Classmate Critique: Brittany’s Soundslides

Group Dynamics: Fitness Classes at UF

I think this soundslides presentation is not a real story. Although it is interesting to hear about the different fitness classes at UF, there is no real climax here. Maybe an explanation from the subject in the audio about what teaching UF fitness classes does for her might have helped. The beginning drew me in but more through the first photograph than the first line of the audio. I think the first photo does a good job of setting up the story and making the viewer want to see more. The first line of audio is just an introduction to the person, and so it is not that interesting. However, I think this is the way most people tend to begin their slide shows. It seems more like a natural tendency than a mistake. The ending is a little abrupt because it leaves you feeling like there is something else that needed to be said. The story itself is about 5 percent a profile of a fitness instructor at UF and 95 percent about the actual fitness classes. I like this distribution because you are made aware of who is talking to you and why, while the more important details about the actual classes are explored more at length.

This soundslides could be improved by having the speaker tell us what she gets out of teaching these classes and what it means to her. There’s a good variety of photos. I would just suggest using more close-ups of faces than things. For example, more close-ups of the students’ or instructor’s faces and less of the bikes and legs.

Finally, my favorite part of this story are the photographs. They are very crisp and sharp. They vary nicely to keep the viewer interested, and they go very well with the audio during the majority of the presentation.

Photography Tips:Light, Film & the Web

Here are some interesting tips that Kobre offers photographers in relation to light, film types, and photos for the Web.  This is a great list for the novice photographer to keep handy!

 

Light Sources:

Ø      All light, unless purely white, has some hint of color to it.

Ø      Most color shifts in light are not noticeable to the naked eye.

Ø      Photographs are able to pick up these color changes.

 

Film Types:

Ø      Use daylight film when most of your light is coming from the sun

Ø      Use tungsten-balanced color film for areas like theaters and sports arenas which can have strong red wavelengths that show up in photos.  This film filters out the red.

Ø      Most digital cameras are equipped with controls for balancing color…check out your settings!

 

Shooting at Different Times of the Day:

Ø      Shoot at DAWN for soft shadows and monochrome colors.

Ø      During MIDDAY the sun can cause harsh, unattractive shadows in photos

o       To help this, move subjects into a spot under the shade.

o       Also, have subjects stand so that their backs face the sun.

Ø      LATE AFTERNOON is best for rich color photos

o       Reddish light

o       Good for portraits and fashion-related shots

Ø      EVENING has a rich blue light that can be good if you’re looking for that haunting look!

 

Resolutions for Different Mediums

Ø      Internet: 72dpi

Ø      Newspaper: 150 dpi

Ø      Photo-quality print: 200 dpi

Ø      Glossy magazine or book: 300 dpi

 

Photos on the Web

Ø      The Web needs images to hold readers’ attention and help improve their memory of the stories they read on the screen.

Ø      Remember that subtle details will get lost in photos for the Web.

o       Keep photo file size low by saving them as medium quality. 

o       This also helps have faster downloads.

 

Soundslides I: Sabor Latino at the University of Florida

The slide show you are about to view is about Sabor Latino, the UF Hispanic Student Association’s dance team. Sabor Latino dancer Cristina Rodriguez takes us through a basic outline of what the group does, how often they practice and what performances they do each year. The photographs are a mix of a dance practice the group had on Wednesday, September 26 in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center, and a performance they had the next day at the 2007 Hispanic Heritage Month Talent Show in the University Memorial Auditorium at UF.

Please take a look and let me know what you think!

Soundslides: Sabor Latino at the University of Florida

 

 

The Issues Through Photographs II

According to Kobre, the idea for a photo story can surge from many different avenues.  Among these are personal experience, general assignments, topical trends and spotting out the trends yourself.  Finding a newspeg or a hook is also important in deciphering whether there is actually a story to tell.

Using people to represent a particular topic or issue is always a great way to grasp an audience and make them understand what the issue is all about.  Kobre lists several types of people stories namely those that center around the well known, the less known but interesting, the less known but representative of some issue, and finally a single person representing an abstract topic such as a disease like cancer.

Photographer and staffer at the Los Angeles Times Annie Well’s photo diary of her battle with cancer is an excellent example of the latter.  Well’s self-shot photos of her treatments, hair loss, breast burnt from the radiation treatments, and other up and down moments throughout her process with breast cancer are truly amazing.  If you are ever able to get your hands on a copy of Kenneth Kobre’s Photojournalism, The Professionals’ Approach, make sure you take a look at this story on pages 148-151.  This story, I believe, is truly indicative of the power of photojournalism at its best.

Another striking story in this section of the book is one of a welfare father who was left to take care of 4 children after the mother was arrested for welfare fraud.  This photo story can be found in pages 167-171.  The photos show their filthy living space, the children doing chores and sometimes crying, the father giving his children hair cuts to save money, and the tenderness he shows them by holding or comforting them.  Although the photographs are accompanied by some writing, it is that visual aspect that really tells the story and brings the point home.

