Asleep in the car seat on the way home…

Do you remember when you were little, out for the evening with the parents?  At the end of the night and the fun, they’d strap you in the car seat and before you knew it you’d be home, having fallen asleep in the car on the way there.   This post is like pulling into the garage- groggy recognition of “Hey, we’re here? Hmm, tonight was fun, let’s go back to sleep.”

So that analogy may be a little bit of a stretch, but it’s been a long week (for reasons not entirely related to this blog)–tiring, but fun, and am glad to put it to bed and wake up to another week tomorrow.  Overall, I think I rushed myself a little this week.  I had a lot going on so my mindset was a little more “check the box” than it probably should have been.  I think it showed in the splash the color assignment–I rushed to post that assignment and left out the “why I chose this photo, etc.” background, which commentators said they missed.

That being said, I enjoyed doing the posts this week and bringing out my inner Austin Powers:

 

Becoming Better Photographers: I realized I knew more of these tips than I thought I did, I just ignored them! I must have learned the “rule of three” long ago, because that’s something I just naturally do in my photos. I enjoyed changing the angle of my shots the most—getting up or down instead of just at eye view changed the shot a lot more than I thought it would. I also enjoyed the physicality of it in a way—I felt more a “part of the process” when I had to move around to take a shot instead of just having to stand and shoot.

Photoblitz Safari: I had fun with the photoblitz safari too. At first, I felt exposed taking photos of my house, (but then again that was my choice) but once I got into the assignment I was cool. I’ve actually enjoyed seeing other students’ safaris and feel like I can learn something about them from the pictures they take. The main benefits from this was getting a chance to warm up my creative muscles, which have definitely atrophied due to lack of use. I also discovered items around my house that I came back to in subsequent assignments, like using my living room as an interesting pattern. In this way, this assignment opened up my eyes to the possibilities of the objects in my environment to serve other purposes.

Five Card Flickr Story: After getting a few really random draws, I think I lucked out with my Five Card Flickr story. It helped that two pictures were actually phrases (“Can I build my own hovercraft?” and “Road Closed”). They helped frame the story—Nancy gets a hovercraft and gets to use it when it rains and the road is washed out. This assignment also helped me see how my visual environment could provide good story fodder for the final project. I started to think about the images I see, the photos I have in my library as untold stories. (But I promptly forgot my ideas, which you can read about here).

Visual Assignment 1- Splash the color: I was intimidated by these assignments and worried they would take hours just to figure out how to do, let alone execute. But I lucked out here again. I chose the color splash assignment, remembering the professor had mentioned Pixlr in the opening video for this week. One of the main help topics was coloring photos(!) They had a very easy tutorial to follow so the intimidation factor was removed. I chose one of the pictures I took from the “becoming better photographers” post. Choosing my own picture just seemed easier than doing an image search of who-knows-what. I also knew I had a fairly simple subject in my previously taken photo. I had a few hiccups getting it to work, but it was mainly a matter of improving how I was coloring the photo instead of doing something different.

Visual Assignment 2: Chimeratic Composition. I used the same techniques I learned in the color splash assignment on my next asisngment, the “chimeratic composition”—layers and erasing to reveal the image beneath. I can see how if this is well done it can be really impressive. I probably spent the most time “composing” the photo- thinking of a base layer that had enough “space” for me to lay things on top, and to have something be not entirely impossible yet also not realistic either. I also went with my own pics for this one (except the parrot), for much the same reason as with the first assignment. It seemed easier to look through what I already had than to do an image search for something I hadn’t really a firm idea for. Although now that I think of it I could have done Nancy on her hovercraft from my Five Card Flickr!! Oh well, there’s always next time.

 Story ideas: I am having a hard time with ideas…so with a post of another iffy story idea (iffy because it’s already been done) and a pledge to do better this week, that about wraps it up…

Feedback:  I’ve enjoyed keeping up with blog “teammates”.  As per last week, I’m always encouraged by how darn polite everyone is-especially when it comes to novice photo editing.  I enjoy reading what sticks out to others in my posts–not always what I think it the most important takeaway.  I think my team mates have some great story ideas going and am hoping some of their inspiration will rub off on me!