Sunday, April 24, 2011

Virtual essay

The photos I used I found online from a photographer that is based in Toronto,Ontario his name is Jeremy Benning. I find his work to have a lot of similarities with a more famous photographer named Mike Ruiz who is based out of New York City, New York. Mike Ruiz was born in Montreal where he first started his career as a model and then on Christmas got a camera as one of his gifts and the rest is history. I believe that his Mike Ruiz was a model first it gives him a different look in to how to be a photographer which is where the differences come from between him and Jeremy.




Jeremy on the other hand was born in Toronto and from a young age always wanted to be a photographer, he was first inspired by his parent’s National Geographic magazine. This had him wanting to be a photojournalist traveling the world being news to everyone. He has been a part of many different areas in his field including commercials, art gallery work and much more.




I find both Jeremy and Mike work to be inspiring myself and also find it to have a lot in common. Both photographers have a way of bring forth the models in the picture but allowing the background to still be in tacked. Unlike some photographers that would take the pictures and then edit them to blur out the background since the way the photo was taken you eye did not first go to the model. Jeremy and Mike seem to understand how to take a photo so that you are first drawn to the model and then to the background which supports the model and image as a whole.






The other similarities I find these two photographers have in common are the them both can take a simple black and white photo and still make it pop. They seem to understand how to use the clothing the models are wearing and the background so that no matter which is light or dark it shows very well in the end.





The main differences I found with these two photographers are that sine Jeremy only has been on the one side of the camera it is harder for him to portray to the model how he would like the image to come out at the end. But with Mike since he first started as a model he understands what the model is going through and can get his point across better.






In the end both the differences and similarities of Jeremy and Mike make them who they are. Since Jeremy has been doing it for a lot less time the Mike has that can also be where their differences come from. It is great to see that a young photographer like Jeremy has been able to make his way in the photography industry and his is a inspiration to many youth today. As Mike he is also an inspiration to many young model and photographers, which want to go as far as him. Anyone wanting to get in to photographer should follower photographers like these two and maybe one day some one will be writing about them.         

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Discussions Board 11

I think that both types of photojournalism has it place, it is just a case of when do you use each type to get the true story to the viewer. In some case you can get a great photo by just being in the right place at the right time but in other case there is time that you can just not be there, so then getting to know the subject so that you can get a photo that still shows what is going on then what is wrong with that. As for the code of ethics and that a photography should not edit the photos, I can only understand that coming in to play if the photojournalist is edit the photos to the point that they have added or removed a part of the photo then that is wrong, but other wise then it is fine. When the photography is editing a photo so that the viewer can see it the same way he did what is wrong with that, it is the same a writer, writing a news piece so that the read believes the same as what he thinks is what happen but maybe he missed something and it is a completely different story. So it comes down to the same thing as with news you can't always believe what you hear or read and so you can't always believe what you see. Everyone needs to take there own opinion on each subject and also look at what else is going on the same subject, then they can come to a true conclusion of their own.

Discussions Board 9

This group did a great job with finding interesting pictures to use that show what photojournalism really is. which is to tell a story that a photography sees and bring it to everyone else. The group answered the questions well by using quotes from people in the industry. I found the picture of the women hold a gun up in the air to be very provocative and tell the story of how lucky we truly are to live in Canada with freedom. I agree with the group where they talk about the ethics of a photojournalism it should not be different from that of a news journalism their role is the same to tell the story of an event to everyone else though print, internet, or television. But I disagree with the group when they say that the photo should not be edited, I feel as if that some photos need to be edit to highlight or to portray what the photography was seeing.

Discussions Board 6

The first thing I want to touch on is that the group found great photos to use, they show what it was really like in the great depression. The photo of people living in the middle of nowhere show how hard it really was and it tell the story to people today that the great depression was nothing like what is going on in todays world. Even with all the economical hard time we are in right now it was nothing what had happen during the great depression. But the only way people can really see that is because of photos like in this groups blog. The group did a great job with the photos and answering the question, also it show what has happen in the pass and what we need to make sure doesn't happen again.  

Photo Manipulation




When I found out that as a part of this photography class we would have to take some photos and edit them I was more then excited. This happens to be one my favour things to do some times you don’t have to do much to a photo and other you can go crazy with. I took all the photos that are in the writing throughout the year.

This first photo is one I took while I was baking around Christmas time, it has a long story behind it but basically the two cookies stuck together and it look cute so I took a picture of it.  This is the unedited copy of the photo.





With this photo I edited it to be a fun and kind of crazy version of it. I used Photoshop to edit the photo and I used the filter options to change this one. I first cut out the two cookies and put them on a different layer so that they could pop out from the photo even more. Then I did a Sprayed Stroke filter on the background and then did a bas Relief filter which drastically changed the background.





This next photo I took while in Toberymory, Ontario I was sitting by the water and seen this butterfly fluttering around and then it finally landed. I managed to get close to it so that I could get a photo.



