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Thanksgiving food photography

Baraka

 Baraka, directed by Ron Fricke, is a film with no dialogue and really no plot and more of just a collection of photographed scenes. These scenes are beautiful and take place all over the world. The film really emphasis not on "where," but on "what's there" as far as location. It takes us all over the world with 152 locations in 24 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Nepal, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, and the United States.

Though is has no real plot, it does emphasis an environmental theme. It begins with morning, natural landscapes and people at prayer: volcanoes, water falls, veldts, and forests; several hundred monks do a monkey chant. Indigenous peoples apply body paint and whole villages dance. The film moves to destruction of nature via logging, blasting, and strip mining again with emphasis on the environment. Then images of poverty, rapid urban life, and factories give way to war, concentration camps, and mass graves. Ancient ruins come into view, and then a sacred river where pilgrims bathe and funeral pyres burn.

I, personally, really enjoyed the film because the scenes where breathe taking and it showed me parts of the world I've never seen. This film was unlike any film I've ever seen before not just because of it's lack of dialogue but also because of the different places and cultures it covered. When I first heard that the film had no dialogue I thought it was going to be boring and hard to follow but that wasn't the case and I was pleasantly ssurprised.

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Veronica's Pictures

Dear Veronica,
I had a great time looking through your pictures of your cousin's graduation. The topic of your album shows that family and friends are important to you. The majority of your pictures consisted of portraits which makes sense considering the occasion. The elements present in your photos were unity, emphasis on people and emotions, and framing. The positioning of your camera was properly used to capture different emotions and views which I liked because it made your photographs more interesting and added variety to just straight forward portraits. Something I would like to see from you are more photographs about the scenery and focus on other objects because there was one of a building and it was one of my favorite shots. Nice job.

1-shot

sports photography

American Photography Movie

• Brownie- remained in production for 80 yrs, only $1; first year a quarter of a million were sold
• Kodak- too expensive
• postcards cover disasters and important events that newspaper could not until half tone was used
• National Geographic pioneered publication of color photography
• Edward Curtis documented and photographed native Americans beautifully but was a bit of a fantasy
• photographs brought about social reform like outlawing child labor
• straight photographs- took things the way they were, focused on no alterations; in the 20s

WWI

• cameras weapons in war
• images of combat posed or taken from far away
• no newspaper could publish pictures of dead American soldiers
• Daily News- oldest tabloid
• Evening Graphic- most scandalize, staged photos

Portraits notes

Shoot a Formal Portrait

• prepare in advance; make list of all equipment and supplies needed
• practice set-up routine ahead of time
• be relaxed
• have friend assist and adjust location of lights and hold reflector

1. - background close to wall
-10-20 feet of clear space in front of background, plus room to sides
-background can be a roll of paper, background cloth, or wall
-stool in front 4-6 feet from background
2. -light about 45 degrees to right of subject
-reflector on subject's left side, about 3-4 feet away
3. -camera directly in front, 6-10 feet
-talk to subject, guide how to pose

Camera Settings

• formal portrait- shoot with wide open aperture to make the background out of focus
• normal lenses= f/2 or f/2.8
• zoom lenses= f/3.5 or f/4.5
• these f-stops will keep subject in focus and the background out of focus
• wide-open aperture-=increase shutter speed on camera

Lighting for Formal Portraits
Indoors

• place one light 45 degrees angle on one side of subject
• use reflector on opposite side

Outdoors

• direct sunlight isn't the best lighting for portraits
• shooting in open shade good idea
• reflector to light up any shadows, 3-6 feet away
• cloudy days are great

The Candid Portrait

• don't try to pose your subject
• take w/o subject noticing
• include your subject's surroundings
• be sensitive to subject's facial expressions
• include high and low perspectives, close-in and distance shots

Camera settings

• faster shutter speed like 1/250 and higher= freeze action
• use low built-in flash or accessory flash= get closer within range

5 random pictures

Self Portrait

This is how I identify myself because fashion is a big part of my life and I take great care when I'm going out to make sure what I wear really expresses what I want it to. I try on a lot of things before coming up with the perfect outfit because its all part of a process. AI also shot it in black and white because I prefer it over color because it gives a more stylistic mood and it also describes my mood and personality.

Notes (108-113)

Working with People

• must work together to create an image that says what both people want it to say about the person in the photo
• portrait photographer learn to b4ecome comfortable in front of people and interact with them

Camera Formats

• balance btw having enough detail and being able to respond quickly to your subject
• candid and environmental portraits, 35mm cameras are perfect- fast to operate; won't capture as much detail as you may need for formal portraits

Film Choices for Portraits
Film Speed

• slow films (50-100 ISO)- finger grain captures more detail and creates smoother looking image, which makes them good for formal portraits; slow film= tripod
• fast films (400-3200ISO)- faster films= mores sensitive to light and are ideally suited to available- light photography, like candid and environmental portraits; doesn't capture fine details nearly as well; you can handhold the camera

B&W or Color?

