Micro-Assignment 1

The first ten pictures can be found here:

http://thau4arteduc2520.blogspot.com/2013/01/blog-post.html

The ten new pictures are:

Assymetrical:

 Symmetrical:

 

 Radial:

  

 Person and their surroundings space:

  

Person up close:

  

Image from the point of view of an ant:

 

Image from the point of view of a bird:

 

Stable image:

 

 Unstable Image:

 

My name on campus:

Experiences with first ten pictures:

I enjoyed taking the first ten pictures more than I had expected I would.  The freedom to take a picture of anything forced me to reflect on what truly interested me.  However, I do not think the pictures went over well with my peers.  They did not say, out-right, that they disliked the pictures, but I expect they were being courteous.  This lead me to think about them more, and I realized that what I had initially found interesting in the items I took photographs of was the message behind the pictures - what they were about - rather than the images themselves.  The images themselves, without explanation, were evidentally dull.  One of the pictures, for example, is of a brick in a wall in my room.  My eyes have likely spent more time scanning across that brick rather than staring at it, and I thought it would be interesting to actually look at the brick.  Perhaps others did not agree - perhaps there is a reason my eyes always scanned across the brick without ever really looking at it.

Experiences with second ten pictures:

The second experience was more challenging, in that I made a point of making the pictures more visually interesing - remove the need for an explanation behind them - while retaining some story so that they kept the same interest to me, personally, without the visual asthetic.  For example, I've always had an interest in the way man-made light stands out in an otherwise dark night - the way it signifies that there is life there, warmth, in both a figurative and very literal sense.  This may or may not come across in the photographs from the "ant's view" and "bird's view", but if it does not, I expect the two images are visually interesting anyways.  Walking to class, I consciously notice the people around me doing the same, and I often contemplate on that.   I really like the way the sidewalk is visible, twisting and turning and forking, along the path the individual is taking in the "close up" picture, and hope that viewers - who've never been in my head - will see the sidewalk and similarly wonder about where this individual is going.

What was the same about the experience?  What was different?

It was mostly the same experience.  The restrictions placed on me had very little effect on the items I chose to photograph; it simply dictated how to frame them.  My primary interests in the pictures (ie, things I found interesting in all of them and things others may find interesting sans-explanation in the latter ten) were largely uneffected by the differing requirements.

Which process was more enjoyable for you and why?

Since the process itself had no real effect on my pictures, neither process was more or less enjoyable than the other.

Which images are your favorites?  Why?

My favorite from the first ten pictures was almost blank computer screen on its side, because that is how people will describe it, when the image is dominated by the shadow of me taking the picture.  The empty screen is ready, just about to be filled with content, and at the same time it is the content of a picture.  I find such thoughts interesting.  However, I worry this is overly obtuse.

Of the second set, my favorite is picture of the person up close, because of all of the pictures in the second set it is the one I feel is most likely to instill the same effect on the viewer - where is he going? - as it does on me, personally.