Article: http://www1.cbn.com/devotions/real-meaning-christmas

01. Summary: This article talks all about the joys of christmas and the different experiences we go through when the holiday is approaching. It also talks about that not many people are fortunate enough to experience this, and it also may be a time of sorrow. For various reasons, such as not having enough money to buy presents to your loved ones or not able to share quality time with them. Yet, this season shares great joy. Because, what Christmas really is celebrating the day the Jesus Christ was born. God send his son and many others shared their delight of this great event. The article talks about the reason being this was done. It mentions that “He sent Jesus to us that one day, He would grow up to become a very important part of history. His story is one of truth, love, and hope.” But what I really enjoyed about this article is the positive attitude towards Christmas. No matter what is happening, we are reminded that we are Gods children, its a time to live in joy and peace. The reason for the season is to rejoice! In conclusion, the article shows a certain gloomy mood and then afterwards hits you with a chance to feel aspiration towards this holiday by looking at in another way.

02. Target Audience: All ages, I want everyone to see this photograph and understand that Christmas may have its up and down sides but the real reason, is to know that we are loved by God. It shows that great love we have for one another, which is something worth celebrating to.

03. I believe my approach would be metaphorical, I want to show two different types of Christmas experience, but I want to also show the overcome of choosing happiness and peace. Rather than a sad holiday in someone’s life.

04. I believe my images would work best if its a still life photography. The reason being, I want to include so many elements that take a part in the festivities. Such as, ornaments and cards in the mail.

05. My photoshoot ideas won’t include models (as of now). I don’t think it will be necessary.

06. I would like to use ornaments or presents that would show different types of associations of Christmas and what takes part in the celebration.

07. I would want to do try many types of lighting, because I want to show different types of Christmas experiences. I am considering in using a softbox to create certain effects.

08. I think I would want to do a shallow depth of field and possibly have a lot of darkness all around the images, but the focus would be one a bright and joyful component.

Summary: This article talks about sex trafficking, an issue that we associate as a global problem. Many of us not being aware, that it is literally still happening in our community. We are not aware who is part of it, but this hidden reality has taken almost 300,000 women, children, and even men for sexual purposes in our country. The article discusses signs you can tell if someone may be a victim and many of subjects have suffered from anxiety disorder and sexual diseases.

Communication Problem The idea is to demonstrate recognition that this global issue is happening in our very own neighborhoods.

Image Ideas: For my image idea I would be working a lot with models being tied  or taken and possibly with there eyes closed. I want to show the facial expression of desperation and some sort of internal/emotional pain. The shots would be medium and close up. While the lighting would be focused on the model’s face or hands. There will be a lot of shadows on certain areas of the model, to display the darkness of this unfortunate position.

Summary: The two poems discusses each of the author’s experience of being in their car. While the first one discusses driving their car in a sexual way, his intimacy with his car. The other poem written by Phillip Levine emphasizes the experience of driving in his car and seeing the grittiness of the winter day as he is driving. It’s more of a wilderness as he mentions “the wolverine, the northern bear, the wolf”, as he heads to work all he sees is ugliness. In my opinion, this poem is showing the consequence of driving “burning this city”, as he drives in his Cadillac, Lincoln, Chevy gray.

Problem Solve: Two different emotions while driving a car. Such as, comparing it with something men love “cars and women” or something that shows the industrialization and grittiness about life.

Images: The images will have the cars be put in different environments. One would have sensual desire in the images, there would be a lot of light. While the other might include more shadows, and more mystery. In result, the shoot was really fun. We got to play around with a deep depth of field, which gave us the sensual desire I was looking for from the first poem. While the dark room and reflection shot gave it more of a mystery.

Summary: This article talks about farmers harvesting crops but intellectually it won’t be part of their property. The meaning of this, is that they are able to eat the crops or sell, but there genes would be the property of Monsanto. If the author, were to save a spud to plant the following year he would be breaking the law. Michael Pollan talks about the modern farmer is now industrial. They can’t grow so much food without having large portions of chemical fertilizers, which has negative side effects to his health, his soil, and pollution of the ground water. He discusses that now individuals are using the genes of food plants as software, making it no longer an organic plant. It is being replaced with genetic engineering and the use of expensive toxic chemicals.

Communication Problem: The crops have become part of an operating system and genetically engineer which has negative impacts on the environment and the health of the farmer itself.

Image Ideas: Using a darker lighting, close-up, with shadows to demonstrate, the not so innocence of farming. Including props that have an industrial feeling and maybe dirt to show the correlation with a natural substance and hand-made elements.

Result: This shoot came out better than I expected, my team thought of really interesting and diverse ideas which we got to practice in each station. We were able to communicate effectively the article and it was really fun using different light effects to create a horizon or a even a vignette sort-of-feel.

Summary: This article discusses how social network is equivalent to be as habit-forming as crack cocaine. It shows that many people who tried to quit or thought could quit, actually couldn’t resist their temptation to go online. Without realizing how time-consuming this networks are, the article explains the negative effects on these sites may have on an individual’s life such as harm personal relationships and may even damage careers. All these social networks are designed to approach their consumers and also be addictive by their design. Nobody wants to miss out, everyone wants to be included. These sites are created to reach their goal so you don’t resist them.

