Bonus

These are just some photographers that has inspired me. Through out the course i discovered more photographers from being in the course. Such as Man Ray and Laszlo Moholy- Nagy. These 2 are my favourite from the course. I love look at their photography and art. Moholy has that cool abstract art that i admire and feel inspired by. Man Ray is from Paris France sounds funny but ive never been to paris but have future plans on going there this year. I think the way french people move, eat just everything about them is so elegant and mysterious. Laszlo Moholy-Nagy kindof reminds me of Andy Warhol in a way and i also enjoy andy Warhols work. Here are some of my favourite photographs. enjoy!

Laszlo Moholy- Nagy:

Man Ray:

Andy Warhol:

Assignment 4 Virtual essay

These 5 photographs were taken by my best friend Chris Zsolyomy he takes photos as a hobby like me. He uses a Nikon P100. I decided to take his photographs because i do really enjoy them and i hope the viewers will too. Him and i have similar styles we love taking scenery photos and i think his photographs are very beautiful. These photographs were taken during the spring and summer time of 2010 when he still lived in a condominium, eventually he moved into a house. He enjoys artistic things and taking photos differently then some others. The first photo I stared at it and tried to make out what it was, i liked it but i didn't know exactly what he was taking. It is windows from a building reflecting from the sky what i like so much about it is that you can see some of the clouds and colour (from sunset) the blurry-ness from the windows reflecting back give the photo a nice texture. I also enjoy the lines from each separating window. The second photo is a painting from his living room that his aunt bought from a gallery. The painting it self has a very mysterious look, it is a circle with about 3-4 lines drawn horizontally through the painting with cool colours such as a grey turquoise, brownish orange, dark wood brown, alot of the colours are also blended in. Since we both enjoy the painting so much he took a photo of it hanging against the white wall. It is taken from an angle where you can see all the colours and the actual painting but not the entire big canvas, which i think is pretty cool. Chris has never taken any photography courses these 5 photos are the first photos he took when he bought the Nikon P100. Chris like a taking photos from different angles, lots of colour, lights, shadows, and even very simple things like a piece of paper he wrote on from a store called Karmaloop on Queen street downtown toronto. Which leads us into the third photograph he took it was tacked on to his wall. I know this seems like a very simple picture anyone can snap of, i like it because it's something taken from your everyday life and making it something more unique. The photo has a black and white touch to it not only is it just the photo of the note but we see the background however the cameras and viewers focus is on the note. Like i said Chris loves lights as do i and this is my second favourite from all the photographs he has taken. This photo was taken at ontario place on canada day he was watching the fire works the camera was set on high definition on fireworks setting. I enjoy the blur to it kind of makes it a trippy picture. Lastly my favourite photograph by Chris is the traffic photo taken on Hurontario and Rathburn in Mississauga during sunset. There is many different colours from the lights, sky, cars, road. The similarities of all his 5 photos are that he takes every day things that we see like traffic, paintings in our home, lights, and just random things laying around our house and he makes it more interesting to see. Instead of plain he puts different techniques and colours viewing it from another perspective. I think it's very important and interesting to see people that do photography as a side hobby and they learn so much on their own not necessarily taken courses for them. Of course it's boring to see or take photos in one way. I enjoy the urban feel to photography. I would definitely love to see more of his work.

One of Chris's (and also my) inspiration comes from Andy Warhol. Not only is Andy a photographer but an artist. Chris grew up painting and drawing he was very artistic also in a odd way, that's where i see andy and chris's similarities. Chris's photography and Andy's aren't exactly the same but Andy has been a big impact on just getting started with photography and art in general.  Like i said Chris loves scenery, abstract and realistic photography. Andy Warhol has lots of people in his photography which Chris hasn't taken any but he told me he would like to start. Another similarity in both photographers, that they shoot very very random things which always draws the attention leaving the person questioning. In Chris's photographs he took random things around his condo and outside and captured them through film and made it different, by changing things around or using different angles. A photo i would like to compare is the one chris took with a fish eye camera of eaton centre. He used a fish eye camera to give it that antique effect like andys work. However andy's work is also pretty old with not the greatest technology than. I like the fish eye effect and it looked like it was a really old picture. Chris and Andy also uses very vibrant colours making something ordinary "pop" and he can use very dark black and white but still make it look unique and artistic. Even though Andy didnt take pictures of scenery and was more focused on people and art Chris enjoyed that alot about Andy's work.

