Propaganda and Media through Photography

What I really liked was the idea of advertisements that don't really... advertise anything. They make you pause, think, and assess. An example of this is the ad for Oranges On Fire.

Photography in the media has a huge influence over the public. Recurring themes in different images encourage the public to look like her or dress like this. To me, it's almost like a sci-fi one hive mind type of thing, convincing people to act, look, and feel a certain way.

Presidential Photographer

Being a presidential photographer means recording history through visuals. The idea being that instead of reading a summary or explanation of what happened during an important meeting, you get an inside view of the presidents' world. You can actually see the president's expression when a decision is made and other people's reactions to it rather than relying on a written documentation of what somebody thinks they see. This way, the viewer gets to interpret the photo however they want.

Photography & Ethics

The rules of ethical photo taking/manipulation seem to be sort of... bent, broken, or nonexistent. My thoughts on photography and the ethics involved in it is this:

If you're going to stage a photo, or manipulate said photo in any way that isn't a, "Hey, didn't quite catch that moment, can we do it again?" or a simple brightening, saturation etc. change, you shouldn't be taking photos at all.

The video covers a controversial topic - obviously we all aren't going to come to a unanimous agreement on the matter.

So, going back to my thoughts on it, I would like to add this:
Think twice (maybe even 3 times) before you throw all of your faith into the truthfulness of a photograph taken by someone other than yourself.

Day With Tisha

Pretty uneventful outside of talking about perspective and angles; how portraits can become more interesting to the human eye by simply changing up the angle or performing a simple crop function to bring focus to a certain aspect of the photo. We went outside and took some photos of, I would say, pretty non-photogenic objects that I wouldn't normally ever think to photograph.

Also of note: Took picture of web. Conquered arachnophobia. Sort of.

If I can figure out how to upload a picture without actually looking at it, I'll consider posting that web photo.

chased by the light

i found the 90 day project done by jim brandenburg to be fascinating. it seemed like such a huge challenge for a photographer, who is used to taking many photos of the same subject, to only take one photo a day. i can't imagine how frustrating it must have been for him, especially not knowing what the photo would look like until he returned home.

a couple of my favorite images were:

i liked this one for the texture and contrast between the orange of the trees and cold silver of the grass.

i just really loved the composition of this piece, especially the movement of the bird. the soft pastel colors with the rough, almost chalky texture of the water created a beautiful peace. i also love the difference between the soft, pastel like sky, almost smoky, with the sharp, quite harsh, outline of the trees.

annnnd least favorite:

i'm not a huge fane of picking 'least favorite' photographs, but if i had to choose one from chased by the light it would have to be the following for it's lack of overall impact on me, as i though it was kind of boring. the only thing it had going for it, in my opinion, was the grandeur of the trees and impressive landscape, although i felt as if the play on long shadows was a repetitive move that too many photographers make.

however, i think this is photo that could definitely grow on me over time.

hey i'm cleo and im pretty terrible at blogging. i love photography and think it's a great creative outlet. favorite subjects are anything music. i love taking photos of musicians - though it's not something i get to do often. i also love working with lights and movement. i like punk music and videogames and dislike cats. i'm from maui, hawaii.

mixed brain.