Captured Thought: Photography

This semester I decided to take Photography 161 to better my knowledge of cameras, composition and just to have an interesting elective. I started the class about a week and a half late because I had some problems with my scheduale, but regardless of missing the first photography lessons I still decided to enroll in the class.

The first time I went out to shoot I was concious of everything. I checked the light meter, adjusted the f-stop and shutter speed, and made sure the composition was exactly what I wanted before I took each photo. I was so excited and I went to Walgreens right away to get my film developed, but unfortunately when I returned to pick them out the entire roll was blank. I didn't even know what I had done wrong, but I was mad at myself not only for wasting the film, but because I thought I had a lot of really good pictures on that roll.

The next time I went out to go shoot, I went with a friend, just incase I had any questions and to make sure that I was doing everything right. We got a lot of good footage and the next day in class I developed the roll. At the end of the period we took the film out and I expected to see all the pictures I had taken the previous day, but instead I once again saw that same blank roll.

After going through everything I did with my teacher, she looked at the camera and told me that something was broken and it was the reason that the pictures weren't coming out, and I was so relieved to find out that it was the camera and not me that was causing the problems.

I was still a little weary after developing the next roll, but as I unrolled the film, I began to see the negatives for the first time, and it was the first time that I understood photography.

metacognition: Architecture Project

Doing the Frank Gehry inspired Architecture Project made me realize how important group collaboration really is. A lot of times I feel as though I could do things best if I just worked alone because then everything would get done exactly as I wanted it to, but doing this project made me realize how constructive and thought-provoking working in a group really is.

A lot of times group work can mean one person does all the work while the other group members act as parasites feeding off of the one person. Although that can be the case, it is amazing to find a group of people that can equally collaborate to make something greater than each individual could have come up with. I felt that in our group we really collaborated and each of us brought something to the table. I thought it was good that the first day we layed out all the rules and the first thing that we did was decide the roles for each group members. Laying out who would be doing which role proved to be very beneficial because it gave each member of the group something unique to focus on.

Working in groups is something that I really enjoy during school, because I truly believe it will be something that I need to do in my future. Some people take group work as an oppurtunity to slack off and let the other group members take the reins, but I really enjoy group work and because I know that collaboration and having different view points in one group always makes for a better product.

iMedia:Nothing Stands Alone

The other day I heard the song "What?" by A Tribe Called Quest, and even though it is a fairly short song, it really made me think. In the song they rap about things that go together and how nothing is anything without another thing.  That is a confusing way of saying that nothing stands alone, and everything is a part of an interdependent relationship that is necessary for everything to function.  In other words, everything has an opposite and the opposite is just as important.  

"What is a Quest if the players ain't willing?

What is a pence if you don't have a shilling?

What's a con artist if he doesn't have brains?

What's America without greed and glamour?

What's an MC if he doesn't have stamina?"

This song is cool because it shows how two-sided everything really is, and how something can mean nothing when its alone, but paired with something else it means something.  It is kind of like positive and negative space; one cannot be without the other.  

Lately I've just been thinking a lot about balance and what it means to find a balance.  There cannot be more positive space than negative space, there needs to be a balance.  I'm coming to realize how difficult it is to find a balance in most aspects of my life.  When we were discussing the Frank Gehry project as a group I found it almost impossible to write rules for our group.  Whenever I would says something, I would look at it from another point of view and contradict everything I was saying because I really believe there should be a little of both sides when making decisions.  It really is troubling for me because when I look at things from two different sides, it makes it very difficult to make final decisions.  I guess I am still trying to learn what it means to find balance and not have too much negative or positive in my life.  I think my ultimate goal is complete equilibrium. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=979AE9yhdss&feature=PlayList&p=EF091996B01B2EF6&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=18

It Matters: Challenging the Status Quo

Recently in class we have been discussing the importance of challenging the status quo, and effective ways of going about it. Challenging the status quo will happen forever; as long as people are unhappy with the way they are living, there will be those who step up and challenge the status quo to evoke a change in the social order. People like Martin Luther King Jr. who like many others saw that there was a problem, but he stood up and took leadership to challenge the status quo and stand up for what he believed in.

This idea can be related to our current situation under the leadership of Barack Obama. In his presidential address last week, he kept talking about how important it was to not be satisfied with the status quo, and to keep making changes to get to where we want to be in a society.

This relates to the TED talk that we watched in class about tribes. The Speaker, Seth Godin, had some very insightful ideas about leadership and what it takes to make a change. He kept advocating that it was not important to get everyone to follow your ideas, but a select group, or "tribe" of people that are dedicated to whatever the cause is, is the best way to go about getting what you want in a society.

There are definitely connections that can be made between Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama in their speeches. They both speak to the people and for the people. Also they both are very effective in laying out the problem or the injustice and then giving their take on how it should be fixed. Even though a speech doesn't physically change the way we live, hearing a speech as powerful as one of Dr. King, or Barack Obama empowers the people and sparks social change. Nowadays anyone can give their opinion by starting a blog or posting their opinions on the internet, but there is something about speeches that better connects human beings and expresses our ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MVtE7C-YVc