#1 - Part B: The Physicality of Photographing - DUE: June 7 at 9:30 am

DUE: Photos posted to blog by 9:30am Tuesday June 7

DUE: Comment on at least two students post by Wednesday morning June 8


The act of photographing is and should be physical, sometimes extremely physical. It's not enough to simply point your lens at your subject, you must learn to interact with your subject, regardless of what that subject is. This means you have to be willing to move around your subject in order to view it from different perspectives while at the same time taking into account the background as you move. You must be willing to kneel or even lay on your stomach and at times you will need to find something to stand on so you can look down on your subject. You must all learn to move in close, painfully and awkwardly close!

Here is a short video featuring photographer Sean Tucker. In it he talks about the importance of walking around and being physically present in the space you are photographing.

Using your camera in Program or Automatic mode complete the following list of Photographic Exercises. Do not combine the exercises, fulfill each one independently.

1. Select a subject that is off in the distance. As you walk towards that subject make a series of photographs of that subject at different distances. Feel free to photograph other subjects as you are walking towards it as well.
2. Find an object or person that you want to photograph. Create an image of your selected subject.  Move closer and make another image. Now move in even closer and make a third image. Continue moving closer to your subject making images until your lens will no longer focus on your subject.
3. Create a series of images where you are only looking up. 
4. Create a series of images where you are only looking down. 
5. Create a series of images where you must crawl under or into something to create the images. For example crawl under a table, desk or chair.
6. Find a subject. Place your selected subject in one of the corners of your viewfinder and make that photograph. Now repeat three more times using the same subject and placing it in the other three corners of the viewfinder.

Select (2) images from exercises #1-5 and all (4) images from exercise #6. Post these 14 images to the blog making sure to label the images with the exercise #. After posting your images, comment on at least two other students posts. Your comments should include whether or not you think the photographs are successful and how the student might improve their images if they were to take them a second time. You could also discuss how the student could be more creative or aggressive when making photographs.

Some students in the past have asked me to more clearly define what I mean when I say "Create a Series of Images." I don't have specific numbers to give you exactly, but I can more is generally better. For this particular assignment I would say a series would be 15-20 photos per

Good Luck!