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!