• b&w can focus attention on subject;formal, serious quality;edgy
• color can carry feelings and impressions

Equipment Choices: Lenses for Portraits
24mm

• distortion is obvious in portrait
• too close to subject

50mm

• distortion decreased

100mm

• near normal perspective, w/o any distortion

Camera Accessories

• tripod- 3-legged metal stand on which you can mount camera; best for stationary subjects, rather than fast moving situations
• cable release- flexible wire, one end of which attaches to camera's shutter release; when pressed,lets you trip the shutter w/o touching and jarring the camera
• reflector- anything that will reflect light into shadows to lighten them for a flattering and 3-D portrait

The Formal Portrait

• simplest portrait style and should emphasize the person and nothing else
• can be anything from a close-up of the face to a full-length view of a person

Julia Margaret Cameron (England, 1815-1879)

• Victorian photographer
• started at 48yrs
• began to photograph neighbors and friends, sometimes making straight portraits of them, other times dressing them up in costumes to act out scenes
• self-taught
• was one of 1st people to approach photography as an art, and not just as a way to document the world around her

notes (p. 102-107)

Portraits

• People are most popular subjects
• self portraits- way to explore who we are to ourselves and to other people, and who we want to be
• reveal truth about ourselves or other people
• can also be fictional stories-photo fiction

Early Portrait Photography

• Photography replaced painting as primary medium of portraits
• nearly everyone could afford photos
• Gaspard-Felix Tournachon (1820-1910)- 1st great portrait photography, started photographing in France in 1853; known as "Nadar"; produced "speaking likeness"portraits that revealed his subjects' personalities
• August Sander (Germany, 1876-1964), created some of 1st environment portraits- showing the setting of his subjects' lives and work

Creating Portrait Photos
Thinking Artistically

• value- range of light and dark areas in a photo
• keep in mind location of light and dark areas
• can provide sense of depth in an image
• values can also bring emotional content to a photograph

Shape and Form

• shapes can be organic, w/flowing curves and irregular outlines, or can be geometric
• presenting your subjects as the dominant shape you can emphasize him or her

Photo Essay

locked up

good morning sunshine

scaring neighbors

FOOD!

nice stroll

stalking neighbors



duty calls




game time



Food Photography

• 3 types: -packaging- realistic, no change; advertising, use props and special effects; editorial, lighting important
• use bold and vivid colors and contrasting textures
• shot from low perspective
• crop out background, focus on detail
• use minimum focus
• add oil to make food look hot or wet
• not too many props- only used to enhance not distract
• add oil to enhance food and make it look hot and wet
• high or low key mood
• make 2D subject look 3D
• small light sources better= more texture
• use mirrors for light and no shade
• use really short tens or really long one to give different perspective

Bourke White (1904-1971)

Bourke White was a photo journalist and one of the first female to be hired as a war correspondent. She was born on June 14th, 1904, in the Bronx, New York. When she was young, the family moved to a rural suburb in New Jersey. She and her sister were taught by her mother who was was strict in regulating their outside influences. Her father was an engineer and inventor.If something interested Margaret's father, it also interested her, therefore her father's interest in cameras carried over to her. She pretended as a girl to take photographs with an empty cigar box and she claimed that she never took a photograph until after her father's death. Her cousin Florence remembers her helping her father to develop prints in his bathtub. In 1917, her father suffered a stroke but by 1919, he had recovered enough for the family to take a trip to Niagara Falls and Canada. While there, she began to make notes on his photographs, and helped him set up shots on several occasions. Here she obtained her love for photography which continued through her life and purse photojournalism, making her one of the first women to do so. 

In 1929, she accepted a job as associate editor and staff photographer of Fortune magazine, a position she held until 1935. In 1930, she became the first Western photographer allowed to take pictures of the Soviet Industry which was rare for a female. She traveled to Europe to record how Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia were faring under Nazism and how Russia was faring under Communism. She was then hired by Henry Luce as the first female photojournalist for Life magazine in 1936. She also was honored with the first Life cover: a picture of the Fort Peck Dam construction on November 23, 1936. This cover photograph became such an iconic image that it was featured as the 1930s representative to the United States Postal Service's Celebrate the Century series of commemorative postage stamps. She officially held the title of staff photographer until 1940, but returned for a period from 1941 to 1942.  She returned again in 1945, and fully retirement in 1969. Despite were success over those years, she is more commonly known for her photographs of the Great Depression victims in the mid-1930s. These images are still revered today and though she is no loner here, her work lives and legacy live on.
photo galleries:
http://www.smartwomeninvest.com/bourkepics.htm

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