Things Are Looking Up In San Francisco

In this photo there are numerous things that the audience can look at. At first glance, my eye went straight to the trolley car and the people standing on the car on the side. My eye then went straight to the center of the photo where the water and the little island are positioned in the distance. As I kept looking at the photo, my eye was then directed to the horizon and the hills in the upper portion of the photo. I found that having multiple things to look at in this photo to be interesting because even though there is a lot going on in the scene, each portion I looked at did not take away from from the other big portions of the photo. The tree on the left side and the division line between the street and horizon give the photo a square shape. This photo also tells a story and gives an insight to what the town/place is actually like. The trolley carrying people off into the distance gives the audience a sense to where they are going and that there is more to the town. The unknown place of where the trolley is going also tells a story of hope because we do not know exactly where the people are going but the horizon and the island in front of them shows that they are going somewhere calm. Overall, this photo intrigued me because of the beautiful scenery and the complex, but simple multiple objects in the photo.

Two Diligent Students

I chose this photo because I liked how the animals in this photo are doing something out of the ordinary. The fact that the photographer captured two rabbits doing the same unusual thing (standing on two paws)is also fascinating to me. There could be various meanings that this photo brings to the audience. At first glance, I thought that the rabbit closest to the viewer was standing on two paws in front of a mirror and the rabbit furthest from the viewer was the mirror image. However, when I looked closer, I found that the photo was telling some sort of story. The rabbit closest to the viewer is a parent who is standing on two paws. The rabbit furthest from the viewer is the child mimicking his/her parent. I also liked how the photo was in black and white and not color. The rabbits' white fur really stands out in this photo and I think that if this photo was in color it would take away the focus of the two rabbits doing a trick. Another thing that caught my eye in this photo is the arch in the rabbit's back closest to the audience. His back curves in a way that frames the second rabbit doing the trick in the background. This gives the photo some shape and an artistic view.

Andy Grundberg , Camera, Published March 24, 1991

In Andy Grunberg’s article, Camera, he explains how filing photos has become a common problem for most photographers due to how much time it takes to organize them. Grundberg found batches of family photos and slides of old family vacations, however, if he wanted to find a certain photo, he would have to search through the batches of photographs until he found what he was looking for. This process would take too much time if the photos were not organized in some way. In order to solve this problem, Grundberg talks about how most photographers used McBee filing cards. However, this process also consumed a lot of the photographers’ time. Grundberg then reviews a certain computer program, Superset that is supposed to save time by inserting photographs into the computer and organizing them into certain categories of choice. Grundberg proposes that the computer program isn’t the most efficient and quick way to organize photos because of the numerous options and menu tools. This would actually create more work for the photographer because there are more options to choose from and sub categories to organize the photos in. Grundberg concludes his article by stating that only the most patient and persnickety photographers would want to use the computer program because of its multiple menu options. Overall, Grundberg says the computer may do the job of organizing photos, but it does not do it instantaneously and he would rather stick to organizing photos in a shoe-box.

In my opinion, I agree with Grundberg. Although the computer program may have a great way to organize photos, it may actually make it more complicated and tedious for the photographer. I feel as though the simpler the organization, the easier it is to find the photos and quicker it is to organize them. Otherwise, photographers are going to run into the same problem of not wanting to organize their photos at all because it takes too long or it is too complicated. I think that if I were to use the computer program, I would not sub categorize my photos because I would personally forget which category I put that photo in. I think this especially applies to photographers who take 100 photos a day. It would be one thing if there were only one category to place each set of photographs, but to have sub-categories within the major category can make it more confusing. Overall, I enjoyed reading Grundberg’s article about organizing photos and found it interesting that people would rather stay away from the new technology for once and keep it simple by storing them in things, such as shoe-boxes.

Untitled, 2009

This photo is interesting to me because the photographers angle and use of mirrors portray a message of self reflection in multiple points of view. The reflection that the women see in the mirror can have a different meaning than the reflection the audience sees. When the women look at themselves in the mirror they may see personal flaws or strengths that we, as an audience, do not see or feel because we do not know them personally. Also, the mirror shows only a portion of their faces and not their body. Normally when women look in the mirror they critique their bodies, but in this photo it is as if the photographer wanted to get across the strength and weakness of the minds of women. Another thing that I found interesting about this photo was that the position the women are in is a circle and the mirrors are in the shape of a circle. To me, the shape of a circle represents a continuous motion where there are no stops and everything is connected. This makes me think that maybe the women in the picture have things in common with one another or are connected in some way.

Physical Chemistry Lab