ABC Project.

This month in Photo Journalism we have been working on the "ABC" project, where we take 26 pictures, one that represents each letter. All of the pictures also had to fall into certain rules of photography. The titles could be literal or abstract, and we had to take one picture for each letter.

One of my favorite pictures was the one titled "Keep Austin Weird." It was taken of a bus that was parked in front of a diner I ate at on my recent trip to Austin. I love this picture because the bus was so unique, and the angle made it more interesting.

The second picture I'm choosing to upload was taken in the halls of Memorial High School. I thought this picture looked cool in black and white because it highlighted the bleakness and emptiness of the scene. I named it "quiet."

The third picture I'm uploading is named "vibrance." It was taken of a flower in our school court yard. I liked this picture because the angle I took it in makes it different from other photos of flowers, and the "lock the focus" technique emphasizes the vibrant color of the flower.

Photo Essay.

I centered my photo essay around the Audrey Hepburn quote "I believe in pink..." The bottom line of the quote is to be free spirited and positive in order to attain happiness in life. All of the pictures I took resembled different parts of the quote.

This picture is of two of my best friends at a birthday party. I thought it was a good picture to represent happiness, and laughter. The black and white added a sentimental look to it. It represented the "I believe laughing is the best calorie burner" part.

I loved how close up this picture is, yet you can still see the happy expressions on the girls faces. This part represented the "i believe in kissing, kissing a lot" part of the quote.

This picture is such a happy one. The part of the quote that this picture represents is "i believe happy girls are the prettiest girls.

Start Snapping Project

I chose this picture as my example of the rule of thirds, where you are supposed to move your focus from the center of the picture. I loved this picture because it's happy and she is looking into the area of the picture so it exemplifies the perfect rule of thirds picture.

This picture represents repetition. I liked it because of the shadows the bottles cast, and the contrast of the yellow on the red paper.

This picture is from the worms eye view of a bunson burner in a chemistry lab. I thought this was so interesting cause of the pictures, and it's hard to be able to tell exactly what the picture is of.

Rules 10 and 11.

Rule nine was to watch the light, which means to be aware of how the light is hitting your subject. This may require you to re-position the person or object you are photographing in order to avoid awkward shadows, or weird lighting. This rule was not too hard, but it really impacted the way my pictures came out.

Rule ten was to be the director. This means, when taking photos of people, it's important to arrange them the way you want to make the picture interesting and work. This involves telling people where to go, and how to be. Although this rule seems simple, it is very affective in making natural looking cute pictures of your friends.

Iconic photo.

This week in Photo J class, we had a project where we had to study a historic picture and present it to the class. My picture was of the horrific massacre at Kent State University. This happened on May 4, 1970 during a student let protest against the Vietnam war. The Ohio National Guard fired 67 shots into the crowd of students, killing four and injuring nine. John Filo, the photographer, who at the time was an undergrad student at Kent State University won a Pulitzer Prize for it. This photo is extremely iconic because it brought up many questions about freedom of speech. The horrific thought of college students dying brought this problem to the attention of people nation wide. 

Rules 5 and 6.

The fifth rule is to, when appropriate, take a vertical picture. This doesn't mean just to flip your camera whenever you feel like it. This rule is used when taking a picture of something that would simply look better if it was captured in a vertical shot. Doing this is useful especially when taking pictures of things like architecture, and landscape shots. For example, if I had taken this picture of the tree horizontally, you would have been able to see the ugly buildings on either side of it. Since I changed it to be vertical, you can only see the tree, and it looks a lot taller. 

The sixth rule is about changing your focus. To make an object in a picture stand out, hold your shutter button halfway down and move your lens to your main focus of the picture (no pun intended.) When everything is where you want it to be, hold down the shutter button the rest of the way. In the picture I took of my necklace, you can see courtney standing in front of some trees in the background, but it's all blurry so the main point of the picture is the heart charm. 

Flickr Pics.

Today in Photo J, we were assigned to look at flickr and find pictures that we liked that also followed the first four rules that we've learned in class.

This is my first picture I chose. This picture first caught my eye because I love pearls. I really like the contrast between the pureness of the white, shiny pearl to the solid grainy sand. This picture represents the rule to get a plain background. 

This is a "fill the frame" picture. I really like this picture because unlike the typical zoomed in picture, only part of the image is focused. Usually if a picture is this zoomed in, the background is the part that's not perfectly clear, but in this one half of the watch is out of focus. That gives it a really interesting twist. 

 I love this picture. This represents the rule to get down on your subjects level. I love how the photographer decided to make this black and white. It gives the dog more character and a more striking contrast to the crisp white couch. 

This picture most likely used a flash out doors. The flash really picks up the vibrant yellow color of the guys shirt. I really like the angle as well, because you can hardly see the surface he is standing on. It looks like he is holding the entire sky in his hands. 

Rules Three and Four.

The third rule is about using your flash outdoors. It's useful to use this technique when your subject is in a shadow, in front of sunlight, or if your in flash distance (8 or 9 feet.) Doing this can enhance the colors of your picture, or counterbalance with the brightness from the sunlight. It's also cool to use your flash when outside in a dark setting to emphasize and brighten your subject.

The fourth rule is to fill the frame. This is good to use when working with animals, small bugs, flowers, and people. To fill your frame, you must move as close up as possible to your subject and make sure it's in your cameras vision corner to corner. Using this technique can create an interesting picture.

First Two Rules of Photography.

This week in photo journalism, I learned the first two of the ten most important rules in photography. I then went around and took pictures that exemplify those rules, and ones that break them.

The first rule was to get down on the subjects level. Taking a picture of your subject on eye level with them will give you an interesting angle that can often reveal more emotion than a regular shot. In order to do this, you have to be willing to get down on the floor, lay down, climb, or whatever else it takes to get a strait on view with your camera. This can be easy or hard, depending on your energy level and what you are shooting.

The second rule is to get a plain background. This rule especially applies when taking a picture of something in front of a busy background that may alter the focus of the picture. For instance, if you are trying to get a shot of a little girl and there is a telephone poll behind her that looks like it's sticking out of her head, the picture won't have the same effect than if the background is just sky. This rule is a bit harder to follow, because it makes you get a little more creative with where you take your pictures to avoid busy background.

All About Me.

Hello fellow bloggers. This week in Photo Journalism class I did a project called "All About Me." In this project, I had to make a collage of all the things that are important to me. In the process, we learned how to do many things on Photoshop like editing pictures, and putting them all together onto one document. Now I'm going to explain to you the reason I included some of these pictures in my project.

When I began to think about photographable objects that represent who I am, the first thing that came to mind was the horrible trait I inherited from my mother. My shopping addiction. To represent my love for clothes and jewelry I went to the Galleria and took pictures of some cool rings and tops I found. I also thought it'd be fun to throw in a cute "sale" sign in there. I also took a snapshot of a local Starbucks Coffee sign, because all of my money I don't spend shopping, I spend on Starbucks Green Tea. To prevent my project from making me look like a complete materialistic brat, I then decided to take pictures of things that show a different side of me. My colored pencils, the piano, and my treasured John Mayer concert ticket were good representations of my artistic side. The last things I thought of were the people who are most important to me. I then put in a picture of all my best friends and me last summer at Lake Travis. That picture represents so much, because not only are those all of my closest friends, but that was one of my favorite weekend trips I've ever been on.  That basically sums up all of the pictures in my project that aren't self explanatory (like the water and my perfume.)  Now, you know All About Me.

First Blog Post.

My name is Kimberly Landa, and I am a junior in High School. I made this blog for my photo journalism class, so I'll be posting many pictures on it!