Photography Portfolio - Photo: the technical art class 2013

8/10/2019 Photography Portfolio - Photo: the technical art class 2013

1/13


2/13

The Moon DanceWinona, 2013

This is a photograph token in the Chinese Moon Festival held in the university by the Chinese student.

Through it, I aimed to create an illustration that gives a general idea about the event and its show. My subject

matter is obviously the dancers and I chose the timing to shoot them while they were performing focusing and

moving synchronously as a one person. I like how they are standing with their opened hands and handling the

scarfs. It shows their smooth movements and concentrations on the dance. I made the colors black and white

because I think that the colors would be distracting and I intended that the viewer focus more on the shapes.


3/13

AuroraMississippi River, 2013

I took this photograph at the Mississippi River when I

heard about an Aurora, an astronomical phenomenon, can

be seen from Winona. I thought that will be a great

opportunity to capture the combination of a normal night

river landscape and the astronomical phenomenon.

Shooting in the dark is very difficult especially without

using a support like tripod so I tried to have a large

aperture opening and a slow shutter speed. Colors arehere analogous. They are creating a rich monochromatic

look going from the blue to the green, which create a

relaxing image to admire for the viewer. The lines drawn

with the river, the Aurora and the mounts are horizontal

and plays a role at adding this relaxing side to the viewer


4/13

I like this photograph

because I think thats a good

example of what I learnt during

this class. Before I didnt give

too much importance to the

shadows, I wasnt able to take

light in consideration. I used

shadows to create a kind of

symmetry of the stairs and at the

same time intended to represent

the Outside Fire Exit Stairs, one

of the characteristics of theNorth American big cities

buildings. The side hard light of

the sun created a certain high

contrast in some areas where

the black is too black but with

preserving the mid tones of grey.

Reflected StairsChicago, 20


5/13

Dinosaur MediaChicago, 2013

This is a great example of my interest to Street Photography. When I was walking in downtown Chicago,

I was just trying to figure out what are the special characteristics of the city. The newspapers boxes was one the

things that attracted me. Maybe the different colors were the cause that made me staring at them. At first, I didnt

have an idea of what these boxes are for (difference in culture probably), and why no one cares about. Then

came this woman who was waiting for someone or something but at the same time was staring at the boxes too.

In that moment, I understood that we were thinking at the same thing. I decided to take my camera and take thephoto. Definitely, my intent is to show how newspapers are forgotten nowadays, no one cares about and how the

modern media replaced them. The first thing that eye see is definitely the woman followed by the newspaper

boxes and then coming back to the woman to understand what she is looking at. I used a large depth of field to

show the whole scene on the street.


6/13

This is a great example for a combination

that we spend the whole semester trying

to capture in every of our photographs. I

was impressed of the amount of fog that

night, So, I decided to take my camera

and go out and try to capture it. I found

this bike parked in the street near the tree

and I thought that was a great subject

matter for my photograph. Using a small

aperture opening that will let me get a

large depth of field; I know how to

capture the foggy background, which was

my first interest. Concerning the light, I

used the street light and I was waiting on

the other side for a passing car to add the

bike some more brightness from the frontbut without affecting the shadow created

by the street light from behind. The

atmosphere, the light and the contents

created a cinematic effect for the

photograph.

NightriderWinona, 2013

On the other hand, I focused on how I am

going to present my photograph. Nowadays, screens

are everywhere and we get any information through

screens. I thought that presenting my photograph on

three different screens (computer, phone, tablet)

could be a good idea to express our digital era.


7/13

Gazebo between summer and winterWinona, 2013

This is a diptych that illustrates the gazebo in Winona State Campus between summer and winter. I took the

photos in the beginning and in the end of this semester. Through it, I intended to show contrast in many ways of the

same place. The first contrast is between the seasons (Winter/summer), then between day/night, light/no light,

snow/no snow, building/nature in the background (that is symbolizing we used to spend more time outdoor during the

summer and indoor in the winter). In both photos, I used a high contrast too, tons of white are white and tons of black

are black. This is clear when we compare both skies and that is too one of the reasons that I choose to transform both

photos in black and white.


8/13

Rainy day

Winona, 2013

I tried to express a clear

photograph of a rainy day by focusing on the

raindrops falling down the window. I wanted to

illustrate that lazy Sunday feeling at home, through

the color of the sky and the overall bad weather. I

used a shallow depth of field using a long focal

length (135mm) and a manual focus because I

had to pick a specific point to focus on. There

were very small details of the raindrops that I

wanted to focus on, on the window. Theasymmetry is here between the foreground and

the background to try to understand what the

subject matters in the photo are.


9/13

Infinite lettersWinona, 2013

In this photograph, I portrayed a

display of infinite letters on a metal plate. I

chose this angle to focus on the letters rather

than the actual words. Its hard to focus on

the words, and it emphasizes the importance

of the landscape of letters. Looking down on

a subject can appear to flatten space and

reduce a subject to its graphic elements. The

letters flow towards the horizon and the

words are harder to make out as they fade

away in the distance. The crossing lines

intersect on the upper left corner, where the

lines meet in the rule of thirds. I chose this

angle on purpose, to emphasize the

intersection of the lines, and create depth in

the photo. This repetition of letters created a

certain pattern.


10/13

City heartChicago, 2013

Still with Street Photography, this is a photo of Anish Kapoor artwork The Cloud Gate inMillennium Park, downtown Chicago how I saw it. It becomes one the first tourist getter of the city andin the country. My subject matter is the bean, the visitors, the building representing the city and theplane representing too the high rate of traffic that the city experience.


11/13

I will finish myportfolio by presenting thisphotograph taken inWinona West Lack, that Ithink illustrating very wellthe town during the warmseasons by its beautifullacks where people canenjoy walking around andmeditate. The humanelement in the frame withthe presence of two girlsadded an emotionalconnection. The viewerwould himself there and

this can play an importantrole if this photographcould be a cover of amagazine for exampleillustrating the city. Thetime when the photo wastaken is in the afternoon,so the light is beginning tobecome softer. Colors areanalogous with thesedifferent values of greenand yellow.

The afternoon walkWinona, 2013


12/13

REFLECTIVE EVALUATION

During this class, I experienced many changes as an amateur photographer.Before, I used to take photos without having an exact intent. I just press the button ofthe camera because what I saw in the viewfinder was beautiful without thinkingabout the framing, the light, the colors, the subject, the subject matter and the mostimportant the intent. This portfolio present a couple of photographs that I capturedthis semester between Winona and Chicago demonstrating my mastery of thematerial presented in this class. What I learnt about photograph is to take the mostin consideration the intent, which is the main idea and message of an artwork. Thisintent show is clear to the viewer using the different technical parts of photography. Ilearned how to give importance to perspective and point of view which influent onthe distance between the different elements within the frame and change how they

will look like to the viewer (smaller/bigger, closer/farther, shallower/deeper,wider/narrower). Giving importance to the framing and how to place the subject alsoplay a role in excluding what it is not essential to the photographers intent. Inaddition, I learned how to be more creative and deal with the different issues that anartist face. The creative process is based on habit and routine and I had better tokeep working on this method after the class end to improve more my photographyskills after getting enough tools (brainstorming, shooting, processing, presenting...)to create the artwork that express the most my thoughts and the messages that Iwould to transfer to the audience.

I will end up by presenting some other photos that I took during this semester:


13/13

Documents

Photography Portfolio - Photo: the technical art class 2013