:: Digital Photography & Imaging

Title: Feelings towards Knowledge

My aim for this series of photos is to portray our feelings and reactions towards knowledge during different phases of life. For this series of photos, there is no particular sequence to follow, that is to say, viewers can view the photos in any order, be it chronological based on the age of the characters or any other ways. Each individual photos will tell a story on its own and there is a general idea behind the entire series, that is Feelings towards Knowledge.

Child

At a tender age, we do not see the importance of knowledge. We tend to reject knowledge. Hence, forcing knowledge to us is a norm for many of us.

Teenage

During the teenage, we learn that knowledge is important but most of us would face difficulty during the transition from child to teenage. Pain, agony and misery are some of the common feelings during the learning knowledge process at that moment.

Adult

In this phase, many would want to fulfill their dreams and would like to see themselves as professionals. Thus, knowledge is view as one of the priorities in life so as to aid them in pursuing their dreams.

Elder

Lastly, in this phase, many would have retired and knowledge to them is leisure. Gaining knowledge would be at their own discretion. Many would be enjoying the process of learning knowledge with passion.

Here is the series of photos for this assignment:

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Forcing Knowledge

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I wanted to portray the kind of rejection for knowledge that a young secondary school student is going through. I purposely did not want to use a hand to force the book in so as to maintain the conceptual elements. Instead, I focus more on the facial expression and hope that viewers can get the feeling of rejection from it.

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Agony of Learning Knowledge

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In this photo, I wanted to portray the agony feeling of learning knowledge in the expression of a young teenager. Being aware of the important of knowledge, but was having difficulty in absorbing the knowledge is the kind of feeling that I want to bring across to the viewers.

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Misery of Learning Knowledge

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This photo is to portray the misery that the teenager is going through while trying to absorb as much as possible for the examination and coping the stress going through the tough period in absorbing knowledge.

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Urging for Knowledge

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While focusing too much in absorbing information, many would end up being a “geek” and urge for more. This photo is to portray that kind of feeling. For this photo, I have manipulated the reflection onto the glasses to show the learning of knowledge through sight.

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Fond for Knowledge

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Although some may feel that learning knowledge is a difficult task, others may find interest in it. Finding passion and interest in learning knowledge is the idea that I want to bring across to the viewers.

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Enjoying the Consumption of Knowledge

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In this photo, I wanted to show a person going to consume on a stack of discs that resemblances a burger. Knowledge is portray by the digitalized knowledge in interactive knowledge based CD-ROM. At this point of time, I hope that viewers may get the feeling that as we age, we tend to be able to accept knowledge more willingly or even want to grasp more knowledge.

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Mesmerizing with Knowledge

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For this photo, I wanted to show a person holding on a roll of newspaper. The character positioned himself in a dog-kind of feeling to resemblance the action of holding on a dog bone. This is to portray the mesmorizing feeling of the character that he enjoys knowledge just like the dog enjoys its bone.

Last but not least, I would like to thank all the models (fyi, they are my family members) for posing with such weird expressions in this series of photos. Without them, I would not be able to bring across the idea of my assignment. =)

Text

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Mobile

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Computer

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Software

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Storage Devices

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Neurons

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To be updated. . .

For this assignment, I am tasked to create photographs without using “human expression” as subject to depict some adjectives from a list of them. In short, we are strictly not allowed to include any humans, not even body parts. I feel that the purpose of this assignment is to express emotions without using the simplest form of tell-tale signs from the facial expressions.

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The first idea: Chaos

After brainstorming for a few days, I came out with an idea of showing the scenario that one will come upon but would not take note of. For my first piece, the theme that I want to portray is chaos. When one is frustrated in completing some tasks, he / she would tend to vent their anger on papers and throw them into the waste paper basket.

I have also added noise to the background of the photo and adjusted the contrast to give a more rough and messy feeling. I hope that when people look at the photo that I have taken, they will subconsciously relate it to a frustrated and chaos scenario that I am experiencing during the scene.

