The people who did the best work this time around are those who realized the extended seeing topic by combining panorama with slow shutter speed and added a little bit of vintage and so forth and so on. This is where techniques start to merge and become ‘strategies’. The real motivation for using any particular strategy should be, of course, the content. Since this is your first class I am not expecting you all to get to that point but I see that it is starting to percolate.
Panorama
The best panorama work comes from two of our friends, Josh and Zack. Josh’s wide and thin panoramas start to become like visual slices out of reality. Where we are is not as important as how the spaces transforms into a fluid environment. Some of them become quite abstract.
Andrew also has a couple of sliced panos that become wonderfully abstract.
And Zach used the great app PhotoSynth to make panos that are way beyond what the built-in camera apps can do. These may even be beyond what Photoshop can do! These shots manage to warp space and create exterior shapes that are almost as interesting as the internal photographic content. This becomes almost a painterly endeavor. He even made something as mundane as a dishwasher into something extraodrinary!
Vertical Space
The definition of the word panorama itself includes the notion of a wide landscape or vista. So it is intriguing to see these done as verticals. These panos work even better when they include an arc that is wider than what the human eye can see all at once, and some of these are almost 360˚. The addition of ‘color at night/ vintage color’ takes them even further.
Andrew
Bill
Brittany
Jake
Zach
Personal Space
Some shots place us inside people’s personal space. These may seem inconsequential at first but there is just enough of that personal feel to imbue these photos with a subtle and almost intangible relevance.
Amanda
Jaime
Lauren
Interior Space
Closely related to the Personal Space pictures are the Interior Space shots, that also have a personal feel. Amanda's shot makes us move back and forth to contemplate what is happening at the ends. Brittany’s shot is both intriguing and whimsical. Lauren's has us looking over our shoulder to see what is coming in the door. Kats’ photos both have a similar feel and I just had to put them together to see how they would bounce off each other. So here are the individuals and the combo.
Amanda
Brittany
Lauren
Kat
Slow Shutter Speed
There are fewer slow shutter speed examples, but here are some of the ones that are particularly intriguing. Bennett has some different things happening. He made a really beautiful shot of shrubbery moving in the wind and a couple of shots of a moving light that looks like a hula-hoop. Quite nice when combined with the panoramic space. Bill has a high-speed slow shutter shot. Jake has a great shot of a moving person that reflected light in a really weird way, a nice interior shot with a moving light source, and his car pix are quite moving. Again, I had to see what those looked like together, so here is the whole set.
Bennett
Bill
Jake
Vintage
And finally some of the vintage re-do shots really capture the essence of this style of shooting. It is not as easy as just shooting something old. It is about how the stuff feels. Some of the most successful shots were made by Brittany who perfectly blends the site with the look, as does Daniel in a totally different way. Jessica D. wins the award for the 'classic vintage' shot, up there with Amanda's trailer from the last crit. The square format and vignetting help this look.
Brittany
Daniel
JessD
Conclusion and Question
You should really go a read through the Smartphone Recipes to see how these are done.
Several people said that this topic really made them think and plan out their shots. They said they had to experiment with their camera and app combination to make it work. I wonder if this way of shooting should come earlier in the semester to push the envelope more quickly. What do you think?
nice going - - -
