Masters of Photography - Imogen Cunningham

Imogen Cunningham, one of the masters of photography, was born in Portland, Oregon in 1883, and passed away on June 23, 1976, at the age of 93. Through out her lengthy life, Imogen accomplished a lot in her respective field. Imogen was famous for Botanical photography, which she often credited her Chemistry major at the University of Washington for. Nature was a very important aspect of life to Imogen Cunningham, as her pictures show her love and appreciation for nature, but her pictures also included many people too.
I chose Imogen Cunningham simply because, much like her, I love and appreciate nature. Imogen inspired me to refine and focus my love for nature even more, to the point where photographs show my love for it, not just my words. My respect for the master of photography, Imogen Cunningham, grew exponentially throughout the photography project.

Picture 1: Before

Picture 1: After

This picture, of my digital photography partner, named Zoheb, I edited much like how Imogen would edit picture of her fellow photographers. I first increased the clarity of the picture, and of course made it black and white rather than colored. 

Picture 2: Before

Picture 2: After

I edited this picture of a botanical, by first making it black and white, then zooming in slightly on the picture itself. 

Picture 3: Before 

Picture 3: After

I edited this picture of leaves and plants, by increasing the clarity of the picture, and making it black and white.

Picture 4: Before 

Picture 4: After

Much like the previous pictures, I made this black and white as well, zoomed out, and added borders to the top and bottom of the picture. 

Picture 5: Before

Picture 5: After

For my fifth and final picture, I chose a picture of botanicals, as an ode to Imogen. I edited the picture by slightly zooming in, increasing clarity, and of course making the picture black and white. 

Second Portrait

For this picture of my Photography Partner, Alex, I took a picture of him while we were having a conversation. I edited the photo in Camera Raw, increasing the clarity, the tint, the saturation, and lowered the contrast slightly. I also lowered the highlight so that the clouds would show up on the picture.

Composition Review - 3 Rules

Above is the original picture that does not show any of my rules of composition. 

After cropping the picture and zooming in, I made sure that my 3 rules of composition were shown through this. My 3 rules shown here include Reflection, in the eye, though subtle, it shows reflection.

http://iphonephotographyschool.com/reflection-tips/

 Another is avoiding the middle, the main focus of the photograph is the eye of the sculpture, which in the cropped photo is off to the left rather than in the middle. 

https://www.inkling.com/read/landscape-photography-from-snapshots-to-great-shots-sheppard-1st/chapter-4/getting-out-of-the-middle

My third and last picture is Depth, which is shown through the leaves in this picture.

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/depth-of-field.htm 

In New York Times Lens Blog post titled, "Revisiting Unhealed Wounds", I chose picture number 4 because it shows depth, the tiles on the left show reflection in a subtle way, and there is no true centralized subject. 

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/21/revisiting-unhealed-wounds-in-chechnya/?_php=true&_type=blogs&module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=Multimedia&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs&region=Body&_r=0#

First Portrait

While taking this picture, Zoheb (the guy in the picture) and I were having a conversation about our days and what school life has been like. I increased the brightness of the photo in camera raw, to emphasize the day light.

Fifth Photo Assignment - Self Portrait

For my fifth photo assignment, I took a self portrait. This self portrait is one that I took outside, in the sun, and due to that it may seem like I am squinting a alot. But it does not take away from the picture, or self portrait.

Fourth Photo Assignment - Depth of Field

For my fourth photo assignment, I used depth of field as my photo rule for the day. In this picture the man is looking off into the distance, with him being the main focus of the image, and he is very close to the camera, thus he is the main focus. Then the background is very far off from the subject, thus it has a shallow depth of field.

Third Photo Assignment - Composition

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In the picture above I used avoiding the middle as my third and final rule, and it is used in this picture. The middle of the picture offers nothing significant, and the main focus of the photo is the student off to the side, a prime example of avoiding the center.

1. Depth
2. Reflection
3. Avoiding the middle

Second Photo Assignment - Reflection

Rule 2 for the photography rules that I chose speaks to the process of reflection, whether subtle or extreme. My picture above shows a partially dried of water puddle, a natural occurrence of reflection, though it may be blurry, the reflection visible offers insight towards how the world is your photo shoot, and how a reflection can add a new element to a picture.

First Photo Assignment - Depth

This picture is one that I took yesterday during Digital Photography 4th period, this photo is supposed to show a form of depth, a rule of photography. Though the depth may not be immediately apparent, it is present and adds a new perspective to an area which I see almost everyday.