Assignment #14

First of all, some non-assignment news of sorts. Today I went to Hartford's Wadsworth Athaneum to see the Edward Weston exhibit with my friend Darcy. It was very cool, though we were a little suprised that so little of his well known works were shown. We did enjoy watching his technique evolve from the softer look of pictorialism to the sharper lines of modernism. And we enjoyed getting to see some of his very few color transparencies - very cool. My favorite was a shot of dunes in Oceana. Click here to see a somewhat digitally screwed up scan of the one I'm talking about (unfortunately the official website did not have this particular shot).

And, to get back on track, today I got to work on some really challenging assignments from Julia Boyce of Locust Leaf Farm. Both had lots of possibliities as to how they could be interpreted, each with their own unique challenges. Without further ado:

"1. Choices"

I thought about doing a comparison shot of sorts, like health food vs. junk food or something, but instead I went with the actual thought process behind choices. And I do believe this qualifies as "photomanipulation" :-P



Next up, "2. Pure enjoyment"

I thought smiles at first, but instead decided on something that, to me, expresses the joy of the Holiday Season. Colorful lights dancing around got the message across, I thought.



For those who are interested, the technique I used to capture the moving lights is a fairly simple and quite fun one. You need a dark room, a camera you can set for a long exposure, and a light source. Press the shutter button and move the light source around in front of the lens - slowly or quickly depending on the effect you want. In this case, I used a flashing light source to get more of a sense of joyful movement, rather than smooth lines.

Two more suggestions from Julia remain on my list and I hope to get to them soon.