  

With this photo I was trying to get to butterfly to pop out of the photo a little more and look like it was flying while the photo was taken. I first cut out the butterfly and put it on another layer so that it wouldn’t be affected by the changes. Then I did a motion blur with -220 and a distance of 45 pixels. At first I liked the look but then I continued to play with the picture and then I ended up with this next one.





With this photo I again cut out the butterfly and put it on another layer but this time I also cut out the plant that was in background. For this photo I did filters on the background, the first filter I did was a Smudge Stick and then I did a Dry Brush filter to get the final look that I think looks the best. It allows the picture to keep it integrity while letting the view focus on the butterfly and partly on the plant in the background.





This next photo was also taken in Toberymory, from the same area as the butterfly one. It was a little later in the day as the sun started to set, there a boat out in the water that was passing by. The sunset that night was one of the best the whole weekend this is the unedited version.



 
  
I found when I looked at the photo on my computer after it did not show what I seen there in person. So when I started editing my intent was to bring the photo back to life and showcase what I seen when I was there. I did a bunch of changes on the photo playing with different setting and nothing seem to work. Then I changed the hue to 50% and the intensity of the sunset was back. I was a simple fix and didn’t need a lot of editing or to be changed to much. I think the photo looks just like it did in real life when I was there I hope everyone can see how beautifully it really was.





For my final photo I took it while at Toronto Pride there was an artist doing chalk art at different intersection along the main road. After I took the photo I never thought that I show the true meaning of what the artist was writing so when I was doing this project I thought it was a perfect time to try and show it off some more. This is the unedited version f the photo.





When I edited this photo I wanted to be a crazy photo to show off what the writing the artist was putting on the street really was about. Which is that pride is about having fun and being proud of who you are. I did a simple filter on this photo but then played with the option of the filter to get it to come out how I wanted. I did a Glowing Edge filter, and then I changed the edge width to a number 2, the brightness to a number 10 and the smoothness to a number 6. This allowed the wording in the photo to still be seen but let the photo have a more unique look to it.




Monday, April 4, 2011

Presentation Week 12: The impact of digital technology on photography


     The digital technology has changed the role of photography in society drastically. When photography first started it was for the wealthy and only a few people in a community knew how to use a camera. Now, most families have at least one camera in their household. Cameras have become so technically advanced in recent years. When photography first started it was a long process to get a picture from the capture to print and the photographer had to know what he was doing since you couldn’t see what it looked like after you took it. Now with digital technology it is much quicker and you get to see what the photo looks like right away so you know if you need to take another photo. The process that a photographer used to get a photo to print was with very harmful chemicals but, now you can take a picture and uploading it to the Internet in mere seconds or even print it right at home.



     
      The new technology used for photography makes it so much easier for people working in the photography business. They can take as many pictures as they want and not worry about having to waste film or materials. They just have to snap as many photos as they want and then upload them to a computer to see what is good or not. They can then easily delete a photo that does not work with the theme they are going for or just does not look good without the cost and wasted to process a photo in the past.
     




     Just a few years ago people were still using film cameras for everything. This took a lot of time because you would have to take 24 good photos so you would not waste the film. Then, make sure you wound the film the right way so you would not burn any of the photos.  After all that you would have to take them to get developed or you could do it yourself which ends up costing some money and a lot of time. Which, over the years the chemicals used for developing the photos end up harming your body from being exposed to the chemicals for long periods.


      Even though it was interesting to see your pictures develop in front of your eyes, it took up too much time and money. Today, you can take a picture on a digital camera and have it edited and sent to a friend in minutes, something you could not do while using film cameras. Further more, if using film cameras you would have to make sure you were in a good position for lighting and shadows and all the other things you have to do when taking photographs, since you could not edit them afterwards.


      The impact of digital photography has helped out the journalism world so much. With today’s technology a photojournalist can upload pictures to his website or even “tweet” it in minutes. Journalists can be on location, take hundreds of photos, write a story and have it sent back to their office to have the story printed for the next day. When photojournalists had film cameras it was a challenge to get a solid set of photographs, they would have to wait until their trip was over to develop the film and get in into the newspaper or magazines. Since people want to have the most up to date news and photos of what is going on around the world this would not be possible with out digital photography. The main problem that comes from digital photography is that more people have access to camera equipment and anyone can shoot a photo and call him or herself a photographer, which makes it harder for people that study photography to make a living at it. With everything new comes some issues but over all digital technology has made a positive impact of photography the time and money it saves has made it more accessible to the average person. 

Sources 


1. "Google Images." Google. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. <http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kp2r4gHry91qz7tu8o1_400.jpg>.


2. "Google Images." Google. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. <http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.asdfing.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/old_cameras.gif>.

3. "Google Images." Google. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. <http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://news.digitaltrends.com/images/stories/2008/08/5676/canon-intros-eos-50d-new-consumer-cameras-1.jpg>.

4. "Google Images." Google. Web. 31 Mar. 2011. <http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://img1.tradeget.com/rkphotoguide/LQXRARO51professional_films.jpg>.