After receiving the detailed photos from my friends I started think about the photos I’m going to take for the project. I decided to borrow the humidifier and the iPad stand from my friends. The humidifier blowing the fog out can bring a lot of abstraction to the photo, and it can also make the composition more creative. The shape of the iPad stand really caught my eye, the hole in the center can be used to create shadow, and the light purple color combining with a certain kind of lighting can definitely make a good photo.

With the ideas in my mind I contacted them can managed to get the objects. I also tried to borrow this cup holder because it has a nice shape can color but it was a bit inconvenient for my friend so I couldn’t get it, which was a pity.

With the objects and new inspirations I started working on the photos. This time I paid more attention on the lighting than the last assessment. In my opinion, photography is just like painting with light and shadow. Although the two most important elements of modern photography are probably color and composition, I think without light and shadow, it will not be possible to have any color or composition because light is what our eyes really depends on. So for my photos I tend to pay more attention to the lights. Here are the photos I took:

iPad stand

Lamp

Humidifier

Scissors

I’m impressed with the results, I think I used the lighting well to show the textures, color and shapes of those objects. The name of this project is “Finding the beauty in your daily lives” and the name of our studio is “Seeing the unseen”. I really want my photos to express those two names when audience views them. I think the photo of the humidifier is expressing the theme best. When my friend sent me a video of it, it was because it has a light inside it, but I noticed the fog and how I can turn that into a great photo. So I closed the light and used a flashlight behind the fog the make the texture more visible and this scene is hard to be spotted by human eyes. For the photo of the scissors I used a macro lens to create an extremely close-up perspective, the lighting and the black ground made the texture looks very antique and clear. I’m not very impressed with the photo of the lamp, because the focal point is not clear and the lighting didn’t help making any point of the photo look special. It is also not abstract enough.

By noticing room for improvements in my own photos reminded a quote I read in the book “Forms of Noticing”. John Mason said “Something more is needed if we are to learn effectively from experience. Noticing as an intentional stance towards our profession is enhanced by various practices which serve to support both “picking up ideas” and “trying them out for ourselves.”  Since I have noticed the lamp photo not successful enough, I would try to use different lightings for the photo in order to improve the visual effect of it, and also to help it fit into the series better.

Next week I will be finishing shooting the photos and make them into a series based on the theme of “Finding the beauty in your daily lives”.