Student Posts

The joys of Daytona Beach

CC- Sharon A. Frazier – 1/27/2024

Over the weekend, I visited Daytona Beach for my birthday.

I walked in the sand along the shore taking photos. The waves were high

so I didn’t venture into the water. I sat in the sand and enjoyed the

the children playing in the water or attempting to swim.

This particular child caught my eye. She appears very far out

and the waves are cloudy in the first photo.

Daytona Beach being enjoyed in its finest

In this second photo, my edits allowed for a better view of the girl, while

sitting near the shore, a more significant focal point while playing.

I also wanted to focus on the details and more clarity of the waves as they

rolled in. I eliminated the concentration of the larger view of the beach

and made the photo display a more concrete focal view.

“Shakespeare at Coughton Court 2” by Tony Hisgett is licensed under CC BY 2.0 Deed

I discovered this image on a journey that started with concerts and the idea of zooming in on a well-focused individual in a band or even in the entourage or crowd. I filtered by size and copyright leniency in order to make the search easier, but so many of them were still blurry (or large, but not large enough to be large and usable after a substantial crop). Many times, it was the fog machine’s fault, not the photographer’s. Then I decided to try theaters and plays! These results had a tendency to be much more in focus than results in music venues. This particular play is of The Merchant of Venice. To me, this picture has vibes reminiscent of folk horror (much unlike The Merchant of Venice), and folk horror is a subgenre I’ve always enjoyed. The artwork of the backdrop is simple, almost innocent, and it’s juxtaposed with an eerie figure in a red robe. It reminds me of mythological tales of transcending boundaries, such as the tale of Persephone and Hades.

“Shift in Genre” by Paul Griffith is licensed under CC BY 2.0 Deed

In cropping, I attempted to isolate the theatrical backdrop of the cloaked individual’s setting and contrast it with the entirely urban background of the woman carrying the gilded vessel. In the full image, the viewer sees immediately that this is a performance on the street, with the third player’s playful mood even contrasting from the serious demeanor of the two cropped players. I was undecided about including or omitting the plant on the left, for symmetry, but this would have turned the rule of thirds into a rule of one quarter. Omitting the plant and cropping the image neatly on the cabinet door brings the focus down to the most necessary parts, the individuals representing their two worlds.

A few years ago, my brother and I planned a trip with a bunch of our college friends to visit Cedar Point, an amusement park in northern Ohio. The funny thing about that trip was, as soon as he heard about it, our dad decided he also wanted to tag along. Even though he was far above the age of your average thrill seeker at 59, he didn’t let that deter him from riding every single roller coaster in that park. Where I would be ready to tap out after three or four rides, sick to my stomach from the effects of the increased G’s on my body, my dad was raring to go throughout the whole day. He didn’t mind standing in line in the heat to wait for the more popular coasters, either. I think he enjoyed himself more than any of us twenty-somethings on the trip did.

The photo I chose reminds me of my dad on that trip. Even though the women in the picture aren’t in the typical age range you expect to see on a roller coaster, it’s clear they are thoroughly enjoying themselves. And why shouldn’t they be? I wanted to focus in on their enjoyment by cropping the photo so we can see their faces better. Doing so puts the rush of adrenaline they are feeling on display, showcasing the joy and fear on their faces. You can see how their hands are clutched together, how tightly they are hanging on. The curved slope they are traversing feels steeper, the wind feels stronger, the air feels thinner as they reach new heights with only a backdrop of clouds behind them.

Last October, I purchased a 35 mm film point and shoot camera. For Media Lab 03: Composition, I decided to utilize the 36 photos because I got my first roll of film developed last week. The photos from my latest roll of film include family pictures from Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. Out of the 36 photos I got developed, my favorite and most dramatic before and after combination was the photo of my nephew, Myles, in his playpen. Originally, I loved this photo because it showed my nephew in the contraption we put him in when he is trying to put electrical plugs in his mouth or knocking down the tower of blocks his sister spent the last 45-minutes putting together. After I used the crop tool, the depiction of the photo changed even for me. Instead of seeing a baby boy weaponizing his smile to be released from his prison of a playpen, I saw a baby boy eager to show you his collection of toys. In other words, the photo was cropped to tell a different story.

Firstly, I utilized Photopea to edit both the before and after photo. Although I did not crop the before photo, I did have to adjust the resolution on Photopea because WordPress did not support my original photo. Following the rule of thirds, I then cropped the photo to emphasize the focal point of Mr. Myles and his toys. More specifically, I utilized the crop tool to remove portions of the playpen and the floor because they were unnecessary details. In other words, the background was simplified. Mr. Myles was also cropped at eye-level and I uncentered him. Ultimately, I cropped the photo to emphasize Mr. Myles and his toys as the focal point. To further emphasize Mr. Myles, I then used the blur tool on Photopea to blur the areas surrounding Myles head and body.

Dogs by Ed Dunens is licensed under the Creative Commons License
CC BY 2.0 DEED Attribution 2.0 Generic

Dogs thrive off companionship whether that’s with their humans or surrounded by other dogs. They are loyal beings and showcase that with their affection and willingness to learn. In the photo above you can see that the first dog on the left is leading the pack between the two but also looks like they are waiting for the second dog to catch up. The second dog is seeking to catch up with the first so that they can stay together.

This image is actually a great image my eyes. They did a good job following the rule of thirds and breaking up the focal points. However, when I initially saw this image, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of dog number two. I felt they needed to be showcased. The background is at the beach and what looks to be a nice overcast day, not too sunny but still light. I can almost feel the cold breeze and I wanted to show just how amazing the wind must’ve felt the dogs were running through.

Freedom by Ciara Crowley is licensed under the Creative Commons License
CC BY 2.0 DEED Attribution 2.0 Generic

To crop this photo I brought focus to the second dog which originally caught my eye. To catch the action of this dog running away, I tried to shift the dog to the left middle block following the rule of thirds.
I wanted to capture the dog like they were almost running out of the photo. I kept the beach and the person in the water to showcase the freeing feeling of the beach. I feel like the beach is already a place where people go to let loose and relax so I felt that went perfect with my title of Freedom.

This is an image that I took while I was in Iceland touring the glacial caves on Christmas week. I am further inside the cave, while my tour guide was standing in the distance on top of the hill outside of the entrance. The subject is centered and the silhouette of his figure strikes a contrast with the sky behind him. In this image, there is a lot to take in. From the rocky foreground, the view extends to the ice cavern, then to the figure, and finally to the mountainous background within the pink cloudy sky.

By cropping into the image, we have changed the story that it depicts. The landscape is altered. We are no longer inside of a cave and the figure is no longer centered but placed along the line of the rule of thirds where his placement gives space and movement to where his gaze follows the horizon. This revision allows the focus to be placed more on the individual in a strange new environment rather than circling around all the details that the original image contained.