11/18/15 Photo Angles

 Today we went outside and took pictures of each other from different angles. It was, I guess, a nice experience because we got to see how different people look from different angles. We could see this in everyday life as well, but a picture freezes the moment and you pay attention to every detail. You also saw that some people look better from certain angles than from others. The weather was really nice too which made the experience more enjoyable. 

Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz was born on January 1st, 1864 in New Jersey. He was an American Photographer and a promoter of art. He promoted that photography was art. He was know for running many popular art and photography galleries where he promoted photographers and artists' work. He was born to
German-Jewish parents. He had 5 other siblings, including twins who he was jealous of because of their closeness. He was a very educated person because his parents made sure he had a great education before college. He grew up in a pretty wealthy family. They moved back to Germany where Alfred stayed for 10 years and became interested in photography. He was the creator or thought of the idea of the magazine Camera Work when he returned to the US. His friend Edward Steichen let him use a space which he turned into the gallery "291". In this gallery he helped other photographers and artist show off their work. He was married to Georgia O'Keeffe who was one of the painters he promoted in his gallery. He died on July 14, 1936 in New York City at the age of 82.

Georgia O'Keeffe
portrait by Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz

Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon was an American professional fashion and portrait photographer. He was born on May 15, 1923 in New York City. In 1946 his photographs began appearing in the magazines Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, and Life.




 These pictures were taken by Richard. They are of famous actors and actresses. I like that they are in black and white. The one of Audrey Hepburn is cool because the focus is on the raindrops and you can see her behinds the window but not clearly. Her face looks a little distorted because of the raindrops. Also, it is cool how she is holding a cat.

Richard Avedon died on October 1st, 2004 in San Antonio TX. He took many iconic pictures of celebrities during his photography career, including of The Beatles like the one of John Lennon to the right.

Paul Strand

Paul Strand was an American photographer. His photography along with other photographers helped establish photography as an art in the 20th century. He was born on October 16th, 1890 in New York City. He took photos for 60 years. His photography was about many things throughout America, Europe, and Africa. He became interested in photography after a field trip to the 291 art gallery. This gallery exhibit the work of photographers and painters. Later on his own work would be an exhibition in this gallery run by Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston.

This image is one of his most famous photographs. I think it is a cool picture because even though the people aren't super clear, you can tell its a person. Also the building in the background shows how small people are compared to it. This was taken in Wall Street. I also like how the peoples' shadows are long and can reach the people behind. Paul Strand died on March 31st, in France. He lived in France because he married there. He did not speak French, but his wife did and she would help him out.

Dorothea Lange

C.J was walking in his garden when he found a cat. It had very bright eyes. The iris was a mix between green, gold, and blue. C.J called to it and it began to slowly walk off. Then C.J took out a cheese stick from his back pocket which immediately got the cat's attention. It slowly began walking back and C.J decided to leave a little trail that led back to his house. When the cat reached his house, C.J closed the door and got close enough to touch it. Surprisingly the cat did not move or attack him and just let him pet it. C.J decided to go to his room, and the cat followed. It even got on his bed and took a nap. C.J checked for a collar or a tag, but didn't find anything. He asked his mom if he could keep it and she said sure. C.J heard his dad's truck outside and ran out to show him the cat. His dad, being a photographer, had a camera around his neck and snapped the image above.  

Gordon Parks

Gordon Parks was an American photographer, musician, writer, and director. He was born in Kansas on November 30th, 1912. He attended a segregated school as a child. His mom died when he was 14, and later on he was sent to live with his sister. He became the first African-American photographer for the magazines Life and Vogue. He bought his first camera at the age of 25. He took pictures of people and life. He specifically took pictures of workers and the minority. He also took pictures of the segregation and racism going on in the US.  His most famous photography was American Gothic, Washington D.C. It is the picture shown below. He also took pictures in the fashion world. He died in New York on March 7, 2006.

Ella Watson
American Gothic, Washington D.C.
1942

William Klein

Cheetah

  There was a woman who had a pet cheetah. In fact, many of the people who saw her with her cheetah thought she looked like the cheetah. She loved these comments because who would not want to look like a cheetah. They are just awesome. She was also a model so the photographers would ask her to take her cheetah to the shoots to take pictures of them together. 

