I took a class this term called journalism. In this class, we discussed the media and the impact it has on the world around us. This class is very informative in the age of media doubt and a very divided country. We talked about what fake news is, and isnt. This is something important for us all to understand because int today's age there is so much news that is misleading or blatantly wrong. Thanks to social media it is easier than ever for people to share the news. In this class, we have gone on several Field Experiences. My favorite was to Columbia college where we were able to sit in on a journalism class and see what a college class learns in a typical day. For this project, we were tasked with asking someone the meaning of life and then taking a photograph that we think portrays what they said.
I was fortunate enough to be able to interview Ana. Ana is from Colombia, she moved to the United States with her family when she was just 7 years old. She is a person who has always thought of health as a critical thing to preserve in life, something that may seem obvious to most but it is less common than it seems for people to actually act on that idea. Her dad has always been a big influence on her wanting to be healthy because he has always tried to be as healthy as possible, doing things such as taking vitamins, exercising, and eating healthy.
I asked Ana what she thought the answer to the question, “What is the meaning of life?” was. She responded, “I think the meaning of life is to keep yourself in the best shape you can because without health you will be hindered in everything else you attempt so why not give yourself the best shot.” I really liked her response because I completely agree with it. Your health is essentially your baseline that everything can build upon and if you are in good health you feel better, can work better and can accomplish more. This is something that I think we all need to work on a little more than we do. Particularly in America where there is a huge problem with people suffering from obesity we need to focus on this issue and I think it’s interesting that Ana chose that as the meaning of life.
For my photograph, I chose some settings that differentiate from the settings you would be using to take a normal picture with your iPhone. Cameras have many different settings and I made sure to adjust many of them to properly capture the photo I had in mind. Shutter speed was the first one. Shutter speed is how quickly the shutter on the camera opens and closes. This affects how long the light is allowed in the camera for which in turn will be able to make moving objects in the photo clear rather than blurry if you didn’t have a high shutter speed. The second setting I adjusted was the aperture. Aperture is how much light the camera will allow in. What’s important about that is that it will affect how exposed your picture is. Exposed meaning how bright or dark it is. In a low light condition, you will want to increase the aperture and decrease shutter speed. This will create an environment for more light to come in so that you can see what’s happening. In higher light environments you will want to decrease the aperture and increase the shutter speed (typically). The final setting I adjusted was the focus. The focus is on what the camera is making clear in the picture. In this case, I chose to focus on Ana herself and the punching bag.
I set my shutter speed at 250 frames per second. I chose this because I knew that I was taking an action shot which meant that the picture would be blurry without a high shutter speed. Lower shutter speeds allow the camera to let in for less amount of time and if you set a higher shutter speed then you decrease the amount of time that the shutter is open for. I set my aperture at 4.5 because I wanted to allow in enough light to light up the subject but not too much light because then it would be overexposed and it would look too bright. I set the focus of the shot on the punching bag and on Ana so that you could see them clearly since that would demonstrate what she thinks the meaning of life is the best. The rule of thirds is another thing I took into consideration. The rule of thirds is essentially the idea to not center the focus of the shot in the photo. I utilized this property because the focus, Ana, was set off to the right of the centerline.
My photo depicts Ana exercising by punching a punching bag. The reason I chose to take this picture is that this is one of her favorite exercises and so I decided that it would best represent her passion for fitness and health. It also is visually appealing because of the color disparities between the red punching bag and everything else in the shot. I think it is a good picture because the shutter speed is correct along with all the other supporting settings which created a nice crisp picture that has good coloring. I also really like the simplicity of the shot because it really allows you to focus on what I intended the focus to be. In the end, I think I got a picture that embodied what Ana though the meaning of life meant to her.
I was fortunate enough to be able to interview Ana. Ana is from Colombia, she moved to the United States with her family when she was just 7 years old. She is a person who has always thought of health as a critical thing to preserve in life, something that may seem obvious to most but it is less common than it seems for people to actually act on that idea. Her dad has always been a big influence on her wanting to be healthy because he has always tried to be as healthy as possible, doing things such as taking vitamins, exercising, and eating healthy.
I asked Ana what she thought the answer to the question, “What is the meaning of life?” was. She responded, “I think the meaning of life is to keep yourself in the best shape you can because without health you will be hindered in everything else you attempt so why not give yourself the best shot.” I really liked her response because I completely agree with it. Your health is essentially your baseline that everything can build upon and if you are in good health you feel better, can work better and can accomplish more. This is something that I think we all need to work on a little more than we do. Particularly in America where there is a huge problem with people suffering from obesity we need to focus on this issue and I think it’s interesting that Ana chose that as the meaning of life.
For my photograph, I chose some settings that differentiate from the settings you would be using to take a normal picture with your iPhone. Cameras have many different settings and I made sure to adjust many of them to properly capture the photo I had in mind. Shutter speed was the first one. Shutter speed is how quickly the shutter on the camera opens and closes. This affects how long the light is allowed in the camera for which in turn will be able to make moving objects in the photo clear rather than blurry if you didn’t have a high shutter speed. The second setting I adjusted was the aperture. Aperture is how much light the camera will allow in. What’s important about that is that it will affect how exposed your picture is. Exposed meaning how bright or dark it is. In a low light condition, you will want to increase the aperture and decrease shutter speed. This will create an environment for more light to come in so that you can see what’s happening. In higher light environments you will want to decrease the aperture and increase the shutter speed (typically). The final setting I adjusted was the focus. The focus is on what the camera is making clear in the picture. In this case, I chose to focus on Ana herself and the punching bag.
I set my shutter speed at 250 frames per second. I chose this because I knew that I was taking an action shot which meant that the picture would be blurry without a high shutter speed. Lower shutter speeds allow the camera to let in for less amount of time and if you set a higher shutter speed then you decrease the amount of time that the shutter is open for. I set my aperture at 4.5 because I wanted to allow in enough light to light up the subject but not too much light because then it would be overexposed and it would look too bright. I set the focus of the shot on the punching bag and on Ana so that you could see them clearly since that would demonstrate what she thinks the meaning of life is the best. The rule of thirds is another thing I took into consideration. The rule of thirds is essentially the idea to not center the focus of the shot in the photo. I utilized this property because the focus, Ana, was set off to the right of the centerline.
My photo depicts Ana exercising by punching a punching bag. The reason I chose to take this picture is that this is one of her favorite exercises and so I decided that it would best represent her passion for fitness and health. It also is visually appealing because of the color disparities between the red punching bag and everything else in the shot. I think it is a good picture because the shutter speed is correct along with all the other supporting settings which created a nice crisp picture that has good coloring. I also really like the simplicity of the shot because it really allows you to focus on what I intended the focus to be. In the end, I think I got a picture that embodied what Ana though the meaning of life meant to her.
