Still Magic Photography

I will share interesting tips, products and creative techniques for taking pictures.

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I realized this week I have never really talked about my experience as a photographer. So here is my, for lack of a better word, journey through photography:

 When I was younger I wanted to try everything but I always ended up quitting. Every sport or hobby I picked up I would always grow bored or decide I didn’t like it. One year for Christmas I asked my parents for a camera so I could try photography. They got me the cheapest model they could knowing I would be thrilled to have a camera and they wouldn’t think about how much money they wasted when I lost interest. They had no idea then that photography was the one thing I actually stuck with. I can’t explain why but I love taking pictures.

At first photography was just a hobby of mine but after a few years I realized it was what I wanted to for the rest of my life. My mom didn’t really care for the idea of me being a photographer at first because she thinks it is a dying career. She had herself convinced that I would never be able to support myself as a photographer but I have never cared. I would rather love my career and be broke than have money but be miserable in at my job. I’m not sure what type of photographer I want to be yet; I have a tendency to change my mind. At first I wanted to be a studio photographer but I think that would get old after awhile. I thought about being a nature photographer but I am allergic to bugs so that could end tragically. At the moment my dream is to become a photojournalist. I have recently realized that I love to write as well so photojournalism would be a great fit! I switched from a Fine Arts major to a Journalism major this semester and I like my classes a lot more, switching was a great choice.

My high school severely lacks in the art department so I do not have a lot of education yet. In high school I took one independent study class, which was basically a class period where I could play with my photos (something I don’t really do). During my senior year I dual enrolled at Saginaw Career Complex for graphic arts. For the first couple months I loved attending SCC because we spent the entire time working on photography. We got to use the schools cameras, which were way more advanced than mine, and we would go out in the woods by the school and take pictures of whatever we wanted. We learned a bit about things like the rule of thirds and other composition aspects. I was not able to get into a photography class at Delta until next semester and I can’t wait for it (even if it is at 8 in the morning).

Right now my photography is for my friends/family and me. Two of my aunts have my pictures hanging up in their houses and my mom has some hanging in her office. I did take some pictures for the French Club at Delta one day and my friend has asked me to take pictures at her wedding so it looks like I’m branching out! I have recently decided into trying to get myself out there and start making a name for myself so hopefully that goes well! Above are some of my favorite pictures of mine.

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One thing about my photography I have never been good at is showcasing my work. I have a tone of photos on my computer that have only been seen by a few family members and that was because they asked. With as much time as I spend online one would think keeping a photography blog would be easy for me but it’s not. I made a Facebook page a few years ago to put my photos on, after putting a few pictures on there I have never looked at it. I don’t know why I have issues putting my work out there, they few times I have I receive positive reviews. My mom has some of my photos up in her office and people are sometimes shocked to learn I took them.

I really like these little books; they are a cute way to advertise a business. If I find the time (and money for the supplies) I would love to make one. I could always have one on me so if I find someone who seems interested in my work I could show them a sample. If they were really interested I could give them the book and make a new one. This is a very clever way to advertise without the hassle of creating a professional looking site and maintaining it. 

I love looking for new ways to displays my photography and this is one of the few ideas I have truly considered doing. I have a few photos that I really love that I could put inside and I have some business cards I had to design for a class I could use as the cover. The only problem is being able to print off the pictures in decent quality and getting the other supplies.

You can check out step-by-step instructions here: http://content.photojojo.com/diy/amazing-little-pocket-portfolio/?utm_source=tumblr&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=pocket-portfolio-diy

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Last month one of my best friends announced that she was engaged. I am really happy for her but they are planning their wedding for May 2015 and that does not seem like enough time to plan everything. Also, they are on a very strict budget so they do not have a lot of extra cash to spend on the wedding they want. A few days ago I was talking to my friend and she asked how much I would charge to take her wedding photos. I’ve had a few people ask me this about various things and I am never comfortable enough setting a price. She suggested that she pay for my gas to get to the wedding (she lives about two hours away), my food, and maybe a little extra. I love the idea of helping her out (I am defiantly cheaper than a professional) but I have no idea what to do.

  I have about seven months to figure out what to do when taking wedding photos and what not to do. Whenever I have free time and feel like looking into it I will search the Internet for anything that might be helpful. That’s how I found this site, I googled wedding photography tips and clicked on the first option. Some of the tips were things I had not thought of. For example, scout the location beforehand. This will be a little difficult for me since I don’t live near by but I will definitely try to look up the locations online and find out as much as I can about them. I also like that one of the tips is to turn off the sound of your camera so it doesn’t disrupt the ceremony. I would have never thought about that till it actually happened. I think the most important tip the site has is the last one, have fun. I would probably get so caught up in making sure all the pictures are turning out right I might forget to enjoy my best friends wedding.

