Final Exam

4. This is my transformative photo.

I took this photo in December as part of my Irving Penn inspired project. I chose this photo because it was the first I took that I felt I began to show creativity in my work. In addition to the reflection of the glass around Aileen's face, you can also see her hands pressed against the glass, creating a really cool effect. After taking this photo, I had a new view on photography. I think photography shows what hasn't been seen, the things that people don't usually notice. It gives a different point of view, as seen especially with photos taken from unconventional angles or portraits that display much more than the person in them.

5. Form is more three-dimensional and solid, while shape is more flat. Shape also has a bigger emphasis on the lines that create the shape. While form focuses on lines as well, the depth of the objects are considered as well.

6. In a pattern, a particular symbol is repeated throughout the image, creating a sequence. In repetition, symbols are also repeated, but may not be evenly spaced. The repetition of symbols usually carries out a deeper purpose about the photo, emphasizing the symbol itself, while a pattern emphasizes the entire sequence.

7. 

Movement guides a viewer's eyes across the photo toward an unknown destination. In this picture, one's eyes tend to look at the bottom of the image, drawn by the wide, deep blue. Then, the eyes sweep up the photo, taking the path of the clear, blue creek towards the hills beyond.

8. Of the last three projects, I believe that the hopscotch photo from my final project was the best. My final project centered around my elementary school, to capture some moments from my childhood. I think this photo best explains how simple it was back then, compared to now. It also brings up good memories from playing around with my friends during recess, stress-free. Composition wise, the photo showed a good use of lines as well as movement. This photo gave me new perspective. When I decided to crouch down to get a good angle of the hopscotch, I realized that I was able to see the hopscotch behind it, as well as the one behind that. It reminded me of the different paths you take in life. Once you finish one path, there is another waiting for you, for you to explore and hopefully enjoy. While the project was intended for me to reflect on my past and reminisce about the good times, this photo left me looking towards the future in a more positive thought that I ever did before.

Final Project

Student Website Review

Period 2: Mustafa Ahmed
I liked his picture of the Deanza Hotel (bottom left). Your eyes are drawn to the intricate sign above the building. In addition, the trees to the left create a balance with the hotel and seem to frame the picture well.

Period 3: Lucas Williams
I decided to look at the photos on my friend's website from Period 3. In Lucas's gallery, he displayed his Spring Expo project, titled "Changing Your Perspective". Going through these five photos, I believe that the last one is his best. His idea of pouring out water from a different angle greatly represents the title of his project.

Period 4: Tulika Mohanti
I liked the second picture in her gallery, of a friend holding up a leaf to cover  one of her eyes. The photo showed a nice use of colors, as the bright colors of the leaf seemed to match the color of the model's hair. With duller colors in the background as well as the jacket, the colors really stand out well.

Final Project - Shot List

1. I plan to take a picture of a slide or a swing.

2. I also to take a picture on top of a playground looking out, because as kids we thought we were almost invincible standing on top of that playground.

3. Another photo would be of one of the many murals around my elementary school.

4. One photo will be of a chalk hopscotch on the concrete.

5. One photo will be of the curved "yellow brick road" path leading up to our library. Many of us liked to walk along this path whenever we went to the library, even though it would have been easier to just walk straight up to the door.

I have not figured out the order of these photos yet. I think it would be best to decide after I have taken these photos.

My three rules of composition are lines, viewpoint, and background.
The pictures of the hopscotch and especially of the "yellow brick road" will show a good use of lines. The picture of the top of the playground, angling down towards the rest of the school, gives a good use of viewpoint. This would also be a picture that focuses on the background. In addition, one would notice the rest of the play structures in the background of the slide/swing photo.  

Presentation Project

These photos are also on my Weebly website

Presentation Project - Shot List

1. My first picture is of a safety guard in bright orange getting ready to blow her whistle. I see her or another safety guard almost every day when I get dropped off to school.
2. My second picture shows the front of my first period classroom, Digital Photography. The teacher is at the back of the picture and in front of him, the project screen is lit up.
3. My third picture is the area where I eat lunch. It includes both the square bench my friends and I leave our backpacks on, the tree with growing flowers, and the heart shaped mark on the tree.
4. My fourth picture is of the creek path, where I walk along after school. The picture shows movement of the winding path downwards, and a small hint of the creek itself.
5. My fifth picture is of my front door, where I end up every day after a tiring day at school. Seeing this door lets me know that I can finally lie down and rest a little or eat a small snack at the end of the school day.

First Commercial Shoot

Taken by me.