 One day she was walking down the streets to a shoot with her cheetah. She decided to stop at a park because they still had some time before they actually had to be there. She let it off its leash because he was trained and would listen to her when she called. Unfortunately, there were two kids at this park. When they saw the cheetah, they did not know it had an owner. Out of fear, the older of the kids took out a gun he had to protect his little brother and shot at the cheetah. Luckily he missed and the woman called for the cheetah. She then put it on its leash and walked over to the boys.

She was not angry, but explained to them that it was her pet. That was surprising to them since they had never met anyone with a pet cheetah. She let them pet it and afterwards everyone carried on with their everyday lives. A couple of months later, the boys passed by a newsstand and saw a magazine with the cover being a picture of the woman and her cheetah. It was a beautiful picture and they were glad they had not hurt the cheetah back in the park. 

The images above were both taken by William Klein.

Mary Ellen Mark

Tragic

Johnny lived out in the country. He hated the city. There was too much chaos and people. He liked being alone. One of his favorite things to do was ride his horse to the mountains and the river that was near his house. He liked sitting on the grass and looking out into the land at the scenery.

One day he took a ride on his horse and was heading to the river. On his way he felt like something was following and watching it. Then suddenly out of no where a mountain lion jumps out and scares the horse. The horse, out of fear, jumps on its hind legs and takes off running. This action causes Johnny to fall of the horse. It would not have been a bad injury, except his head hit a rock and knocked him out of consciousness.

When he wakes up, he is in a hospital. He has not lost his memory, but something is obviously different to him. He does not see any color. The world is in black, white, and grey. The doctor walks into the room to find Johnny with a look of panic on his face. The doctor immediately calms him down and explains everything.

The head injury caused him to be in a coma for 2 weeks and that it also caused him to have total colorblindness, aka cerebral achromatopsia. He would need to have surgery because his head was still not alright. This was a tragic situation for Johnny because another thing he loved was color.

Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus (Diane Nemerov) was born on March 14, 1923 in New York. Her parents owned a famous department store, meaning her family was pretty wealthy. She married at the age of 18 and gave birth to her first daughter, Doon, 4 years afterwards. their second daughter was born 9 years later. 

She mainly took photographs of people with intellectual disabilities, or what she called freaks. These pictures were taken with the people knowing, and also sometimes when they did not know. The picture above is one of her most famous photographs. When you first look at it, you get a feeling of panic (or at least I do). You think, "why does this kid have a grenade and how could she get so close to him that is dangerous?". The kid also looks pretty maniacal. When I did more research about the picture I found out it was a toy grenade and the picture was taken in Central Park. I like this photo because I think it confuses and scares a lot of people at first sight. 

Diane committed suicide on July 26, 1971. at the age of 48. She had depression episodes that probably led her to do this during her life. 

Cambridge in Colour: Camera Exposure

One thing I learned from the Cambridge in Colour website on the topic for Camera Exposure was that ISO speed is a lot like aperture and shutter speed. ISO speed is the sensitivity of the camera to light. Having a higher ISO means the camera is more sensitive to light, and vice versa. The way they are different is that a lower ISO is more commonly desired. This is because a higher ISO speed will make your image way too grainy, or have a higher image noise like the picture below:

The sky in the picture on the right looks more grainy because the ISO number is very high unlike the picture to the left. 

Lillian Bassman

Night Bloom: Olga Pantushenkova
in hat by Christian Lacroix
Haute Couture
The New York Times magazine,
Paris , 1996 

Night Bloom: Anneliese Seubert
in Chanel
The New York Times Magazine
1996

 Lillian Bassman was an American fashion photographer and painter. She was born in Brooklyn, NY on June 15 , 1917. 

She worked as a fashion photographer for Junior Bazaar, and later Harper's Bazaar. She began to photograph her model subjects in black and white. By the 1970 her type of photography was out of style so she abandoned fashion photography. 20 years later a bag filled with her photographs was discovered, and they  became popular and appreciated once again. Into her 90's she used digital technology to photo shop her photographs to create a new series of work. Lillian Bassman died on February 13, 
  2012 (age 94) in Manhattan, New York.      

I like her photographs because they don't look like photographs. They actually look like paintings. I also like that they are black and white. My favorite is the first one to the left because it looks like a painting. 

