LIS5313

compositions

Focus on the Chase

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.

January 24, 2024 by Student Posts 4

Korea: Traditional Meets Western

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.

“Saturday 3/8ths Market” by Dakotah and Liam Shelton is licensed under CC BY 4.0 DEED.

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.

“Yesterday and Today” by Dakotah Shelton is licensed under CC BY 4.0 DEED

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.

January 24, 2024 by Student Posts 5

Under Construction

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:

Toward Tomorrow by C. T. Murphy

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:

5th and Up by C. T. Murphy

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.

January 23, 2024 by Student Posts 4

Boat Ride in Tampa

Picture taken by me using iPhone 14 Pro Max camera

The original photo is a picture I took during a boat ride in Tampa. The original picture is nice however I wanted to capture more of the ocean and sun than I did the sky. Cropping this picture changed the focal point and made me able to focus on the things that I wanted to see. I normally try not to crop images because I am always afraid I’ll accidentally get rid of something important in the background.

January 31, 2023 by Spring 2023 Student Posts 2

The Mirage

The After Photo

“Long Walk to Water” by Jessica Maya is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. 

I found it challenging to find a suitable picture that could tell a different story when following the rule of thirds. This exercise really made me think outside of the box. I went through so many pictures but only very few that could give me what I was looking for. In the original photo seen below, the people are the focal point of the image…so is the water and the sun. Cropping the image the way I did makes the image look like there is no water for miles hence the name “Long Walk to Water.” The original could very well be two people walking on the bank of a lake. They look almost like they are from the west with the woman behind having a handbag on her shoulder. Whereas the derivative I made looks like they are in the desert.

Original Photo

“Sunset People” by agelakis is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
January 31, 2023 by Spring 2023 Student Posts 2

Say Cheese!

Original Image

Daim @ Parc animalier de la Grande Jeanne @ Semnoz
Daim @ Parc animalier de la Grande Jeanne @ Semnoz by Guilhem Vellut is Licensed under CC BY 2.0

Cropped Image

Day out at farmland by Saleh Ahmed is Licensed under CC BY 4.0

The original image shows two deer being surprised by a photographer during mealtime. The expression of the deer on the left shows a pronounced expression of surprise, while the other deer looks calmer and less animated. I wanted to crop the image on the left to see if the emotion conveyed by the image changed.

The rule of thirds was applied to the second image. The image was cropped at eye level, and unnecessary details were removed to simplify the image and increase focus on the subject of the image. However, some surrounding area adjacent to the subject was still left to give more context to the image.

Interestingly, the new image tells a different story all together. Instead of the deer being surprised by the presence of the photographer or disrupted in their mealtime, the image feels more relaxed and casual. The deer appears to be enjoying some alone time, engaging in his usual activities, unfazed by the intruder.

January 31, 2023 by Spring 2023 Student Posts 2

Focus on these Mountains

During my visit to my grandmother’s house in Japan, I took a few photos of areas I missed and some of the scenery that was incredibly different from the ones I see daily in Tampa. This was the first day back home in 10 years, outside my grandmother’s house, and I was excited to see lush mountains. This was taken in a car on my way to visit shopping malls where I had hung out in my younger years. This photo was cropped to exclude the grass/moss on the ground and the large barricade separating the pavement from the river below.

Now the image looks light, happy, and clean, similar to how the mountains make us feel.

January 31, 2023 by Spring 2023 Student Posts 2

Into the Sunset

Road Less Traveled by Mr. Nixter under CC0 1.0
Into the Sunset by Annamarie Vanlier under CC0 1.0

Did anyone else have a difficult time choosing an image for this assignment? I feel like that was the most difficult part! After much deliberation I decided on this photo. In the original the car is so far away it’s easy to overlook. The sky also shows more of a sunset or sunrise, with the blue around the edges implying a shift in time of day. The road is featured prominently in the center of the photo, with the sun off to the right.

In the crop, the car is larger and easier to take note of. The road is in line with the first vertical line of the rule of thirds grid. The sun is now almost centered in the image. All of the blue from the sky has been cropped out so the sky is a full fiery orange and yellow. This makes the image feel much warmer overall.

This derivative uncenters the main focus (the road), and it changes the mood of the photo.

January 31, 2023 by Spring 2023 Student Posts 2

Living in the moment.

“Latin Quarter” by Hernán Piñera is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 (Original)

“Our World” by Humberto Messeguer is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 (Cropped)

There is a beauty to this world and some images can capture the magic moment to it.

While looking for a picture that resonated with me, I found “Latin Quarter” by Hernán Piñera. This picture reminded me of the magical aspects of the world such discovering or exploring a new place with someone you consider special.

When looking at “Latin Quarter” by Hernán Piñera, your eyes are pulled to the vibrant colors and lights, the reflections on the stone, and the people. I wanted to bring users to fixating on what I considered was a critical part of the image which was the couple in the bottom right which can be seen below this sentence.

The couple is what I envisioned the moment between two people were you are “the main characters”. The world revolves around you and you’re living in the moment with that special person. That’s where the magic is truly created and the moment a lot of people look forward to with their partner.

We should all strive to have that magic moment. It doesn’t matter if it’s with someone else or by yourself. You’ll know when you have it because it’ll become a memory of a moment in your life that you’ll be able to recall.

Seek the world and learn something new everyday. That’s how you’ll get those moments.

January 31, 2023 by Spring 2023 Student Posts 1

Beauty in a Lockdown

The year is 2020 and the inconceivable has happened. Human civilization became confined, stressed, and uncertain. In the meantime, something magical happened, the natural planet received a moment to reset. On a day when cabin fever became overwhelming, I made a large cup of coffee in my pastel travel mug, hopped in my car, and just drove. I had no destination in mind, just windows down, sunroof open, and stereo loud. I don’t recall where I was exactly, but I looked over and in my solitude, noticed that the entire median was an untamed field of wildflowers, pristine and quondam. With no other vehicles around, not a single person in sight, I pulled to the side of the road, though I probably could have parked my car right in the middle of the highway. I sat in the field and finished my coffee, enjoying the white noise of nature and the sun on my shoulders. I decided that the field wouldn’t miss a few blooms, so I wiped out the inside of my mug with napkins and gathered several handfuls. I’ll never forget the serenity I felt sitting in the sun that morning, watching the bees and butterflies experience their own moments of unadulterated existence.

Beauty in a Lockdown taken May 3, 2020 by LaSandra Barnhill Licensed under
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

The blooms did suffer a little on the way home with no water, but the joy and contentment I felt in the moment was undeniable. I wanted to remember it, so I snapped a photo. I did give them water and they perked up. I eventually hung and dried the bouquet and it still has a place in my living room as a reminder that sometimes what we need is a chance to reset.

“Added Focus – Beauty in a Lockdown” Derived on January 31, 2023 by
LaSandra Barnhill Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

The cropped photo creates a more dynamic image. Cropping removes some of the distractions from the subject of the photograph and simplifies the background. What do you think?

January 31, 2023 by Spring 2023 Student Posts 2