Week 5 Blog Forum

Topic 1:

This photo story is interesting to me because it is a personal story. I personally have a slight fear of myself and others around me getting old, so this story hits home a little bit. It was interesting because it showed very intimate moments of his fathers life. Moments when he may have been at his weakest moment mentally. For example, when he was sitting on the toilet and had been there for about an hour.

One of the first challenges the photographer would have had would be taking pictures of his father in his fathers most intimate moments. When we take pictures of others personal moments we are usually a bitch detached but if it was your family member you may have a little more trouble separating yourself from the situation. Another obstacle may have been working with lighting, because all of the pictures were taken inside of the house.

All of the photos are taken inside of the house and most of them are close range or medium shots and there was a narrative attached with it. He also focuses on aspects of his fathers daily life with no narrative, such as the water or the toothbrush.

I think in my photo story I will also try to use mostly close range shots. I think it adds to the affects of it being a story and I like that you can see every aspect of the persons facial expressions.

Topic 2:

For a photo story I could possibly chronicle one of my younger cousins. She plays basketball for North Salem High School and is ranked number three in the nation for high-school girls basketball. I could take photos of her training, at home, during recruit visits and games.

Week 2 Blog Forum

For this week I decided to go to Legacy field on the Oregon State University's campus and take pictures of soccer players taking advantage of the last few sunny days that we will have. The sun was shining, it was a warm day and the players were taking full advantage of it.

Two players battle over a ball as others anticipate what will happen next.

Students play soccer at Legacy field on a sunny day.

Topic 1:

The photo that stand out the most to me is one of the photos of Jonathan Kavanagh flipping his jet ski. In the photo you can see everything; from where hes gone in the water and the way he is going to land. You can even see that water traveling upwards as he flips, which looks really cool in the picture. http://democratherald.com/news/local/jumps-tricks-and-superflips/article_4484bd2e-af23-5080-ad41-a7163ddec71b.html





Three questions that I would ask Mark Ylen would be:
1. How do you get inspired by subjects you think are "boring" or uninteresting to you?
2. How do you get somebody to act naturally around the camera?
3. What is your favorite thing to shoot?

Topic 2:

The photographer I chose is Richard Avedon and three facts about him are:

1. He began as a photographer in the army.
2. Harpers Bazaar would not give him his own studio to shoot in when he first started photographing for him and then he grew to be their lead photographer.
3. He was the first staffed photographer at The New Yorker.

Topic 3:

1. Midterms, students studying.
2. How students are adjusting to the fall weather.

Week 1 Blog Forum

Photojournalism student Romina Rodriguez viewing photos on her camera.

Students walking to class bright and early during the second week of the term. 

 

 

 

Topic 1:

I am taking photojournalism this term so that I will be able to transfer to Oregon State and change my major to New Media Communications. Currently my major is Journalism.

Topic 2:

In this class I hope to:
1. Gain confidence with my photography skills.
2. Learn more about other photojournalist's techniques.
3. Get familiar with using unique angles while taking pictures.

Week 4 Blog Forum

Topic 1:

"While photographing subjects do not intentionally contribute to, alter, or seek to alter or influence events." I think this is the most compelling because I think it is on of the easiest things to accidentally do when you're photographing something. It is easy to want to manipulate the events or try to alter them to get the better photo or the better story but if everyone did this then we would not always be getting the true story, which is what photojournalism is all about.

"Strive to be unobtrusive and humble in dealing with subjects." This one was the meant the most to me because I think it is one of the most important. If something tragic is happening you cannot just go up and start taking pictures. You have to remain discrete and out of the way.

An example of striving to be unobtrusive and humble when dealing with subjects would be if you were photographing a car accident and the victims family was there grieving. In this case it would be best to stay further back if you're going to take pictures so that you can give the family their space and respect.


Topic 2:

The first picture I picked was from Amanda's blog, Bubble Baths and Rat Poison. I picked a picture from her piece about pedestrians. I really liked the picture of the legs of the pedestrians crossing the street. I liked the angle of the picture and how it was focused in on their legs but in the background you could also see the traffic. http://bubblebathsandratpoison.blogspot.com/2015/10/campus-wars-cars-v-pedestrians.html

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My second favorite photo was from Scott's blog, Scott's Photojournalism. I chose a picture from Scott's piece about campus fun. The photo I chose was of Rob and students in the class. The reason I chose this photo was because with the angle used I could tell that the students were standing on steps that were below Rob without even seeing the steps. I also loved that all three people were smiling in the photo. http://scotttterry.blogspot.com/2015/10/active-duty-service-members.html

 



Is a Magazines Website As Good As The Magazine?

            So we've all seen ads in our magazines for and online subscription of the magazine. I don't know many people who actually get online subscriptions to magazines so I decided to go ahead and check one of my favorite magazines out.

