Week 9

Assignment:
-The assignment for this week was to create a first draft of the story using the pictures that were taken and modified using the photoshop program.

Craft: (How did you do it?)
-Having everything sorted out as far as which pictures will be used to create the appropriate slide of the story Jessica and I began working and meshing pictures together to get our story across to other people. Since there were twelve slides to the story and two of us we decided to divide the slides in half; this did not mean that each partner worked alone because even though the slides were divided we gave each other inputs on how the slide can be improved throughout the whole process. Having a rough idea of the layout of the slide and the picture in front of me I began by selecting a main photograph that will act as a background. After having that figured out I began working on the subjects. The first thing that I did was select the magic wand tool because this tool will be the most efficient; there were a couple of pictures were the background and the clothing on the subject matched in color and this presented a problem. This posed a problem because the magic wand tool works on the principle of selecting pixels that are similar in hue in comparisons to the one that was initially selected. Using the magic wand tool, I removed as much of the unwanted pixels as possible and the once that presented a problem I used the eraser tool to get rid of the pixels that were not desired. In some cases the edges were a little rough after the erasing so to fix that the smudge tool was utilized. Having learned how to apply different filters during the previous session of class, I applied those filters that I believed help accomplish the message. In some slides, I added digital color. This was done to improve the picture and to make the style of the slide a little more unique; all digital color that was added was added on a new layer because this gave the freedom to play around and trash anything that did not work out without harming the original. Before saving a copy I made sure that the image was still readable; once I was happy with the arrangement of elements and the colors I saved it. The described process above was applied to all the slides that I created. Today, during the critique, the groups were allowed to look at all the stories and had an opportunity to make comments on anything. The objective was to look at each slide individually, meaning not looking ahead to figure out the plot, but to look at each frame and decide what it is trying to say, and the comments had be written on the back of each slide. Doing this will help the creators of the story know if they are sending the right message; if the case is that the images or arrangement of these images is sending the wrong message than the comments should help guide the authors of the story on to a path to fixing the problem. After every group had a chance to examine other stories we were given a few minutes to look at the comments that our stories received. After reading the comments it became evident that some things need to be straightened out.

Composition: (Arrangement and order of elements)
-Slide number 9 which is the one where Dr. Little is inquiring about the convention; this photo was made using the previously described methods. Dr. Little is placed in the center and the eyes of the viewer are draw to him first. The next thing that becomes visible as the eye travels is the piece of paper that he is holding which is key to the story. The clerk is the next person that gets noticed because she is right next to the paper. Next, the eye travels to the big calendar date because the clerk is pointing to that location. Image has some digital color, but it was done purely for aesthetics. Some suggestions that were proposed was to add the month and the year to the white paper to make sure that it appears as a date and not just some random number.
-Slide number 8 is where the girls are exchanging the phone. The first person to get noticed is the girl wearing the orange sweater because of its brightness; next, the eye travels down the arm and reaches the phone and then travels to the next person in the picture. During the critique there was some confusion about the object being transferred from one person to the next; this problem occurred because of the filter that was applied, thus to solve this problem the filter needs to be removed or adjusted so no question can arise as to the identity of the object.
-Slide number 3 is when Amanda, the fictional character, is sleeping and dreaming about the family she wants to have. The first thing that jumps out is the girl sleeping which is followed by the bubble. In the bubble the eye travels clockwise because the man in the bubble is the closest; the next thing that gets noticed is the girl in the bubble. She gets noticed over the babies because she is bigger. Thus the last thing to get noticed are the babies. During the critique, for the most part, the message that was intended got out and was received.

Concept: (What are you trying to say?)
-Using the pictures above as well as other photographs that are part of the story I am trying to say that you should think hard and make sure that you are ready for commitment as well as make sure that the other person feels the same way before major commitments are made.

Week 8

Assignment:
-The assignment was to bring pictures to class that might be used to tell the story that the group came up with.