Robert Frank

Robert Frank is an American photographer and documentary filmmaker who was born in Switzerland on November 9, 1924. His most famous work was the book The Americans, a very influential book with post-war american photography. He got his start working for Harper's Bazaar as a fashion photographer. His photography isn't very interesting to me personally. I guess its just not the type of photography style I like. I do like how most of them have are in black and white. I guess I like the picture to the left. It's pretty mysterious.

Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams was a famous photographer and an environmental activist. He usually took pictures of nature. He was born in San Francisco, California on February 20, 1902. Before he was interested in photography, he wanted to pursue a career in music. He taught himself how to play the piano as a kid. He became interested in photography after taking a trip with his family to Yosemite National Park in California. 

The picture above was taken by Ansel Adams. It was taken in Mexico. It shows a half moon and a town.

This is also another picture taken by Ansel. I like it because it shows a beautiful landscape.

Weegee

WEEGEE

Ascher Usher Fellig, better known as Weegee, was a famous photographer. His pictures were of crime scenes. He hung around police stations waiting for a call. He eventually got his own police car radio. He slept in his car most of the time and made his trunk into a dark room. He often sold his pictures to tabloids, magazines, or news papers. He got to the crime scenes very fast.

The photographs to the left are some of the pictures he took. The one on top shows a man on the ground with blood on his face. The other man is probably a doctor checking him. I am not sure if he the

       person on the ground is dead.

       The second picture is a clown sitting on a chair. The clown, in my
       opinion, looks very creepy. I am not sure if he is dead or hurt or
       real. Maybe the picture was just taken because of the creepy pose.

       The last picture looks like it is a blood stain. There is not actually a        person hurt or shown there. I like this picture because it is very                mysterious. It makes you wonder what could have possibly happen        there. Was it an animal or a person? Did they get hurt? How did              they get hurt? Are they dead?

I just like all of the pictures because of the mystery to them. You question what happened. The black and white also make the pictures look better. In the last picture you are not sure if it is blood because of the black and white. The clown picture is not scary, but it gives me a feeling of being in a haunted circus. I guess the goriness of the pictures makes them interesting.

Weegee was born on June 18, 1899, and died on December 26, 1968.

Warm Up: Blue Lake

This is a picture of a body of water (maybe a lake). There a coniferous trees and logs on one side of the river and the photo. On the other side there is like a mountain, sand dunes along the walls of the mountains and the edge of the water. there are also more trees in the background representing the depth of the picture. I like this photo because the water looks green and blue. The rest of the picture is like brow, so the water stands out. I also like this picture because it reminds me of two scenes from the show The Walking Dead. The first scene is when Andrea and her sister are fishing on a boat in the middle of the lake, and the water looks the same as in the picture above. The next scene is when Daryl is dropped from his horse and falls from a high level to a lake thing and gets hurt by one of his arrows. 

Harry Callahan

This is a picture taken by Harry Callahan. I think he was trying to take a picture of the person without them knowing, and maybe the loneliness of the forest. I like this picture because it looks kind of creepy. When I first saw it the person looked kind of scary. I like it because you can see the long shadows of the tree. You can confuse the shadows for the trees because there are so many of them. You can also see the many shapes of the tree branches.  The trees look cool because it looks like a never ending forest. You can tell it is winter or fall because the person is wearing a coat, and the trees have no leaves. This picture gives me a feeling of being lonely and lost in a forest.

Keith Carter Short Story

This photo was taken by Keith Carter

             The Rabbit

   Last year my parents threw me a party for my 8th birthday. They invited all my friends and family. They also rented entertainment for the day like moonwalks and people dressed as animals or cartoon characters. The whole party was nicely decorated and everything seemed perfect. That is  until I noticed something.

   Near the trees by the garden in the left corner of my backyard, there was a person in a rabbit costume. It was just standing there still, almost hiding. It was staring directly at me. The sight of this gave me goosebumps but I stood there frozen. It was strange because all the other acts were near the party and doing their jobs. My mom approached me asking if everything was o.k. I asked why the rabbit was just standing there, but she said she could not see what I was talking about. I pointed at the direction of the garden, buts she kept saying she could not see it. I was beginning to get frustrated when no one I asked could see the rabbit who was still standing there watching me. When I finally decided to approach it, it began running. I was about to go after it when my mom stopped me because it was time to cut the cake. I didn't see it again that day.

