Week 6: Breaking Down a Trip to Africa

In the spirit of our first group work day for our upcoming midterm project, I chose to research some tips and challenges to photography in Africa. In doing so, I came across this article on Outdoor Photographer: "Ultimate Safari! Preparing for and demystifying African safaris for American photographers." The writer of this article details acclaimed National Geographic photographer Frans Lanting's advice for the average traveler journeying to Africa. A frequent visitor of it's countries, Lanting breaks down planning the ultimate African safari into "three primary considerations: Where will you visit, how will you get there, and when will you go?"



I found this article extremely informative and immediately relevant to my project. Lanting discusses the spectrum of travel styles, from expensive luxury in high-quality camps with high-quality vehicles to less expensive minimalist camping with rental cars. He elaborates on guides and companions, who's leading you around and who's on the trip with you, and how they make a big difference in the experience. He advises traveling in the off season, staying away from the crowded, and more expensive, tourist season. Lanting suggests some specific camera equipment to take along, too, the necessities that you'll need for this type of excursion; "have all your gear in a photo pack that you can put on the seat next to you," he says. He also recommends the countries to visit for the first-time traveler, such as Kenya, Zambia, Botswana, Rwanda, and South Africa. Lanting's advice and suggestions provide me with a good starting point in planning our African safari.

   

Link to photos and article: https://www.outdoorphotographer.com/on-location/travel/safari/

Week 6: Share 2 and Critique

I took this photo Monday evening on top of the rims. Rules of dominance in this photo are: light draws more attention than dark, red is more attractive than any other color, and jagged lines are more striking than curved ones.

I took this photo Monday afternoon at Pioneer Park. Rules of dominance in this photo are: red is more attractive than any other color, jagged lines are more striking than curved ones, and difference draws more attention than conformity.

Week 5: Afghan Girl

In class on Tuesday, we chose midterm presentation destinations. I chose Africa. Sitting there, thinking about the world and it's many diverse cultures, my mind landed on one single image. The Afghan girl on the cover of National Geographic. The most stunning image I've ever seen and my favorite by far, her sea green eyes and red shawl are not easily forgettable. (Hello, dominance.) She is captivating, beautiful, and real, and I got to learn about her story this week.

In 1984, National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry was stationed at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to cover the war in Afghanistan and the fleeing refugees to Pakistan. Upon hearing children's laughter coming from one of the refugee tents in Pakistan, he came across a "makeshift classroom for an all-girls school" (Hajek). It was here that he saw the girl with the green eyes. She covered her face with her hands at first, but her teacher asked her to put her hands down so that "the world would see her face and know her story" (Hajek). Staring straight into McCurry's lens, she became this powerfully iconic subject and one of the most popular covers of the magazine.

Seventeen years later, McCurry went back to find her. Her name is Sharbat Gula, and her piercing eyes still portray the hard life she has led. Both of her parents died in the Soviet bombing when she was a child. With her grandmother and siblings, she fled to Pakistan by foot across the mountains. Around the middle of the 1990's, after living in refugee camps, she went home to her village in the foothills of the mountains (Newman). Sharbat Gula is married with three children, and she wants the education for them that she never finished. As per their cultural traditions, Steve McCurry and Sharbat Gula's reunion was quiet (Newman).

Her life has not been easy, and we can see that in her portrait. But, her face alone has inspired other people around the world to help refugees (Newman). She is the ultimate portrayal of the phrase I've heard numerous times: it's in the eyes. We are drawn to them. They hold so much of who we are. That's something I find entirely overwhelming about photography. I think when photographers truly capture humanity, what actually happens is humanity captures us.

Article and Photo Links:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2002/04/afghan-girl-revealed/

http://www.npr.org/2015/07/26/425659961/how-one-photographer-captured-a-piercing-gaze-that-shook-the-world

Week 4: Broadway

This week I decided to look into the photography of one of my dreams: Broadway. I've only been to one Broadway show in my life so far, The Lion King in London, and I was blown away. Up close and in person, the artistry, attention to detail, hard work, and inspiration that goes into and comes out of one of those shows is an incredible thing to witness. Broadway is a world built on story-telling and excitement. It takes people out of their lives momentarily; it's a world with different possibilities.

I've discovered that photographs of this world can do exactly the same thing.

I want to be a part of Newsies, Wicked, The Lion King, Aladdin, and Bandstand because the pictures I've seen are completely captivating. They not only capture the environment and emotion of parts of the show, they somehow capture the energy, too. And once you feel that transfer of energy from the photo to you, you can't not see it. It's contagious, and it's colorful, and it's dynamic. Photography on Broadway is just as much an art as Broadway itself, and it's successfully drawing in masses of people.

I ventured across Matthew Murphy's photography website in my searching, and looked through his production works. He is currently a leading photographer on Broadway, one of an elite few, and rightfully so.

Photos: (1) The Lion King National Tour, (2) Kinky Boots Broadway, (3) Jasper in Deadland 5th Avenue

Link to photos and website: http://www.murphymade.com/

Week 3: Trying

Photography, in the professional sense, intimidates me. I've taken pictures in my everyday life and on vacation and while traveling abroad, but never through as critical a lens as this class is teaching me to look through. I don't quite know yet if I can be both artistic and successful in the realm of photography. I'm learning. And more importantly, I'm trying. This past weekend I traveled to Bismarck, North Dakota with my mom and dad to move my younger sister into college for her second year at the University of Mary. I wanted to at least try and take some pictures because I was in a different part of the world. It was a quick and busy trip; I didn't get much, but I tried to think artistically about what I had in that time and place. I tried. Here is what I got:

There was a cement stairwell on the outside of my sister's residence hall facing the south end of the university's campus. She lives on the third floor, and walking down the stairwell around noon on Monday, I stopped to take both of these pictures from the second floor level. The top image is facing south. The image on the right is facing east. The University of Mary sits atop a hill overlooking Bismarck, and I think the view is beautiful. The expanse was what caught my attention here, and the clouds only helped.







On the six hour drive back home Monday night, we were witness to a very red sunset due to all of the smoke in the air. With about two hours to go, I took out my phone and started taking pictures. These images don't do it nearly enough justice, but I think they still look pretty cool. I was so intrigued by not only the color of the sun and what it did to the color of the sky, but also the cloud formations.


All of these pictures were taken on an iPhone 7. I didn't change any of the settings on the camera, just opened the app and started clicking. I also didn't edit any of them. I don't know how to do that either.