visual seeing

one of Friedolin's picts

Friedolin and I had a most excellent time working with last week's in-class picture story. We pasted the two stories on separate poster boards and made up titles, such as "The Battle of the Grounds" and "Dancing Lessons with Carly". Friedolin inspired some caption-making to help bridge some of the visual gaps noticed during the reading. It's always refreshing when no captions are needed, for when the pictures can stand alone emitting enough information to engage the viewer's mind and understanding to his or her own interpretation. Friedolin and I shared the latter story with several volunteers in the library and received dynamic readings from each person: we realized which narrative aspects were lost on people (and why), and also which ones conveyed our direct intentions (and why). What emerged from these discussions were sound ideas for creating new picture stories; fewer images, different angles, and consistent color schemes with each subject.
The posters we made will be up soon.
For the remainder of the class, Friedolin and I went on a meditative walk to the Laundronet (including later stops to cool graffiti sites). We each focused on a different visual element to keep eye on for our photographs. Friedolin chose "light and texture", which I think is a thoughtful way to see and to photograph; by breaking down and coupling the two we may receive more information about a subject with these two central details. I chose to focus on shapes. We discovered and created beautiful pictures...

Our last class is quickly approaching, and while most of the students have not been able to make each class, I encourage everyone to make it out for the last one. We will be doing an alternative processing activity (making cyanotype fabric prints), and we will choose our 3 favorite images to "blow up" and put in a group show...so everyone's input is much needed to make an awesome and cohesive class exhibit!

// posted by ZenScream2 @ 10:29 AM 0 Comments

Thank you to Glynnis for visiting our class and teaching us about visual storytelling! Our first activity, after reviewing the processed photos from the prior week's assignment, was to create a picture story on a posterboard based off a directive picked out of a hat, e.g., "tell a story about a vacation" or "tell a story about a teacher winning an award". Each student picked a unique title for his/her visual display and presented their work to the class. It was a cool project and we are grateful for gaining an understanding into the types of work an editorial photographer might receive and to then come up with our own visions based off "assignment" prompts.
After Glynnis left, we came up with a story to tell through pictures. We then went outside and photographed the shots we came up with, such as Carly teaching Ryan, Friedolin and me how to dance, we're slow learners and soon faint, and Carly the teacher has no remorse for our novice dance moves. It was a fun project because we talked about the different angles at which to shoot the 13 or so pictures we used. The next story the students made up on their own, and was limited to 5 shots. I'll post them up here once they are developed.

Unfortunately Ryan and Carly are taking off for the last 2 weeks of class...to explore the Western part of our continent! Hopefully we'll see some telling pictures of their adventures when they return...

Hey everyone,
Glynnis McDaris will be visiting our class to talk about her work, and help us with our picture story activity. Her site is here. See y'all on Saturday!

Eeks! I've been posting the Visual Seeing posts to another blog of mine...alas, here we go!
Low turnout today, but immense fun had by all. Both Friedolin and Krystov turned out some gorgeous prints from the past week! They shared their favorite photographs with one another mentioning why they liked the particular picture, why they took it, what they noticed after seeing the developed picture. Friedolin took off with portraits of his family; including dress-ups and montages. Hopefully we'll get his pictures up here soon! Krystov went strawberry picking with his family and documented harvesting, and photographed his two different dogs in two different ways!
We then read an excerpt from the book "Ways of Seeing"; a passage described from the perspective of a camera, the "mechanical eye". Krystov pointed out that we are all magical; this rang true in a writing activity using similes and metaphors to describe things from our bellies to our neighborhoods. Since each student lives in a different neighborhood we compared our "likes and dislikes" of these areas and found that there are some overlapping sentiments: only liking weeds sometimes, limited playing area, etc. We came up with some cool ways to photograph them.
Leticia joined us mid-class and we clued her into our list compiling of the pros/cons of "summer".

I enjoyed meeting all the students who came to the first class last Saturday! Ryan, Carly, Krystov, Shafi, Friedolin, and Jamie all eagerly participated and displayed an earnest interest in learning about photography.

We were lucky to have met Brian Jinns, a local antique photography collector, who came in and spoke to us about the history of the still camera starting with the Daguerreotype working up to the stereoscope, and then the medium-format view camera. Several students pointed out how the cameras got smaller as technology improved. This was reaffirmed when Krystov pulled out his camera phone! Shafi was enthralled by the fine detail on the wet collodion glass plate; if you click here you will find a step-by-step account of the collodion process. And thisis an excellent DA-Guerr image.

Gustave Le Gray, 1859:
collodion rundown: collodion

After a short break, we cut out images from photography and assorted magazines; we then went around the table a couple of times and talked about why we chose certain photographs, what we observed in them, why they might have been taken, among other thought provoking visual analyses. There wasn't an overwhelming interest in writing about particular photographs, so we shared our thoughts orally. Friedolin chose to cut out a portion of an image, to then only show scattering puffy grey clouds at sunset to focus on the "air pollution" in the sky. His image lacked the obvious smokestacks often seen in environmental photographs and used as "statements"; whereas without their harrowing presence, the viewer is allowed to feel comforted by the warm red sky and mysterious clouds for only a short while until the eyes pick up on the dark grey contours of the clouds and the mugginess of grit seeping through. Way cool pic. This is sort of similar:

Additionally, we cut out paper frames and framed different places in the classroom sharing what each person within and outside of the frame. We talked about various ways to frame a picture; from angles to distance. We also had a short discussion on portraits where we were able to cover the challenge of taking a self-portrait without being in it, and how to describe a subject with light, shadows, and colors.

The first assignment is to take self-portraits and family portraits. Before we had our cameras in hand, we talked about possible photographs and approaches to telling a mini-story about the subjects they might want to photograph. Next week I will stress the importance of writing down a few picture ideas before taking them.

There was a lot of energy and enthusiasm, and I look forward to our first group walk today at 3pm. I know many of you will not be able to meet, so best of luck on your photographic adventures, and please remember to return your cameras to the Library by Thursday 5pm!

So I referred to the cyanotype processed print as a "c-print" on a phone interview today, and while I have used this nickname often with photo friends of mine, I looked it up and found "blueprint" to be the moniker of choice.
What is a "c-print" anyways? It is a blue/cyan monochrome print. An English scientist, Sir John Heschel invented the procedure in 1842; Anne Atkins, also a Brit, applied the process to photography by making several cyanotype books with images of fern and plant life. From this discovery Atkins became revered as the "first female photographer".
So there are 2 chemicals involved:
* Ammonium iron(III) citrate
* Potassium ferricyanide
When dissolved in water they produce a photo sensitive solution that is then coated on a material, in our class' case paper. By exposing the prepared paper to sunlight (UV rays) the UV reduces iron III to iron II, and then follows a complex reaction between iron II and the ferricyanide, which gives the print its Prussion Blue color quality. It's recommended to store (and restore) these prints in a dark environment.
I like and
Considering that last link: Can I coat a black colored paper with the cyanotype process chemicals and get an equally visible blue/black contrast as expected with the blue / white paper?