What I Learned (IW8)

A Reflection

1. Images have a lot of power. They are able to convey an argument in a very visual, emotional way. Images are the epitome of "show, don't tell." Carefully thought out and edited pictures have the ability to say something that would require many words. They allow the viewer to immediately connect with the argument, but they discover depth to it if they continue to look. A good image can tell a whole story, as evidenced by some of the most iconic photos ever.

In my very first blog post, I discussed the merits of an abstract image.
Here's another. There is nothing realistic about this image. It is no
photo. Yet, the colors and shapes convey so much energy. That's the
power behind an image.

2. Hypertext has the ability to take piece of writing and allow the reader to discover a whole lot more about the subject. If anything, it adds credibility to the argument by providing external sources to back it up. Web pages can open up a whole world where ink and paper cannot. However, hypertext can be tricky to work with. It is not enough to rely on the reader to click the text. There must be a full explanation or a compelling reason for them to look further into the argument. This webpage goes further into the benefits of using hypertext. See what I did there? Hypertext. More information for you.

Wikipedia, if anything, is known for its use of hypertext. There are entire games
dedicated to the art of clicking on links on Wikipedia pages.

3. In the Unit 3 project, not being allowed to use words meant I had to think creatively. The hardest part for me was showing the defining variable between my two contrasting pictures: the bee. It would have been easier to write "With Bees" and "Without Bees" on the bottom of the images, but I couldn't do that. As a result, I think I came up with a method that has a lot more impact than text. It shows loss, barriers, and ill-fated creatures. See an example of this below. For more, look at my final product here.

A living bee on one side of the bold, dividing line.
The mirrored shape of the bee on the other,
representing a world where the bees are dead.
 Two sides of the same coin.

4. At the beginning of the semester, I had no idea how to use any Adobe products and boy has that changed! I believe my skills in Photoshop have improved tremendously, and, although I am not expert, I have a much better understanding of Dreamweaver as well. I certainly hope to get even better with these tools because they can be so helpful to me as a writing major. Skills in design and technology are important. They can help me get a job later in life. Not to mention, the Adobe products are really fun to use!

One of my first Photoshop projects, created for an assignment in
a course called Digital Creative Writing, which complemented
Multimedia Authoring quite a bit. I hate to say it, but this project
isn't very good. I like to think I've come a long way since
these humble beginnings.

What's Done is Done

Check out my unit three project!

I really tried to unify all of the pictures concerning my argument. I made the background simple so as not to distract from the argument. I added a call to action at the bottom of the page. I'm pretty pleased with it.

I have to give credit where credit is due. I have seen images of "a world without bees" before. That's where I got the inspiration. I'd like to think I took them a step further though. I mean look at this:

The Daily Blog

VS this:

Yours Truly

I mean, for starters, my image doesn't have text. That's pretty cool. Its creative. The top image has two photographs left as they were when they were taken. My image is edited. It has colors and brightness that create certain feelings. Every part of my image was intentional.

So, yeah. I'm feeling pretty good about it. It's no masterpiece, but it's alright for a girl who starting learning Photoshop in February.

Messages without Text

To create a message using an image without a single letter from the alphabet on it requires a good deal of creativity. In my Unit Three project, I have had to come up with a way to convey something that could be said so simply with words, however, I believe the images I ended up using are much more powerful.

Here's an example of one of my images:

You get the picture, right? (Right!?) On one side of the yellow line, you see the world as it is - with bees. On the other side, you see that without bees, the rose would not be there. It would have been so easy for me to write "With Bees" on one side and "Without Bees" on the other, but I couldn't. So I got creative. I took a picture of a living bee and stuck it on one side. Easy enough. That world has a bee so they cannot be extinct. On the other side, I replaced it with a white space, put an X through it, and flipped it around. I think it's pretty obvious that the bees are diseased in this world.

So I got the initial idea across, but I was able to add more dimension to my message as well. The bees convey so much more than the idea of a world with bees vs. a world without. They are facing each other, mirror images (in shape, anyway). It is almost as if the living bee is staring at its fate. They are separated by a line - a boundary. A line I am arguing we should not cross. Finally, you get the contrast between the body of one and the emptiness of another. It adds to the whole image.

Challenges of Photography

Photography is such a cool, amazing craft and I wish I were able to take amazing, beautiful pictures. I can't. Maybe I will someday. Practice makes perfect, after all.

One of the main challenges I face is planning photos. Wouldn't it be so great if we could just start taking pictures and find a masterpiece with just a little bit of searching? Unfortunately, the reality is that we must carefully plan what our photos will look like, especially when we are trying to convey a specific message. Then, when we plan our photos out, we often find that our product wasn't what we envisioned in our heads.

Take this picture of a duck I snapped back in January:

It's alright, but it looked a lot better in my head and through my eyes. Let me break down the issue I see with this picture.

First of all, it's too far zoomed out. My eyes view the world very differently than a camera lens. Although I can see something and it looks very close, it looks very far away in my phone's camera and I have to get a lot closer to capture an image as detailed as the one I can see.

Second of all, the duck isn't very well defined. Its reflection blends into its body. It is blurry and confusing and not all that appealing to look at. In real life, this is not the case. It would take some photo-editing to make it look like it did to me at the time and how I pictured it when I was planning to take the photo.

Finally, it's a duck. And it is swimming on water. It was windy that day. The environment was constantly moving and changing. I couldn't take the time to carefully frame the photo and find the perfect zoom and perspective before taking it. A moment before this picture, the environment looked different. Maybe not drastically different, but different enough to prevent careful planning.

So, photography is an art. It has been surprisingly difficult for me during unit 3.

Irving Penn, Photographer (MP6)

In the summer of 2016, the Dallas Museum of Art had an exhibit featuring the photography of Irving Penn, called Beyond Beauty. I had the pleasure of viewing that exhibit, and I thought it was incredible.

Irving Penn spent a time working for Vogue and, as a result, focused much of his photography on fashion. His photographs are brilliant and striking. He did not simply shoot the newest trends. Instead, he focused on the form and architecture of fashion. Take this photo for example:

Issey Miyaki Seaweed Dress, New York, 1987
© The Irving Penn Foundation

The photo is so interesting because you see the craft behind the dress and the unique way it moves. It goes beyond the runway.

Another thing Penn did when taking photos was look for unique angles and ways to look at the world.

Eye in Keyhole, New York, 1953 

© Condé Nast

This is one of my favorites. Penn also took "beauty" pictures for the magazine, and he strived to take photos that would stop someone in their tracks. This particular photo is well framed. The reflection of the keyhole in the eye is right on the pupil. There is certainly beauty here - human eyes are quite beautiful and natural. It goes beyond that, though. It is so much more interesting than just an eye. I could stare at it for hours.

One of Penn's main jobs at Vogue was to take portraits of celebrities and others featured in the magazine. Penn was not about to take ordinary, boring portrait. He made sure to capture the subject's personality in each portrait. Take the following portrait:

Miro and his Daughter, Dolores, Tarragona, Spain, 1948
© The Irving Penn Foundation

What a beautiful picture of a father-daughter bond. There would be so much less personality if he had simply captured a typical head shot of Joan Miro, a painter. His daughter is not him, but she is an important part of him, so why not include her?

I personally, love this last category of photos Penn took. Some were taken for Vogue, some were personal projects. They are still lives. Penn had the incredible ability to take the most boring, mundane objects and turn them into art. They are all beautiful, but there is a particularly interesting project he did where he took trash from the streets of New York City and photographed it. How can someone make litter look like art? Take a look.

Cigarette No. 17, New York, 1972
© The Irving Penn Foundation

I mean come on. Those are just cigarettes he found on the street, but he put them in the right light and added the right contrast to make them look incredible. Penn was able to take the most boring things and turn them into the most amazing photographs. It is incredible.

Penn is definitely and inspiration, and, although I will not be able to achieve the same level of talent in my unit 3 project, I do plan to keep his art in mind while I am working on it.

If you want to see more, go to https://irvingpenn.org/ and look under "ARTWORK." There are so many more amazing photos to see and each one is unique and beautiful.

Images

This class is called "Multimedia Authoring: Image and Hypertext." One might assume that images are an important component of this class and the projects we do in it, and they'd be correct. One of the challenges I have faced in my unit 2 project is finding and taking the right pictures to put on my website to help my argument.

I can easily go around TCU and find images that back up my claims about TCU, but it is harder to illustrate my vision for the future. Fortunately I have a wonderful sister living at a university that has exactly the sort of bike-friendly things that I envision TCU having. She has sent me some really cool images to add to my site. She attends Colorado State University and the campus is cool. It's super cool that I have these images that can show my audience what other universities are doing.

My main reason for writing this particular blog post is to share these super cool images from CSU. I love how bike friendly the campus it. It is so cool. I hope that my enthusiasm for these images is something my audience feels as well. I definitely think images are beyond important when it comes to persuasion.

Coding

Coding is frustrating.

I think being able to code (or write HTML and CSS, as the case may be) is a valuable skill in the world we live in, especially for those looking into the writing field. But... it's hard. I don't understand the language. I don't know what words to use. I have a picture in my mind of what I want my webpage to look like, but I cannot bring it to life because I don't have the coding expertise necessary.

Dreamweaver makes things a little less difficult by allowing you to simply insert things into the page while it adds the code for you. That's nice, but you still have to figure out how to get it where you want it to go and how to color it a certain way and how to get words on it and how to get the words to look the way you want.

I wish I could say I knew what this meant.

I persevere. My final project will resemble the website in my head. I like a good challenge and this certainly is one.