  Obviously I will not follow every single tip I find, that would be a lot to remember. I am doing this research so when it comes time I will have more confidence in my abilities. I take pride in my photography but I tend to shy away from taking pictures of people because I don’t want to take a bad picture of them. I also have not reached the point where I am comfortable telling people what to do so I can actually create the picture I imagine. This is a very big day for my friend (she has been talking about getting married since middle school) so I love that I can help her out. I just want to make sure I know what I’m doing and that her pictures turn out amazingly.

Here is a link if you want to check out the rest of the tips: http://digital-photography-school.com/wedding-photography-21-tips-for-for-amateur-wedding-photographers/

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A couple weeks ago I posted a small rant about how some people were disrespectful to a historical photo. I believe that photos are a huge part of history so seeing someone use a picture to make a funny thing for the Internet was very annoying. I started thinking though that history is never over; everyday more things happen that impact the future. So every day more pictures are being taken that will become just as important. The picture attached was taken during the Ukrainian revolution earlier this year.

  The web page attached is a compilation of 75 photos taken during the 21st century that will one day become iconic photos. I love every picture on this page because the photos show the good, bad, beauty, and ugly of the 21st century. Every picture is captured in a perfect moment that shows the emotions of the moment. For example, there is a picture of two women who were finally able to get married in New York where you could see the pure joy and excitement of these two women.

  My dream is to be there when history is taking place and to capture the perfect moment. I would love to be the one who takes the picture that shows everyone the truth of what is going on and makes them care. I don’t care if the photo changes the world or ends up in some book just knowing my picture affected once person would be enough. I highly recommend checking out the rest of the photos.

http://news.distractify.com/mark-pygas/pictures-taken-in-past-10-years/?v=1&img=3bfcac 

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I believe it was in middle school that I discovered how much I love taking pictures. For Christmas one year I asked my parents for a camera and they got me a cheap thing that broke a few years later. At the time I did not care because I had a working camera of my own but looking back now with my new cameras I realize how poor of a camera it was. My parents bought that camera because they believed I would not stick with photography, they thought it would be a phase like every other hobby I picked up. When I was a kid I tried everything from sports to crafts trying to find something I liked but I always gave it up. My parents had no idea at the time that photography would become my passion.

  There is a saying that if you do what you love you never work a day in your life, which for me would be taking pictures for a living. I love the idea of being a professional photographer the only problem is I have no idea what kind. At first I was going to own a studio but I decided that would become very mundane and I would no longer enjoy it. Next I wanted to be a nature photographer, I love animals so how awesome would it be to travel all over the world taking pictures of animals in their natural habitat. The problem with this career path though is the fact that I hate bugs. I am terrified of spiders and there is also the problem that I am slightly allergic to mosquitos and other bugs. Who knows what would happen to me if some weird exotic bug bit me. So laying in the forest waiting for a good shot of a bird or something is not going to happen.

  Recently the idea of being a photojournalist caught my attention. I really like the idea of traveling around the world capturing special/important moments. I want to see the world, not just the shiny happy parts that normal people vacation to. I want to see everything good or bad. I want everyday to be a new adventure I don’t want to have an average day at work. There are downsides to becoming a photojournalist but so far the bad does not overpower the good. The video, Power of Photojournalism, talks about how important photos/photojournalist are. The video encouraged me even more to become a photojournalist because it is an important job. People need to see what is going on in the rest of the world.

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On my phone I have the app iFunny, which I check at some point every day. Recently while I was scrolling threw the photos I saw this and was instantly mad at whomever added the caption. I know that sounds kind of weird to be mad at some silly little caption but it is the photo that the caption was attached that caused the anger. The reason for my anger is because I know the true story behind that photo because it is an iconic that is put into a lot of “photos that changed the world” or “most powerful photos.”

One of the men in the picture lives in North Korea and the other man lives in South Korea. These two are brothers and because of where they each live are never allowed to see each other. The two Koreas have a few gatherings where families are allowed to see each other which is where this photo came from, the first visit in who knows how long.

The fact that some kid saw this iconic photo and decided to use it to make a funny picture online is very infuriating for me. I feel like people are paying less and less attention to our own history. For example, in one of my classes I discovered that more than half of my class had no idea what lynching was. My classmates had no idea the horrors that occurred before, during, and after segregation. The fact that whoever added the caption did not care about where the picture came from or what it meant is heartbreaking. I love looking at pictures of history, for a brief moment it can almost feel like you’re in that moment. Photos don’t just capture a moment they keep them alive. Some people seem to not respect history they think it’s done and over with so who cares. If everyone ignores history how are we supposed to learn? Photography is something I care very deeply for especially historic photos so I hate that someone disrespected a photo like this.