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The second idea: Mess

I wanted to create the idea of mess by using an artist used palette. In the midst of creating a painting, this scene will be very common to them and viewers can relate it easily. For this photo, I only adjusted slightly on the contrast to bring up the colours in the palette so as to enhance the messy feeling of this photo.

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The third idea: Peace

As for the third piece, I wanted to have the theme: peace. By having a candle commonly used in aroma-therapy, I wish to give viewers a feeling of serenity and peace. Besides that, candles are commonly used during prayers. Furthermore, light is an element from scripture associated with peace and harmony.

Aesthetically, I have blended a bluish-white background to further enhance the mood of the photo. Overall, I hope that this photo will give the viewers the feeling of peace.

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The fourth idea: Lonely

Last but not least, I would like to portray the theme lonely. I have made use of the activity, fishing, which generally depends on oneself and most of the time, alone. Even if it is done in a group, people tend to focus and fish within their own confined space at some point of time. Lastly, I have adjusted the colour scheme to sepia in order to bring out the feeling of loneliness.

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Here is my first draft for assignment one before capturing some photo for my assignment 4, I brainstormed for some ideas on urban phenomena and come out with the theme:Technology with some futuristic elements and the consequences. As technology advances, human beings become more reliant. Physical interaction diminishes as online shopping causes human being to stay indoor. Hence, I wanted to portray the above idea in my art piece. From the art piece, a young lady was portrayed as a statue that symbolizes the consequences of technology advancement. Thinking that we have created marvelous technology to aid life, human actually take it for granted and end up being engulfed by technology and ultimately become a useless piece of statue without any thoughts. At the background, you are able to see the diminishing industrial buildings as well as the commercial building due to the fact that human are able to do anything from home and there isn’t a need to have such a place. The bars of the windows further emphasizes the jailing of oneself at home. The flying cars and the borderless train symbolize the futurism of the world. Transportation would be easily accessible but human being do not really need it as fully bounded with their borderless internet.

Here are some of the photos used in the development process for my first draft:

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Continuing with the idea of futurism, my idea shifted a little from the technology advancement that changes us, to the nature alteration of what the world would become in the future and global warming came into my mind. Ozone layer is thinning due to many human activities and the temperature of the earth is increasing. As a result of that, the earth would ultimately be destroyed under our own hands in the future if we still do not make any effort in saving the environment now. We hold a great responsibility of what the environment would become, and what global warming would do to the earth in the future and that intrigues me of having the idea of showing the earth being destroyed under our own hand due to global warming. The surrealistic piece of work was created by selecting a range of warm tone of colours.

Here are some of the photos used in the development process for my first draft:

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Learning Experience & Difficulties Encountered

As usual, I started off with some planning and brainstorming of ideas to fall under the different sections for this assignment. Here are the list of objects and scenes that I would like to take and and would be looking out for this assignment:

Element	Objects / Scenes
Perspective	Objects that have lengths that illustrate deep depth of field which would also give a strong illustration of perspective. E.g. Railway track, corridor, buildings from top / bottom.
Zoom shot	Zoom shot can be applied on any objects, but personally, I wanted to use zoom shot to further enhance the effect of movement. Hence, I would be looking out for objects that are naturally moving. E.g. Cars, lights, roads with people.
Close up	Close up is to show focal point on a specific area of interest or a small object. E.g. Plants, flower bud, dew on leaf, ants.
High key	Taking photos in their rightfully shades. Context is also an important factor. E.g. of high key: Light bulb. E.g. of low key: owl in the night, bat in the night.
Low key
Symbolic of the sun	Bright objects to illustrate the grazing characteristic of a sun. Red, Orange, Sunlight are some of the characteristics of a sun. Abstract illustration of a sun. E.g. Headlights, plants that are bright.

For the perspective element, I went down to the commonwealth area hoping to take some interesting photos of the railway. I found a track where residents always used to cross the railway. I don’t think it’s legal though because there isn’t any proper walkway and the fence has been intentionally brought down by the residents. ^.^ Nonetheless, I went ahead and stood onto the railway to take a few shots of the railway.

