Photo History Assignment

Title: Wrecked Car
Taken: 1939

The photographer of this photo is Edward Weston. Weston began photographing at the age of sixteen after receiving a Bull's Eye #2 camera from his father. He became a well known photographer in his hometown of Chicago. Weston eventually opened his own portrait studio in Tropico, California.

When first looking at this photo I noticed that Weston decided to show off the destruction of the automobile. He used an outdoor setting that worked well to accent the impact of the wreckage. The heavy fog creates a mystery about the photo and the darker lighting helps the observer get the full effect of the depression taken in by the wreckage. This shows the observer that the over all emotional tone of the photo is sad and a little haunting in my opinion.

I think the artist is trying to communicate how a destruction such as a car wreck leaves an impact on everything surrounding it. He also could be showing how everything over time gets run down and dies out.

I think the work was definitely a success. It caught my attention as soon as I saw it and interested me to learn more about it's purpose. The haunting feel I got when first looking at it intrigued me. It is a style I would hopefully like to focus on creating in my own work.

CD Cover Photoshoot Assignment

Taken: 10/8/08
Printed: 10/13/08

For our second assignment we had to shoot photos for an album cover using either a 35mm camera or a digital camera.

Well, this was definitely my least favorite assignment that we had to do so far. First off, when we heard about the assignment I had a difficult time figuring out what to do. I couldn't find any inspiration to draw from. The due date was getting closer so I decided to do a traditional cover of a girl with a guitar. Not very original, but it was the best I could come up with at the time. Second of all, nothing seemed to be working during the photo shoot. First, the battery of the camera I was planning to use died, so I had to use a camera I wasn't familiar with. Then the hot light stopped working as soon as I was ready to shoot so I had to get a new light that I had never worked with before. Finally, once I was ready to shoot I was having trouble figuring out the meter for the camera. I tried to ask Ms. Miles, but because she has other students to help I couldn't find her to ask for assistance.
So the photo shoot didn't go too well. Then when it came to printing I found that my first two photos came out fine, but the third picture came out off center. I don't understand why this is. I never once touched anything when changing to the third photo. Therefore, I don't know why this happened. I think it would help if during the next assignment when we print that Ms. Miles goes over how to make sure the photo is centered. I also noticed my photos came out scratched. I don't know why this is either. Hopefully that can be explained as well so my photos turn out clean next time.
Over all, I found this assignment to be much more challenging than the last. I hope to figure out how to fix the problems I had before the next assignment.