           I have been a reader of Vogue for a very long time and I have spent a lot of money on subscriptions with them.Vogue focuses on fashion primarily and has articles that can vary from excerpts from books, fashion advice, stories on people from the fashion world, the cover story and sometimes reviews of movies. Most article are around two to three pages and usually ends up having to be finished at the very back of the magazine. Some of the articles may be cut off in the middle by their excentric ads but they are almost always picked up on the next page, or in the back of the magazine. Aftr hearing that they have no prolem cutting an article off in the middle for an advertisment, you're probably wondering how much of the magazine is advertisment. The answer to that question is quite a bit. It is a large magazine and the content to adverstiment ratio is almost euqal I would say. But of course ads are a huge part of vogue, being that they are a fashion magazine. Mostly their ads are for cosmetics, fragrances or high-fashion clothing companies. If you haven't figured it out already their audience is for those who are extremely into fashion, and it is definitely worth their money.

         But enough of about the print version of the magazine, onward to what you're here for, which is the online review! Being such an avid reader I of course was curious about what awaited me online. So I hopped online and before I could even reach the page for the online magazine subscriptions I started seeing posts for articles that had been in the magazine.

 

          Of course I thought they were just excerpts there was no way a magazine could give out a whole story online! Well surprise, surprise they had the whole entire article online including the cover story! Entirely free!

 

          This is a huge thing for Vogue. They focus primarily on fashion and their subscription fee is a little bit higher than the rest at just about six dollars per magazine. Everybody knows that the best part about this magazine is the ads. The ads are some of the most artistic, extravagant, and all around best high fashion ads any of us have seen. Those ads are pretty much what draw the readers to Vogue in the first place. And if you are one of the people who love the ads then you can forget the website. That is the biggest difference between the two and it is probably the most important.

            It is fairly easy to find the articles from the current months edition, they are right under the magazine tab of the website and they have all of the ones from the current issue as well as past issues. The great thing about the website is that not only do they have articles from current and past issues they also have other content. Articles that are strictly for the website and are not featured or spoken about in the magazine. I did do research on the app for tablets and it looks like it is the exact same setup of the magazine just in tablet form.

           Because there is no ads on the online website I would say for die-hard fashionistas that online publication may not be the best. You can look at slideshows of the pictures taken for the stories but the ads are still not there. If for some reason you're there for the story only then you need not even buy the magazine at all! It has all of the stories there for you, nice and ready to read with pictures as well. If you do decide to go for the tablet magazine which does include ads (not the online website) then you have the same things you get in the magazine. You can use your subscription on an iPad or iPhone but I would read the reviews on iTunes before you buy the app!

            For those of you asking if Vogue is even relevent anymore the answer is yes! Vogue has publications in thirteen countries and leads the way for fashionable women in all thirteen. Vogue would not have such spectacular ads if people didn't still love it! So for you die-hards out there I would say the original is always the way to go, but if you simply just love the stories online website is best for you! I hope you choose wisely!

 







 



End of False Advertising?

   

            How many times have we been watching TV and been bombarded by the lights, camera and action of a major cosmetics commercial? I myself would say way too many times. Most of the time we are able to tell if the product really does what it says it will do and we can tell  how much exaggeration goes into the advertising of the product. But now let us ask this: How many times do we hear or see an ad for a major cosmetics company that not only exaggerates, but then flat out admits to exaggerating? Hopefully the answer is never because they should know better than to test the National Advertising Division.

            For those of you who do not know the National Advertising Division (NAD) reviews factual claims made in national advertisements and offer alternative dispute options for advertisers. That being said let us talk about the ad that was reviewed by NAD and was eventually pulled by them as well.

            In the ad the ever popular often envied country singer Taylor Swift is seen promoting Cover Girl’s Natureluxe mascara. Swift is the official spokesperson for all of their Natureluxe products, so you hav probably seen other commercials for these products by her. The ad is not much different from other mascara ads. Swift offers various poses towards the camera and different angles of her lashes she claims that the mascara will volumize your lashes without weighing them down like most mascaras do because it has a touch of beeswax in it. The ad is only about fifteen seconds long and was aired in December of 2011. The same ad also appeared in Cosmopolitan, People, Allure and Vogue.

 

             The ad very obviously uses famous person testimonial, without Swift  in this ad this mascara would have just been another drug store brand mascara especially because as mascara ads go this one isn’t very original or new and it is obvious that Swift is only there to try to make this ho-hum mascara stand out from the others. The only reason that anybody remembers this particular mascara is because of the problems it had with NAD. After the product aired its advertisements they were all pulled very quickly. Normally Covergirl does not have problems like these and having owned a few of their products I can confidentally say they usually deliver on their claims.

            In very, very small print in both the magazine ad and the TV commercial it states that in fact, Swifts lashes are not even real but instead they are photo shopped to look longer, and fuller and that in fact the mascara doesn’t do what it says it will do at all. After this ad was pulled I think it is safe to say that I nor any person that saw that this ad was pulled ever bought that mascara, or even gave a second thought to buying that mascara.

            It is definitely a rookie mistake I feel, and sets the tone for the rest of the products they sell. How can we trust their brand if they throw things like this out? I wasn't thinking of buying this product before and I definitely will not now. Fromt his assignment I think I re-learned something that I already knew and that is that you cannot believe everything you hear.