To start off, I took some safe shots to make sure that I have some photos that falls under long perspective. After which, I tried to explore with different angles, different aperture to toggle between the depth of field. For those who are new to photography like myself, I recommend you to take some safe shots before proceeding to input your creative sense because the result might not be successful.

It was a sunny day, thus I am able to capture high quality deep depth of field photos of the railway without the need to increase the ISO setting.

When I was on the way home, I came across a very straight and long corridor. I took some photos of it to illustrate long perspective as well as some zoom shots on people walking away from me to give it an eerie kind of feeling that the person has been followed. The first thought that came to my mind is that it could be used for campaign on neighbour safety. I learnt that planning is important, but situation awareness and the ability to notice a good scene are also crucial. If I followed closely to my plan, I might miss out the spectacular scene on the corridor.

As for the close-up photos, I took photos of nature to illustrate it. I made a trip down to the botanic garden to take some close up photos of beautiful plants. The trip down was well-spent as I managed to capture very close-up shots of plants and flowers with a 60mm macro lens.

The experience gained from the exercise at the botanic garden was mavellous and it kind of helped me to destress from my hectic schedule. Through this exercise, I also learnt how to apply the different metering on different scenario. There isn’t any best metering amongst the 3 metering techniques (Evaluative metering, Spot metering and Partial metering), it all depends on what kind of effect do you want to achieve. I used the different metering on different elements for this assignment, for example, spot metering on the flower of focus so that the exposure is correct for the flower and evaluative metering for the perspective shot on the railway to give a more balance exposure throughout the whole photo.

As for the low key, I managed to capture the cat eyes at night. Everything was dark expect for the eyes of the cat which reflects some light from the road lamp and the moon. It is one of my most favourite photos because it gives viewers an eerie feeling. It also creates the suspense, horror and the sense of unexpected and that’s what I think a low key photo should portray.

In my opinion, the composition of high key photo should consist mainly white, which may have different representations. For this assignment, I would explore into purity and innocence. Hence, I took some photos of babies so as to enhance and purity and innocence of adolescence.

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Here are some photographs that I have taken for my assignment 3:

Element: Perspective

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Aperture: f/14
Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 100mm

 

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Aperture: f/9
Shutter Speed: 1/125 sec
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 100mm

 

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Aperture: f/5
Shutter Speed: 1/5 sec
ISO: 400
Focal Length: 17mm

 

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Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/1000 sec
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 56mm

 

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Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/1000 sec
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 56mm

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Element: Zoom shot

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Aperture: f/18
Shutter Speed: 1/10 sec
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 56mm

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Element: Close up

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Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 100mm

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Element: Symbolic of the sun

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Aperture: f/10
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 50mm

I came across many plants during the trip and one of the most magnificient is the cactus plant. The first thing that came to my mind was the sun. Personally I feel that it has similar characteristics of the sun:

- Hated by some and loved by others.
- The ability to conserve water and to survive under desert area.
- The spines of the cactus resemblance the sun rays.
- The round shape of the cactus resemblance the shape of sun.
- The yellowish core of the cactus represent the hottest and most glaring portion of the sun.

 

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Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 5 sec
ISO: 400
Focal Length: 85mm

I took this shot at a neighbourhood lamp post. The night was very dark and the only light source is the lamp post. I feel that it symbolises the sun because:

- It is the most prominent light source at that hour.
- The light rays coming out from the lamp resemblance the sun rays, which light up the objects and the surrounding. If the lamp is not present, the surrounding is all dark and empty. Thus, the lamp gives “life” to the surrounding which has same meaning of the sun.
- The centre of the lamp light which is the brightest and the hottest, creates a ripple-like effect around it. It acts like the sun where the core is the hottest.

Learning Experience

This is my first assignment for this module and my first experience on a digital SLR; I was feeling anixous and unsure how to go about doing it. Thus, I borrowed some photography books (National Geographic: Photography field guide and photography for dummies) from the library and read up more on how to operate the SLR and stuff. For those who are interested in photography and have no basic knowledge on it, I truly recommend you to read up the 2 books mentioned above as it gives you the technical information such as aperture size and shutter speed.

