My two teammates and I made a website together for final project which is about the light. The picture above is the screen shot of the website. For my part, I found a bunch of pictures from other photography websites and selected some of them finally. We described five aspects of light from our daily life in this website. I feel like that light is the most important thing for people. Human beings use it every day but never realize it seriously.
VSAR_302: Professor Evaluation
Time flies, I really enjoyed this photography class. I learned a lot from professor Nancy. For example, how to use Lightroom to edit original photos, how to use DSLR, and some basic knowledge of DSLR. In addition, Nancy made us do many interesting projects. These projects truly gave me pretty cool experience. Every time, when I had any questions, she always could help me solve it kindly. Overall, thank you Nancy, you and this course make my boring CSUSM life colorful. 🙂
VSAR-302: Blog Evaluation
My favorite two blogs are the photo book and the photobooth. As I said before, I appreciate that chance to create a photo book by myself, which I wanna achieve for a long time. In addition, I learned how to create a professional book through Lightroom. From the photobooth, I gained more confidence to talk with strangers with English. It was a bold attempt for me. Lucky, most strangers were kind. The least favorite I think is MOPA Museum. Because it really cost me so much time and money. The worst was write an long essay for it. XD Anyway, I still learned a lot and got some inspirations from artists though.
VSAR_302: Big Mac Photo Challenge
1 May 2019, I used a McNuggets box instead of bugger box. I put my phone inside with the light on. Then find a dark space, place the box just above the head. It is interesting that you can not put the box far from face. Otherwise, there was no effect. So, I have to use one hand to hold the box and the other hand to take photos. Btw, I always think portraits by phone camera are pretty wield. 😦
VSAR_302: Richard Avedon – Darkness And Light
After watching this video, I find that most photos Avedon took are portraits. Actually, before this project, I even didn’t know who is Avedon. At the beginning of this video, he said something I agree with, ” To be a photographer, you have to know each of things most people discuss.” As a photographer or an artist, we need to catch the hot topic of current society. In addition, I learned a lot from his B&W portraits. The expression of the person in the portrait is attractive and the detail of it is very clear. The use of light in portraits is also perfect.
VSAR_302: Photobook
I appreciate this chance to create a book of my own photography. The process of creating was really fun. I finally decided to use loneliness as the theme of this book after thinking for a long time. The idea I got from one of my roommates. He always immerse himself in his own world and unwilling to talk with others actively. Many people think he is weird. I can feel his feeling because I experienced the same situation as him. The result of it is become lonely. I want to appeal people through this book that do not care what other people say and be yourself. You are lonely because you haven’t met the right person. 🙂
https://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/8135712/1df517d1f6184b4ecef04e91678162d9271319e8
VSAR_302: Alumni Job Panel Event
21 February 2019, I attended the Alumni Job Panel Event with my class in the afternoon. That was a nice activity, we had the free food there and got so many suggestions from panelists about our future careers. I learned that networking is very important for graduates if they wanna find a nice job. As a student whose major is arts, in addition to build your networking, also need to accumulate more works and experience. They will be your advantages when you compete with other applicants.
VSAR_302: MOPA Museum
On March 10th, I went to the MOPA Museum to hold an exhibition to determine the location/space: contemporary photography from Australia. This is a very good experience. My friend and I got up very early that day. When we got there, there were already many tourists. I was attracted to Michael Cook’s work, which showed animals that attacked humans. In fact, I am not very familiar with the artist, but his work has attracted me. These photos are both wonderful and creative. I believe that most children also like this type of work. Because, interestingly, Cook’s photo was what I dreamed of when I was young. These photos were taken on the background of the environment in which modern humans live. And using extremely exaggerated expression techniques, animals are compared to aliens, who use high-tech weapons to attack humans. At the same time, in the photos, the human expression is also very suitable. Through these photos, I got the inspiration that trying to ps some illogical or exaggerated things in some photography works sometimes makes the picture more expressive. In addition, the composition of these photos is also very subtle. Humans, architecture, animals, UFOs and the sky exist in all photos. Humans and animals are generally at the bottom third, buildings and animals are in the middle third, and UFOs and sky are at the top third. Such a composition allows the reader to see clearly. Back to the theme of this exhibition, it is not difficult to find that the space in these photos is also very good. Each painting is hierarchical. The other exhibition in MOPA Museum is Talking With A Friend: Portraits by Bern Schwartz. I especially love the close-up portraits. From the background of the characters in the photo and the context of the environment, it is easy to analyze what their work and family look like. It is not difficult to analyze their personality from their facial expressions. This made me suddenly think of a homework I did before, an environmental portrait. In addition, the light of these portraits is also very good. The highlights and shadows of the person’s face give the facial features a sense of hierarchy. Seeing these photos, I found them far better than the selfies people posted on social media. This also gives me a reference in the future photography process. In addition, another reason why these works are excellent is that the printing methods they use are unique which is pigment print. This way of printing makes the photographs look like they are drawn. Anyway, through this trip of MOPA Museum, I broadened my horizons and learned a lot of knowledge and ideas. Although I have a lot of photography which I still can’t understand them. The last five photos are my inspirations from exhibitions. The first two photos are my roommates which I shot in my dorm. The third one is my friend who is from Pakistan. I took this photo on campus. The last two ones I took on the way to oceanside.
VSAR_313: Mending
These photos above I took on April 8 were for my mending project. The hat in the photos was patched from my Christmas hat which I was going to threw it. To be honest, it was my first time to sew stuff, especially by sewing machine and they were amazing. Through this project, I find that we can create some beautiful and useful things by used materials. As you see, the hat is the Santa hat, the patterns I used are eyeglass cords, the decorations I used for front and back side are old buttons. I learned that old stuff also has its value, but owner didn’t find out. In the past, I didn’t like to wear old style clothes because it is out fashion and becomes ugly. Generally, I would threw it or donate it to charities and bought the new one. It actually cost me a lot of money. If I mended them and changed style, I could wear them for another period of time. Anyway, mending project makes me get the sewing skill and let me realize that sometimes junk is also treasure.
VSAR_302: Pictorialism
April 16, 2019. I was trying to find appropriate photos for this project for a long time. Finally, I decided to choose these two photos which I took outside the Mopa Museum. For the first photo, I used the field blurry by Photoshop and sepia tone by Lightroom. The second one, I used cutout in filter gallery by Photoshop and increased the grain by Lightroom.
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