   A few years later when my grandmother died, we went to clean out her house because the family decided to sell it. I had never gone to the basement before, so I was startled when I was packing a photo album and I saw a picture of the rabbit. I ran upstairs to my mom and showed her the photo and told her that it was the rabbit I had seen . She told me that it was impossible because it had belonged to my grandfather who died the year I was born. I asked if someone else had the costume, but she said my grandfather wanted it to be buried with him. I was extremely confused and terrified. The only question on my mind was "why was I the only one who was able to see it?".

   

Notable Photographers

Ansel Easton Adams

Ansel Easton Adams was an environmental activist, and a famous photographer. He was born in San Francisco, California on February 20, 1902. He took pictures of nature, specifically Yosemite National Park, to influence people to conserve wilderness areas. He is famous for his black-and-white nature pictures. 

When he was little, an earthquake caused him to crash into a wall breaking his nose. It healed but it couldn't be set back in place making it crooked for the rest of his life. He only reached an 8th grade education, and afterwards just learned about things that interested him. His first passion was playing the piano, and music was his career path for a while. He became interested in photography after going to Yosemite National Park on a family trip. He got a job as a photo technician, and joined clubs that had to do with photography to learn more.


Below are some of his famous photographs

Shutter Speed

Article: http://digital-photography-school.com/shutter-speed/

This article said that shutter speed is the amount of time the shutter is open. This affects how your picture comes out. Shutter speed is measured in seconds, including fractions of second. Having a shutter speed with a large number as the denominator means that the shutter will be open for less time than a shutter speed with a low denominator. The shutter being open for less time means the picture will be taken much faster than a shutter that is open for a long time. You would use a fast shutter speed when taking pictures of things moving fast (soccer game, surfing). The fast shutter speed freezes the scene without any blurs. You would take pictures with a slow shutter speed when you want to let movement blur. Examples of using a slow shutter speed is to take pictures of moving stars in the night sky, or to show that water is moving and not just frozen if you were to take a picture with fast shutter speed. Usually when taking pictures with slow shutter speed you are going to have to use a tripod, because since it takes a while to take the picture you might shake the camera if you are using your hands. Using a tripod avoids extra unnecessary blur in the picture. Shutter speed numbers can range from 1/4000 (fast)  to 30 (slow) seconds, but it all depends on your camera.

What is ISO?

https://photographylife.com/what-is-iso-in-photography

ISO is one of the three essential components of photography, the other two being shutter speed and aperture. ISO is the level of sensitivity of your camera to light. A higher ISO level means higher sensitivity to light, and vice versa. Having a higher sensitivity means you can take pictures in places with not a lot of light, but it also means that your picture will come out with more "grain"/noise. Having a low ISO will give you high quality pictures. The ISO number has an effect on the speed it takes to capture an image. For example, ISO 100 will take a picture in 1 second, while ISO 3200 will take a picture in 1\32 of a second. Low ISO should be used when there is plenty of light, and high ISO should be used when there is little light and you want to quickly capture an image.

PICTURE

This is a picture of Machu Picchu. It is on the Andes Mountains in Peru. This picture uses depth of field because you can see the closer buildings are bigger than the ones farther away. It is also taken from a higher angle to be able to see  the place better. I like this picture because it is very clear and the light makes it look bright. I also like how the sky makes the mountains/land in the background look blue. I also like how you can see how close the clouds are to the mountains.

Depth of Field

This picture is an example of depth of field. The light bulb in the front is the only thing in focus. All the other light bulbs in the background are blurred out. There is a light bulb in front of the one in focus, but it is also blurred out. You can tell this is a picture of depth of field because as you get farther into the line of light bulbs, the light bulbs blur out more than the one before.

F- Stop

Article:   http://www.canadiannaturephotographer.com/fstop.html

When using F-stop, the diameter opening of the lens determines how much light enters the lens, and how much in the picture is focused. If the lens aperture (opening of lens) is wide, the number of the f-stop is smaller, and vice-versa.  A large F-stop number will result in a small lens aperture and more things will be in focus. The f-stop number determines about how many feet the lens will focus on. For example, the f-stop is at 1.3, the lens will focus on whatever is about 1 foot away and everything behind it will be blurred out. If the f-stop is at 10, the depth of field will become greater meaning the lens will focus on more things than when the f-stop was 1.3. With a smaller f-stop, the shutter is faster. This means the picture is taken at a faster speed because the shutter opens faster.