After reading up the books, I went ahead with my first hands-on experience. Initially, I do not really understand some of the terms in the books, until I experience it through taking some photos. The first round of random shots turn out to be a disaster to me, as most of them turned out to be unsharp and out of focus although they looked fine in the viewfinder.

Subsequently, I increased the shutter speed and minimized the aperture so that I am able to take sharp photos even if with shaky hands. That’s when I realised that the depth of field is rather smaller and elements that were closely behind became out of focus. There was once I could only focus a marker among the group of markers while my intention is to focus on the group of markers and blur out the background. From this, I learnt that knowing your intention is very important so that one could adjust the aperture and shutter speed settings towards it. I also learnt that to take an interesting photo, one should try taking it from different angles, the effect might turn out to be magnificent.

From this exercise, it also strengthens my knowledge and experience with the application of rule of thirds. Generally, the rule of thirds will ensure a nice and interesting positioning of the main focus which gives audience a comfortable feel. On the other hand, it might not be suitable for all scenarios. For instance, the photo that I have chosen for subject element: Colour which consists of different markers. I took 2 photos of them, one of which is aligned centre while the other aligned at the 1/3 position. It turned out that the one aligned centre is nicer in terms of balance. For this example, the colours of the markers play an important role. When the markers were positioned at the 1/3 position, it turned out that the elements were too heavy at the bottom. Hence, I feel that the rule of thirds is just a guideline for positioning elements more interesting and might not be able to apply at times like this.

 

Difficulties Encountered

Light & Exposure (aperture / shutter speed balance) – On my first attempt, I wasn’t sure which camera operating modes to choose from and what exactly each mode does. I decided on the manual mode because I wanted to adjust the settings manually and it gives me the full flexibility to adjust the aperture and shutter speed which later I found out that it is the most complex of all. I took quite a few under / over exposed photos before realising that there is a exposure meter that can check the exposure level for me. Hope that this would prevent you guys from making the same mistake.

Focus – Initially, I started off with a f/10 shutter speed which I thought was alright. But it turned out that most of the photos were out of focus and blur. I guessed it was due to the clicking motion of the button and the limitation of my hands to hold it firmly. From this, I learnt to take photos with faster shutter speed so as to avoid unsharp photos.

Positioning & Angles – When I came across some objects of interest, I was very unsure where should I place my camera. What angles? Should I apply rule of thirds? Should I take from the top, bottom, left or right? I wasted a lot of time on figuring out and visualizing where to take and that taught me to plan and have a rough idea before going down to the site. That actually worked for me on my subsequent attempts.

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Here are some photographs that I have taken for my assignment 1:

Subject Element: Lines

Neat

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Location: Central library

 

Clean

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Location: Central library

These photos were taken in the library while I was doing my tutorial. I spotted the view when I was referring to my textbook. I tried a few shots from different angles and chose these 2 because they give me a clean, neat and tidy feeling.

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Subject Element: Shapes

Butterfly

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Location: Central forum waiting area

 

Strength

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Location: School of Engineering

The first photo was taken on a rainy day when I was inspired by the angle from the umbrella that I was carrying. I chose this picture as an example of shape element because it resemblance a butterfly. For this photo, I feel that I also falls under the category of color and lines from the contrasting effect and lines of intersection.

The second photo was taken at school of engineering, opposite of university cultural centre. The object is a shelter at the entrance to school of enigneering. It makes up of lines that form triangles and spheres at all interconnections.

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Subject Element: Colours

Rainbow

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Location: Central library

 

Blocks

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Location: Central library

While I was drawing some illustrations for my commercial website, I realised that the bottom of the marker is rather interesting. Hence I tried to arrange the markers and took some shots of them and they turned out to be quite nice and balance. The closely packed highlighters resemblance part of a rainbow spectrum while the markers on the right resemblance blocks.

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Subject Element: Form

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Location: School of computing tutorial room (COM1-02-39)

 

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Location: NM3223 lecture room (AS1-03-04)

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Subject Element: Texture

Location: University cultural centre

 

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Location: Central library

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Below are some of the photos that I have taken but filtered off due to under / over exposed, positioning, uninteresting angles, and balance of elements: