Across the Pond and Back

Back From London

Wow! what an amazing trip. Its one of the most surreal feelings to have just been in England for a month and now i am back in Lakeland. London was one of the best parts of the trip by far. The city was massive. I only saw maybe 14 percent of the city by walking, using the underground and buses. The plane ride back wasn't very fun either. Nine hours then another three hours for a buss ride that should have taken one hour. Any way Im back and it dosent feel diffrent. It almost all looks the same in fact. Driving of courst will look weird to me for a while. Walking across the streets will be a little weird for a while as well. I just got used to looking the right for oncoming traffic.

Petals : Assignment 5

Bus driver from hell

What a bitch that old buss driver is. So were trying to go to Camberage and the buss is full. so i have to wait at the school for the driver to come back ad do a double run. Well since I was not form EVANSVILLE he basically said screw you with his actions of not doing another run for me. So I waited for that bus to come back because the train was at 2:00. So he gets back at 1:50 and I asked him if their was another ride into town and he said "no more rides today until 3:30, but even if the bus is full ill make sure you get a ride into town." So I shook my head and turned around and am going to complain to the college president. This is not the first time he has done weird things either. When Sara and west were in the bus he went to the post office and them dropped some guy off at his house. another time when other student were in the bus he dropped off some old couple at their house. I mean, are you serious! its your job to take student from the college to the bus stop and back not make personal trips to the post office and your friends house. Stupid asshole.

Bike ride

10 miles of open country and houses. Absolutely beautiful. Meghan, Dani, Emily, and I took some bikes out up to Beaver castle. After biking for 3 mils and up two hills we were exhausted. we actually didn't make it to Beaver castle we got close and we saw a another big hill. We then decided to turn around. So we went up another big hill and town the other hill. Doing down we must have gone at least 20 miles an hour. It was a fun ride and the bike ripped a huge hole in my new jeans. they got caught in the chain and i almost fell off the bike.

Response 3

I believe some of the statements made in this article are quite hilarious. The idea that tourism photograph is a way for tourists to control their environment is absurd. The man statement in the article I do not agree with is “Touristic photography reduces people to mere objects to be possessed.” This statement goes beyond all natural thinking and dives too deep into a very shallow pond. Almost every photo a tourist takes is to remember the trip they had, the places they visited, share memories with their children. I believe very few people think tourists are trying to possess them out their land.

Other statements in the article I do not agree with are when Sontag says, “Tourists use their cameras as a means of taking control of spaces, and possessing the places they visit…” I personally take pictures on vacations to remember the moments and the places I visited. I would also like to share the images I took with family members, friends, and one-day my children. I have no intent on possessing the places I visit or people I saw, I just want to remember what I did on my trip. In addition, I like shooting people when they do not know the camera is on them. I love seeing the reactions and expressions they make when they do not know their being filmed or photographed. As Sontag says though, “To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves…” I feel that it is perfectly fine to photograph some one when their not looking. There is no invasion of privacy if their out in public so I really do not see any problem. Just because I have a view of you that you cannot see does not mean anything. If you really want to see your self at a different angle then go get a mirror.

I am all over the place when I shoot photos. I can be shooting a landscape one second, a portrait the next and then some candid just because their interesting. I do not believe I have a focus point when it comes to photography; I just shoot what looks interesting. I do love shooting macros of everything. Now that I have a lens that will do macro’s I love photographing the simplest things and making them larger than life.

While I am doing “tourist” photography, the photos tend to be very similar to photos I shoot at home. I just shoot to shoot. Sometimes I pose people, other times I stand ready to capture anything that I see visual appealing, and sometimes I just wait for the moments to come to me. All of the things I do at home and while on vacation are remarkably similar. I do enjoy shooting while on vacation more than at home. This is because I am able to bring back photos of places and things my family has never seen.

I put my photos on Facebook to show people what I have done recently. I also post photos on Facebook to show people what I am able to do as a photographer. I like to let people see what I have been up to and it makes my family proud. They all get on Facebook just to see my photos. They are always very proud every time I bring a photo or a published photo for them to view.

Article 2

When newspapers and magazines manipulate photographs, they tell an altered story. In the Beijing photograph, the crowd surrounding the lone man facing the tanks, clearly represents a rally or protest of some sort. This manipulation of the photograph could cause some people to think about a completely different situation than the original photo represented. As mentioned in the article altered photos could rewrite history. If photo editors are not careful, one day they may go too far and cause countries to go to war, cause governments to change their minds, and manipulate the news to serve them.

Photos should not be manipulated for content but for print quality. This refers to editing the brightness and contrast and white balance to correct an image taken in poor lighting conditions. These tools should only be used to make a photo look like real life and to print better on paper. For example if and image was taken in low light and came out dark the editor should be able to brighten the image. If a photograph was taken and it is correctly lit buy the image seems to have a yellow tint due to white balance error, you may certainly edit the photo to maintain a correct color balance. It would not be ok to enhance the colors of images to make parts of an image stand out when the do not in real life.

Pieces of images should not be used to make one photograph for news. The image of Martha Stewart uses Stewarts head was placed on a models body and clearly misleads every reader. At first glance, Stewart looks like she is thin and attractive after coming out of prison. This is an example of what not to do with images. Readers will be outraged if they find out your images were manipulated.