Week 11 – Self-portrait
We are in the double digits, that’s exciting 🙂 Almost three months long of doing this. Crazy.
Anyways, the 11th week theme was Self-portrait. There is a unique quality about this photo though. The guideline was that we were not allowed to be in the photo. You had to use environment or props to create an image about yourself. The theme was chosen because part of knowing and understanding your photography is knowing and understanding yourself. The lack of self in the photo was meant to make you think about what environment and composition can say in a photo because often times in a portrait, it isn’t the subject that says the most in the photo – it’s the environment they’re in. So this theme gave us a chance to kind of look into ourselves a little bit.
——-UPDATE———
Scores thus far!
Brent 12
Jordan 9
Luis 12
Great photos this week guys!
First off: I’m obviously not an expert (I’m ignoring Lincoln in this case “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”), I think you guys all know me…. but I do enjoy looking at the pictures here and since there aren’t any comments on this week yet, I guess I’ll leave some stuff.
Photo 1: I really like the composition of this photo. The empty stool in front of the dry-box is saying “hey, work gets done here” and the lab coat on the chair makes me feel like someone was just working but has stepped away for an indeterminate amount of time. It actually makes me feel like I’m there which is great. With all that being said, the hose in the foreground of the image is really distracting. It cuts right through the glove protruding from the dry-box and makes me feel like the image is kind split there. I think shifting the angle on this image could have bumped it up another level but that’s just my opinion. Overall a great photograph with a really nice feel to it
Photo 2: First off; “like WOAH.” Using Ln2 to diffuse light, pretty damn creative if you ask me. I was trying to figure out where the heck your flash was and then I realized it was behind the nitrogen bowl, not in it. The colors and exposure in this photo are fantastic. The illumination on the kid’s face that is staring into the bowl is so soft and rich. I’m not sure whether I like the fact that I don’t know (ok, I know but most people won’t) what’s going on behind the bowl. It adds a little bit of a mystery which is great, but maybe too great because I just want to know so badly! The subjects in the photo look great but the light spot in the top right of the image is really pulling my eye away and I would have liked to see the kid in the background (on the right) either lightened up or burned out because I’m easily distracted. I’m a little uneasy about the tops of the heads being chopped up on this image and I’m not sure why… the image ending there really brings the focus in to the expressions but for some reason it just makes me a little uncomfortable. Overall: an awesome image with strong use of light and dark areas.
Photo 3: I don’t know why but the blurred out coke cap on the right of this image makes me smile. I’m going to go ahead and assume that is a TLR (sick). The image is very simple but has the cap to the right which i feel adds something. The camera by itself would have been to boring but throwing in the cap adds some nice color and detail. I’m not sure exactly how it defines you (since this is a “self-portrait”) but obviously it has some significance. I really like the landscape in the image, in the image (Inception) but I wish there was just something a little more; maybe someone standing in the corner or a bottle placed on a railing. Not really sure what but I would have liked to see something there. I think this image really follows a flow of ‘simplicity’ though which makes it visually appeasing, you can look very quickly and get everything you need from it. While narrow depth of field is great, I feel there is something a little awkward about the edges of the camera since there is foreground and background bokeh. I’m not sure if that is some CA or if my eyes are playing tricks on me but something about the edges is just a little skewed. Overall a simple picture that gives a nice warm feeling and has some instant satisfaction.
Great job this week guys, very strong photos. Really enjoy looking at these and looking forward to more!
As written by Danny B:
Hey man, so I ended up forgetting to send you my feed back. I saw you had someone else do it, but I thought I would add my thoughts becuase I felt like your friend beat around judging the actual challenge. As far as photo quality is concerned none of these photos have any issues. The colors appear to be correct and they are sharp where they need to be. That means the judging comes down to how well does the photo match the challenge. Let me start by saying that a photo challenge like this is extremely difficult. By removing the ‘self’ from self-portrait you essentially leave the photo open to any direction of interpretation. When I look at photo 1, I can see a scientist that spends their day in a dark lab. The way the three chairs are arranged lead me to believe the scientists work is routine. That’s what I wanna see, but unfortunately what is lacking is a clear visual of what is work? What exactly does the scientist do? If one wanted to, they could interpret the clean lab as being the environment for the portrait and assume that a janitor is missing from the shot. Photo 2 is straight out of a stock image gallery. I graduated with a degree in technology education so I am a little shocked that there are no safety glasses in this photo. If there were, you could probably sell the photo to some science book manufacturer and turn a few bucks. This photo as a self image makes me feel as if you are a teacher. Your students are your life. The student on the right has this expression of wonder and amazement. Perhaps that shows that you find your job rewarding, or maybe it was just luck of the shutter. I don’t have a lot to say about Photo 3. If I saw this and a hundred other photos on a wall with a plaque saying “Self-Portraits”, I would say “A photographer, he uses a different medium than I am used to seeing these days, but everyone who did the challenge is a photographer.” It needs personality. I’m going with Photo 2, Photo 1, Photo 3.