Taken by Vina Kong

(photo ready)

Taken by Vina Kong

Taken by Deborah Chen

Taken by Amandi Kwok

Yesterday's Photoshoot

Original

Camera Raw:

Cropped

Exposure: -1.00

Contrast: +12

Finished picture.

Here are some other (unedited) photos I took yesterday.

Best Picture

Photographer Best About Page Links:

Symbol Photography

Nick Onken

Morgan Norman

Brook Pifer

The Wade Brothers

Photo Story - Multicultural Week Assembly

Flags

Tae-Kwon-Doe

Hip Hop

Korean Taiko Drum

Senior Bhangra

Story with a Photo

Today is the last chance of the year to buy food from clubs during Multicultural week. Of course, this means another crowd of students anxious to get their hands on milk tea or spam musubis for the last time while clubs call for them to "Buy this!" and "Buy that!". As a member of the American Red Cross club here at Mission, I am selling for my club today (although I sold for the other days as well, today I am excused to set up and clean up). While it can be a tiny bit stressful when trying to sell out our club's food (Hawaiian barbecue), I sometimes find it amusing to shout at everyone I personally know within an audible distance to get "Hawaiian barbecue! Five tickets!". Fortunately, we have sold out every day this week. I am certain that today will be no exception.

Multicultural Week

Multicultural week is one of the two special week long celebrations here at Mission, the other being Homecoming. For MSJ students, this annual tradition means food, and lots of it. For MSJ clubs, it means money, and lots of it (hopefully). When the lunch bell rings, hoards of hungry students rush out of their fourth period classrooms towards the horseshoe, where the aromas of cultural foods and not so cultural foods beckon them. Basically, the horseshoe is the center of all chaos for an hour a day. This goes on for the first four days. On Friday, the special lunches are replaced by an assembly featuring multiple performances and activities, signaling the end of Multicultural Week.

Shutter Speed and Everything After/ Tuesday with Farley's Kids

Partner: Amandi Kwok

In this New York Times Lens photo,

Shutter speed: Fast- the trucks are moving but the pictures are still clear. They are not blurry.
Rule of composition: Lines- your eyes are instantly drawn to the lines created by the trucks, road, and railroads
Elements of Art: Form- the trucks create a three-dimensional shape of a rectangular prism. They express length, width, and height.
Principles of Design: Movement- the trucks on the right are moving away from the camera. Since there are two cars going in the same direction, the eyes tend to move along with them toward a spot far away. There are even tiny trucks in the distance.

Tuesday with Farley's Kids

Shutter Speed: 1/350 seconds

Cropped

Contrast: -38

Highlights: -100
Blacks: +100

Principles of Design - Unity

Exposure: +0.4

Contrast: +46

Shadows: -26

Principles of Design - Variety

Cropped
Highlights: -34

Principles of Design - Rhythm

Highlights: -100

Shadows: +32

Vibrance: -64

Lens - Best Unity

Out of all the pictures in today's slideshows, I feel that this picture shows the best use of unity.
The bed is placed right in the middle of the picture, showing balance. The frames of the bed show lines, and there is space between those lines where one can see under the bed. Also, the door to the left is slightly open, so that the eyes look to see what is behind that door. Finally, the dark spots on the frames indicate that they are very old and worn out, and that the wood is wearing away. This gives off a rough texture. All together, these elements found in the picture create unity.

Principles of Design - Proportion

Exposure: -1.15

Contrast: +26

Highlights: -58

There are two trash cans in this picture. However, one is significantly larger than the other because it is closer. The smaller trash seems to touch corners with the larger trash can, which creates a sort of unity in this photo.

Principles of Design - Pattern and Repetition

Pattern

Contrast: +36

Vibrance: -100

Each leaf of the plant has a pattern of creased lines.

Repetition

Cropped
Exposure: -0.8

The boxes continue to repeat for each day of the week. The days of the week repeat as well, as Monday follows Saturday & Sunday.

Principles of Design - Movement

This picture showcases movement because your eyes automatically shift to between the two bars and slide across the grate, guided by the increasing amount of scattered, fallen leaves. 

Principles of Design - Emphasis

The green and white "warriors" sign stood out to me when I first took this photo. I continued to emphasize it by changing the floors to black and white

Principles of Design - Balance

The picture is symmetrical vertically.

Elements of Art - Texture

Elements of Art - Color

Elements of Art - Space

Elements of Art - Form

Elements of Art - Shape

Half Past Autumn - Gordon Parks parts 1-4

1. The doctor placed his body in a tub filled with ice water.
2. Gordon was born in Kansas.
3. She told him that he wasn't college material.
4. He was fourteen.
5. He moved to Minnesota to live with his aunt after his mom died.
6. Yes, Gordon graduated from college.
7. He worked for a women's clothing store.
8. Double exposure is a photography method that creates a ghost image.
9. Joseph Louis Barrow was an American professional boxer and the World Heavyweight Champion from 1937 to 1949.
10. Gordon played the piano.
11. The purpose of the Farm Security Administration was to help combat American rural poverty.
12. His first assignment was to go to a theater and watch a movie.
13. She was an African American woman that Gordon took a picture of.
14. His inspiration for Grant Wood's American Gothic was the American Gothic House.
15. He learned how to approach people and take pictures of them.
16. The FSA shut down in 1943.
17. Gordon Parks shot for Vogue magazine after he moved to New York.
18. The picture editor of Life Magazine was Wilson Hicks.
19. Park's first major story was about a Harlem gang leader named Red Jackson.
20. Gordon was influenced by Degas, Picasso, Van Gogh, and Chagall.
21. Parks took pictures of the model while she was walking at slow speed.
22. Park's concerto was performed in Venice.
23. Park's second wife was Elizabeth Campbell. She was a model. Her father worked for Ebony magazine.
24. Flavio de Silva was 12 years old when Gordon Parks met him.
25. Parks met Silva in the early 1960s.
26. Flavio lived in a shack when Parks first met him and his family.
27. Gloria Vanderbilt's son is Anderson Cooper. Her ancestors include Cornelius Vanderbilt, who made a railroad empire.
28. Vanderbilt described their relationship as spiritual and full of connection.
29. Parks was asked to write a book.
30. He was advanced ten thousand dollars.
31. His editor was Genevieve Young.
32. Parks created a story about the reality behind African Americans.
33. Being successful means that if you were to die the next day, you would feel satisfied with your life.
34. I have given up a lot of free time and energy to be successful.
35. Parks gave up his normal life as well as his marriage to be successful.
36. Genevieve Young's father was in the UN.
37. Parks was advanced $10,000 to write his first book.
38. Elijah Muhammad offered Parks $500,000 to do a story on The Nation of Islam.
39. Parks refused the money because he didn't want to be controlled by Muhammad.
40. The Learning Tree was the first movie directed by a black man.
41. Shaft was a black superhero.
42. His choice of weapon was a camera.
43. Genevieve Young cited his absence from home due to work for the divorce. She also stated that he negatively affected her career.
44. Twelve Years a Slave tells a similar story.
45. Gordon Parks Jr. is Gordon Parks' son.
46. My favorite Gordon Parks photo was of Ella Watson.
47. I will remember Gordon Parks as someone who heavily influenced black roles in the photography and film industries.

Elements of Art - Lines

Lens Top 5

 The top 5 pictures from today's Lens Slideshow, in order, are:

1. Picture #3
2. Picture #28
3. Picture #9
4. Picture #22
5. Picture #5

Multimedia Flyer Poster 2

I like this poster because the colorful handprints really stand out against the white background.
This is better than the last one because we used a photo this time instead of drawing.

Movie Monday - The Photo League

1. The Photo League's credo is that photography can be made the social betterment a career. It has the power to change the world.
2. The Photo League separated from Workers International Relief.
3. The workshop was an event where people could be taught the art of photography.
4. The workshops were taught by American photographer Sid Grossman.
5. If I were to devote one year of my life to one project, I would want to travel around the world and take pictures of nature and the Seven Wonders.
6. The Harlem document is a portrait of Black urban America and the people, culture, and lifestyles of Harlem during the 1930s. 
7. The Harlem Document was started by an American photographer named Aaron Siskand.
8. The painter was Michelangelo Merisi Dacarvaggio.
9. The photographer mentioned that it looked like it was by the painter because the children's faces were lit up.
10. He photographed poor families on the streets and child labor. He was the official photographer of the Empire State Building. He was the photo League's most eccentric and least hygienic member. 
11. During World War II, female photographers became more prominent after men were drafted.
12. Siskand introduced abstraction to photography after World War II.
13. The Saturday Evening post was an American magazine first published in 1897.
14. Barbara Morgan was a co-founder of the photography magazine Aperture. She took pictures of American modern dancers. 
15. The Photo League ended up on the FBI list for communists.
16. Communism is the "Growing Menace" mentioned in the film.
17. W. Eugene Smith agreed to serve as President when The League was under investigation.
18. The Photo League was closed due to scared members who left after the FBI charges and communism accusations.

Multimedia Fest Flyer