Blog 23: Senior Project Reflection

I am most proud of my activity. I thought it was lame and nobody would like it since I was nervous during the entire presentation. But after the block was over one of my students took me aside and says they really appreciated how I was trying to pass my passion for photography on to them, and how they themselves were proud of the picture they took. I wanted them to take a picture of what iPoly means to them, and things that represent iPoly. He took a picture of the old paint splattered benches and really took it home with a speech he made when he presented it intent of the class.

I would give myself an AP. I was nervous and forgot my interesting tid bit and fun facts, so it was just an overview of information and it was not that entertaining.

Overall senior project, I would give myself an AP. I do not complete everything to a stellar capacity, but I really try and I love my project.

The thing that worked for me most was quite honestly, my passion for photography and the people that supported me and helped.

If I had a time machine, I would not have signed up for calculus. It took valuable time away from my project that I needed because I get home at seven every night and on calculus days, eight.

The senior project is my final farewell to iPoly. I will use my new found ability to work effectively under pressure on life. But it is basically something I have learned at my entire time at iPoly. Even at your lowest point, always try to push yourself above the lowest bar.

Blog 21: Exit Interview

My essential question is, what is the most important element to go into a memorable digital photograph? I would like to point out that art is subjective and everyone has their own preferences as to what we see fit and what passes as quality while other methods are seen viewed as outdated. In my research, my best answer is leaning in favor towards the uses of color. Color is often times associated with feelings and biases. In our culture, red is a warning, danger, and excitement. In others, it is the symbol of life. In my book PAINT Room to Room by CHIC Simple, is is mentioned that in our culture, white is pure and clean. It follows up by stating that white is often a symbol for mourning in many Asian cultures. This perceived association of emotion linked to color will persuade my audience to connect to what I intended in the image. Most of the time vivid and flashy colors remain in people's memories longer than a dull colored image would.

In the beginning, I searched through books, some of which are works of CHIC Simple and Exposure Magazine, and odd articles I would find on the internet. This was to gain footing in the vast expanse of knowledge that comes with researching an art form. Once I understood where I was going with color, I made more direct searches towards my goal of answering my essential question in the clearest way possible. The majority of my sources were online articles and eBook sections. The world of photography is constantly evolving  and growing so nobody publishes real books. Information is here today, gone tomorrow, and we are already living in a world where the things we learned today are things of the past.

At one point I was slumped. I could not think of any answers beside color that I could appropriately answer my essential question with. I made a 180 and went from photography to the brain and its functions. This gave me light to what memory is really all about. Which is things you are already familiar with, things that ingrained into your mind since day one.

I wouldn't necessarily think that there are two resources that helped me extensively. All of my research and the people that contributed to their existence deserve recognition. Even though this would never reach the knowledge of anyone that contributed to my learning, except maybe my mentor, thank you all so much for the help. I would like to bring up Henry Molaison who's amygdala and hippo campus were ignorantly removed. He is the reason why neuroscience exists. I do have to say that "What Makes a Visualization Memorable", a collaboration between MIT and Harvard students, and "Visual Design: Using Color in Photography" by David Peterson, a photography expert and teacher, were the most informative, extensive, and all around helpful sources to go towards the answering of my essential question.

April Extra Post

I've sold pictures!!! Finally! Thank the rain and my neighbor!

I feel this picture's focus is very distracting and not weighted correctly. But one of my buyers insisted on this one. Art is subjective. Who am i to tell them what they can and can not admire.

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

I, Ester America Gonzalez, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 38.5 hours of work. It's true, it's true what they say, "How did she do that!?" I would never have made these hours if it was not for the countless mishaps that kept on occurring. Just yesterday I was about to turn this in, and Google decided to delete all of my spreadsheets, so I did them over thanks to trusty Microsoft Office Excel 2007.

The majority of the beginning of my research was experimentation with different styles of photography. My USB Drive was taken and I needed to build my portfolio and collections once again. I was watching Steven and Chris, and I decided I would try to photograph food for a while and just different things around my apartment. I was just reading little tidbits about food photography online and I learned that hot chocolate served in orange cups was more appealing to the audience, and that cream colored cups were thought to hold more aromatically pleasing and sweeter hot chocolate. This was all explained in "Hot Chocolate tastes Better In An Orange Cup" by Catherine Paddock PhD on medical News Today's website. I am a little taken back by how much science uses photography and photography uses science. It is exciting, and so informative, almost the perfect collaboration. I was apprehensive, but I do quite enjoy the collaborative benefits each field provides to the other.

Starting my independent component, I had hopes of selling my art on the internet and spreading the joy I feel when I see an interesting piece of art that catches my eye. But the more I read about all of the websites out there, the more I realized that eventually I will be making money IF anyone ever buys. I am a guppy in the ocean of art. I am also not a legal adult and I could go to jail if I get a crabby patty customer.

