My digital storytelling project is now live. I’ll have a more in-depth blog about it and my process soon.
Archive for the ‘images’ Category
Assignment 11 Part 2: Homage
Monday, November 22nd, 2010Apparantly, I do have an obsession: shows revolving around families! In part 1 of the assignment, I blogged about Modern Family. In creating an homage to that show for part 2 of the assignment, I actually created a tribute to TV families from the past several decades. I was going for the feeling of a magazine advertisement (for Modern Family) with the low quality Aviary production below. It looks more like a timeline because of my limited experience with design tools. I guess it could work either way.
I used images of families from popular television shows from the past several decades, coupled with pictures of TV sets from the time frame. I made Modern Family the focus of the ad by actually encircling the larger photo of the cast with the TV at the end. I came up with a slogan and this is the end result!
Here is a pdf for perhaps a better view: Homage to TV Families
DS106 Plays Caption This
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010It all started with this Retweet by Melanie McBride this morning:
It just so happens that I caught this in the stream and my interrest was piqued when I saw Google Street View mentioned because right now the ds106 internauts are using Google Street View to create a narrative about their childhood home, a particular trip, etc. using Google Street View. And when I saw this link to the “seedy side” of Google Street View I couldn’t resist. Jon Rafman’s Tumblr blog that collects all these images is extremely provocative, and whether or not all the images are real—that aquarium seems like a hard sell as Garrett Bush mentioned in class tonight—a vision of the seemingly invisible realities of the police state, prostitution, public sex, and other random acts of craziness is fascinating.
All this to say I spent part of tonight’s class talking about this site, and sharing the examples. And what quickly became apparent to me is that everyone of these images is a prompt for a story. We all were taken in by them, but also we were let with a million questions, and the idea of stitching the story back together became an almost natural urge. I’d love to do a forensic/detective narrative using Google Street View, or a scavenger hunt on Google Earth, but that will have to wait until I actually have a plan. What did happen tonight, however, was kinda fun nonetheless. After looking at the images, I spontaneously asked the class broke up into groups and tasked them with captioning as many of these crazy pictures as possible in the time left of class. And they did. Not only that, what they did was very, very fun. I really can’t defend the “learning objective” (vomit) of this in-class assignment though, I had no other reason for making them do it other than I had an idea it might be fun, and oh was it ever. Look at the fruits of their sardonic joy.
You can’t see me… I am a Ninja!
Modern Day Abbey Road!
Hulk Smash!
Slippery when wet
“Is this how the squirrels do it?”
“Jinkeys, looks like Scooby found the Fire Sauce.”
Police Officer “This is how you make the Y! Again from the top!”
“Onward, to Camelot!”
WAYNE’S WORLD! WAYNE’S WORLD!
THE BIRDS!!!!!!!!!
Whoa. What happened to the pool?!
Daily Errand
Monday, October 4th, 2010
While I haven’t been feeling very inspired by the Daily Shoot prompts lately, I have been wanting to try another image story since we experimented with them in class. I asked my grandpa if I could “shadow” him as he checked the mail today and narrowed several shots down to these six.
Daily Shoot Favorites
Saturday, September 25th, 2010Daily Shoot 1:
Showcase the beauty of living foliage! Make a photo of a single leaf or an entire “greenscape” today.
My favorite reflection of prompt 1 belongs to Jenn. I believe it was the only photo taken at night, so it immediately caught my attention as I was looking at the course blog. How creative of Jenn to capture the beauty of living foliage during the evening! She framed the shot well-the lit greenery stands out toward the center of the image, but we also are able to place the foliage in the context of the buildings behind it. As a result, this is my favorite photo resulting from Daily Shoot 1.
Daily Shoot 2:
Make a photo of two complementary objects arranged in a pleasing composition, one large and one small.
Sadie’s image is sweet. On a day most people posted photographs of inanimate objects, Sadie treated us to this. Not only is the baby adorable, the photo is framed well. Sadie did well to recognize the connection of two complementary objects within the hands of the father and child.
Some carry a talisman, amulet, “lucky charm”, or just a comforting thing in our pocket. What do you carry?
Lindsay’s photo has several nice elements complimenting one another within it. I like how Lindsay actually gave us the sight of the object extending from her pocket. Viewers can see the tension, or “action” in the hand–the photo comes to life. I did not see a color version of the photo, but even if I had I think I would still prefer this black and white image, as the different shades in the photo appeal to me.