Craft: (How did you do it?)
-Having the printed copy of the dialogue in front of us, Jessica and I decided that we will use the twelve slides option to tell our story. Next we decided what will go into each slide; establishing the necessary details of slide was critical because this is going to help us determine what, who, and how pictures need to be made. Having covered all the preliminary details it was time to go out and take the pictures for the story. I was in charge of taking photographs of places and things. Using the story as my guide I knew that I had to get some pictures of Hotels, cabs, and an airport among other thing as well. Knowing that the story takes place in Italy it was important for us to establish this fact; it is important because this is where the convention is going to take place and it is where Dr. Little falls for another woman. One of the most recognizable facts about Italy is that this is the location of the leaning tower of Piza, thus I went out and got a picture of the tower. I got several shots of this tower so that later Jessica and I can pick the one that will work the best with other picture. Another picture that helps establish that Dr. Little is leaving is a picture of the airport terminal. In the story, Dr. Little arrives to Italy at night; knowing this fact I took a picture of a hotel in the evening, and as luck would have I got a couple of cabs in the shot which is going to help the story; the way it is going to help the story because it tell the audience that the character has arrived and is checked into the hotel. Other important details that had to be represented in the story was the time and that Amanda is waiting at home for her husband. The picture that is going to help make that case is the picture of the clock and the picture of a girl waiting and staring outside. The strategy that I used when taking photographs was to take several shot of the same object; I did this by varying the distance between me and the object as well as the angle of the camera. The other pictures that were critical to the story were the characters and these pictures were provided by Jessica. The picture include people in different positions and a variety of hand gestures. Combining our picture together we narrowed down to some essential pictures that will be used to tell the story. During the class period we learned some feature that would help each team to make their stories unique; some of these features include the numerous filter options as well as how to apply digital color to a black and white photo; however, this technique is not limited to just black and white photos, it can be used on any photograph and used to make something jump out at the audience. The color can be used differently; some may use color to draw attention to something or someone may use the color to set the mood for the story. It is recommended that if a color is going to be added it should be done in a new layer; this prevents any mishaps.

Composition:
-I really like the picture of the leaning tower of Piza; I like this picture for several reasons. One reason is that it is going to make it easier for us to communicate to the audience that half of the story is going to take place in Italy without using any written communication. The other reason is that it is just an incredible piece of architecture. The other picture that I like is the picture of the hotel in the evening. This photograph was taken at night, but because of the lights located on the over-hang details were not lost to the dark environment; instead of fading, the main entrance pops-out.

Concept:
-Using the picture that were gather by Jessica and me we hope to tell the story about a doctor who travels to another county and falls in love with another woman. The story reveals some of the hardships that newlyweds go through during the first year of marriage because as the common belief says, "the first year is the hardest."

Week 7

Assignment:
-The assignment for this week was to come up with an idea for a story in our groups and type it out; the story had to contain the following three pieces:
a. one person waiting
b. one person traveling
c. and one of these individuals has the package for the other

Craft: (How did you do it?)
-The first thing that needed to be addressed is the idea for the story. Some brainstorming was done, but eventually an idea was settled upon. The idea was proposed by my partner, Jessica. Using outside of the box thinking she came up with an idea; the central theme of the story was already done for us, but it was up to us to fill-in the detail. The proposed idea was that one character is a husband who is away on business and he is traveling back home; the second character is his wife who is at home waiting for him, and the package that the husband is bringing home is another woman whom he chooses to be with. Having this general statement as a backbone a dialogue was created. I got the opportunity to let my imagination run free. After completing a rough draft of the story line, I sent it to Jessica for her approval as well as adding any additional pieces of information she felt the story was lacking. After a couple of more modification we felt that the story was complete. In the end it was established that the husband's name is going to be Dr. Little who is a year old family physician who owns his own family practice on the North Side of Chicago. The wife's name is Amanda; Amanda is a 25 year old nurse working at Rush Hospital. The last major character in this story is Nicole who is a 23 year old receptionist at the Villa la Massa hotel where the 2009 American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) annual convention will be held. Using the dialogue of the story as map, I went out and took the pictures that would help tell the story.

Composition:
-The possible photograph candidates that will be used for this project are located above. The reason why these photograph would make a great addition and help tell the story is because they fit in with the set theme. The first picture deals with one of the set ground rules for this story; one person waiting. The other picture that you see above helps establish the fact that the husband is leaving the country because this picture was taken at O'Hare airport fifth terminal which is used for international flights; establishing the international feel of the photo are different flags from different countries.

Concept:
-Using the pictures that will be taken by my partner, Jessica, and me we hope to tell a story that we created. A story about a husband who goes to an annual convention and bring home a girl home to his wife. The story addresses a couple of questions indirectly, and these questions are is there true love? and how much faith plays a role in our lives?

Week 6

Assignment:
-The assignment was to create a rough draft of an image that communicates a message to the viewer using as many pictures as needed.

