cropping around a small subject surrounded by a busy background you are able to eliminate the background "noise" causing the viewer to focus on the main subject. 

Experimentation:

• There are many different rules and guides to taking photos. Sometimes we take the best photos when we are just experimenting with what we have. Try and discover new things, photography does not have a reaching point.

Aperture Edit #1 Blood Drop

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Cropping for Better Composition - Advanced Photo

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This cropped photo illustrates the leading lines rule of composition by the way the waste cans lead to  main stage really emphasizes the main subject.

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This photo incorporates the diagonals composition rule, with the street and bridge at a diagonal angle it makes it less boring than just normal horizontal and vertical lines. This gives it more of a wider and different view. By cropping the photo I focused more on the diagonal lines rather than everything going on in the picture.



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This cropped photo is an example of the background rule of composition. By cropping around the bubbles it focuses more on the subject while incorporating the Ferris wheel in the background, making it less busy.


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 This cropped photo illustrates the composition rule of viewpoint. By shooting the picture from a ground level instead of directly at it the picture is looking at it from a different point. I did not have to crop much since it already showed the rule, but I just cropped it to make it more focused on the subjects.

Canon Rebel T3i Review

Link #1

Link #2

Link #3

Old Style Family Portraits

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Photography is the result of combining several different technical discoveries. Around the year 1800, Thomas Wedgwood made the first known attempt to capture the image in a camera obscura by means of a light-sensitive substance. He used paper or white leather treated with silver nitrate.

Yosemite and Photography

     Pop Laval was one of the official photographers of Yosemite National Park and other memorial parks in California however they did not pay him directly. Besides Ansal Adams who photographed Yosemite in the past,I have found a photographer, Phil Hawkins, with very interesting and beautiful pictures of Yosemite National Park. His photos can be found at Phil Hawkins' Yosemite Photos. In his descriptions of his photos Hawkins talks about the difficulties and patience it took to create these wonderful photos. He does photography workshops in Yosemite so he does get paid. If I were to photograph Yosemite I would try to take a similar approach as Hawkins as in how he streams and uses light in his photos. I would want to take pictures of each season at the same and different times of day. While also capturing animals in the scenes because of my interest in them.

Group Members' Blogs

Akila Briggs

Bianca Lara

Juan Longoria

Heavenly Prater

Mark Rivera

Effects Presentation

 Color Pencil: This picture looks very dark and I chose it because it enhances different features and darkens others.

 Sepia: I chose this picture because it wasn't planned and was also interrupted, to show that even though things don't always turn out the right way you may look at it later in life and laugh about it.

 Pop Art: The pop art effect really makes certain features brighter and shinier, I also love the colors that are included in this effect.

 Glow: I chose this picture because in the moment Juan was photo bombing my picture and I thought this was hilarious.

Comic Book: The comic book effect makes you appear as if you are in a book yourself and makes different features pop out.

Elements of Arts

Line: An element of art defined by a point moving in space.
-During our walk an example of line that I saw were the lines of the brick walls lining the bricks.

Shape: An element of art that is two-dimensional, flat, or limited to
height and width.
-An example of shape that I noticed were the different shapes of squares going down the floor of the hallways.

Form: An element of art that is three-dimensional and encloses
volume.
-The stairs were an example of form with their three dimensional square forms.

Value: The lightness or darkness of tones or colors.
-There were many different values on the walls on the outside of the hallways.

Space: An element of art by which positive and negative areas are
defined.
- An example of space I saw was the space between the posts outside and the stairs parallel to them

Color: An element of art made up of three properties:
• Hue: name of color
• Value: hue’s lightness and darkness
• Intensity: quality of brightness and purity
- I saw many different colors going down the hallways and on the ouside in the design of the hallways.

Texture: An element of art that refers to the way things feel, or look
as if they might feel if touched.
- A texture that I found interesting was the hard and rocky texture of the coulumns outside by the stairs supporting the building.

Concert Photography and Composition Rules Cropped Photos

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Composition Links

5 elements of composition



photo tips: composition



national geographic composition

Looking At Light

    Going out into the light I saw that there can be many different views on the subjects depending on the lighting, clothing, and position of the people we were photographing. Lighting can really affect the mood that you feel when looking at the photo also. Bright or light clothing makes the photo seem more vibrant and lively while dark clothing and hoodies can make the photo seem more dramatic and or negative. Being photographed can be very awkward also, it also depends on how comfortable you are with the person taking your picture or if you are insecure about the way you look. By just taking the time and looking at the light you can discover many different things about not only photography but also people.