ART 117
The project seems easy enough right? Wrong! When I started shooting I thought this was the easiest project we had had all semester. I figured fall break would provide some excellent opportunities to get off campus and take pictures of everything and everyone. I began to take my camera everywhere. I practically had it on the whole day. At first I was using a 50mm lens because I thought the fixed focal length would give me a full frame, and the low aperture would give me a little more freedom to increase the shuterspeed even in low-light settings. I also set my camera to manual exposure program and automatic focus. That quickly became a problem because even though I had a fast shutter speed, the camera would take forever to auto-focus, and most of the time I missed the shot I wanted. I switched back to using the 18-55mm and used the Tv (shutter priority) exposure program.
I was stuck on the “street photography ” part of this assignment for a long time before I realized that many of the pictures that I usually take of my friends capture these moments that I look back on fondly. It didn’t matter that the weather wasn’t getting better because I didn’t NEED to go outside to get good shots. I mostly took pictures of friends, its harder to photograph strangers indoors and capture moments, for you run the risk of getting these photos with a papparazi feel to them. My friends are used to me having my camera around all the time, and because of this their emotions were very genuine.
I also thought that concert photography was a great opportunity to take photos because you have to take so many to get that one perfect shot. I have three in this series of eight. One was taken in Madison, at a concert and the other are shows that have come to campus. This also gave me a chance to play around with lighting and what flash does to images.
I don’t think that the fact that the photos would never be printed made me approach this project any differently. I have a photo project that I do on the side and I know that those photos are being seen digitally. If anything it’s a relief not to have to struggle with printing and getting the color just right. The only thing that I would never do with a project that I did do with this one was use my cellphone.. In the end I think my project was most successful because of the diversity in the shots and because it’s very personal. It tells a story of my day to day and gives viewers some insight on the places I’ve been and the people I know.
