11.01.2017
(Week 1)
Christina
Hiew (300 416 675)Introduction to Photography
Exercise 1: Presentation of 10 of your best liked picture
Lecture:
The first day of photography class, Mr. Vinod begins with an interactive and fun warm up sessions with us. He asks each student background so that we get to know each other. At first, Mr. Vinod briefs us about the instruction of the course syllabus. He introduces us the basic of photography and shares his experiences as a former designer photographer. In the slides, Mr. Vinod explains every single picture that he had taken with Malaysian politicians and businessman such as Tun Dr. Mahathir, Lim Guan Eng, and so on. He shares his thought what are the possible difficulties and barriers that we might encounter while taking/capturing picture.
From the lecture I understood that:
I
need to prepare
1.
The camera2. The photographer
3. The module
4. Portfolio& e-portfolio
5. Digital photography equipment
Exercise 1: Presentation of 10 of your best-liked pictures
Deadline: Tuesday midnight
1. Write your eportfolio and upload the 10 images along with the description.
2. Print A4 hardcopy of the 10 selected images with the description following the instructions (margin, font, etc.) given in class and place it in your hardcopy (portfolio) folder.
Specific Instructions
for Exercise 1:
In
this exercise students will explain the reasons they like the chosen images,
what they found interesting when taking/choosing or after taking/choosing the
images. Students will present 5 images of their own and 5 images of 5 different
photographers from different continents/countries. You must credit the
photographers and explain the backstory. By this process students exercise
their ability to discern and reflect on what makes a good image is theoretically.1.
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I took this picture during last year Christmas Eve at Kota Kinabalu Sinsuran Street. I choose this picture because I feel like recapturing some magic and surprise season. I find it difficult to capture because I capture this picture in the car with a smartphone. I find this picture filled with luxury togetherness and merry memory making. In other words, when the approach of holiday season comes, most of us will anticipate with goods/luxuries gift.
2. 
Tired
of feeling lonely or stress with homework? Well, the best feeling ever is walk
down the beach at evening. I took this picture at Tanjung Aru beach, where you
can feel and enjoy a peaceful dimmed evening. I selected this picture because this
picture reminds me the sound of ocean and the breeze that really put my mind in
peace. To me, looking at the seashell, staring into the ocean are absolutely
the most memorable things.
3.  I took this beautiful picture at Kota Kinabalu Waterfront because I love witnessing the beauty of sunset. It doesn’t take long to walk out from the office and it force yourself to put down technology for a moment. Is absolutely a beautiful moment, is definitely a good feeling of calm and most importantly it only occurs in exotic place. To me, making time for the sunset is truly amazing thing that I should never miss. 4. 
Feeling
lazy waking up on a rainy day? Well, I
bet every each of us has the hard feeling of stepping out from our own bed on a
rainy day. I choose this picture because is not easy to moving out from a
comfort zone especially on a cloudy. This picture reminds me, most people will
be stuck on a bad weather or waiting the rain to stop but that doesn’t mean you
feel under the weather.
5.
The
reason I choose this picture because I always want to experience a different
feeling. I find this picture is quite unique because is definitely has no easy
ways to set up a proper spot especially when you are restricted only to your
own sit. To me, this is my first tryout taking picture in different atmosphere,
I feel there is always a lot of chance to explore taking picture in more
different situation.
Five different photographer’s images from different countries/continents:
1.
My first favorite photographer is James Whitlow Delano.
He is an American photographer and also an award-winning reportage in
researching and documenting the black and white images based on human rights, environment, and culture. In
this picture, his photography named “Black Tsunami” that occurs in Japan in
2011. His photography gives me a sense to understand both photographically and
emotionally in how Japanese living in a disaster and hardship of life.
2.
My
next favorite photographer is Henri-Cartier Bresson. He is a French humanist
photographer, born on August 22, 1908 in Cantaloupe. He wandered around the
world with his camera and slowly attracted in his current environment. Today, Henri
has the greatest influence on capturing the deceive moment. He said to take
picture means to recognizes within a fraction of a second. In other words, I understand that don’t just
capture one picture instead take lots of picture to identify the moment or
potential of the picture.
3.
One
of my greatest influence photographers is Michel Comte’s pictures of model and
various celebrities such as Naomi Campbell, Angelina Jolie, and Miles Davis and
so on. He is a filmmaker in The
Girl from Nagasaki
(2013)
and also a Switzerland portrait photographer who well known in showcasing women
nude bodies with cigarette. He is strongly famous in advertising field such as
Vogue Italia, Vanity Fair and so on. I like his photography because most of his
work creates an extremely dramatic sense of unique feeling and narrative. And
most importantly, his work consistent produces a highly expressive portrait for
audience.
I have always admired one Italian woman because of her braveness and
dedication of her life-long battle against mafia. She is Letizia Battagalia, an
Italian photographer and photojournalist. She is one of the photographers who
are daring and well known shooting the mafia in pictures. She photographed with
passion and always eager to document everything as testimony against the Mafia.
Today, she dedicated more than half a portion of her life in every meaning in
her photography. Her photography inspires me to hear the desperate cries of
Sicilian and how Sicilian adapts to modern times.
5.
My
fifth favorite photographer is Ellen Von Unwerth. She is a German photographer and is highly
known in focusing pictures of female singers and celebrities such as Beyonce,
Emma Watson, Rihanna and so on. Ellen photography connected to advertising
fields, editorial, and fashion industries. The reason I admired her photography
because her works focus a lot in feminity where women have the opportunity to
explore their professionality in their specializing fields.
Feedback
After Mr. Vinod look through my exercise, he told me there is no way to learn Henri deceive moment in this photography class. He advise me the deceive moment only can caught in our naked eye especially in our first sight. He emphasized my selection of Ellen Von picture do not focus in feminity .
Reflection
Experience:
At
the first day of photography class, Mr. Vinod informs us to do two things. The
first thing is we have to join a Photography (u) group page in Facebook. Next,
we need to create our own photo blog as our eportfolio. After creating the eportfolio,
we were told that every single of exercise/assignment we have to upload in our
eportfolio. At first, I feel that making a blogger can be troublesome because
my laptop is not always connected to Wi-Fi and I have difficulties in using
blogger. But, after completed Mr. Vinod first exercise, I get to learn and gain
knowledge on how to use blogger that I have never done in other class before.
Observation:
After
completed the first exercise, I noticed my pictures requires a lot of
improvement compared to the other photographers. I observe my pictures clarity
is not up to the minimum standard where most of my pictures are took by
smartphone. As compare to the other photographer, I notice their photography is
absolutely perfect by well selected shooting position before taking pictures.
Also, I noticed most photographers very wise in using light in order to capture
a good picture. Through researching 5 images of 5 different photographers from
different continents/countries, I should take up this photography class
opportunity to learn some skills in order to strengthen my weakness areas.
Findings:
In
my end of findings, I learn that I should have passion in photography. Without
passion, I can’t overcome what is my weakness and I definitely will keep
repeating the same mistakes. Without passion, every picture that I capture has
no meaning/details to my viewers. James
Whitlow once said, “He always encouraged photographers to have passion in creating
their photography. He also suggests to produce their own stories so that
editors/viewers will see how they view the world”. Photography is something
that can immersed into an art, if you lose yourself in passion, nothing great
can be achieved.
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