Jane Barrager

Admittedly, when I was thinking of what image to use for this lab, I was trying to choose from options that I felt would be easiest to crop and glean new meaning from. I began my search looking up pictures of wolf packs, as they’re my favorite animal and I figured a change in composition could bring new emphasis to a wolf in the background. This didn’t turn out that fruitful, so then I attempted searching for images of dog sledding, which turned out more uneventful. Lastly, I began searching for images of people arguing. Most stock photos depicting arguments often have individuals on clear sides of the photo, as the one I found does. I knew then that this photo would be perfect for manipulation.

The original image shows tension between the couple through their body language. The lifted hand of the individual on the left gives the illusion, to me, that they are in the middle of speaking. The individual on the right is pointedly looking away, positionally making it clear that she is frustrated and not open to listening to what the other person has to say. This is a common human experience, I feel. It is in many of our natures to avoid conflict and I find it common that avoiding eye contact is a gesture that commonly arises when one is upset or feels as if they are in the wrong. However, by cropping, the meaning in the photo can change.

When cropping, I still wanted to keep the right-side woman as the focus point. By keeping the table and the hand of the left-side individual in the crop, this is achieved by following the rule of thirds. The woman is on the right-most side, setting the composition to favor her as the focal point. With the omission of the second individual (minus the hand), the interpretation of the image completely changes. It is still inferred that there is a conversation happening that the woman is not actively participating in. However, she now looks more contemplative rather than upset. Perhaps she is worried or distracted about something? She could be receiving bad news, such as the passing of a loved one or bad prospects on a job. This crop leaves an air of mystery on the actual situation.

Big dog, little dogs by Ruth Hartnup is licensed under CC BY 2.0

This is a fun action shot of dogs chasing each other in the park. The full photo might tell a story about the families bringing their kids and dogs to the park to play. Maybe the people in the background are simply spectators in awe of the dogs. However, I think that the focus of this photo is better when on the dogs. The photo is titled after the dogs, so I think there should be a greater emphasis on them. The extra background doesn’t really add value to the main point of the image.

Focus on the Chase by Lena Nguyen licensed under CC BY 4.0.
It is a derivative of Big dog, little dogs by Ruth Hartnup licensed under CC BY 2.0

I edited the photo in this way to focus on the dogs in the photo. I want this photo to tell the story from the dogs point of view. With just seeing the dogs, I imagine that the big dog is thinking “must catch up!”, while I imagine the small dogs might be regretting their decision to run into the water, thinking “why did I go in here” or “must get out”! Or they’re all having the time of their lives out there. Or maybe, the big dog accidentally got off his leash and the little dogs are running for their lives. It’s up to you to interpret.

To change the story, I cropped out the unnecessary background of the people in the park. The main subject is the large dog that I positioned on the right third of the photo. I also left some space on the left for movement as that is the direction they are running. I didn’t crop it closer in on the dogs because I wanted to keep the lines showing the land around them. I didn’t want it to seem like they’re just running on water as I think that would be a little distracting. I would love if this shot could have been positioned slightly behind the dogs so that you can see more of the direction they are running and have a better perspective from their point of view, but I still think it’s a great action shot.

South Korea is a beautiful country, filled with an ancient heritage that predates many of the cultural influences in the United States. After the 19th century, the peninsula of Korea was inundated with war, making them hold tight to their national identity even more to survive colonization and warring political ideologies. After the Korean War, South Korea leaned on its allies in Western countries like the United States to help it rebuild its war-ravaged country. Due to this, they experienced an upheaval in cultural norms, going from a mostly agricultural community to one focused on industrialization.

From the perspective of someone who was born and raised in the United States, something has struck me about this unique country. It possesses a juxtaposition between what it means to be ‘modern’ or ‘Westernized’, and what remains of tradition. The two identities are constantly battling each other, creating a contrast that can be both interesting and a bit confounding to an outsider of the community.

In this case, we take a traditional market setting. This market occurs just off of Camp Humphreys, in what locals consider to be a rural town of Pyeongtaek. While at a glance it seems that the traditional market is much like one that would be found several decades ago, there is a twist of modernity to this image. Reds, greens, and the subtle purple from the dog’s fur play up this lively picture.

When cropped down, the busy image is focused on two subjects, a dog and its owner. The dog takes up one third of the picture, while the owner is on the other, bringing balance to the photo. We are able to give our subjects better focus with the reduction of distractions. We see the dog’s fur has been lovingly cut and dyed. It wears a sweater to help it fend off the bitterness of a chilled winter afternoon. The owner loves her pet like it is her child. Just beyond the pet and its owner is a business advertising, ‘Dog Meat Stew’, known as ‘Bosintang’ (보신탕) in Korean. This is a traditional dish in Korea thought to be invigorating during hot summer months. For hundreds of years, Koreans ate this dish as part of their traditions.

This stew is a now dying tradition within South Korea, heavily due to Western influence. While Pyeongtaek is the main producer of dog in the country, it is rare to see a store still selling bosintang. In this past month, Korea decided to pass a law to ban the consumption of dogs, as seen in this article by the BBC. By 2027, this practice will be fully phased out. Whether morally ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, this cropped image is an excellent example of the past and present residing within the same instant, a flash of what has been and what will be.

In September 2023, my wife and I visited Seattle, WA. We spent a week downtown, mostly walking around and breathing in that fantastic Pacific Northwest air. The weather was perfect (despite the city’s rainy reputation), and we had a good enough time that we are considering moving there one day.

I grew up in rural Alabama so any visit to a “big city” is an adventure for me. I also work at the Florida Department of Transportation where engineering and construction are common conversations. Walking around any major city, it is nearly impossible not to find a few construction projects or the interesting exchange of urban transportation – in this case, a combination of light rail and an ole fashion intersection:

This photo was taken not far from the Museum of Pop Culture. I took it because I liked the lighting of the sky, the mix of colors, and the juxtaposition of the light rail in front with the new construction behind it. Where I am from, only the courthouse is anywhere near this tall, and there aren’t buses, let alone a railway. Cities always surprise me with their ability to change and transform so rapidly while being modern in other ways.

Not everyone sees this picture that way though. For a few people who saw my trip’s photo album, this one was just one bland structure in front of an unfinished one. Here is how I re-contextualized it:

Instead of the competition of the light rail in the foreground and the construction in the background, I chose to zoom and crop along the left-side of the photo, and change the aspect ratio. My hope was to draw the viewer’s eye up, ultimately to the sky, and create a sense of hope and optimism toward this new building.

I also cropped out the street level to further disconnect the image from its original grounding (though I made sure the street sign was closer to the lower-third to still provide some grounding), and straightened the image along the light pole to add an additional sense of rigidity. This also helped in cutting down the overall noise of the picture since a significant amount of the image is empty sky.

As a bonus, this helped bring out the strangeness of the building in the far background. In the original image, it is hard to notice, but in the edited image, its strange curves and multiple colors convey a certain surrealism that I find compelling to the more prominent building mid-construction.