Justification:

The best 5 final images here all greatly represent my theme, which is to express the feeling of life and prosperity by displaying the Hutongs of Beijing in vibrant colors or special perspectives. They have a good blend of angle, lighting, color, and composition.

 

Critique:

 

Best Image:

A lighted window from a cafe is depicted in this image. The image is in full color, emphasizing the soft yellow light radiating upon the audience. The tone is a mix of light and dark shades, consisting of dark red, bluish grey, and bright yellow coupled with a selection of green from the potted plants resting on the windowsill. The composition is very well organized. The combination of chairs and tables in the background and the window up in the front creates many layers and a great sense of depth and complexity. The saturated and bright colors also contribute to a warm and homelike feeling.

 

Worst Image:

A combination of both wall and bamboos are depicted in this image. The image is in full color, helping to emphasize the complex patterns and unique textures in every part of image, which is very well organized and divided into clear sections. The tone is also fairly bright, consisting of bluish grey and bright green. A good blend of man made aspects and natural structures. To emphasize the patterns, this photograph was shot directly towards the wall and the bamboo, thus eliminating any sort of angling. This is importance as the textures and patterns would not be disrupted or portrayed incorrectly. In addition, this photograph follows the rule of thirds, dividing the wall and bamboo from each other. Note that I do not think that this photograph is in any ways bad. It just does not connect to my vision as much as the others due to missing signes of everyday life and human activity.

In this first photo set, I have captured photos regarding the everyday life of the people living in the Hutongs of Beijing. In these photographs, I have used every day life essences, such as hanging clothing or other living amenities to give a sense of life and prosperity. The photographer that I took inspiration upon had also used similar techniques of capturing daily life rather than a set up scene. This provides a feeling warmness to the audience. However, there are aspects that I need to work on further. For example, I have noticed that human aspects, or the rate that people that appear in my photos, could be increased. To do this, I would strive to capture more human interactions, which will be more interesting at displaying their daily lives and the air of life. In addition, the I could experiment more on photos that include a scene that included a person who knew that I was photographing him rather than just taking shots in which they had no knowlege of that they were being photographed, which could yield a different feeling to the photos. In the next photoshoot in XiangYun City, I will correct these mistakes to increase the quality of my images.

Name: Jia Yong

Intent of Photographer: Jia Yong intends to capture everyday life int eh Hutongs in beijing in colors of black and white, which he claims is the best combo for displaying history and depth to the images. Many of his photos are alley-framed, displaying inhabitants living their peaceful and simple lives. Nonetheless, his photographs do not have a fixed genre or style other than its black and white coloring. He captures whatever there is that is happening in real life, which enables his photographs to feel realistic and real.

This is very inspiring for my own photoshoot. Although I am still aiming for vibrant colors that help to elevate the air of prosperity in my photographs, I will definitely take inspiration is his photographing techniques. As stated above, he oftentimes just let his subjects perform daily activities and take interesting shots of them admist their lives. This creates a beauty that is filled with simplicity while also being realistically amazing. I will take this into account and use this style in my photographs.

In this photoshoot, I would like to express the majestic feeling that this city, Beijing, gives us. In this era, our lives are often too fast paced and busy for us to stop, wonder, and look around. This causes many interesting aspects of life to be ignored or overlooked. Thus, I would like to capture the vibrant colors and captivating shades that this city provides us in order for myself and others to finally witness this colorful confetti.

To do this, I plan to go to one of the Hutongs in Beijing, located in the urban areas.  I have noticed that Hutongs that have become tourist attractions become way too commercialized, losing their own grace and pureness. As a result, I will be seeking a place that is hidden away and shows the beauty and peacefulness of regular life rather than tourist centered commotion.

For inspiration, I plan to take a look at the photographs of similar photographers. This will provide me with more ideas for composing my own work.

Analysis:

This is an entirely new idea that I tried for the first time, and I think that it turned out to be pretty successful. This photo’s best elements are its lighting and the subject’s facial expressions. First of all, the facial expression of the subject is very expressive and exaggerated, reflecting her craze and fear caused from her restrictive mindset. In addition, lighting is also specially designed in order to bring the focus of the audience to her face, highlighting her expressions and creating interesting shadows. Furthermore, her hands also contribute to the general aura of dread and fear by being cupped around her face, showing her helpless inner self.

 

Analysis:

This photo’s main highlights are the subject’s fingers and closed eyes. The eyes are closed, signally unawareness and an inability to perceive the truth. In addition, the hands of the subject are clasped around her head, forming a shape that resembles a cage, as though that she had trapped herself within. This way, audiences would be able to elaborate by themselves of how trapped and helpless my subject is. This is also a completely new photo idea. I thought that simply using the same cage I used in my first set of a student would be too boring and repetitive, so I settled on simply using the subject’s hands to replace it. This way, not only will it be a bit more interesting, the audience can also perceive a sense of connection between the “Cage “(hand) and the person.

 

 

This photograph is also very interesting. By improvising on my old photos of a classmate,  I incorporated the blindfold to be specifically designed to convey my theme by printing the words “Truth” on it. This element, combined with the gesture of the subject, would create a stronger sense of ignorance than my last photo shoot. In addition, due to the fact that this is a photo of a much older person, I toggled the editing software in order to show the skin as course and uneven as I can. This way, there would be an emphasis on what detriments ignorance has brought to her.