Jamesia Price- Feature Make up Blog

For my feature assignment we were in Washington D.C playing basketball. We got the privilege to go to the Men’s game because they were playing the day before us, so I chose to take pictures at their game. Because it was in an arena I was limited to a certain area, so I found this assignment very difficult to do. I was hoping that being in the countries capital I would have gotten a lot of good pictures, but we weren’t allowed to leave the hotel and sight see. I thought this assignment was the hardest assignment mostly because of the situation I was in. Something that I could have done different was possible making changing my feature idea. Something that I do like about this picture was the capturing the men tweeting about the game, although my idea was there I think the execution could have been better. The screen is blurry and it picture looks a little out of focus. Also I think I could have incorporated people playing on the court so that you would know what is going on. Also I think if I could have gone on the side at a little angle this picture would have turned out a lot better than what it did. Also I felt that during this assignment I felt rushed, trying to get pictures and you could tell throughout my shoot. This assignment was by far my least favorite, only because of the situation I was in, and not the actual assignment itself. 

Nicholas Lake: Emotion

For this this assignment I thought it would be nice to take take a picture of someone really special to me, my father. He absolutely hates to have his picture taken so I had to persuade him into giving me some form of emotion by reminding him that his son (me) was a week away from finishing college, making me the first person on his side of the family to earn a college degree. This reminder was just the inspiration needed to produce a genuine smile on his face. Aside from trying to catch my dad in a moment of true emotion, I didn’t experience any major difficulties on this shoot. I knew that I wanted to capture something very special to me for this final assignment and because I feel that I succeeded, I have no regrets. 

I chose to edit this picture into a black and white shot. My reasoning for this was not to cover up any defects, but to transform it into a memory pic. I feel that black and white pictures often convey a sense of timelessness. There is a dreamlike quality that makes these photos much more memorable and this is a moment that I’d like to remember for a very long time.

Kate Standiford

This is my favorite photo out of my work assignment. I know – this comes as a shock, especially since I have included 2 detailed shots in this assignment and we all know how much I love detail shots. However I love this photo. Techniqually I think it is okay, but visually I just think it is really good. While my subject is basically in the center, this is the kind of photo that breaks the don’t-put-your-subject-in-the-center rule but makes it work. It is such a simple moment, Kristin does this task at work constantly, yet there is a beauty about it. A simple beauty. I really like this. I guess there will not be a “next time” for this blog post as this is my last assignment. I did however hav a lot of fun with this assignment!

Andrew McComb- Feature

For my reshoot of the feature assignment, I thought of the fast growing popularity of people playing the game of golf and taking lessons from PGA professionals. It also helps that this is what I want to do in the future in my career so it was fun to take pictures of the professional giving the lesson and listening in to what he was saying. Mark Lewis was giving a lesson to Jack McClayne who was pretty new to the game of golf. Unfortunately the sky was very cloudy and I was not able to get the great lighting that one would get a 5:30 in the evening. I was also able to use a telephoto lens that was very helpful in being able to not be right in their way. I also tried to change up the angles but unfortunately some of them did not turn out to be as good as the others. This was probably one of my favorite assignment to shoot just because of the interactions between the two. Jack really wanted to learn and you could see the improvements from the beginning of the lesson to the end.

Joe Kelly – Feature

 

The feature assignment ended up being my re-shoot because I could not get the camera I had rented out that week to even snap a single photograph. Needless to say, this assignment went a little better (it’s amazing what happens when technology actually works).

My friend, Mike Gaines, is a marketing rep for Redbull on campus at SLU.  Every summer the company hosts their annual Flugtag competition.  It is essentially a competition that calls for men and women to construct flying apparatuses to compete to see which can fly the furthest.  Red Bull decided to do one at SLU through Mike, with the winner being given the opportunity to travel to Chicago over the summer for the actual competition.

Overall the shoot went pretty well.  It was fun to see some of my engineering friends making different model planes with Red Bull cans.  Lighting was relatively good so I did not run into many issues in terms of technical exposure.  It was also nice to see Mike get some good PR for the company on campus while getting to actually have fun himself.

Andrew McComb- Illustration

For the illustration assignment, I found this one to be somewhat tough to get the image in my head to actually become a reality. I tried my hardest at making it pretty clear but I guess that wasn’t the case. I didn’t really realize the stuff on his desk to begin with but in class when we talked about it, I think it kind of talks about the hectic lifestyle one can have in college. This wasn’t my best work but I believe that I did fine with the image. I am not good at photoshop at all and have no idea how to use it even after the little learning session in class.

Nicholas Lake: Person at Work

This was by far my favorite assignment. In fact, it hardly felt like an assignment at all. I found myself actually having fun, rather than solely focusing on the quality of each picture. I normally take pictures of strangers, but this time I decided to photograph people I’ve known my entire life. This helped me tremendously. I felt comfortable with the people and the space I was in, which made me feel comfortable taking a few more risks than I normally would. I took a lot of “over the shoulder” shots, which required me to get fairly close to my subjects. This is something I never felt comfortable doing on other assignments. Also, my subjects were much more obliging to working normally because they know and truly felt comfortable with me.  

In terms of the picture I chose to be my best, I think I was successful in capturing several photographic elements.  There were terrible lighting conditions for this shoot but I compensated for this by shooting with a faster shutter speed and decreasing my aperture. It took a bit of trial and error, but I finally managed to get it right. Also, the angle from which I took the picture makes for a more interesting point of entry. The graphic elements, lines and shapes, make for a good visual as well. 

Again, I really enjoyed this shoot. It served as a relaxing form of escape from all of the ensuing chaos during these last few days of the semester. I feel that I’ve grown a lot as a photographer from this one assignment. It has also given me knowledge of a new stress relieving activity.