Photos from the "Street Photography" Artist Reception

A crowd of people gather in the South Santiam Hall Art Gallery to hear a group of guest speakers talk about their work in street photography.

Guest speaker Gary Gumanow gives an anecdote about one of his photographic works, seen at right. The work in question, entitled, "Escaping Portland," was inspired by a single-panel cartoon strip from his childhood called, "Houdini Escaping New Jersey."

Gary Gumanow gives another anecdote about his work, while two students look on. This aecdote is about the first time he used a camera’s flash at night, which startled two passersby.

Environmental Portrait Subjects

I don't have any SPECIFIC people in mind for this assignment; rather, I'm planning on getting in touch with a group of people who all do the same occupation and seeing who all is able and willing to take part in a photo shoot. I'm opting to do the assignment this way because I figure it'll allow for greater flexibility with scheduling.

My primary subject in mind will be to photograph one of the drivers for the Linn Shuttle buses. The plan I've come up with to go about doing this is to either get in touch with the Shuttle's management and see if they can help me get in touch with one of their drivers that'd be willing to do it, or simply ask the drivers themselves if anyone'd be interested the next time I'm taking the bus. Either way, I'm planning on doing the photos at the building the buses get parked at, and take photos of my subject from different angles both in front of the bus and in its driver seat.

My second option would be to cover one of the librarians working in the campus library. I figure I'll take pictures of whoever ends up agreeing to help me from in front of the stacks, at their desk, or from the library's front desk with the stacks visible in the background.

Now clearly, I haven't set any specific details in stone yet. Depending on how things go when I start getting in touch with people, I might end up opting to make the library idea my plan A instead.

Photojournalism Self-Critique

Best Picture:

I would consider most of the photos I've taken so far to be at more or less the same level of quality, with the obvious exception of the ones that are more overtly bad (see below). I also haven't done much work with posing subjects for photos, especially with the assignment this particular one came from. In fact, for the assignment in question, to photograph a meeting of the Albany LBCC's Poetry Club, I mainly preferred to stick to the background and let the group go about their business. I figured this approach would make for more organic posing for pictures, and I think this particular photo is a good example of that.





Worst Picture:
I actually have 2 picks for my worst picture, representing 2 different ways a photo can be bad:

 Most of the photos I've taken that turned out bad were either ones with sub-standard composition from when I was still figuring out the settings of my camera, ones with a few bad details like a person blinking or moving their hand, or both. Point is, most of them were either salvageable in photoshop or were ones I took a similar but better photo I could use instead. But this? I don't know how or if one could make this usable,  nor do I even know how the heck it happened...

This photo on the other hand I wanted to use as an example of a photo that's "almost good," or rather one that could have been good if a little more effort had been put into taking it. I was actually about to use this one for a close-up shot in another blog post assignment, until I noticed the pillow covering the subject's ear. There wasn't any way to crop it out without taking off half his head, and ALL the other pictures I took of him from that angle had the same problem. A problem that could have been avoided entirely if I'd just MOVED A FEW INCHES TO THE RIGHT!





Skill Assessment:
I would say my two biggest areas of weakness are that I desperately need to learn how to use my camera properly, and that I need to get better at interacting with subjects while doing photo shoots. Fortunately these are both things I should be able to get better at over time, with practice.

Photos from the 10/17 meeting of the LBCC Poetry Club

Members of the LBCC Poetry Club gather in the DAC Center to discuss the
schedule for their meeting, Thursday, October 17th. Meanwhile, Daniel Glenn (Far right) works on his own poem.

Poetry Club member Daniel Glenn gives his thoughts on the poetry book the club
members are reading from, while fellow club member Gordon Jiroux looks on.
Thursday, October 17th, Albany DAC Center

Poetry Club member Kel O'Callaghan reads a poem from the same book.
Thursday, October 17th, Albany DAC Center

Photographer of the Week Introduction

My photographer of the week assignment will be on Ansel Adams. Along with extensive work in landscape photography, he was also a renowned environmentalist, author, and teacher. In his formative years, he read about the transcendentalist philosophies of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Reading Thoreau's works in particular gave him a deep-set love of nature for his entire life, which would be reflected in his photography. Adams was also a proponent of John Muir, a naturalist who was one of the primary voices behind the Yosemite Valley area being made into a national park. Muir was one of many sources of inspiration that led Ansel Adams to become one of the most famous photographers of the region.

His photography was well known for its detailed and nuanced manipulation of light. Along with lighting, I noticed that his photographs are of VERY high quality when compared to more contemporary sources. The best words I'd use to describe his landscape shots especially would be, "crisp and clear." Adams described the style of photography he used as “visualization,” which was meant to “capture the artist’s feelings and ideas about a place or object.”* In this process, he would visualize what a photo’s final print would look like before exposure and printing. This method was meant to be “a poetic equivalent of his emotional response to a particular place at a particular time.”*

“Adams [was] not interested in duplicating the realistic light on the mountain, but in capturing the mood and quality of the place.”*

Ansel Adams Gallery

*Source for quotes: “Master of Light” by Therese Lichenstein; all 3 quotes are from page 16 of that book.

