Mentor's Assignment Part A and B

Film Assignment

Part One

1. I chose Ansel Adams as my “mentor” photographer because I love his style of high contrast black and white landscape photography. Ansel Adams was also known for his use (and co-creation) of the “Zone System”, which allowed for his photographs to have true blacks and true whites without editing (although he wasn’t able to edit photos much, since there was no photo shop).
2.    

 3.        Photo 1 – “Jeffrey Pine”, 1940

This image, like most Ansel Adams photos, has high contrast, which adds dimension and interest to the image. It also has good leading lines/directional viewing with the way the trees branches bend and point to the right.  

Photo 2 – “Moon and Half Dome”, 1960

Like most Ansel Adams photos, this image also has high contrast, which adds dimension and showcases the texture of the mountain.

Photo 3 – “Rose and Driftwood”, 1932

This image has high contrast, which helps in making the rose look three-dimensional, as well as bringing out the texture of both the rose petals and the wooden background. It is an image where centering the subject actually works, since the subject is so detailed.

Part Two

1. I plan on shooting my photos by using the Zone System. I will bump up exposure for pure whites, decrease it for pure blacks and keep the exposure set to zero for mid-tones. This way, I will have photos with high contrast, just as Ansel Adams did. I am also going to photograph nature, mainly landscapes, which was Ansel Adams usual subject. Often, Ansel Adams has a lot of visible texture in his photos, so I want to choose subjects that I can show the texture of.

 

Portrait Tips and Questions

1. The audience for this article are amateur/learning photographers.
2. These tips speak to the student photographer as they give extra information about portrait photography that is not often given.
3. I like the tips ”Look for the Moment After” and “Tell a Story”. I want to capture natural looking portraits, rather than posed.
4. I like all the tips from the reading, except for the tip to use props. I think sometimes props give portraits a very unnatural feeling, which takes away from candid shots.

Cinemagraphs

Couples Portraits

I am writing the responses for my models, since my rabbit can't exactly write it herself. For my couples portraits assignment, I chose to photograph my brother, Jeff, and my rabbit, Lucy. We just got Lucy at the end of the March Break, and she's now about 4 months old. She's a sweetheart, but she has a big soft spot for my brother. When we take her out of the cage and let her run, she often follows Jeff around, even going as far as following him up the stairs. He's also the only person, other than me, who Lucy allows to "trance" her (flip her over on her back and cradle her). She often also binkies (jumps high, kicks her feet and runs quickly) around Jeff, which means she's very happy. 

I think that I was successful in showing Jeff and Lucy's relationship in these photos. I wanted to capture Lucy's love for being around Jeff, and his desire to care for her. Through the photos of him cradling her, I manage to show her comfortability around Jeff. Then, in the photo of Lucy following Jeff up the stairs, I was able to show how much she wants to be around him. Overall, I think that my photos turned out well and show the good relationship between Lucy and Jeff.

Journal 8

"Lucy"

Christina Zalec, 2013

Nikon D3100

"Met Life Centre"

Christina Zalec, 2012

Nikon D3100

"Grimsby Beach"

Christina Zalec, 2013

Nikon D3100

"Life is 'Ruff'"

Christina Zalec, 2013

Nikon D3100

"Mahala"

Christina Zalec, 2012

Nikon D3100

"Stripes"

Christina Zalec, 2012

Nikon D3100

Journal 7

"Polish"

Christina Zalec, 2013

Nikon D3100