Digital Photography

Wesley Hull Digital Photography/ Fall 2019-2020/ Strath Haven High school

For this Photo I wanted to take an unusual selfie. I thought how all selfies require a camera and while they are often shown in the picture, I have never seen one with someone using a real camera. So For this artsy selfie I made the camera the focus of the picture, still showing my face clearly though making the action of taking the photo more prominent.

Most people don’t realise that I read a lot, particularly not how much philosophy I read. In this photo I wanted to show a great way I would spend an evening. I specifically chose to take the photo low down though at my level to try and connect the viewer more. Like the previous photo, due to me using a timer I spent a lot of time and effort into capturing a good photo.

In middle school, I wore a lot of camo, though I couldn't tell you why, and for a season I was a NASCAR fan, Because of these things I became known as a redneck. I am in no way a redneck, I have not worn camo or talked about NASCAR for years, though some students here ,that don’t know me well, still think I am a redneck. I laugh about it though this has been a huge misconception of me for years. In this picture I used back light, sort of, to add to the commentary about my past. This photo proved to be very hard since I was using a timer to take the photos, therefore I couldn't see the picture, so it ended up taking me over thirty minutes to get the shutter speed and focus right.

This was my first time not only going with just my friends skiing but also my first time shooting photos while skiing. The day was so much fun and I plan to go again with my friends, but i'm not sure about bringing my camera again. Taking photos while staying balanced and fast enough to keep up with my friends was really hard. Plus since we got to the mountain kind of late I was taking moving shots in the dark which resulted in a lot of horrible photos, though a few decent ones emerged. However I was done with my camera on the mountain after I ate it on a double black and instead of falling well and slowing down I rolled wrapping my camera in my arms.In these pictures you can see the progression of our day; From when we first arrived to us falling asleep in the restaurant afterwards. Plus I now how a the utmost respect for Jimmy chin and his ability to take these pictures.

Jimmy Chin’s philosophy focuses on adventure, experience and the beauty of nature. This is clearly shown by how he has lived his life constantly traveling and exploring. He believes that going on an adventure, especilly climbing a mountain, is one of the greatest experiences someone can have; And he attempts to display this in his work. While Chin does not often come out and express his political beliefs often, he holds strong beliefs about what has to be done to save the planet. Though one has to look deeper into his work to see it, he expresses this too.

Due to my inability to travel to any high peaks during the duration of this project, I had to find a replacement for mountains; This replacement was the tops of the evergreen trees. I also was able to capture a sunset behind these trees, which was a very different sunset then Chin’s, but in essence was the same. Though the greatest similarity could be easily overlooked, this is the elevation required to take this photo, which I had to climb on my roof to get.

I started the thought process of taking this photo by releasing over half of Jimmy Chin’s photos include ice, so that is what I started looking for. Unfortunately for me the most snow/ice I was able to find the last two weeks was this. In this photo I tried to capture the way the light reflects off of the snow which, like Chin, I had to get very low to capture. I also made sure to have the background be extremely bright. I don't think this Is a good recreation of Chin’s photo though I think It is a great recreation of Chin’s style, especially since I got covered in snow while taking it.

For this photo I attempted to shoot a recreation of Jimmy Chin’s world famous skiing shots. This was very hard, especially since I was trying to to action shots at night. In making this photo I wanted to capture the spray of snow, which follows both skiers, which I successfully did. Because of the difficulty of this photo I was only able to focus on capturing my friend skiing. Though there are similarities like how close Chin and I are to the ground and a pretty cool slopy background.

Trying to recreate Jimmy Chin’s work has shown me that to get a very interesting and beautiful photo you have to put yourself in the right position. While many times with Chin these positions are very hard to get to, it only takes a couple minutes to find some unusual place to shoot a great photo at. I do realize that this is not always necessary, but I believe doing this simple thing will increase the quality of your photo exponentially. I also think that this makes the process of taking the photo more fun.

This class has taught me so much. At the beginning I learned how to use a camera, so that I could take at least decent photos. Then was shown the world of photography and all the cool intricacies and ways of taking photos. There is so much to photo composition I would have never dreamed of. I loved the creative freedom of this class. I found the daily tasks of taking photos pretty easy though finding something cool to take a photo of exceedingly difficult the longer I was forced t take photos in and around the school. Though I believe this is a natural part of the class since we are stuck at the school. I also found the portion of Photoshop work in this class very hard, this was mostly due to a hatred of this type of computer work. This class has strengthened my love for photography. Now a days I am constantly wishing I had my camera on me when I am constantly sublimity across something I want to take a photo of.

Appreciate