Sometimes in life, you get lucky. Well I got lucky on Monday, immediately spotting a pretty girl with an umbrella a few hundred feet away that perfectly fit the dreary weather pitch. I walked up, asked her if I could take some candid photos and she agreed. I ran forward a bit and got some cool walking photos and even though it was a little bit awkward it was a good example of how being forward and a little bit carefree makes for good photos sometimes. It’s a good lesson going forward, be bold.
Overall, I was pretty happy with how this assignment went. The pictures are good, my only qualm is that both were from the same day and setting so there was very little diversity. I did try to find another sporting event to cover, but there were simply none around campus in the timeframe for the assignment. In the photo illustration, I do not pretend that it’s more than elementary but it’s not bad for my first attempt at using photoshop for something like that. Like all previous assignments, this one was a great learning experience and sports features are something I badly want to get into in the near future.
Alex DeRocco, center, John Manziel and Wyatt Carstens walk up Galbraith Mountain on a warm spring day on Saturday, May 14, 2016.
Alex DeRocco, 23, puts his knee pads on before riding down SST trail on Galbraith Mountain in Bellingham, Washington, on Saturday, May 14, 2016.
A photo illustration showing the problem of prescription and illegal drugs in classrooms around the country.
Last weekend I climbed Mount Hood in Oregon and was really stoked on having my camera with me. Unfortunately, I realized once I got up that I had forgotten my memory card. Classic! That being said, I snapped some photos of my phone and realized that photographing the experience does not have to make the experience. It’s just a nice add on. I got the summit and a beautiful ski down and could not be more stoked on climbing the tallest mountain in Oregon on a beautiful day with a great friend.
Emotion photos are always fun to take because you are capturing a moment and freezing it forever, that’s really rewarding to me. I am happy with both of these pictures because I honestly feel like I captured each person’s personality and did not stop shooting until I got what I needed. They may not be perfect, but nothing I take is and that’s ok. Looking forward, I want to learn to capture emotion while also conveying a really technically solid and layered photo, something I was amazed by in Jordan’s portfolio.
I had a lot of fun shooting this assignment, action photos are my passion in photography and I badly want to improve my skills. I used techniques such as blur and pan that I had never tested before and although these photos did not turn out as well as they could have, I learned valuable skills going forward that I have already used in my own photography. This reaffirmed my belief that I want to focus on action sports photography as much as possible in the future.
ep_clem-02 (Subject previously known)
Wyatt Carstens, 23, sits on his mountain bike after an afternoon ride on the Blade Reversal trail in Bellingham, Washington, on April 19, 2016. Carstens said that he loves riding his bike because it clears his head after long days at school and work.
Wyatt Carstens: 425-248-9766
This shot is pretty good. It show’s Wyatt in one of his favorite environments doing his favorite activity. What’s funny about it is that he didn’t seem to be able to form a genuine smile even though he is a really laid back guy who doesn’t take things too serious. Something in him just wants to look very stoic when he’s photographed. I am pleased with the composition, but would crop the photo if I could to give a little more focus on the subject.
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Juan Perez, 50, takes a break from working at A Que Tacos on a spring evening in Bellingham, Washington, on April 19, 2016.
Juan Perez: 360-927-7029
This shot worked for me really well considering I have very limited abilities to speak Spanish and Juan has the same limitations with English. I thought I had both photos I needed done, but realized later in the day on Tuesday that one picture didn’t meet requirements. In a spur of the moment, I decided to ask Juan for his photo to the best of my abilities and he agreed. Language was a barrier, but I am pleased with the composition of the image and the expression captured by Juan’s face and body language.
Madlyn Navlet, 26, sits with her seven-month-old son Rocco at the Madison Park Beach in Seattle, Washington, on Monday, April 18, 2016. This was the first time Navlet had fed her son solid food, and she was happy enough to take time away from caring for him to have a laugh shortly before he began to choke briefly.
This is probably the best photo that I took for this project, unfortunately I didn’t get to submit it since it didn’t meet the requirements of the assignment. That being said, I am happy I took it and am ordering a print to surprise Madlyn with. It’s really crazy for me to see people that am friends with starting to have kids and get married. Life moves fast.
Wyatt Carstens, 23, enjoys a beer while resting on his truck before heading up a bike trail near Bellingham, Washington, on Tuesday, April 19, 2016.
I put this shot in because I feel it accurately portrays Wyatt’s personality. In the first photo, he is very stern, something that is not typical of him. While biking is one Wyatt’s favorite things to do in life, he doesn’t take it too seriously and enjoys a beer or two before riding just to take the edge off a long day on campus. I didn’t include this photo because it’s not as well composed as the first image.
The main thing I learned from this assignment was the power of photography to capture a person’s personality while in their element. When in their zone, their turf, they are much more likely to come out of their shell than if you are placing them in a setting on your terms. This is especially true of Juan Perez, the pride he clearly holds as a person is very well displayed while sitting in front of his truck.
I had a lot of fun doing this assignment, partly because it was kind of scary going up to people that I didn’t know and asking them a personal question and requesting a picture. These are my three favorite photos, probably because of the interactions I had with the subjects before and after the photo. I think that if you don’t know someone who you are photographing, you know them at least a little bit by the time the process is done. If you do your job well, and they let their guard down enough, you are in some respects capturing a piece of their personality and allowing to shine through, forever captured. In the first photo, I can see the joy that skiing and trekking brings to Jane Murray. In the second photo, the love between Richie and his son is captured by the defined smile lines on Richie’s face and the carefree smile of his young child. In the last photo, Mark Houston looks almost smug, but in a humble way. This captured the way I felt he interacted with me very well, and I’m happy about that.
‘A picture is worth a thousand words.’ This is the old cliché. The thing about clichés, however, is that they are often true. Photography is an extremely powerful medium for communication for so many reasons. It does not require language; any human from any culture with any level of education can absorb the emotion or beauty of ink on a page or pixels on screen. The gratification is instant; there is no need to read a story or listen to an interview. If you see a photograph of a soldier laying dead on the ground with his mother crying over his lifeless body, the impact is immediate and all encompassing. Photographs also have tremendous potential to influence public opinion and tell stories of entire eras, sometimes even serving as the record of generations.
There are so many examples of photographs changing the world or signifying hugely complicated situations and phenomenon. Several examples come to mind: the U.S. soldier kissing a woman in dramatic fashion after returning home from World War II, Malcolm X staring out of his window with rifle in hand, the image of Jeffry Miller laying dead after the protest gone wrong at Kent State. These are only a few examples, but these alone show the immense ability of photographs to serve as bookmarks for history.
On a personal level for me, photography is the medium that I choose to express myself and record my own memories. There are times when I am down or missing something or someone and decide to flip through my old photo albums or gaze longingly at prints of far away places with long lost companions. I feel as though if I take as many photos as possible through all my adventures, relationships and day to day routines that when I am older I will have the ability to relive my past experiences as well as show others the many amazing (to me) places and people that have made me who I am. In essence, a photograph is a memory, a way to escape and remember.
These are just a few of my favorite photos or photos that I consider to be extremely significant.
