Between this reading and doing the artist presentation on Michelle Bates, a Holga photographer, I am really excited to start experimenting with the Holga. I have never used one before and was not really trusting in it for awhile since it became so popular, but I am excited to start exploring. I think the Holga really helps bring an artist back down the basics and allows them to start from scratch almost by being able to view the world through a less complicated piece of equipment. It is less intimidating and more about play and being spontaneous. Also, I’m interested in learning all the different ways to modify the camera and manipulating shoots more manually.

I found these reading sections really interesting due to the fact that they brought up many concepts in history and in our natural world that I have never really thought about, especially through the perspective of photography. The practice chapter was an excellent and thorough review of lighting, which I found really useful. Breaking down the techniques, types of light and their effects is useful and I am excited to use them myself to manipulate light. The part about filters was also a great tool. I have never had much training within a lighting studio setting before, so learning each piece of equipment and the parts was interesting. I found the theory chapter to be the most intriguing and inspiring. I learned more about Talbot and Daguerre then in most of the art history classes I’ve taken, so it was great to read different information about each photographer and more specific parts of their discoveries. I really enjoy how this book does a great job of connecting the science, art, and history along with the technical info of each topic covered. Also it features great artist examples, such as, Olafur Elisson’s “The Weather Project,” which I found to be really fascinating and inspiring. I am taking astronomy at the moment, so I would love to be able to experience a mock up of the sun and be able to be so engulfed in a room of light like that. I think it could be interesting to experiment with different concentrations of various types and colors of light in the future. Overall, I found the history review from Plato all the way to group f/64 useful and informative and I am excited to explore the properties of light and its effects more and more.