For the second part of this assignment, I tried focusing on photographing the angel at the top of the water fountain. I tried capturing her beauty, but that once again proved to be difficult. I made the mistake of going at the same time of day as I did the first time. I think that if brought into post production, I could make the shots that I took, work well. Compared to last week, I took pictures that had a larger depth of field; they were not as close up as my previous pictures. I did this because I wanted to capture more of the park and its surroundings.

I took pictures on three different days for the spring assignment. Two days were at Botanical Garden in Brooklyn. One day was a rainy day where I was able to capture some pretty great shots because even though it was rainy it was bright and the lighting seemed great . I just kept shooting and playing around with different settings. The other day at Botanical Garden was a beautiful spring day. There were lots of people and festivities going on so I was capturing people and the atmosphere. The third time me and my family went hiking to Minnewaska State Park which is upstate NY-by the way a gorgeous place for hiking and taking pictures.

My location for our final assignment is Bethesda Fountain in Central Park,. Aside from loving to be in the city, I chose to go to Central Park for my location because I’ve always loved it there growing up. Just like its name suggests, Bethesda Fountain has a large fountain; there is an angel on the top in the center of its location. There are seats surrounding the fountain where you can relax and enjoy yourselves. There is also a place where you can rent canoes and go canoeing. As you walk up a pathway, you get to see beautiful plants, trees, benches, the canoe rental house, and definitely a lot more people, who were doing the same thing as me – taking pictures! Towards the end of my trip, I took pictures of the fountain. I tried to focus on the angel and capture only her at one point, but because of how dark she is, I had difficulty capturing her features. When I return for the next two shoots, I’ll  try to focus on that.

For this homework assignment I did not end up shooting in my studio at all like I had originally thought. The white balance, ISO, and the focus mode on the camera of my phone were set to auto and the exposure at 0. All the pictures of myself were taken by a friend in the fifth floor atrium and the eleventh floor in room 1103 and the hallway. The atrium is nice and bright, which is why I thought it to be an appropriate place to shoot. However, some of the photos from the atrium were a bit over exposed due to all the sunlight. As for the eleventh floor, I figured what better place to take pictures since that’s basically where I basically spend all my school time, with the exception of the Voorhees building. When I came home, I finished the rest of my shots with things that I take part in and see on a regular basis as part of my daily life.

For this week I choose to take photos of me and more of things I do or things I have around. Just like things laying on my living room that I have neglected to clean up and movies and books that I’ve never open but some how are there. This was mostly about my personality and what type of things I do/ like.

This is was one of the homework in which we have to use our thinking and creativity in how to represent Spring. I think that I choose a good varieties of images. They were taking at different times and location to show  different object that I think that represent Spring like those that you can appreciate on the images.

So far, as a studio photographer, I’d say that my experience has been somewhat challenging, usually precise, and of course, always fun. Although, I’ve taken a photography class before, I’ve never shot in a studio before, much less my OWN studio. For my first photography class, we were always going on trips. So regardless of the assignments – motion, near & far, or just shooting on our own time – I was always outdoors when taking pictures. However, for this photography class, shooting objects in a studio was a very different experience. Sometimes, it was a bit frustrating, especially in the beginning of the semester, where I was just starting to get the hang of positioning lighting. I’m actually still struggling to perfect lightning whenever I shoot in my studio since it kind of varies according to the subject matter. For our last in studio assignment, which was our midterm, lighting was the main key in having successful happy|sad pictures. The brighter and more defined the lighting was, the ‘happier’ my crayons looked. With less lighting and the positioning of the right light and right set up of crayons, the more ‘sad’ my crayons with look. Shooting in my studio up in my attic is very different from the art we saw in the photography exhibit at MoMA. These artists not only had much larger spaces, but also different mediums to work with, and of course were from a time without DSLR’s.

Although I’ve been to MoMA before, this was my first time visiting this photography exhibit. I found all the pieces to be beautiful in their own way. One piece that I found very interesting was a black and white piece done by Edward Steichen. It was done in 1931 of Charlie Chaplin. From further away, this piece looked like different shots of Chaplin one after the other going across the frame – and they were. However, as you got closer to the artwork you noticed that each shot of Chaplin was on a separate sheet of paper, in which the background was black, and that each of the four separate pieces of paper were placed precisely close enough together so that it wasn’t at all obvious to the viewer unless you got really close. Each piece of paper was cut straight and then midway diagonally down according to the shape of the seat Charlie Chaplin was sitting on. Another piece that I felt very strongly about was done by Peter Hujar in 1981, also done in black and white. They were two self portraits side by side of David Wojnarowicz. In the first one on the left side, he is smoking a cigarette. Adjacent to that, is a shot of Wojnarowicz with his eyes closed and a hand over the right side of his face. Both photos give off a strong feeling of tiredness. Professor Michals shared with me that these were taken before David Wojnarowicz died from AIDS; he and Peter Hujar were lovers. Aside from my love of photographs of people, what I found most beautiful about this piece was the story I learned behind it. Even if you’ve a minimal amount of materials to work with, a lot can be accomplished in the studio, including the mood and feelings your artwork portrays.

Reporter Roberta Smith says that MoMA’s photography collection, “A World of Its Own: Photographic Practices in the Studio”, ‘dazzles but often seems slow and repetitive.’ After reading this statement, I paused and thought about it. In my opinion, I felt that Smith said this because many of the photographer’s styles, methods were very similar to one another. However, I didn’t find the exhibit to be slow; every piece had a little something different to offer. On the third page of this article, Smith writes that, “There’s nothing by James Welling or Louise Lawler, nor any of Ms. Simmons’s small, intensely colored doll photographs from 1979, even though the museum owns work by all of them.” She goes on to discuss the omissions of other pieces as well. I do strongly agree with this point of view; if the museum has possession of work by other artists – they should display it so those artists can gain recognition and appreciation. Smith finishes her article with complimenting the chief and assistant curator on the show. All in all, I too found the exhibit to be satisfying.

This assignment sounded a lot more fun than it actually was. We didn’t have to be in our studios for this assignment or even photograph one specific object. Instead of using my usual camera, I used my phone, this way I could capture ‘Spring’ while I was on the move. Before taking my pictures, I made sure that my exposure and white balance were correctly set. I took these pictures on my way to and from school and basically whenever I left my house. My pictures aren’t as Spring-like as I would have liked them to be but they are all accurate of what could be found in this weather.

This weeks photo shoot was a welcome change from the indoor shoots we have done all semester. I shot in daylight/sunshine around my neighborhood and decided to focus primarily on nature. The only problem I encountered was that I was hoping to photograph budding flowers and such but even now, there wasn’t much of that and everything still seemed to be dead, and there were only a few minimal flourishes. My favorite photo from this shoot is:

because it has a good contrast in color of the red bud against the dull cement,  and most importantly it show the budding that I was hoping for!