Craft: (How did you do it?)
-Having the central theme of the image in the back of my mind I started to pick images from the contact sheet that I wanted to use in this project. After picking out the appropriate images I began thinking about the layout of the image. Having a rough idea of how things are going to be arranged I opened the photoshop program to begin working on the project. After setting up the dimensions of the new document I copy and pasted the image that I wanted to use for the background. The image that I ended up picking to use for the back ground is the photo of the park. I chose this image because it provided a lot of space to work with, and another reason why I chose this photo is because it is a photo where one can frequently find a dog with the owner. Now that the background was set it was time to fill the space to communicate a message. I added some puppies and other dogs. To cut the dogs out from their original images I used the magic wand tool. This tool allowed me to select the pixels that I wanted to keep which allowed me to copy them and paste them to the project in progress. Since one of the central ideas of the message was being forced to do what you do not want to do I had to get something or someone to help me establish this relation; to get this accomplished I found a police officer who volunteered to have his picture taken. At this point I was missing the owner who is being forced to do what he does not want to do. I took a picture of my dad with garden scissors and in scrubs; these items create an impression that the owner becomes the veterinarian who will do the unfortunate deed. To the image I added some minor detail such as the "PetSmart" logo and the clean up after your dog sign. After adjusting the brightness and contrast where necessary and making sure that the things are arranged the way I wanted I saved the copy and printed one. Having one in color I thought it would be a good idea to have it black and white; in order to make one in back and white I used the option to desaturate the color from all the layers. When I was happy with the product I saved and printed one copy. During the critique I found out the some things in the image did not really add up, thus some improvements were necessary. One area where some improvement was needed is the two individuals in the picture. Since the police officer's pointing did not mach up to where it is intended for him to be pointing I need to move the individuals a little towards the center. The dogs and the individuals have bright colors and stand out from the background and it is something that I needed to address. One way to fix this is to make the background brighter by adding color. Taking into consideration these suggestions I will improve the first draft.

Composition: (Arrangement and order of elements)
-When someone looks at this photograph the first thing that would be noticed are the dogs. This occurs because they are the closest object to the viewer. The next thing that probably is observed is the two individuals. This is enough to accomplish the central theme of the photograph. After noticing the important objects in the photograph the eye may travel around and see the logo of the store and the other puppy who is running towards the police officer.

Concept: (What are you trying to say?)
-Using a couple of photographs I am trying to get across the message that mandating neutering is wrong. The decision to neuter a pet should only be made by the owner and not the people sitting on the Board. The reason why this big decision should be left to the owner is because the owner knows the pet the best.

Week 5

Assignment:
-The assignment was to come up with an idea for the new project and take pictures that would help convey the intended message.

Craft:
-Before taking any pictures I did some brainstorming to figure out what is it that I want to say with my art. It took some time for me to come up with an idea, but as I was walking the dog I was stuck with an idea. I remembered that a couple of months ago the Cook County Board had a bill that they were going to vote on; this bill was about mandating dog owners to have their pets neutered. Having this opportunity I would like to voice my opinion on this issue. Having figured out what my central idea was going to be I went out and took pictures that would help me get my point across. I visited a couple of stores were puppies were sold and took pictures of them behind the cages. The purpose of these images is to create an emotional feeling in the audience and will create a feeling of guilt if the cute little puppies are hurt in any way. Other pictures establish and link the owner to his or her best friend; this is evident in one of the pictures where it seems like the dog is giving a "high-five." Having taken some pictures of dogs and their owners I proceeded to taking pictures where dogs and their owners spend some quality time. I took a picture of a park where during the morning hours there are a lot of people jugging with their pets and enjoy each others company. Owners take pride in their pets and pet related merchandise is a million dollar industry and some examples of these industries include hospitals, dog grooming salons, and stores such as Pet'Smart. The overall meaning of the message that I am trying to get across with this project is that mandated neutering is wrong and this tremendous decision should be left to the owner of the pet not the "man."

Composition:
-The two photos located in the beginning of this post are possible candidates that will make the cut to be used in this project. The reason why I like the park photograph is because this is an area where I frequently see pet owners come out and play games with their pets such as Frisbee. The owners play a pivotal role in the life of their pets; from the daily tasks such as feeding to taking them to the veterinarian for a physical. It only seems right that the decision is left to the owner. The second photograph appeals to the audience by appealing to the soft side of the emotions. Seeing a couple of puppies in the cage awaiting their unfortunate destiny will make any man cry. When one looks at this picture the puppy is staring back with those puppy dog eyes that creates a sympathetic feeling. Thus creating a situation where a questions arises; the question becomes "How can a law that mandates debilitating procedures on puppies exist in our society?"