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For the past couple weeks in my College Comp 2 class we have been working on a research paper. My teacher told us that he did not want the basic fact after fact research paper he wanted an essay. He wanted us to pick a topic that we found interesting or that we were curious about so that while we were writing our paper we could put our opinions in. He wanted to know what we thought about what we were discovering and why we cared. When I started thinking about what to choose for my topic I tried to think of what I cared about enough that I could do all this research and have an opinion on it. The first thing I thought of was photography, but what could I research about photography that wouldn’t just turn into another research paper. Basically question I asked in my paper was, how much power does photography have over people? Pictures stick with people because they have the ability to affect something deep inside a person. Photos hold so much power because they can make people believe in something, care about something, remember, understand, and cause them to act. This video is from National Geographic where a bunch of photographers talk about the power of photography. One of them says that photography is “a weapon for what is out there.” I wish I had found this video before I turned it my paper it could have been useful.

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In high school I took an independent study class for my photography. Basically what that meant was that me and the other independent students chilled out in the art room working on random projects for an hour. One day during class my teacher came over and started talking to me about my rights as a photographer, when he found out I didn’t know my rights. He went to go get a paper that listed my rights as a photographer and what to do in situations where I am stopped or confronted about taking pictures. He told me that I should always keep this paper because it is very important to always know my rights but that is about all I remember of what we talked about. I was in high school in my blow off class, at the time I didn’t really care. I still have this paper but I haven’t really thought about it till the first day in my Media Ethics and Law where we discussed privacy issues and the class was told that anyone care take a picture as long as they are on public property. The class did not care for the fact that someone could stand on the sidewalk and take a picture of them inside their house. Now that I am older and actually care about my future I realize that my high school teacher was right, I really need to know my rights. I had no idea that if I was in public that I could legally take pictures of people. I decided to look more into this that is how I found this video. In the video the guy is talking about a situation one of his viewers messaged him about. The viewer was upset because she had been invited by another photographer to take pictures of his models and was told that she could use the pictures to promote her new business. Later the viewer was told that she couldn’t use the pictures, the viewer was confused as to whether the pictures were legally hers or not. The man in the video informed her that all pictures you take are legally yours unless a contract was written up before hand that says otherwise. I am starting to realize there is still so much about photography that I still need to learn.

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I find this video extremely interesting. A woman, doesn’t say from where, sent an unaltered photo of herself to Photoshop experts all over the world. Her only instruction for them was to make her beautiful. It is amazing to see what is considered beautiful in other parts of the world. What one country deems beautiful could be the opposite of what another does. I really wish I knew where the girl was from, I am curious as to how much her own country altered her appearance. It is also interesting to see how much Photoshop can change. Some of the pictures this girl got back were drastically different than her original picture. For example, the picture an expert from America altered her nose and it looks like the shortened her entire face. I once told an art teacher of mine that I don’t like to alter my pictures. He looked at me and said, “Oh, you’re so good your photos don’t need to be edited?” That was not what I meant at all, I didn’t say that my photos didn’t need to be edited just that I don’t like to. My photos are not perfect; I don’t think anyone’s photos are, I just liked to leave mine natural. I don’t really know how to put my reasoning for this into words, I just like to keep my photos how they are.  

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Something I want to do with my photography is make some kind of difference. I don’t mean huge scale like change the world difference (though that would be kind of awesome.) I want to make a difference in someone’s day, week, month, or year. Knowing that I made someone feel better, even for a moment, would be the greatest thing in the world. I found this video ages ago and when I was trying to figure out the best the to feature for my first post this came to mind. Something like this video is what I would love to be a part of. “If Only For a Second” is where twenty people with cancer, who believed they were not able to be carefree anymore, were taken to a studio. At the studio their hair and make-up was done for them while they kept their eyes closed, not being able to see what was being done to them. The guests were then place in front of a one-way mirror that had a photographer behind it. The guests were then instructed to open their eyes and the photographer captured a moment of carefreeness. The looks on the people’s faces when they saw themselves (some had very interesting hair-dos/make-up) were looks of pure happiness. For a little while they could forget their illness, they could be happy and carefree. That moment, that second must have meant so much to them and I would love to be a part of something like that some day. I highly recommend that everyone watches the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMWU8dEKwXw