Observation: Place 2

The small little walkway passes between two neighborhoods. It's called the "Plum Patch". Although i don't see any plums. Just rows and rows of houses that all look the same. Brown and big. They all have the same blueprints and it seems to normal to be normal. The road i walk on has been worn and i see the tracks of tires made by byciclists. Every now and then i kick a rock and listen to it skip across the dryness of the blacktop below me. To the one side of me there's a big sign that has been knocked over that says WELCOME TO......i can't read the rest because it's covered in weeds. The smallness of this path is only wide enough for maybe three people to walk shoulder to shoulder. I keep looking back and hoping that some byciclist won't run me over. It's a nice little place, secluded, and a place that i wouldn't feel comfortable in the dark, but it's nice in the daytime. There are new houses to my right that are being built. But they all look the same. They have no personality. Just plain, brown, bland. Bland. Bland. That's all this neighborhood is....bland. It almost takes away of the beauty of this little grove. I turn my head away from the plain houses and look at the wild weeds and flowers that give this pathway a little personality. But soon this little pathway will probably become somebody's backyard and nobody will be able to feel the beauty of this pathway again.

Observation: Place 1

The weeds have overrulled everything else. There used to be a canal here but i cant even see the water trickling down now. Although i hear the water. As i walk down the weeds become less and less. Although i see what has become not only grass but wild flowers, which i guess some people might still call weeds since they are plentiful. The little purple flowers are flourishing from the water of the canal but as i walk down further i can smell what smell like sewer, all though this isn't a sweage place. At the end of the canal there is a dark tunnel that leads further into the earth. The stench is horribly strong here and it looks like the tunnel will never end and that darkness will rule forever. But as i look down the clear water flows over the rocks giving them a sheen of sparkle as the light hits them just right. I look across and there's this big black spot on the rocks ahead, and it looks like someone lit a firework that exploded there.

Observation: Person 2

He is strong and robust. His hair is cropped short on his head, like he's been in the military. He's probably in his early 40's though. His face is hard and stern as he watches his two sons mow his lawn. it's like He's coaching him. He was probably a football player in highschool, he looks as though he would be a football coach. His eyes flicker back and forth from son to son, to make sure they do a perfect job. He probably has a OCD sense about him because the feeling he gives off is that everything has to be perfect or he'll make you do it all over again from scratch. He would be a good military leader. His arms are folded across his chest, and his face has turned to a scowl of dissaproval. I feel bad for his sons.

Observation: Person 1

Her shoulder-length blond hair wisps in curls around her face. She looks tired and I can see the wrinkles starting to form around her eyes. The dark circles under her eyes suggest that she didn't get a great night's sleep. She was probably kept up again by her 5 year old son. She's sitting on the porch watching that boy and his three sisters playing basketball. She's leaning back as if she was remembering her childhood. Her baggy faded blue shirt suggests that she has worn it many times before, perhaps for cleaning around the house? She has a faded look in her eyes almost as if she's ready to retire. She must be very tired for it shows in the emotion of her face. You can see the grey in her hair as it's starting to grow out of the roots, the first sign of old age. Although she could possibly be in her middle fourties. She looks worn though, like her shirt, possibly with all those kids she has approched old age too quickly.

Journal 4: The Life of A Rose

So i'm really excited to shoot my final assignment. I also really like the name of my final assignment cause it just rolls off the tongue, and it sounds poetic. Anyway as i have mentioned in my previous journals i really like photographing flowers (i just have a thing for flowers it's not all that wierd....is it?) So when Mr. P. mentioned that our assignment had to do with time the first thing that popped into my head was....well...the life of a rose. I thought it represented time very well and had a feeling of melancholly about it, or as they say in japanese, mono-aware (i also like the message of melancholy...even if it's wierd). So my plan was to get a white sheet for the background so the main focus would be on the rose itself.

I think my shooting went really well although i started to run out of time, which when you think about it is kind of ironic since this whole term revolved around time....But anyway i'm actually really happy the way my pictures turned out, although a few of them (the ones that i tried printing but didn't end up in my final project themselves) were blurry which made me kind of mad. Also one thing i would change was that one picture in my series of seven was vertical while the rest were horzontal, so i would make that one horizontal too or i would have a bigger collection of pictures and make a couple more vertical. I liked the light in my pictures thanks to the room we call the "sun" room. Hence the name. I really like the last picture in the series, the one that has no petals, and also the one that's starting to droop. I think these two pictures have a special meaning and really express what the Japanese call "mono-aware". Overall i'm quite happy with my final project.

