24 Blocks - updated map

Here is the updated 24 Blocks map with changes as of April 5.

24 Blocks - site assignments

Here are the assignments for our 24 Blocks final project.

Note a few changes on the map. There are 2 sites we are not using: #1 and #16. Site #9 is divided up for two people.

The following sites are not claimed (as there are more writers than photographers). If anyone wants extra credit, you can do this assignment a second time at one of these sites: 6, 7, 13, 17, 18, 20, 22, 25. Tell me beforehand — first come, first served.

1. College Camp
Erin O. 2. Hunt Union and athletic fields
Jenna 3. Bugbee Childcare Center and nearby
Hartwick student 4. Center Street School and nearby blocks
Michele 5. Upper Hartwick campus: classroom buildings, gym, athletic fields, Table Rock
______ 6. Lower Hartwick campus: classroom buildings, Dewar union, dorms
______ 7. Exit 13: water treatment plant, bus barn and Susquehanna river park
Kara O 8. Chestnut St. West Oneonta commercial strip
Alexa 9a. Antique mall and Nick’s Diner area on Chestnut

Krista 9b. Railroad yard area off Fonda Ave. and Roundhouse Rd.
Sam 10. Chestnut St. from West to Church commercial and residential
Colleen 11. Public library, Huntington Park, church, commercial and residential near Chestnut
Erin E. 12. Main St. north side, from Chestnut to Ford
______ 13. Main St. south side down to Market St.
Jake 14. Main St south: City Hall, Grummons funeral home, graveyard, stores on South Main, residential
Tomoyo 15. YMCA, Wilber Mansion, commercial on Ford and Main

16. Three churches and gas station, Main, Elm, Walnut, Maple
______ 17. Residential blocks between Walnut and Center
______ 18. Residential blocks between Center and Cedar
Kacy 19. Fox hospital, Fox nursing home, Red Door church, Friendly’s, residential
______ 20. Glenwood cemetery, pet clinic
Matt 21. Neahwa Park
______ 22. Home Depot and Hannaford area including Susquehanna river
Pat 23. Neptune Diner, Denny’s, Susquehanna river dam, abandoned house in woods
Jesse 24. Railroad Ave hidden industrial area, factories and houses mixed together.
______ 25. Walmart area and trailer park behind it

Street photography readings and links

READING Assignments:
Each group is responsible for doing one of the following readings. You need to be prepared to summarize the main points for class on Thursday. Be ready to explain:

• How photographers capture the Decisive Moment.
• What are some elements of good street photos?
• What are some key tips for creating them?

Group 1. Cartier-Bresson, Henri. Study the photos in a book by HCB.

Group 2. Howarth, Sophie. Street Photography Now. Pages 9-15 plus excerpts. (This reading is in the class pickup folder on SpaceInvaders. Or read the book in Fine Arts 221.)

Group 3. 2Point8. Ways of Working: http://2point8.whileseated.org/wow-footer/

Group 4. Recent discussions from the Street Photography Now forum:
http://2point8.whileseated.org/2006/05/18/the-phylums-of-street-photography/

http://www.flickr.com/groups/instruction21/discuss/72157626093596558/

DUE DATE: Thurs. 3/29 in class.

PHOTO IDEA Assignment:
Browse some contemporary street photography. Post 1 photo on your photo idea page. Here are some good sites:

1. http://www.in-public.com/
2. http://www.flickr.com/groups/onthestreet/
3. http://jpgmag.com/blog/2010/05/best-of-photo-challenge-inspired-by-henri-cartier-bresson.html
4. http://www.flickr.com/photos/latitudes/galleries/72157622386738788/
5. http://streetphotographynowproject.wordpress.com/project-archive/
6. More links here and still more here.
DUE DATE: Every Thursday.

Samples of photo series

In class this week we will talk about 3 types of photography series:

Catalog or Typology:
Bernd and Hilda Becher
Penelope Umbrico
Jonathan Blaustein

Photo Essay:
Doug Dubois
Craig Walker

Sequential Narrative:
Elliott Erwitt. His new book Sequentially Yours is a great example.
Markku Lahdesmaki

Suzanne Szucs
Calhoun County Journal. Although it shows chronology, I'd say this one is not very well done. What do you think?
Find more examples and ideas in John Ingledew's book The Creative Photographer, pages 90-91.