The more I read this book and look through the photo stories, the more I realize that there is no better way to learn how to produce good, meaningful photo stories than to look at others that have already been done.  More than reading about how to produce these stories, I think that looking through many different examples is slowly helping me to really understand what goes into shooting a series of photographs that really come together to tell a compelling story.

I recently found a great Web site, JPG The Magazine of Brave New Photography that showcases more than 100 photo essays.  Some are issue stories and others are not, but I think they are a great way to learn if you’re interested in producing some of these photo essays yourself!

The Issues Through Photographs I

Photographs have always struck me as a strikingly effective way to provoke people on certain issues. Words can sometimes do the trick, but nothing tugs at your heart like a photograph where you can actually see an issue through the pain in a human face.

Kobre showcases several great issue centered photo stories that clearly demonstrate the potential these kinds of projects can have for exposing issues and bringing about change. One of my favorites is Judy Griesedieck’s “California’s Nursing Homes: No Place to Die” where she exposed some of the horrors going on in these establishments through a series of photos that were published in San Jose’s Mercury News. The pictures were all very simple but also very telling. One of the shots that showcased in Kobre’s book that left the biggest impression of me was that of a nursing home resident asleep in a chair in an empty hall way neglected and unattended, her neck hanging over the side of the chair. This photo story also exhibited the importance of looking at more than one side of the story, something that has often been argued photojournalism projects are unable to do. In addition to showing the negative occurrences at these nursing homes, Griesedieck also incorporated photographs that showed the caring personnel in the homes.

This example also does a great job of delineating some of the struggles a reporter and/or photojournalist might face in gaining access to issue stories, where people might be highly sensitive and defensive of anything that puts an establishment in a bad light. Griesedieck’s work shows that difficulty gaining the access is not a reason to forgo an issue story, only more reason to pursue it and get out the truth to the public so that some change might come from it. A photograph truly is worth a 1,000 words.

A Novice photographer’s experience with Photo 1- Oh My!

The two photographs above come from my Photo 1 assignment. The assignment consisted of taking some 200 pictures of some aspect of campus life at UF in order to then pick 20 of the best shots and edit them for the Web. I chose to take my photos of a Latin dance group at UF called Sabor Latino (Latin Flavor). All of the pictures were taken during their practice at the O’Connell Center last Wednesday. Several additional pictures were taken the following night at a performance they had at the UMA (University Memorial Auditorium) here on campus. Those will be used for the soundslide presentation that is to come later.

Moving on, first I’d like to share why I chose to display these particular pictures here, and then I’ll talk a little about my experience with this assignment and taking pictures in general.

The first photograph above is one of my favorites. Although you probably already knew that! I like this picture for several reasons. First, I like the variety of faces and positions in the picture. I think it tells a story. Anyone looking at this picture could quickly figure out what my story is about. Secondly, I like that some dancers are stretching while others are practicing their moves, and others are simply relaxing in the background. I think this picture really tells the audience the dynamic that existed at Sabor Latino practice that night.

The second photograph above is another one that I was really proud of. I like it because, although there are no faces in this one, it still tells a story. Again, by looking at this picture I think anyone could tell the basic subject of my story. I also like the detail in this picture, although maybe I could have gotten a little closer! I like that you can see the sweat on the first individual’s back and the tights on the second one. The third person seems to be ready to make some move or start a dance while the last person seems to be doing some kind of step. That being said, I really enjoy how much you can get from this one picture, although I understand some people might not see anything more than some feet and hands! Look closer, think harder!

Finally, I’d like to tell you a little about my experience taking these pictures. As some of my classmates might remember me mentioning in class, I have had to borrow different cameras for the various photo assignments/activities in this course. This has been a little stressful as I have not had enough time to really get to know a camera and all of its functions before I’ve had to return it and borrow a different one. I think my pictures have really suffered because of this. If you notice, the 2 pictures shown above have very fuzzy color. Well, I’ll tell you why. The camera I borrowed to complete that assignment was being strange and taking very long between shoots. Also, after I took the first few shots and looked at them, they were almost pitch black. Freaking out, I called my friend whom I had borrowed the camera from and asked why this was happening. She said that happens and that they would look fine once I put them on the computer. OK. I believed her. Still, I played around a little with the settings to see if I could do something about the darkness, just to make sure I had some usable shots at the end of the day. When I got home and put the pictures on my computer, the pictures were a little lighter but still too dark. I had no time to waste and no more practice to take pictures of, so the only thing I could do is adjust the levels until I could see something. And there you have it, fuzzy pictures!

As if that was not enough, the battery (which was fully charged when I got the camera) ran out on me. I had to run to my friend’s house to get it charged and drive back to the O’Connell center to keep shooting. Good thing they had a performance the next day, and they were still practicing when I got back.

So after this traumatic experience, I decided it was time to buy a camera of my own. Sure, I could not afford it, and it put me some $300 deeper in the credit hole, but what I could afford even less was the likelihood of my pictures for various assignments coming out horrible and dark again or not knowing how long my battery will last. So now I can sit with my own camera and really get to know it before I go out to shoot. I think my pictures will benefit greatly from it as will my piece of mind.