Urban Photography

The point of the urban photography project was to capture the elements and surprises of an urbanized area, by following the techniques of a selected artist, while adding in one's own twist.  I imitated the French photographer Eugene Atget's style.  His stylistic ways were mostly entitled to compostitions where the camera was facing up, which allows the buildings' size to be expressed.  He also took a lot of storefront pictures.

I looked at Atget's pictures and then tried to use some of his strategies to imitate his style, so I took a lot of my photos from different or unusual angles.  Also, I tried to capture the size of the buildings by comparing them to the long streets.  The sharp angles and geometric shapes in the picture of the long street and the picture with the three tall buildings reflect on the geometric style of Atget.

My favorite photograph from the collection above is the first.  The angle of the camera facing upward, makes the viewer feel very small, as if the buildings are towering down above them.  I also like this photo because it captures Atget's style because it is a streetview photograph.

Reflective

I used to love looking in puddles on rainy days, seeing myself in the reflection, or walking down the busy streets of San Francisco, glancing at the store windows, and seeing the other pedestrians stare back from the glass.  So when I learned of this project I knew I was going to choose reflective as my adjective.

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This photo captures the relfectiveness of a rainy day.  The wet stones portray another picture copying the real thing.  I like how some of it is a bit shaky and hard to see.  This makes the pictures look like it was not too poised.

This picture was taken inside with little light.  The table is glass so it reflects the lamp and window above.

This last picture outlines the word reflective, because whenever anybody thinks of the word, water comes to mind.  I like how the composition cuts off the rest of the pool, giving off and air of modern lines and corners.  The reflection of the house makes clear that the picture is of a pool, with the

ripples from the rain.

Color

For the Color Project, I aimed to find color schemes and patterns in everyday objects.  Using my color wheel that I created, I found analogous, monochromatic, complementary and triadic colors in things around me.  I believe my strongest photograph is the last one.  It follows the rules of staying by the triadic theme, while not looking like it was set up for the picture.  In addition, there is an interesting angle that brings the viewer further into the image, and the shallow depth of field gives it an interesting touch too.

Analogous

Monochromatic

Complimentary

Split-Complimentary

The Unexpected Moment

I think my strongest photograph was the last one.  It is taken from an unusual angle, creating a unique look, unlike the others.  I also like the color palate, how the girl's outfit matches the piano, mostly black, but a little bit of white.  Another thing that I like about this photo is that the viewer cannot see the girl's face, it makes it kind of mysterious.

I think my weakest photo is the one of the two girls looking up from the piano.  Even though it is pretty unexpected, it seems kind of like a repitition of my favorite photograph, the picture of the girl playing the piano.   Also the amount of white in the background is a bit too much, if I were to retake and re-edit this, I would tone down the white.