Photos taken from the Ansel Adams gallery on shop.anseladams.com

Thoughts So Far: "It's What I Do" by Lynsey Addario, Preface & Ch. 1

So far I've very much enjoyed this book. This assignment could not have come at a better time for me; I had just finished reading The Lord of the Rings over the summer, and was feeling a slight sense of literary ennui while I looked for another book to read. THIS one hooked me so immediately that I could have easily found more than enough material to discuss even if the assignment had only been on the preface. I had to stop myself from reading too far ahead just so that I'd be able to remember what parts of the book I'm supposed to be writing about. Gushing aside, the part of the book I've liked best so far would have to be the way she describes her surroundings and what's going on. "It feels like I'm really there" is a commonly used phrase which I definitely feel applies here. Also, I felt that she provided her own thoughts in a very natural and personable manner, which made it all the easier to get invested. 

For me the real highlight of the first chapter was her account of when she was first breaking into photojournalism in Buenos Aires. I can't help but admire the persistence she showed while trying to get meaningful work at the Gazette. That whole part of the chapter feels like a very good guide on how to go about a photojournalism career. In fact, that section is also the source of my favorite quote from the book so far: "Make all your professional mistakes in Argentina; because if you make one mistake in New York, no one will give you another chance." Can't really say I have a favorite out of her photos from the book, though. I know it sounds like a cop-out answer, but all the ones I particularly liked I liked equally as much.

The other big thing I learned was from the preface; it gave me a very clear look at what life is like living in an active war zone, and this perspective has inspired me to start taking more of an active interest in current events, where before I’d become very cynical and jaded in that regard. Whatever problems I’ve been having with the way our country’s being run kind of pale in comparison to Addario’s account of Libya during Arab Spring, I guess is what I’m saying. 

Blog Forum Post 1

About Me:

My name is Bowen Orcutt. My current major is Engineering, but my primary reason for taking this class is because I'm considering switching to writing, and it seemed like the best way to explore my options. I'd say I have a decent amount of experience with photojournalism and photography, having taken a couple of photo classes in High School as well as working on the yearbook during my senior year. Though all things considered I'd say I got more experience with editing photos than with taking them, even if it was with an INCREDIBLY outdated version of photoshop. So if you have a lot of photos that need cleaned up in a short timeframe, I'm your man.

Class Goals

Firstly, as mentioned I'm hoping the class will give me a good idea of what to expect from a career in Journalism. I'm also hoping to relearn some of the finer points of photography that I've forgotten in the last few years since my last photography class. Lastly, I suppose a more personal goal would simply be to enjoy myself while working on class projects. It's been a while since I've had a minset in a class other than, "This is due at the end of the week, need to get to work asap." Which I can honestly say that I've succeeded at so far.

On this week's assignment

I was unsurprisingly nervous about the prospect of going up to random strangers and asking to interview them, but all things considered I'd say it went better than I expected. I really enjoyed the meeting new people around the campus, and hearing what they have to say. Though funnily enough, I'd say what I enjoyed most about conducting these interviews was when me and the person I was talking to would occasionally start briefly chatting about other subjects unrelated to the interview, particularly after asking questions on what they like about the campus or living in Oregon. In terms of things I'd have done differently, first and foremost on my mind is that I'd had set my phone facing THE WRONG WAY while it was recording audio, which I didn't realize until after I'd done BOTH of my interviews. This unfortunately meant that I had to listen to the recordings at a fairly high volume in order to hear the questions and answers over the ambient noise from the part of the room the sound receiver WAS facing towards. Other than that, though, I'd say that seeing what the final product's supposed to look like has given me a better idea of what questions to ask.

Humans of LBCC Week 1

Humans of LBCC 1

Abby Grewatz, First Resort Coordinator

“First Resort is a sort of student problem-solving center. So, we can help students with pretty much any question that they may have about college, about LBCC, just a kind of catch-all one-stop for student questions. So, sometimes we have the answer, and be able to fix whatever issue they’re experiencing, sometimes we might refer to other resources on campus."

"In the area where I work, I’ve really enjoyed getting to know my coworkers and other staff members here. They’re very welcoming, very kind, very helpful. This week, I’ve also gotten to know some students, so that has been really fun, to work through some of their questions." 

"About the campus, I also really like the courtyard area, and just being able to be outside during the day; so, I’ve been taking my lunches out to the courtyard area. I’ve heard there’s some good food in the commons area; I haven’t had the chance to try it yet, but that also seems like a perk of working here."

“I’d say one of my sources of inspiration is one of my friends from grad school; She, in the last few years, has had some medical issues come up in her life, and it’s had a lot to do with her life. For me it’s been very inspiring to watch her deal with these challenges. She’s really come out on the other side, going to school; she’s in college right now, she’s been successful in college, and has been able to continue working towards her career goals ad her life dreams.”

Humans of LBCC 2

Alicia Estrada, Animal Science major

“Lately, I think [a source of inspiration has been] my parents . I have  an older brother, and my parents work 3 jobs in order to help me and my brother get through college. And they’ve been inspiring because I feel the need to be successful in life; that way I can repay them and help them.”

"I work in the admissions office, so I like working here, and I get to meet a lot of new people."