You can take a sequence of photos and put them together to create a stop-action video:
Eyal Landseman
Mickey Keinetz

Lighting homework for 3/1

Hi all,

Here are your assignments for Thursday.

READING Assignment:
Krause, Jim. Photo Idea Index. Pages 254-269.
DUE DATE: Thurs. 3/1 before class.

PHOTO IDEA Assignment:
The theme this week is light.. Look for photos with interesting lighting. Especially pay attention to the direction of the light and how hard or diffuse it is. Add at least one picture to your photo idea page. Include the source, photographer’s name and your comments.
DUE DATE: Thurs. 3/1 before class. Be ready to explain the lighting in class.

READING Assignment: for next week:
Hobby, David. Strobist.com. Lesson 1.1 - Light Position and Angle.
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2007/06/lighting-102-unit-11-position-angle.html
DUE: Tues. 3/6.

What is photojournalism?

The Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University has a strong photojournalism program. The photo department has a Facebook group that may interest you.

Currently in the FB group they are having a discussion about the difference between photojournalism and documentary photography. Thought it would interest you all.

Original discussion 2/14: Permalink

Conversation continues 2/15 on: Permalink

The FB group also has good announcements about internships and other opportunities.

Lightroom contact sheets

Here are some further instructions for printing your contact sheets in Lightroom.

In the Print module:
Choose Contact Sheet/Grid.
Do not select Zoom to Fill.
In the Layout tab, set the Page Grid to Rows 5, Columns 4.
Adjust the Cell Spacing and Cell Size to fill the page.
In the Overlays tab, select:
Page Options: Page Numbers,
Photo Info: Filename.
Page Setup is in the bottom left corner. Format for: Adobe PDF 9.0
Print or Print One and save a pdf.

Is that clear?

Pictures of the Year competition

Laura Boushnak won a POY Award Of Excellence for this photo of prosthetic legs in a Lebanese refugee camp.

Here are links for POYi, the Pictures of the Year international competition:

Homepage: http://poyi.org/

Live streaming of judging: http://univofmo.adobeconnect.com/poyi/

2012 winners so far are on homepage.

2011 winners: http://www.poyi.org/68/winners.php

Previous winners: http://poyi.org/69/archive.php

What makes a good photo?

In class on 2/9 we brainstormed what makes a good photo? Here is the excellent list we created:

1. composition: the arrangement of subjects in the frame
2. lighting: direction of light (and other qualities)
3. clear focal point (this can be done with focus, color, contrast, etc)
4. there is a clear purpose: the photo conveys the goal/message of the photographer
5. the subject is interesting
6. unique perspective
7. creativity
8. depth of the image, multiple layers
9. emotional response
10. technical skill

Memorize this list. We'll discuss this more next week.

Lightroom tutorials

In class today I will give an introduction to Lightroom. You can find many useful tutorials to Lightroom on the Adobe website:

• Main tutorial page: http://www.adobe.com/support/photoshoplightroom/gettingstarted/index.html
• Main help page: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Lightroom/3.0/Using/index.html

• Overview tutorial: http://bit.ly/hkwgm2
• Metadata tutorial: http://thelightroomlab.com/2008/11/working-with-metadata-presets-in-lightroom/
• Full manual: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Lightroom/3.0/Using/lightroom_3_help.pdf

• Training videos: http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-lightroom-3
• Video on importing: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-lightroom-3/be-organized/
• Video on editing: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-lightroom-3/select-rate-and-prioritize-your-images/

Photo Idea galleries

It is valuable to always keep looking at the work of other photographers. I save a copy of any photo I find intriguing, and shots that gives me ideas I will want to try later.

Your photo idea galleries will serve this purpose. Each week you'll copy at least one photo to your Photo Idea gallery. I want you to include some specific notes detailing what in the photo interests you.

Where to look for photos? Here are a few sites to get you started:

• a photo a day
• flak photo
• Fraction magazine
• Image, deconstructed
• NYT's Lens Blog
• National Geographic
• NPR's Picture Show

You can also choose a keyword and search in:

• Getty Images Archives
• flickr
• Google Image

Photographers discussed in class 1/31/12

I talked about photographer Chase Jarvis who uses cell phone cameras to take great photos and says "the best camera is the one that's with you. Here is his "Best Camera"web page.

The book I chose for my monograph is "...all the days and nights" by Doug DuBois.
(This is the photo I described for you.)

Your homework reading is by Freeman Patterson.