This workshop was pretty fun, but also challenging in the sense that I couldn’t zoom. Another challenge was approaching people, especially when those I approached didn’t want their photo taken. After about 20 minutes, the area around Franklin Hall cleared out and the only other people around were in this class.
Another challenge I had was people posing when I asked to take their picture. I had to explain to them to keep doing what they were doing so they would look more relaxed. With Sue, she wasn’t doing anything and just relaxing on a bench, so I ended up engaging her in conversation while I shot so she would stop posing. I am really happy I did that because she’s an interesting woman and I think she was happy to chat. Unfortunately she refused to give me her last name, but that’s my bad and I think if I had explained the project to her a little better she would have trusted me more.
Each picture displays a different technique we discussed in class. The one with Mason is an example of layering, I chose to put the focus on his laptop and I think it turned out well. The layer structure goes from the corner of the laptop, to the hand on the keyboard and energy drink which are on the same layer. The next layer is Mason’s face and finally the background is the wall and elevator behind him.
The next two photos of Savannah Pearlman show an extreme close-up and accented lines. I think the photo with the lines is my favorite, and I cropped it so that it was more geometric, excluding the bike rack in the background and the side of the wall that didn’t match the pattern of triangles. The close-up could have been better, I wish I had the space to get right under, like looking up at her face from the perspective of the book. Unfortunately there wasn’t a good way to do so and I ended up cutting off her other eye.
The last two photos are of Sue, one is showing scene-setting and the other is just a pleasing photo of her which I liked. For the one showing scene setting, I like how her outfit helps her pop out of the background, but I am not a fan of her expression. I think that’s my fault for talking to her and getting her in the middle of a sentence, but the photo composition looks fine. For the last photo, I wish I had been a little higher up so I could be on her level. I like the geometries on the bag and aligned it with the bench when I cropped.