The second inspiration is Jamie Scarrow he is a local British Columbian photographer that takes photos of scenery and animals. Chris is a animal type of guy and he was searching online couple years ago and came across Jamie's work and loved it especially the animals and scenery photos. Chris said "This is so beautiful it almost feels realistic looking at his pictures. I want to do this!" Jamie has traveled many places and it made Chris want to explore the world more (he has never left this country and Ontario! ) The similarities in both of their work is it looks realistic and there are no editing. "Taking it as it is" as Chris said. I would like to compare the photo of the reflect from the windows Chris took and the one from the water Jamie took where it reflects the rainbow. Chris told me that this photo inspired him to capture the one from the building windows he saw one humid day outside his balcony. I also asked Chris why Jamie and Andy inspired him to take the photos he did. He said "I have a calm but super crazy side to me and i think thats where Jamie and Andy come in. Jamie seems like this calm guy that takes pictures of beautiful scenery and travels, you know that typical quiet guy. But Andy he's this crazy guy everyone knows it and he's a little out of the world! He takes things to the next level and looking at his photography its super random and crazy and i love it!! That's how i am sometimes I'm in the mood for crazy things and I'm super stoked to take my photography to the next level that's when i have time though, but i'd like to learn more and explore different types of photography and photographers. Jamie and Andy are my favourite by far and has impacted a lot of my photography. I'd like to learn how to edit my photos like andys."

Assignment Journal Topic 3

Photo alteration has greatly impacted journalistic photography. Here’s an example I found online; Martha Stewart gets out of jail March 2005, her coming out from behind the bars was a huge deal because she was a celebrity. Especially Martha Stewart the one that bakes cookies and looks like your grandmother? A photo-illustration was made, it was Martha’s head, but on the body of a model. Is that ethical or acceptable?  We are already in a world where we see disturbing or general things we may not want to see, it’s not really a surprise because now we have the technology people can alter their photos how ever they want. In our society it is likely that no one can or will do anything about it but we know as humans it could be cruel and we know it’s not right. However that is how they may alter it. Depends, if someone is altering a photo for better quality, than its great! We use an old photo where it’s a bit blurry and we use-editing techniques to make it clear. This topic causes many debates with a lot of photographers and even just the general public.

  Another example is a man name Ian McKellen was at a protest against Pope Benedict XVI, who was on his first state visit to the United Kingdom. A photo was taken of Ian wearing a shirt that said “ I’m Gandalt and Maneto. Get over it!” The original photo where Ian’s real shirt reads “ Some people are gay. Get over it!” Clearly the photo was edited and posted on the Internet. Greg Stekelman, the jokester, doctored the photo purely for fun and posted it on a personal twitter account before it went viral.  He wrote in an e-mail to Stinky Journalism that he has "nothing to do with either the 'Lord of the Rings' or 'The X-men' and I have no connection with Stonewall." Gandalf and Magneto are two characters McKellen has played in the movie series for Lord of the Rings and X-Men, respectively. "They all had a variety of reasons for turning up - some wishing to take a stand for secularism, others supporting feminism or gay rights and those who were primarily angry with the Vatican's stance on contraception and the way it handled sex abuse cases," The BBC wrote. Okay, now the question is: Is it right or not? Some may say yes of course because this is a free country we are titled to our own freedom. And some may say hell no its not right to alter a photo in a negative way. My answer is yes and no it just all depends how someone may alter the photo. Photography is a language. 

Sources :

http://www.stinkyjournalism.org/editordetail.php?id=886

http://repository.tamu.edu/bitstream/handle/1969.1/85719/Photo%20Thesis%20Rasior.pdf?sequence=1

Assignment 1- Photography journal Topic 2

Then and now, Ruin and rebirth




Press Photography

Art Photography 






                             
         

These four photographs speaks to us. Hurricane Katrina that hit the state of New Orleans around 5 years ago devastated the entire country and the world. At least 1,836 people lost their lives in the actual hurricane and in the subsequent floods, making it the deadliest U.S. hurricane total property damage was estimated at $81 billion. The first press photograph shows couple young African american teens on the ground, that seems like they have been camping there since their home got destroyed, with the pleading words of "The water is rising pleas" begging for help. This was in the newsone.com article. The second press photograph is a lady crying on the ground and families in the background sleeping on the streets. The two press photographs are very similar, both are pleading for help sadness on their faces and living on the streets during Hurricane Katrina. This photograph was taken after the Hurricane Katrina telling their stories to other, I found this article on tellingtheirstories.com. Telling Their Stories is the result of a small army of photojournalist’s desire to find purpose amidst the chaos. When people suffer, art reflectively finds a way to sift the meaning from the turmoil. Photography speaks with a commanding voice. Understanding rises from the confusion.The first art photograph is very powerful it shows the big tree nearly out of its roots and crushed a families house. This was at Louisiana cost taken by Edward Richards, he went to Louisiana University. The last art photograph is my favourite it is called the gray ghost of new orleans, Bandsky a graffiti artist and someone took a photo of it. It says alot the dark scary looking man in the art is erasing a stick figure on the wall, shows that new orleans people are sad and dark because of the natural disaster. However they are trying to clean up by erasing all the sadness that is is showed on the wall. All four of these photographs says alot to the audience each one of the photographs are at a different location and grieving in different ways but they all say the same thing, its sadness, begging for help, trying to rebirth their state, and struggling to build their life back. They had something to now nothing, these photographs have touched many others. 





http://tellingtheirstories.com/exhibit/
http://newsone.com/nation/associatedpress2/report-claims-wealthy-whites-received-katrina-loans-before-others/
http://weburbanist.com/2010/09/11/banksy-vs-the-gray-ghost-in-new-orleans/
http://www.epr-art.com/galleries/b3-hk-la/

Assignments/Assignment 3: Edit Submission, Photo Manipulation Assignment

I just recently got photoshop on my mac, so i am still a newbie to all this editing. However when i was younger i loved using photoshop and in high school we learned how to use it in art class. But that was many years ago. I'm just starting to get back into it. Photoshop is great! I love it, and I would love to learn how to use it better. When i first saw this assignment i was quit excited "Finally I can take photos, and edit them (which is my favourite!)." When many people think of editing, they think "oh I need to edit that pimple on my face before putting it on Facebook." Thank god for editing programs! These are still my first projects, there not perfect! Bare with me! =)

                                                  This is my main surf photo (main layer)

                                                                         2nd layer

                                                                         3rd layer

                                                                          4th layer

                                                                      EDITED:

Carrying on, my first photo is me surfing in Hawaii, February 2010. I had a friend take snap shots of me surfing. I wanted to make this photo more interesting, since I had so many snap shots. My goal is to have a main photo which is the first one below which is my main layer, and have 3 other supporting photos (which was taken "snap shot" perviously to the first photo above, scroll up and look to see me surfing to the main layer photo with Diamond Head in the back ground). I first used the magic wand featured on  the Photoshop CS5, selecting my self on the surf board in all 3 of the photos (this is not including my main layer) and than I dragged them into my main layer. I assembled each one of the 3 bodies behind each other giving it an interesting effect. Also each body's opacity faded. Now to my finish touches, I adjusted the vibrance, exposure, brightness/colour. I wanted to make the water lighter (that day the sun wasn't fully out) and the sky brighter. I mainly played around with the colours until I was satisfied.          Enjoy!





                                        ORIGINAL:

                                  EDITED:

This photo was taken last weekend, when my whole family went up to Algonquin Park for the day. My family and I was walking down from the mountain when i realized this very interesting tree. Many people may think its an old tree with no leaves and it looks a little scary. So I took a picture of it, and i set my camera that day to my manual which I custom changed the colour shifting the contrast so that the colours of the fall season seemed brighter and you can actually see the colours. I most definitely had the best photos that day out of everyone in my family. As you can see the original photo is nice and you can see all the colours of the leaves. I captured the orange, yellow and green leaves very well and its in layers, which I thought was cool. But the main purpose of this photo was this tree. On photoshop I adjusted and added brightness, contrast, vibrance, colour balance, shadows, highlights. The edited photo is now more bold, making the tree darker and sticking out more. Also the sky is even brighter, which makes all the colours even more "collide-able". I love fall, not for the weird warm and cool weathers but the changing of nature, the scenery, the leaves, the tree, it's all so beautiful and makes it a great time to take photos! Enjoy,CHEERS!

Assignments/Assignment #1: The role of portraits in the early days of photography and portraits today

The main differences between early days of photography and portraits today, are that technology has improved greatly now. Back in the day portraits were mainly black and white and old looking with not very good quality and focus, colour portraits were costly than, mainly wealthier families would have the colourful photos. Today we have family portraits, portraits in greeting cards, birthday cards, on the internet such as blogs and facebook etc... we take photos from angles, high up, down low with lots of colour, black and white, sepia and more. We take photography to the next level. Than there were many portraits of people and you must admit they look sad, angry, depressed and a lot of serious faces. The main similarity of old and new photography is that light is still needed to take photos. Old and New doesn't matter the picture or painting always tells a story.Before having a portraits of yourself is a privilege.

Cameras has refined with different lenses, types of cameras, best ones are usually very costly. Now photography has redefined itself example digital photography, contemporary photography and the list goes on. Photography can be a hobby now, and a occupation back than. Photography wasn't really considered a huge part of art the first photographers were capturing landscapes and portraits where presently we take photos of people, scenery, animals random things etc. because we find it intriguing.

Here are some photos can you tell which is taken recently and which one was taken back than?

In the past people that took photos usually from wealthier families and is a photographer for their occupation. Presently many people take photos, almost everyone owns a camera.
In the past technology wasn't as great as it is now. Now technology has basically taken over our lives, with out it we couldn't survive now. Now portraits are more focused and clear because we have better cameras and example photoshop to edit anything and everything we may dislike. The impact on technology is great it puts photography in a different prospect.