Reading Response: Holga Handout

This shall be interesting.  I had never heard of  the Holga camera before, so getting to meet with Paul Brower and seeing the images that he is able to create with the plastic camera was enlightening.  It’s quite amazing! He has accomplished many striking images and I”m mightily impressed by his talent.  I loved the way he has modified his cameras and his enthusiasm on the subject is contagious.  I look forward to seeing what sorts of images I will produce.  As the handout mentions: practice, practice, practice.  I have no idea if my first roll of film will turn out, but I look forward to seeing the results. And it makes me happy that my Holga is pink. So at least I have that. 🙂

Reading Response: Practice 2, Light and Shadow

This reading ties in nicely with our own Day and Night project.  I like the Color of Light on page 147.  When photographing images during different times of day or even throughout different times of the year, the way the light falls upon a subject and changes the coloring or appearance of the subject, all of this is very interesting to me.  With our project, I got to play around with this idea of the effects that light has on a scene.  I had some issues during my night shots.  Having not much experience photographing at night, I misjudged the amount of light needed to actually capture an image.  Because of this, I decided to use a flash, which didn’t turn out as successfully as I would have liked.  I wish now I would have diffused the flash, as shown on page 151 of the text. This may have given me the look I was going for.  This image is from a photography contest where the photogs had to capture day and night in one photograph. Cool.

Image of a city scene, day and night captured simultaneously.

Theory 2: Light and Shadow Response

I know this is a bit late. But better late than never, eh? I was mostly intrigued by the symbolism of the light and dark.  Images of bright light are often associated with divinity and positivity. Hence the opposite for darkness:  negativity, evil, corrupt and, to quote the text, a “primordial darkness of the void.” That’s a great sentence.  I also responded to the look at film noir and the idea of light and shadow functioning as background characters, working to express a view of the world being captured at the time; being torn between good and evil, light and dark.  I really like the idea that light can express the view of the subject, to establish a mood and tone that may not be represented by the subject themselves.  This photograph reminded me of this reading, and I just really like it. 

Reading Response: Practice 1

Wow. There was definitely a lot of pertinent information to take in and mull over with this reading. I’m not going to lie, I feel a bit overwhelmed and a little intimidated by the wealth of knowledge and this just solidified the fact that I still have much to learn. But this is an exciting prospect; I look forward to gaining this knowledge and finding insight into the elusive creature known as my camera. I especially appreciated the section on 35mm SLR cameras; setting film speed, loading film, what all those little buttons and levers and knobs do, et al. The 35mm camera I will using is my Dad’s, one that he’s had from before I was born, so I definitely feel responsible for making sure it arrives back into his hands in one piece. This reading was a great jumping-off point to get us all familiarized with photography language and techniques or a terrific review for those already familiar with camera jargon.