Communication Problem: The communication problem is showing social media in a way to show how hard it is to actually resist them. Many people don’t seem to be able to live without these social handles and it becomes part of their lifestyle. I want to be able to show, the attraction that these sites have on a person.

Image Ideas: An image Idea would be someone constantly on the phone, or many individuals focused on one thing – their phones. I want it to have a direct lighting, show their face expressions and how in-tune they are with their phone by ignoring what’s truly around them. Their environment and other people. In result, my group came up with really great ideas. Such as using, an individual who is so self-absorbed by the number of likes they are getting or even praising social media as if it were a religion. Another group member thought of it as more of a medical way where you were actually hooked on your phone. So overall, our shoot consisted of all these concepts which were really fun to do!

Brand Identity

WeSC is a Swedish clothing brand that is influenced by sports such as skateboarding and snowboarding. There main office is located in Stockholm and their name stands for “We are the Superlative Conspiracy”. This brand brings observation to Swedish underground artist, musicians, skateboarders and has a very mainstream vibe. Looking at their campaign ads, I could tell this company was European. Their design aesthetics are clean, but also recognizable to our current trend in graphic culture. They use line weights with bold text demonstrating that  they are up to date and very stylish. The colors they use in some campaigns are vibrant. I believe the target audience varies from 16-30 years old.

Summary of NYC Public Service Campaign on Hearing Loss

The article states a series of ads that were appeared in NYC subway cars targeting New Yorkers who turn up the volume of their personal listening devices. The tagline of the campaign is “Turn down your music before you can’t hear it anymore” advising us to not listen to above 85 decibels at a regular basis because you put yourself at risk from permanent hearing loss. It tells us that if we want to listen to music in the future, we need to be careful in how we maximize our volume to drown out external noise. There was a survey released in JULY 2013 stating that New Yorkers from ages 18 to 44 admitted to heavy headphone use and have reported to have hearing problems. The article also gives us some pointers to go by using volume-limiting features on your personal listening devices as well as knowing the early signs of hearing loss. For example, if you need to increasingly turn up the volume on a TV or any media or if you experience ringing in your ears. It’s best to go and ask a doctor for a hearing test.

Image Ideas

I would do a lot of different shots from close-up to medium shots. I want to capture a sense of stillness and sophistication. I want to use great lighting for the shots and maybe some darker once to show a sense of allure. The expressions might be serious rather than playful. For the wardrobe, I am thinking of a very liberal and bohemian vibe. For these two different image, I would play around with the lighting so for the hearing loss its going to be super simplistic. I would maybe do profile shots as well as a close up of the ear and do various shots of a person enjoying the blast of the music and then show the emotion of the person who lost their hearing.

Health care Photography

While researching Health Care Photography, I found one that stood out the most of what I would like photoshoot to consist of. United Healthcare shows diversity in all their photographs, not only do they show different lightings to display clean, professional, and organic visuals. There shots varied from family and individuals. While observing their images, I got a sense of support and concern with their clients. Knowing that this company is a professional health care that will take care of you. While others like Coventry Health or Assuring Health that didn’t make me feel a sense of security.

Communication Problem
I feel like it is important to show support and originality in the photographs. But with Health Cares like Coventry Health or Assuring Health they are just repeating the same things and mixing random images that have no concept to tie all together. For Coventry Health it shows parents and kids smiling, which shows its family based. But it still lacks diversity and is not as strong as United Healthcare. While Assuring Health displays images of family and random visuals like a  doctor writing on something or a close up of a hand touching the screen of a phone. This doesn’t grab my attention, it doesn’t seem personal but more formal.

Image Ideas
I think something that is important is to show that the Health Care actually cares! The images should be lively, fun, and also show diversity. It should show things that don’t seem stage. For instance, by working with colors and the correct diverse models we can have that consistency and show more of what a health care really does, who is it targeting and demonstrating the importance of the clientele. The lighting should be vibrant, clean, and also show emotional happiness. In result, shooting was harder than I thought. My group had a lot of problems with the lighting and especially since our background was gray. We wanted to depict a more active and natural images. Our photographs did turn out to be fun and lively, but as repeated it was the shadows and the lighting that made it a difficulty to produce a cleaner image.

This article talks about the blossoming of the One World Trade Center, what they hoped to accomplish for New Yorkers to rebirth the history and give the urban neighborhood a new vibrant vision. There were many political battles after the violent attack that made officials and developers battle over the details of the reconstruction. The memories still being so raw made them realize they need to rebuild, but knowing there was so much fear in that location that the neighborhoods where largely left or either rents were dropped. After the rebuilding, the population actually tripled and made Lower Manhattan a vibrant business district with diversity of people and creative workers.  I believe the communication problem should show the vibrancy of this business district and show creative people that live here and commute here daily. For my image ideas, I want to make an emphasis on colors and people, do a lot of possible reflection shots and try to show in my work the wonderful thing that occurred. The uplifting of strength showing that they created something so beautiful in result of the sad moments in history for New Yorkers. In result, I think it looked better than I expected. The colors and the people were sown and also it shows the reflection of everything that is growing there.