A paper ball is seen sitting next to a trash can in front of the trees on Sept. 22, 2022. I tried multiple different angles but I really liked this one because of how small the paper ball looked next to the trees. Credit: Samantha Smith
A pink flower sits in front of a paper ball on the ground on Sept. 22, 2022. I wanted something to contrast against the white of the paper in nature. Credit: Samantha Smith
A person walks in front of a paper ball on the ground on Sept. 22, 2022. Since I put the paper ball next to a trash can on the ground I wanted to get photos of people ignoring it. Credit: Samantha Smith
A paper ball is seen through some grates in a trash can on Sept. 22, 2022. I was really inspired by these grates on the trash can when I saw I could see the ball through it and ended up getting the lots of shots of this. Credit: Samantha Smith
People are seen walking by a paper ball on the ground on Sept. 22, 2022. A big struggle I had was getting photos from the other side of the cans since the trees were there. Credit: Samantha Smith
A paper ball is seen on the ground on Sept. 22, 2022. I liked how this used leading lines to draw the eye to the ball. Credit: Samantha Smith
A woman is seen walking past some trash cans on Sept. 22, 2022. I wanted to get a a few shots with a wider angle where you would really have to search for the ball. Credit: Samantha Smith
A phone is seen taking a picture of a paper ball on the ground on Sept. 22, 2022. I’m not sure if this was allowed for the assignment but I thought it was a funny idea. Credit: Samantha Smith
A paper ball is seen on the ground on Sept. 22, 2022. I think this is a really simple photo in this gallery but I like all of the detail. Credit: Samantha Smith
Two trash cans are seen with a paper ball in the middle on Sept. 22, 2022. I liked this picture because of how off center the trash cans are, because they are round they give a cool effect and still draw the eye to the ball. Credit: Samantha Smith
I had a lot more fun with this shoot than I thought I would. Trying to find so many different angles was an interesting challenge. I think the hardest part in the beginning was trying to find something different to do each time. I found myself naturally going to the same few positions but then would change it slightly each time to get a bit of a different angle. I think an important concept from this assignment was trying to not get bored and also just shooting through the boredom. Because there was a point where I started to run out of ideas but this I just started to look at it different and try every angle and idea I could think of. I started off with pictures like the first few. just getting as many different angles as possible. And when I had done that I moved on to using things around the ball to make it more interesting. Like getting a close up of an ant nearby or the leaves and flowers. Eventually after I had done that I thought about using bigger things and that is where I got the phone idea. I’m not entirely sure I was allowed to use that but I thought it was a fun idea. I also wanted to tell a story with these photos. I tried to get multiple angles of people just walking by the paper ball to show people not throwing it away. Of course I doubt anyone would have thrown it away with me so obviously shooting it but it was an experiment. I also wanted to feature the recycling sign quite a bit so that was a challenge to get it at the right angle to also see the ball. Overall I think I learned quite a bit from this workshop on how to shoot through the boredom and get tons of ideas from anything around me.
