Landscape: Activity 2

Questioning Social Values

Landscape photographs can convey a vast array of emotions, questions, and even critical social values. The following images pose a few important questions about the reality of today's social values and the clear or ambiguous the photographer's communication is.

Image by Adam Burton  

This image questions the social value of environmental protection and the effects of global warming. Burton clearly captured this message ("communication") and did so in a sort of then-and-now, compare and contrast method. The foreground contains melted and seemingly nonexistent iceberg fragments while, in the background, resides full-force, mountainous glaciers that portray the magnificence of the scene as a whole. A possible interpretation of this is the effects of human pollution and how it is causing the destruction of the natural habitats of the arctic.

Image by Kenneth Tanaka



This image is taken of what used to be a beautiful park, taken one year after a picture of the park was taken. Tanaka was clearly conveying a message with this photograph, and it is one of unncessary destruction of nature for the expansion of society or cities. The message is clear and concise and stirs up a powerful wave of emotions, such as dissapointment, contempt, and possibly anger. These emotions are conveyed by the simplicity and contrast of the image. The leading lines of the bulldozer's trails are uniform, monotone, and bleak while the bulldozer is coloful and unique in comparison. In addition, Tanaka uses the wide depth of field to allow the imagination to fill the frame with what was there before being destroyed.

Landscape: Activity 1

Interpreting Photographs

Bethlehem, Graveyard and Steel Mill - Walker Evans 1935 © Walker Evans Archive, 1994,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

         
           In this image by Walker Evans, there is a graveyard, a steel mill, and a city/ town in the background. A few telephone lines are strewn throughout the image and there is a large, likely stone, cross in the foreground. There are many interpretations of what this image is about but I find it slightly ironic in the sense that the graveyard is in the foreground and the steel mill is in the background; this creates a sense of cause and effect. The pollution from the mill created a hazard to the citizens and, in turn, killed the citizens. (Not good.)

           Walker Evans has been extremely effective in this landscape image to communicate a point of view. I say this because the frame contains multiple aspects of the life and culture in the society and, also, it provides a canvas for the imagination to take over and to interpret the image as the viewer pleases. This is absolutely considered as art because it is intriguing and unique in the aspect that it contains multiple dimensions that allow for guided interpretation.

Time: Activity 5

Solid and Fluid Forms

What do they look like and how are they created? 

 

 

These two images above were created by me, the first in Illinois and the second on a trip I took to Washington D.C.. They both contain solid and fluid forms. The first image is of a colorful yard decoration, which is the blurred object, and the building behind it is the solid form. By spinning the decoration slowly the blurred effect was achieved. In the second image the street and the trees are the fluid form and the car mirror is the solid form. This was easily achieved since the car was already in motion.

Time: Activity 4

Slow Shutter Speeds

The subject matter in this picture consists of the silhouetted landscape, the stars, and the mountain in the background. In order to achieve this effect with the stars there are many potential areas for technical difficulties.  One is the necessity for a stable ground to have the camera on, and this is easily fixed by using a tripod. Another is finding the correct shutter speed/exposure time in order to achieve the desired effect of movement in the stars. This is a laborious task, however, and the only remedy is to take multiple test shots and see how they each come out.

The depth of field in this image is large, as the sky, the trees, and the mountain are all in the frame. This adds the effect of making the image look incredibly large while the viewer/audience feels incredibly small.

Adding all of these elements together the photographer achieved the perfect balance of serenity and movement. The cool colors and lack of brightness allow for the stars to remain the focal point of the image and also allow the 'movement' of the stars to be perceived. Since there is a defined point where the star is and a trail that follows each star, it appears that there is a sphere of celestial elements covering the entirety of this picture.

Time: Activity 3

Fast Shutter Speeds

For this assignment I was required to capture a running or jumping figure and vary the angle at which the camera was with respect to the figure itself; in this case, I used my neighbor's dogs. Both the visual effect and the difficulties of motion blur will be discussed as well.

Motion blur within these images occurred in the background due to the use of the technique of panning. This allows for the dog to be entirely in focus while the background is blurred. This creates a sense of movement as well as a sense of focus - it is clear what or who the subject of the image.

   

 

There are many crucial elements to these four photos and the most important is the focusing technique as well as the shutter speed I used. The focusing technique I used was to switch the camera from auto to manual mode and to follow the dogs as they ran around the yard chasing the thrown toy. I would try to focus most of the image before they began moving but once they did, I panned and refocused as necessary to keep the puppies in focus.

The shutter speeds that I used varied from 1/15 of a second to 1/125 of a second, so for the top two images a faster shutter speed was used (closer to 1/125), and for the bottom left image a slightly slower shutter speed was moved as the puppy was trotting towards me; the image to the bottom right, where they are indoors, was taken using a shutter speed between the previous two.

The visual effect of this photo set is one of speed and agility, as well as fluidity. Each image portrays a different sense of movement and allows for the audience to experience the pace and energy of the moment that is captured. The first two images create a sense of excitement while the last two images create a sense of calm and winding-down.

Time: Activity 2

Fast Shutter Speeds

Image by Stephan Drescher; found on flickr.com

The photographer of this picture used a fast shutter speed to capture the shattering of the light bulb as it fell. When using a fast shutter speed there are many difficulties a photographer must overcome to produce the desired effect, such as not having enough light as well as not having the proper aperture (a wide one, preferably), and also having a high ISO.

The depth of field was affected in this image to be relatively shallow, as all the details and pieces of the bulb must be captured. In addition, this image conveys the feeling of motion because of all the different angles the pieces are going, the different sizes of the pieces, and the different shadings and lightings on each individual piece. Everyone has encountered something falling and shattering and so that experience also aids the photographer in conveying motion in this image.

Time: Activity 1

Henri Cartier-Bresson - The Decisive Moment

Catching the decisive moment has added to the picture's quality because it allows for a sense of reality and the gritty nature of everyday life. Cartier-Bresson's photographs portray a world of actuality and realism that does not idealize any specific aspect of the world. By capturing the decisive moment the quality of Cartier-Bresson's images have been enhanced in a manner uncommon to standard photography that creates an odd sense of calm amidst a scene that is often filled with calamity.

In the first image there is a contrast between the stationary, dismembered vehicle and the traveling, functional locomotive in the background. This contrast creates depth and adds thought to the photograph that would not have been present if it were not present.
Image by Henri Carter-Bresson; found on magnumphotos.com

The second image is where the sense of calamity is portrayed. The crowd is tightly linked and they are all looking towards a common point. This allows for a sense of curiosity on the audience's part and one of mystery that Cartier-Bresson created. In addition, the picture portrays a scene of reality and a rugged truth.
Image by Henri Carter-Bresson; found on magnumphotos.com