Daily Shoot 4:
Take a photograph of something that is soft, or at least looks that way. Convince the viewer of the softness.
Another inspiring shot from Sadie! We only see the child’s hands and ice cream, but that’s really all we need. It’s a simple idea, but the image speaks loudly. She gives us only what we need to see, and that method works well. The way she responded to the day’s assignment even got me thinking about what I could do to improve my own photography.
Daily Shoot 5:
Use a mirror as part of a composition in a photograph today. Show yourself in the image if you’d like!
Jessica went above and beyond the prompt by using not one, not two but three mirrors in her image. The way the three mirrors are depicted is really interesting. What I like most in this photo is how we don’t really see the back of the eyeshadow palette, but we certainly see its mirrored front in a separate mirror. Very cool!
Daily Shoot 6:
Communicate chaos, disorganization or messiness in a photograph. Find some beauty in it.
Lindsay again! Here we have chaos, but also beauty within all the shapes and colors found in the jewelry box. That is why this is my favorite image of Daily Shoot 6.
Symmetry can be calm and soothing. Make a photo today featuring symmetry, either in subject or composition.
This photo depicts a nice scene with symmetry front and center in two places, the boat and the bridge. I like how Jenn chose to display just the front of the boat in this image, as I almost feel the photo would have been weakened if she stood (or sat) further back to take the shot. She made a good decision to take the photograph from where she did.
Daily Shoot 8:
Make a photo of an interesting stack of books or magazines. Consider how you handle repeating lines in your composition.
Ashley’s photo is awesome. It’s obvious she considered how to creatively handle repeating lines in the composition. Rather than simply stack the books atop one another, she criss-crossed them and gave us a more intriguing view, which is why it is my favorite shot from Daily Shoot 8.
Stack of Reading
Friday, September 24th, 2010
The final (required, at least-I hope to continue finding inspiration in their prompts) Daily Shoot assignment:
Make a photo of an interesting stack of books or magazines. Consider how you handle repeating lines in your composition.
Symmetry
Thursday, September 23rd, 2010
The Daily Shoot prompt for today:
Symmetry can be calm and soothing. Make a photo today featuring symmetry, either in subject or composition.
Eight Years in Under Two Minutes
Thursday, September 23rd, 2010I already blogged about an image story last night, but I just found this video and think it compliments The Arrow of Time nicely.
From 1996-2006, JK Keller took a daily image of himself. Here’s the result-in video form:
Living My Life Faster – 8 years of JK’s Daily Photo Project from JK Keller on Vimeo.
Before and After-Image Stories
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010I don’t remember how I stumbled upon Nicolai Howalt’s “Boxer” installation, but the link has been sitting in my bookmarks folder for awhile. The collection of images, which depict young Danish boxers before and after a match, is quite haunting. Some of these boys look so young to be engaged in the combat sport, which I think is why I was so shocked when I first saw these photos. Maybe I was naive, but I had no idea boys this young were participating in the sport. These photos say a lot in just two frames-from the postures of the boys to their facial expressions.
Then there’s Sergey Larenkov’s (yes, that links to a livejournal account) ”Ghosts of World War II’s Past.” Larenkov used Photoshop to produce these powerful images:
There are several more images on his blog, including my favorite. What a cool way to get people considering the past and present!
Also worth mentioning:
- The work of Simon Hogsberg, a freelance photographer based in Copenhagen. I particularly like We Are All Gonna Die, Private and Public, Faces of New York, and The Thought Project. Each of the projects offers insight into unstaged, natural human expression, interaction and/or interception.
- Earlier this week, Gizmodo posed this photo prompt challenge: Take many photos from a single spot and combine subjects into a single, unified statement. Their inspiration for the prompt was Peter Funch’s Babel Tales, and the results of Gizmodo’s challenge are fascinating.
Moving Soon
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
My sister is moving soon, so a room in my house is the perfect example of today’s Daily Shoot prompt:
Communicate chaos, disorganization or messiness in a photograph. Find some beauty in it.
For now, chaos, disorganization and messiness is a Swiffer Wet Jet sitting on top of a crock pot next to a 3 tiered table standing in front of a painting of a flower. I can’t wait until the Uhaul is packed!