ryancatlin

[ryancatlin]

Photography to me

To me, photography a way to capture anything you want and to be able to remember anything in the moment it was captured. It is a way to capture moments and images as if you weren’t even there. Each photo is like a small memory in my opinion. Additionally, for me photography is my way of capturing nature and landscapes that I am fascinated by. Through this, my goal is to show appreciation for and bring attention to our planet’s natural beauty. 

[ryancatlin]

Last Part of Research

The new photo of the website with charts is from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (https://floridadep.gov/rcp/coastal-access-guide/content/nassau-county). The other contact print is from WildAmelia.org (https://wildamelia.org/Our_Ecosystem.html).

[ryancatlin]

Assignment 3 Additional Research

These are some better photos of the plants I did assignment 3 on. These photos are of each plant in the wild in its native habitat. I hope you will become fascinated with the beauty of nature in effort to understand the catastrophic climate consequences that the humanity is having on our planet. The effects of climate change can easily wipe out these beautiful plants and countless others across the world if we as the human race do not take action before it’s too late. 

The first photo is the Holly Fern. Source: https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/ornamentals/holly-fern.html

Photo 2: Alabama Azalea

Photo 3: Slender Gayfeather

Photo 4: Dense Gayfeather

Photo 5:  East Coast Sunflower

Photo 6: Southern Magnolia Tree 

Photos 2-6 are from the University of South Florida. Source: https://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/Plant.aspx?id=660

[ryancatlin]

The picture on the top is my final contact print.

My Research is below:

 The leftmost plant in the top row is a Dense Gayfeather (Scientific Name:Liatris spicata), which is native to Florida. This plant can grow up to 3-4 feet and resembles lavender from a distance. In the middle of the top row is a Holly Fern (Scientific Name:Cyrtomium falcatum). This plant is native to Africa and Asia, but thrives in Florida’s climate. Interestingly, this plant is resistant to deer. The rightmost plant is a Slender Gayfeather (Scientific Name:Liatris gracilis), which is native to Florida. This plant can also grow to 2-4 feet, and grows in lime rock and sandy soil. The leftmost and rightmost leaves in the bottom row are from a Southern Magnolia Tree (Scientific Name:Magnolia grandiflora). The bottom picture shows these leafs in more depth. The leftmost leaf is the smooth, firm, and dark green top of the Magnolia leaf. The rightmost leaf is the coarse, rigid, dark brown underside of the Magnolia leaf. This tree has beautiful flower blooms, can grow between 50-90 feet, and can live to 80-120 years. The white flower in the bottom row is a form of the Azalea bush called the Alabama Azalea (Scientific Name:Rhododendron alabamense), which is native to Florida. This plant is surprisingly poisonous, and can be fatal if eaten. The yellow flower next to the Azalea flower is an East Coast Sunflower (Scientific Name:Helianthus debilis), which is native to Florida. This type of sunflower is interestingly found blooming on and near the beaches on the east coast of Florida in sandy soil. 

Sources:

NC State: https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/rhododendron-alabamense/#poison

USDA:https://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/pg_magr4.pdf

Florida Native Plant Society: https://www.fnps.org/plant/liatris-gracilis

Wildflower.org:https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=lisp#:~:text=Dense%20gayfeather%20or%20marsh%20blazing,)%2C%20closely%20set%20flower%20heads.

University of Florida:https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/ornamentals/holly-fern.html#:~:text=Holly%20fern%2C%20named%20for%20the,native%20to%20Africa%20and%20Asia.&text=It's%20such%20an%20attractive%2C%20yet,of%20the%20Year%20in%202007.

FloridaWildflowers.org: http://www.floridawildflowers.com/helianthus-debilis/

Atlas of Florida Plants: https://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/Default.aspx

[ryancatlin]

Nakeya Brown wite up

Nakeya Brown's work uses photography as a method to highlight the experiences she had regarding hair texture. Additionally, one of the goals in her work was to visually examine the phrase "good hair" to illustrate its preposterousness of glorifying certain types of hair, which can act to exclude and negatively affect others without "good hair". Furthermore, Nakeya Brown's work explores how certain objects can be cleverly artistic, and how she could exemplify her personal experiences through using objects and not uniquely using the female body as the main focus point. Nakeya Brown's work also incorporates visual puns to help get her points and ideas across through the use of objects. For example, in Brown's "Hair Portrait number 4", the figure being photographed is shown as if she is eating the hair and actually about to ingest it. When Nakeya was originally making her work, she used family members, friends, and people who were close to her and willing to help bring the project to life. She used pastel colors in the background of the shoots for her work. In her work, Nakeya juxtaposed absurd gestures with notions of femininity and the cultural significance of color.  

I thoroughly enjoyed Nakeya Brown's work of art. I loved how the project's focus was about hair and its status in society, because it's something that I feel like doesn't get talked about enough today. I thought the fact that she went to the beauty supply store for props and pieces of her work was very interesting. Lastly, I loved everything she encompassed in the work and I think it will prove very beneficial for moving forward helping people unite together in some ways.

[ryancatlin]

In Plato’s Cave write up

Author: Susan Sontag/Title: In Plato's Cave

Sontag focuses heavily on photographs, what they mean, and how they are manifested in our world. Before she dove deep into photographs, she exclaims, "In teaching us a new visual code, photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe. They are a grammar and, even more importantly, an ethics of seeing. Finally, the most grandiose result of the photographic enterprise is to give us the sense that we can hold the whole world in our heads—as an anthology of images." (Sontag, 1). The author also discusses photographs and their uses, interpretations, and functions in the world.  A few examples from the text include when she says, "Photographs, which fiddle with the scale of the world, themselves get reduced, blown up, cropped, retouched, doctored, tricked out... In another version of its utility, the camera record justifies. A photograph passes for incontrovertible proof that a given thing happened... A way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also away of refusing it—by limiting experience to a search for the photogenic, by converting experience into an image, a souvenir." (Sontag, 2-6).

Personally, this reading was very informative and explorative into the photograph. I thoroughly enjoy taking photographs, so to read and learn about them in so many different contexts and situations is really eye-opening to me. It revealed to me the vast potential of applications with the art of photography. Additionally, Sontag's comprehensive breakdown of photographs really caught my attention, like when she asserts, "Through photographs, the world becomes a series of unrelated, freestanding particles; and history, past and present, a set of anecdotes and faits divers. The camera makes reality atomic, manageable, and opaque. It is a view of the world which denies interconnectedness, continuity, but which confers on each moment the character of a mystery." (Sontag, 17). This somewhat philosophical description has expanded my knowledge on the art of photography, and I will apply this reading to my future with photography. Moreover, translating "faits divers" into English becomes "various facts". This is another facet of the aforementioned quote that strikes me as making the sentence more interesting.

[ryancatlin]

These are my contact sheets of all of my photos from assignment 2. 

[ryancatlin]

This is assignment 2 for intro to imaging. This was my favorite project to do for photography at Hobart because I got to play around with light.

[ryancatlin]

Assignment 2 Artist Statement

My selected photos showcase the sunlight and how it beautifies the landscape. My final images are mainly from Park Place by Pulteney Park. The objective of my final photos is to show off the “golden hour” effect on multiple different locations in Geneva. While doing this, I also wanted to highlight the rich historical context in the neighborhood in Pulteney Park. The “Golden hour” effect is essentially the last hour of sunlight as the sun is setting and when the sun casts a beautiful layer of orange sunlight on everything it reaches. The five pictures of homes are the beautiful townhouses on South Main Street, and the Golden hour effect was at its peak when I captured these moments. The pictures of Seneca lake were captured during the ending hours of golden hour, as well as reveal the beautiful nature of the sky during golden hour. Lastly, the photos of the quad showcase direct sunlight on the quad, while also capturing a picturesque view of student life on campus and making use of aperture to capture the bush in the foreground. 

[ryancatlin]

My exercise 1 final photos.

[ryancatlin]

This is the front of the camera that I’m using for class.

[ryancatlin]

This is the back of the camera that I’m using for class.

[ryancatlin]

Pinhole Artist Statement

Attached below is my Pinhole assignment artist statement.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13rD31hVN9sEDSwbAMczMrEsAEWsU9jnJ3VhnAePYDEM/edit?usp=sharing 

[ryancatlin]

My Miracle of Analogy ch 1 write-up

The Miracle of Analogy by Kaja Silverman

I thought the reading was very interesting and filled with knowledge. I loved how the text referenced so many figures in the history of photography. I also loved when they talked about what things certain people contributed to the art of photography over our history. I was really intrigued when the reading talked about very old figures like the Chinese philosopher Mo Ti, Aristotle, and Alhazen. They were the people who first discovered the backbones of Photography so I liked how they started here and worked through time as the passage went on. There were many things I didn't know until reading the passage. I was fascinated when I read that the camera obscura was mainly used to view solar eclipses for centuries. I'm a very visual person, so I really like the use of media and pictures throughout the passage. Figures nine, ten, and eleven were appealing to me because they were drawings of how older discoveries were being applied to inventions and the art of design with regard to photography. I loved when it talked about the resurfacing of the account of camera obscura in the 18th century and the evolution of the sentiment towards it throughout the century. I was taken back when the passage talked about Lady Eastlake's comparison of a photo to the creation of life. This is because this was a very bizarre claim, even at the time she said it which was when pictures were very new. Overall, the passage opened my eyes and informed me about many things I didn't know about and informed me about the rich history of photography. This passage relates to class discussions because we use the very same principles and ideas in our work and projects in class.

[ryancatlin]

This is a photo of my final two negatives that came out the best after the light leak issue was solved. The only defect is that the negative on the right is somewhat blurry.

[ryancatlin]

This is a photo of my negatives that didn’t come out correctly because of a light leak in my camera.

[ryancatlin]

This is a favorite Photo of mine be because it was when we won the division championship when I was a senior in High school. It is important to me because I, as well as my other seniors, came so far on our hockey team since freshman year and we finished our run on such a great note. Because I won a high school hockey championship with the boys I knew since elementary school, it was one of the best moments of my live, and is also one of my favorite photos ever. Photo: Steve Hockstein.