And i'm quite sad that the term has ended. BYE PHOTO! :'( I'll see you next year!

Journal #3: Night

So i had some really cool ideas for night, and i was really excited to do this project, it seemed like a really cool project. Again i wanted to shoot flowers especially dead flowers because in my mind it had a connection to night and it, (to me at least) portrayed a specific feeling (although i'm not quite sure what feeling). Also flowers are like the best thing i can photograph, cause you know how some people are way good at portraits? Well with me it's flowers (i hope :)). I also really wanted to shoot this canal that was behind my house because i think it would have some really neat photo opportunnities.

So this project was almost a complete disaster. First off i sort of kind of procrastinated which was very bad of me, because procrastination sucks. And second i don't think i lived up to my full potential in this assignment. I also had some restrictions, like having to go to bed at 9:30, and it not getting dark untill 8:00 (my curfew sucks) but it's still my fault that i procrastinated so i take the blame there. I do like some of my pictures though. One of my favorites is my tomato plant picture, (the one in the barrel if you can't figure out which one Mr. P.) I really like how it all seems very geometric with all the lines and stuff, i also really like geometry (maybe there's a connection???). I also like the one of the dead plant because it did get my message across of, well i actually don't know, melancholy maybe? OH but the thing that went disasterously wrong was that i lost my little night assignment sheet so i didn't know at how many seconds to shoot and so i winged it and the was a really bad mistake cause all my pictures seemed brighter than day and i mean really bright.....and then my camera broke and i had to open it up and thought i lost like half my pictures (and there wern't that many to begin with) Anyway i just don't think i did my best on this project.

So moral of the story DON"T PROCRASTINATE!!!! And never lose a sheet where it tells you for how long you should shoot. And never let your camera break on you, even if it wasn't even your fault and had nothing to do with you.

Journal #2: Before and After (or in my case, close closer and closest)

Before: So i really didn't know what to do for this assignment, my mind was really blank. I thought that the close closer and closest one would be easier than the Before and After. And i was so right. Although i did have some ideas for this assignment they usually ended up being quite impossible to do so i never really ended up doing those. Some ideas i had were of flowers, since i really love photographing flowers, but it was because i couldn't get a flower to grow fully in the time period i had. So the main point of this before paragraph was that i really was out of ideas for this project and i really didn't know what to do....

After: So i really took my time with this assignment (and no i wasn't procrastinating ;).....for the most part.) I ended up doing no before and afters but that's ok cause i actually really liked the photographs that i took. Before i was talking about how i had no ideas and that was absolutly true until about the last week. But in that last week i was on a roll and just started to take of what i thought were really good pictures. So yay me! I think my project turned out quite well and i think i had a really good contact sheet and many possibilites to choose, from. I really like my my silloutte piano pictures that go together because i really like the light in the pictures and also the background (which was a mirror). I liked my other three pictures also although the last picture of the group was a little blurry. But overall i think they turned out quite well.

Art Wolfe

*note* click on the photographs to see the whole picture, for some reason they got cut off.

So before i begin i must have a thing for nature photographers cause this is my second research assignment about a nature photographer. AND who wouldn't want to do a research assignment on a guy whose name is Art, I mean really that's an awesome name for a photographer. I mean if anybody else was named Art, people would laugh but not in this case cause it totally fits!

I had to add this picture befor i start talking cause it's amazing. It's a photograph Art Wolfe's assistant took of him and it makes me want to be Art Wolfe cause i totally would want to be there!



Art Wolfe was born in 1951 and is an American photographer, and is known for his colour photographs of wildlife and nature and his advocacy of wildlife conservation. He graduated from the University of Washington in 1975, and has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, with a minor in Art Education. He has taken about one million images in his lifetime, and has released over forty-five books. In April 2000 Wolfe was awarded a coveted Alfred Eisenstaedt Magazine Photography Award. In 1998, he was named Outstanding Nature Photographer of the Year by the North American Nature Photography Association and in 1996 Photographer of the Year by Photo Media magazine.

