Camera Exposure Assignment

Something that I've learned from the website is that, shutter speed is a powerful tool for freezing or exaggerating the appearance of motion. Instead of blurring the subject, one could instead render everything else blurred. This requires the camera to either be located on the moving subject itself, or aimed in such a way that the image frame moves with the subject. This camera setting can be a useful tool when the appearance of motion is more important than depth of field, or just for letting you know whether your desired shutter speed is even possible using available light. The above analysis assumes that subject motion is the primary source of blur, but in many photos camera shake can instead be more influential particularly when using telephoto lenses or with unsteady hands.

Notable Photographer Assignment

This photo was taken by Richard Avedon.

Richard Avedon, born May 15, 1923, New York, New York, U.S. died October 1, 2004. Richard Avedon was best known for his work in the fashion world and for his minimalist portraits. He worked first as a photographer for the Merchant Marines, taking identification photos. He then moved to fashion, shooting for Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, demanding that his models convey emotion and movement, a departure from the norm of motionless fashion photography.

Notable Photographer Assignment

This photo was taken by Robert Frank.

  Robert Frank is a photographer and filmmaker: independent, unconventional and personal in both media, Frank is best known for his work in photography-arguably his book The Americans is the most influential book of photographs of the past fifty years with nine separate editions not counting foreign. However, Frank has played the outsider throughout his career. Born in Switzerland in 1924, Frank grew up the son of a wealthy Jewish family with a Swiss mother and a German father; he turned to photography for expression as well as a way to escape the pressures of his business-oriented family. Living in Europe during the Second World War-while although safe in Switzerland-impacted Frank and affected his understanding of oppression which is later seen in his work.

Notable Photography Assignment

Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico is a photograph by Ansel Adams, taken late in the afternoon on November 1, 1941, from a shoulder of U.S. Route 84-285. The photograph became so popular and collectible that Adams personally made over 1,300 photographic prints of it during his long career. Using depth of field as a mechanism for a landscape photo.

Picture Assignment

This image portrays a lot of double exposure and black out. I find this picture amusing because it has to do urban street culture. Which I am a fan of. The streets, the lights, the people is ultimately great.

Weegee Photo Description

Act of Love at the Astor Theatre, Times Square, 1954. After moving to Hollywood in 1947, Weegee devoted most of his energy to making 16mm films and photographs for his “Distortions” series, a project that resulted in experimental portraits of celebrities and political figures. He returned to New York in 1952 and lectured and wrote about photography until his death on 27 December 1968

Exposure Assignment

This photo is by Harry Callahan.

I believe the photo above portrays an exposure of a street view on a side walk. Making the image more dynamic by having the same cars overlapping on each other. There's a feeling of being part of a neighborhood.

Picture Short Story

This photo is by Keith Carter.

The Welcoming

  I felt like I could breathe once again. The open air made me feel as if I were a fish back in water after being on land for a long time. I could feel the sun warming my pale face. The brightness was overwhelming compared to my old dark, damp room. It was hard to describe the happiness that flowed through my body as I saw cars and young children once more. I could smell the aroma of hot dogs and coffee instead of the horrible stench of leftover food from last night. I could hear the buzz of people talking and giggling of happy mothers. This was a great improvement to the ‘drip, drip, drip’ of my broken tap that I fell asleep to each night on the cold, hard concrete ‘bed’ I was allocated.
  I was greeted with the love and affection of my family that I had not seen for the five years, two months and seventeen days I was locked up. It was a definite thing that I would not miss the aggression and anger that the people in there live off. People full of hate.
  I felt my mother’s soft, but slightly cracked, lips press against my rough cheek. I held her tightly and sensed a tear fall from her eye and onto my clothes near my chest. I was greeted with warm hugs and wet kisses but the one thing that lingered in the back of my mind through all of this was my father. After all this time, he had not come to forgive me, but instead, he had disowned me and loathed my existence. I guess I could not change any of this but I was just thankful that my mother, through my whole twenty-nine years of living, stuck with me, through thick and thin and was glad to welcome me back home. 

Notable Photographer Assignment

Henri Cartier-Bresson. Born August 22, 1908 – August 3, 2004. Henri was a French photographer considered to be the master of candid photography, and an early user of 35 mm film. He helped develop street photography, and approvingly cited a notion of the inevitability of a decisive moment, a term adopted as the title for his first major book. His work has influenced many photographers.Cartier-Bresson's first photojournalist photos to be published came in 1937 when he covered the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, for the French weekly Regards. He focused on the new monarch's adoring subjects lining the London streets, and took no pictures of the king. His photo credit read "Cartier", as he was hesitant to use his full family name. In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little human detail can become a leitmotiv.

—Henri Cartier-Bresson

Shutter Speed Photo Description

 This photo shows a decent example of "fast" shutter speed. This photographer must have had a slow shutter speed on his camera which didn't catch the exact frame of the cars moving. Not only does this photo portray shutter speed but it also shows examples of:
-View Point
-Rule of Thirds
& symmetry.

Photo: Shutter Speed Assignment

Shutter speed is a measure of how long your camera’s sensor is exposed to light. Most DSLRs use a mechanical shutter to control this. When you press the shutter release button or use the camera’s self-timer function, the blades that block the sensor open and close, letting light in.

ISO Research

Photography is all about controlling the amount of light hitting your film or sensor. You have 3 options to control this amount: 
- Aperture: controls the quantity of light entering the camera. It is counter-intuitive, but the smaller the number, the bigger the aperture (f/3.5 will allow more light than f/16, and so on) 
- The shutter speed controls for how long the light is hitting your film or sensor 
- and last, ISO witch is the sensibility of the film/sensor itself: In the same lighting conditions, aperture and shutter speed staying the same, a higher ISO will result in a brighter image than a smaller one. That's why, at night or in dark conditions photographer use high ISO to compensate the lack of light.
 The higher the number, the more sensitive it is. You can use faster shutter speeds and smaller apertures, photograph in lower light conditions. But there's a downside. 

The higher the ISO, the rougher the image will look. Digital cameras work best between ISO 100- 400, though some cameras seem to manage it better than others.

Aperture- Photography Assignment

A device that controls the amount of light admitted through an opening. In photography and digital photography, aperture is the unit of measurement that defines the size of the opening in the lens that can be adjusted to control the amount of light reaching the film. Also known as "F-Stop."

This is an example of a photo I took in downtown Austin that has to do with Aperture.