I had been working on my portfolio as stated above. In my original I had a picture of a ballerina clock I have, so I tried to recreate it. it was successful. I include this because my neighbor, who has always been there to see me do strange things in the name of art, bought a ballerina print in 8x10. It was a rainy day and I was doing my usual mischievous looking shenanigans while taking pictures and eating chocolate like a weirdo. We ended up talking about photography and it lead to me talking about my rut that I was facing with my second independent component. And you know what my generous neighbor did? He bought the picture of the clock! I went to IKEA and Kinko's and when I i finally gave it to him, he told me he had been telling my other neighbors. More sales came and went and I would go out with my cousins and we would sell together, to their neighbors and peers.

My creepy Valentine's day flower. I had a cropped version but the file was corrupted.

These three are supposed to be stuck together in a horizontal line with minimal spacing between, but those functions are beyond my power on this. They'are dark, but it was cloudy that day.

I like this. It reminds me of the dinosaurs in the desert.

This is the ballerina clock I recreated.

I decided to join the kids I TA one day and take pictures with them. We had a field trip to the Japanese garden  up at CalPoly.

March Extra Post

Check this out!

http://society6.com/help/selling

I really want to start selling, as soon as possible. I am not 18 yet, nor do I have a credit card number and I am weary of handing out my bank account information. I researched all month, gaining knowledge about different ways to sell my art for my second component. I came across this lovely website which is very professional and clean when handling transactions and dealing with the consumer, customer satisfaction guaranteed and the sort. So hopefully, I have parent permission to start my own little business on a corner of the internet.

~Thank you

Blog 18: Fourth Interview Questions

1. What is the most important element to go into a memorable digital photograph?
2. What do you think most triggers the memory of a viewer?
3. What kind of memories stick to you the most?
4. What is your favorite element to use in your photographs?
5. What element do people like most about your pictures?
6. What do you like to see most in a picture?
7. Think of a picture. What is it a picture of?
8. How does the picture make you feel? What do you feel from it?
9. What element is most prominent in that picture?
10. When taking pictures, do you keep in mind that it can always be edited, or do you keep your pictures as final products?
11. How far have you gone to edit a picture to give it the purpose you intended in the first place?
12. What is the hardest element for you to incorporate in your photographs?
13. What elements do you like to keep standard in every photo?
14. Why do you like to keep these elements in your pictures?
15. What do you think tends to be most striking in other people's pictures?
16. As a photographer, what is a photograph you would like to take (a dream photograph)? What is the most striking thing about it?
17. Do you think world problems can be solved with photographs?
18. What do you think of amateur photographs?
19. What mistakes do you think people make most when taking pictures?
20. What is some advice you could the tell people next time they are taking pictures?

I am so absolutely sorry! This post never went live! I'm just checking today, I am so disappointed, it was still a draft!

Blog 17: Answer 3

What is the most important element to go into a memorable digital photograph?

I don't know how the order of the answers work, so just in case I'd like to change my second answer of form to my third answer, and insert "an easily recognizable object" as my second answer. I already did a blog for form so in its place right now I will give my reasons for why the subject matters. I am also still trying to figure out if I should say "easily recognizable" or just "recognizable", I'm still working out the wording.

One of the most important elements to go into a memorable digital photograph is allowing an easily recognizable object to be the subject of the picture (see what I mean by wording, I'll get to figuring that out so it runs smoother).

I do not have many examples for this because they are kind of hard for me to explain. I started doing research on memory, and although photography is where I am at right now, the science of memory is not my forte. It is in short, hard for my to transfer memory terms into photography terms. I will try though.

The experiments that took place in the memory research lab in MIT was conducted mainly with graphs. They would show a set of forty-eight different graphs and have people rank them from most memorable to least and when they ran out of graphs to remember, they would show them the other graphs they missed and start all over again. My first answer, color, is what they found to be most memorable. My second answer, a recognizable object, it what they found to be triggering memory next.

The graphs with pictures, like a soccer referee and dinosaurs, had more impact on people. rather than the graphs with foreign foods and their layers of ingredients.

A recognizable object can affect us at other times too. Like when you are looking at pictures of people you do not know, versus, people you do know. The people you do know will stand out to you more than the strangers. Just walking around at school, we pass by the people we do not know as well, but stop to talk to a friend.

For most people, a red hammer will stand out rather than a green screwdriver. When we are young most of the time the first tool and color we learn is red and hammer.

Multiple Authors. "What Makes a Visualization Memorable?" CVCL. MIT. 1 August 2013. Web. 27 February 2015. <http://cvcl.mit.edu/papers/Borkin_etal_MemorableVisualization_TVCG2013.pdf>

Memory is so very intricate. No one person is the same. What I find more memorable may be completely different to you. But, we all have a common ground. We just need to work towards it.