Concept:
-By meshing a couple of pictures into a collage using the photoshop program I am trying to get a cross the idea that mandating neutering is best left to the person that knows what is best for the animal and that person is the owner not the elected official on the Board.

“200 Lincolns” Abraham Lincoln Exhibit

-This was an optional assignment that became available once the Abraham Lincoln projects were done and were on display for the public to see. To fulfill this assignment one had to go to the gallery and take a picture that would prove one’s attendance.

-The first thing that I needed was to find out the address of the gallery where the exhibit was taking place. This information was provided to me as well other students in the e-mail that was sent by Professor Peck. This e-mail also contained other vital information and that was the time and day the exhibit was going to be open to the public. After arriving at the destination I noticed that the place was packed, and it looked like there was no more room for more people. This overpopulation was also why some people were standing outside. Getting inside and walking around the gallery was a challenge, but well worth it because the work that people put into their project was incredible.

-There was a lot of art work on display, but it does not feel that way when one walks into the gallery. This was accomplished through strategic layout of the art work that was submitted. The available space was maximized, but the walls did not appear cluttered. There was enough space between two adjacent art works that made it possible to focus on one picture at a time to get an appreciation for the hard work that was put into the work. What allowed enough room to be available between art works and provided a unique feature to this exhibit was that some of the work was hanged on the ceiling.
-There are a couple of things that I like about the “Abe & Andy” photograph. The first thing is that the photograph looks like it is in an album thus giving it the real life feel to it. Another unique feature is the burned and wrinkly state of the photograph itself. What this provides to the overall message is that this picture was taken in the 1950’s and recently resurrected and put on display.
-Another work that I liked was the enlarged one cent. The first thing that came to my mind when I was observing this work is how Abraham Lincoln changed lives and the history with the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. The “In God We Trust” brings the idea of hope that everything will eventually get better. The smeared face on the coin is done on purpose and that purpose is to show that change may come from any one person. Today the country is going through some tough times and the people are looking for some change. This change is coming and the first step is Barack Obama’s stimulus plan.

Week 4

Assignment:
-The assignment was to take the information received during the critique session and apply the comments to improve the photo.

Craft: (How did you do it?)
-After the critique session with the group it was obvious that some additional work had to be done to make the photograph presentable. What I intended to say with this photograph is that Abraham Lincoln is a regular citizen who likes to spend time with his family and celebrate holidays amongst them; however, this was not what the photograph presented because some key elements were missing. One key element was that there was nobody else in the picture but Abraham Lincoln; to make the message more vivid it was necessary to add family members. In order to add more people, I had to take some new pictures because none of the old ones fit the theme or the people were in the wrong position. After uploading the new photos into the photoshop program it was time to manipulate them. The first thing that had to be done is remove the color. This was done by unsaturating the picture, thus making it black and white. After cutting the appropriate parts from the new photos they were pasted in a new layer over the photo from the previous blog. It was necessary to get the scale of the photo right so it looked believable, and after completing this task I cleaned up the rough edged around the newly pasted photo so it blends in with the other picture. To have some choice in the end a couple of versions were created of the same photograph with varying positions of the individuals in the photograph, but the same process, cleaning the edges, was taken to make the photo look good. This addressed the issue of not having any members of the family in the picture. Another issue that arose during the critique was that no one was smiling. I was able to fixed this problem by adding smiles using the liquify function. Using the burn tool I was able to darken the neck of Lincoln's body because before it looked like the shirt and the neck blended in together. The last step was adjusting the brightness and contrast to make sure that all parts of the photograph fit together.

Composition: (Arrangement and order of elements)
-When someone is looking at the second and third version of the photograph the first thing that probably jumps out is the Christmas Tree and then the family. This, however, is not the case in the first version of the photograph. When looking at this picture the first thing that an eye notices is the boy and then the eyes travels in succession of increasing height of individuals in the picture. Abraham Lincoln during his presidency was always in the spotlight and the center of attention in the pictures, but these photographs key-in on the idea that he is a regular citizen of The United States of America who likes to spend time with his family, and that is why he does not jump out at first glance.

Concept: (What are you trying to say?)
-What I was trying to accomplish through these pictures is link the past and the future and trying to imagine what Abraham Lincoln and his family would do on Christmas. There are a couple of features that help establish the era of these pictures. In one of the pictures there is a laptop, which is a good indication of the 21st century. Another feature is the Christmas Tree itself. It is a modern idea to get a Christmas Tree and decorate it. Overall the purpose of these images is to connect past and the future in subtle ways.