Over the course of his 30-year career, Art Wolfe has worked on every continent. His stunning images interpret and record the world's fast-disappearing wildlife. His unique approach to nature photography is based on his training in the arts and his love of the environment. In 1998, The National Audubon Society recognized Wolfe's work in support of the national wildlife refuge system with its first-ever Rachel Carson Award. *note* Wolfe spends nearly nine months a year traveling.



I really like this photograph, not only because i'm a horse lover but because it's a great photograph. I think the speckled water everywhere makes the picture very dramatic and interesting. The photograph is very detailed, so detailed that you can see how slick and wet the hair on the horse is.



I think this is a very interesting photograph. I really like the light in this photograph, and i think the redness of the sky is really cool. It reminds me of the northern lights, but this was taken in Panama so i don't think it is but still.... I also like the format of this photograph, and how there are two lonely tree stubs(?), and how even though there are other interestings parts of the photograph your eye is always drawn to those two tree stubs(?).



I think this may be one of the most amazing photographs i've seen in my life, but i'm not quite sure what it is. Well obviously it's ice but it's like 3d and it pops out at you, it's very wierd in like an amazingly fantastic way. I really love the lighting in this photograph. I also like the other ice mountain thingies in the background, like the one right to the left of the big main ice thingie, the ice mountain in the background has a really cool shape. The light that shines through the big ice thing is amazing and really adds to the beauty of this photograph.



This is another amazing photograph. Again the light is amazing and the way he captures the waves exploding on the rocks are, well, amazing. It reminds me of fireworks. And the rock in the middle reminds me of a fountain that's never ending. This photograph really shows the emotion of the waves. It shows the angryness (is that a word?) of the waves but at the same time it shows the beauty of it and this photograph elongates that feeling of anger and beauty.



I really like this photograph cause it shows a moment frozen in time, and allows you to see the real beauty of this creature.


I just have to say that by looking at Art Wolfe's pictures that i have truly become a big fan of him. I really think his photo's are fantastic and amazing, and i'm glad i did my research project on him. So here i end my research assignment with one more photograph that i though captured the true beauty of all creatures.



How can you not say "awwww"?

Galen Rowell

Galen Rowell was born in 1940 in Oakland, and raised in Berkeley, California. He is a nature photagrapher and taking photographs was his way to share his high and wild world with friends and family. In 1972 he became a full-time photographer after selling his small automotive business. Less than a year later he did his first major magazine assignment, a cover story for National Geographic. In 1984 he received the Ansel Adams Award for his contributions to the art of wilderness photography. In 1992 Galen received a National Science Foundation Artists and Writers Grant to photograph Antarctica.Galen Rowell and his wife, Barbara, were killed in a plane crash near the Bishop airport on August 11, 2002

Galen Rowell's photographs reflect his childhood exposure to wilderness and adventure. When he was little he was always exposed to nature. Annual summer pack trips into the High Sierra from the age of ten led to roped climbs in Yosemite at sixteen and a hundred first ascents of new routes in the mountains of California by the time he was thirty. I think Galen Rowell's pictures capture beauty and prolongs what would normally be a rare moment. He captures the beauty of nature by showing things we would normally not notice.



I really like this picture. I think is beautiful especially on the mountains in the background. They look like they're glowing.
I also like how colorful the photograph is. It shows the beauty of when your in the middle of nowhere and how undisturbed everything is. This picture doesn't have an exact location but it was taken in the hills above Biship, California.



I also really like this picture, it has a mysterious quality about it. I think that the fog and the snow combined together is what makes is so mysterious. But one thing that i think is interesting is the light on the cliff in the upper left corner. It sort of shows in a symbolic way that there is a glimmer of hope in all this fog and snow. Overall i think it's a beautiful photograph.



This is an amazing picture. This ancient city has been photographed several times by diffent photographers but I think that Galen Rowell really captures the beauty of this city. I think that the sky in this photograph adds to the beauty and gives just the right light to make this photograph amazing. Also i think it's amazing just to see this deserted ancient city and to capture it in such a lovely way is amazing. This photograph was taken in the mountains of Peru.



This isn't one of my very favorite photographs but i still really like it. I think that the vibrant colors of the rainbow are fantastic. Also how the rainbow is directly hitting this mini city(?) is an amazing amount of luck. Although it's not one of my favorite photographs it's still really beautiful.



This is an unusual photograph because there aren't many trees out there that look like this one. It's really cool that he captured such an unique tree. This photograph is also really cool and interesting because it doesn't really look like a photograph but more of a drawing.