Photography Reflection Journal

The time I had outside and taking photos was very enjoyable. It was fun coming upon scenes that would fit different elements and principles. The only outdoor scene I had that was preplanned was the willow tree for movement--I thought the arching bend of the willow tree, where the cascading leaves practically reach the roots, allowed the eye to move nicely around the photo. It was interesting how some elements kept popping up in nature, whereas others were harder to find. Textures, for instance, were very easy to come by. While you would think color would be easy, I kept putting it off, trying to find a really interesting example of color, and ended up putting it off too long and having to use something at home (the analogous drawing pads). While color was of course everywhere, I was having trouble finding interesting color schemes that showed up well on the camera. That was one problem I was having--some of the details I was trying to capture weren't showing up very well with my digital camera. This was especially true for my flower-related photos.

I wasn't sure if we were allowed to take photos of artworks that are good examples of a particular element. The sculpture for proportion was too good to pass up, however, so I hope that's okay. It seemed better than just taking a photo of a painting. My favorite would probably be my image for line. I like how the lines of the brick follow inorganic shapes, and are layered on top with some nice descending organic lines. Harmony and variety probably caused me the most trouble. I wasn't sure how exaggerated the "sameness" and "differentness" should be for my examples of those principles. Harmony, especially, ended up being a pattern that was filled with the same geometrical shapes and colors. The sameness is such an extreme that it might verge on boring. My variety, on the other hand, was perhaps not different enough. It was one of the examples of the flowers being overpowered by the green that surrounds them more than I expected.

In hindsight, I wish more of my photographs had been more "meaningful." At the time, I was charmed by the nice day and was focused on capturing the different elements, but not all of them are as artful as I would like. As I said, I like the line, and rhythm, value, and form have their merits. I wish the composition was a bit better in my space, for I'm noticing now that it's a little crooked, and that is such an interesting space. I'd like to try this project again sometime, and look more into creating beautiful photographs that at the same time (perhaps subtly) possess these elements and principles.

My slide show can be found at: http://s1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc370/higginrc01/?albumview=slideshow
Or here: