Scavenger Hunt

October 4, 2010 | Category: Class, Night, Scavenger Hunt

We had our first critique for my photography class last Wednesday. Know what that means? Time to post some of the shots! Our first assignment was a “conceptual” scavenger hunt; it’s conceptual because we weren’t looking for “shoes” or “a person on the streets”, but instead “a dream” or “irony” or “hate”. I turned in 68 shots on a contact sheet for the assignment, and below are some of my favorite shots. Be warned, there are quite a few!

Ritual of the Bus

Ritual - Daily Bus Rides

This first shot I really like because of the contrast in the image: the interior of the bus is static, but you can see the motion on the outside in the blur. This was my intent for this shot, and I really like the way it turned out. My only problem is that I really wanted that seat to be empty, because I thought it might look better, but having that woman in the shot did turn out nicely.

Inception

A Dream - Inception

This was the first idea I had for the scavenger hunt, and it was entirely based on the movie Inception (which was a fantastic movie, by the way); I drew my inspiration from Cobb’s totem, the spinning top. I thought the Cube on campus here in Ann Arbor would look really neat as a long exposure, so I tried it out, and really liked the result (except for the overexposed sky, but oh well). This, then, lead me to the next shot…

Inception Plus

A Dream - Inception+

Again, inspired by Inception, but I really wanted to make it even more dream-like, so I grabbed some of my friends and asked them to walk slowly through the shot as the shutter was open. My one qualm with this shot (again, besides the overexposed sky) is that the cube isn’t entirely visible (there’s a blue blur of a person in front of it) but the trails of people walking and the multiple legs/feet just looks really cool to me.

Silence

The Silence of an Unanswered Question

This shot was for “Silence”. I’d like to note that I did not add this question mark, these are scattered around Ann Arbor spray-painted on just about anything. My main idea for this was “The Silence of an unanswered question”, such as when you ask an awkward question or a difficult question.

Silence

Silence

This is another shot for Silence, but this is a bit more personal for me: this is where the marching band (of which I am a part) rehearses during the week and on gameday mornings. This was taken around 10 at night, and so it’s dark (save for the huge lights) and nobody is around, which is a HUGE contrast to what happens from 445-615 every day. I like the points of light and the reflections in the blacktop, but the main thing for me was just the fact that a place normally so loud and full of life would just be dead silent.

Irony

Irony (I think it would be ironic if we were all made of iron...)

Here we have Irony. Yes, I went for the cheap lolz on this photo, but I enjoyed the humor (and the people I showed it to also enjoyed it). I love the depth of field, how the farther away you get the less in focus everything is. I love the green, too. Bonus points if you recognize the quote in the caption! (Ok, ok, it’s from Red vs. Blue. Yes, I am a nerd)

Intimidation

Intimidation

And to showcase my nerdiness, here’s a picture of a SPARTAN (Emile)! This shot (and the next) is of the statue that came with the Legendary Edition of Halo: Reach, and I thought was a good one for Intimidation.

Intimidation Revisited

Intimidation Revisited

Same statue, different SPARTAN (this is Jun), though you can see Emile on the left there. I really like this shot for Intimidation because the rifle’s lens is in focus instead of the head, and it’s pointing right at the viewer. Certainly would intimidate me!

Inside Out

Under the bell tower on North Campus

Here we have a picture for Inside Out. I was walking by and decided to look at the tiling in the underside of the tower, and saw this sitting there, and decided to snap it. I like the chair sitting outside because I’m not sure why it’s there (so there’s an element of mystery to it) but at the same time on a college campus it’s relatively normal.

Juxtaposition

Life and Death, Together

This image was for juxtaposition. I like the dead flowers right next to the fresh, live flowers. It’s sort of a reminder that not everything is permanent, and that you should appreciate things while they last.

My Messages to South Quad

My Messages to South Quad

I had inspiration for this image right as I was walking out of my door to get to the quad and eat dinner with some of the euphs. The topic is “My message to the world”, so I thought, “Why not turn that into ‘My messages to South Quad’?”. I like the rows of boxes leading from right to left, it almost forces you to look at it again (our eyes traditionally scan from left-to-right, but I think the lines of the mailboxes help pull things back to the left).

A Self-Portrait Before I Was Born

A Self-Portrait Before I Was Born

Once again, I go for the cheap lolz. My friend Anya brought this back from Guatemala with her, and as soon as we got the assignment I knew this would be perfect. There’s nothing particularly artsy about this photo, I just thought it would be absolutely hilarious (and judging from the reactions I got when I a) went to their house to shoot the thing and b) when I showed other people the final shot, it worked pretty well).

A New Perspective

A New Perspective

And another band image! I really like this one, mostly because there are very few people in the world who know what it looks like from the inside of a marching band (much less the Michigan Marching Band), and I think this image captures that pretty well. Unfortunately I couldn’t hold my horn in front of the camera and take a picture at the same time (so it would be a truly first-person view of the band), but just being able to look over the shoulders of the other people there and see down the lines of their instruments is pretty neat.

Light

Light

This picture got the most positive comments at the critique (it was one of my 5 smaller prints). I love the colors reflecting off the stainless steel, and how since it’s not a flat front the reflections are streaks rather than individual points of light (except in the glass, where they are in fact dots). I like the contrast between the two.

Self-Portrait and Light

Self-Portrait and Light

This was taken at the same time as the last one, and I love the reflections of the light coming off the ornament. You can even see me if you look at the picture full-size!

Weight

Weight

This was for “Weight”, simply because of the weight of the ice on the one branch. This was shot at Picnic Rocks in Marquette.

Floating

Floating

This shot is of my sister hurdling for her high school track team (she’s the one in red). I chose it for floating instead of airborne because even though I know, and the viewers PROBABLY know, that they’re actually in motion, the photo allows us to suspend our notions of reality and think that maybe these girls are just floating in place over the hurdle.

A Storm

A Storm

This (along with many, many others) was shot during a sudden rainstorm. The storm itself only lasted about 15 minutes, but the drops were large and it was falling fast. Luckily, I was able to grab my camera and get some awesome shots of the drops hitting the wet table before the rain stopped! I love the time-frozen aspect of this image, capturing something that’s normally so fleeting and fixing it forever.

Constructed Realities

Constructed Realities - Halo in the Summer

And finally, this was shot at a Halo LAN party my friends and I had towards the end of the summer. I chose it for “constructed reality” because while we play the game, unless something happens (like a phone call or the batteries of a controller dying), the game IS our reality, even though it’s entirely constructed and fake. That, and I just like showcasing the nerdiness of me and my friends!

That’s all I’ve got for now. As always, please feel free to leave constructive comments ( positive OR negative, I can always use suggestions!). Bye for now, happy shooting!

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