Month / October 2018

by joeygan

WEEK ELEVEN: Video #3

How did you author the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram?
Shocker. Another video of my glamorous and over the top weekend for my birthday (I had to take my photos in bulk considering there were so many interesting doors throughout Crown). This was taken as a stock standard video through the Instagram app with a POV spin to it. There was really no bells and whistles with this post. I had to film it multiple times as I was too quick in moving the camera the first time around, as I was conscious of people in the hallway watching me walk in and out of the front door to film a video.

How did you publish the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram?
While editing, I noticed the ending of the video got blurry in the end so I decided to trim the video. A constraint I realised whilst doing so is that Instagram allows a minimum of 3 seconds per video, which means anything under that can’t be posted. This was tricky because once I cut out the part I didn’t like, the video was below 3 seconds. Once I noticed this particular constraint, it was too late for me to refill. The “affordances allow us to do particular things; to select, to view, to manipulate in specific ways” (Khoo, 2017) which is shown through my ability to easily think to cut out the end of the video but sometimes affordances are blocked by constraints to keep content and actions regulated; such as Instagram’s rule of having 3 second minimum videos.

How did you distribute the photo you published on Instagram to other social media services?
I shared the link to my friends on Messenger and Snapchat as it included footage of my friends.

References

Khoo, Elaine, et al. Software Literacy: Education and Beyond. Springer Briefs in Education. Springer, 2017.

 

by joeygan

WEEK ELEVEN: Photo #3

How did you author the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram?
This is a photo of the bathroom doors of Crown’s Tower Suite (very VERY extra door I know, also incredibly impractical having a glass door for a bathroom where people are at their most vulnerable but ok Crown). There was a physical constraint I encountered when taking this image as the wardrobe door was too close to the bathroom door, which made it impossible for me to get a clear shot of the door without angling it weirdly (hence why the image isn’t positioned straight). Following the footsteps of last blog posts, I’ve naturally adopted a running theme of taking photos of doors with circular handles. This was shot using my IPhone 7 with the rear facing camera.

How did you publish the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram?
Big shocker, once again I’ve used the ‘Moon’ black and white filter and included the stock standard caption which includes a location stamp, the week, number of attempts to take the photo and a accompanying caption. During the editing process, I stumbled across a cool feature which affords me to alter the vertical perspective of an image which is EXACTLY what I needed to straighten out the photo. A physical constraint was corrected by the affordances of Instagram which in turn allows me to “recognise that we co-create with cultural software, exploring and negotiating their potential to enable and constrain specific practices” (Khoo, 2017).

How did you distribute the photo you published on Instagram to other social media services?
I shared the link of this particular post on Messenger groups because I felt like it was going to cause the least amount of embarrassments because I didn’t want to be known as the weird girl who’s constantly sharing photos of doors.

 

References

Khoo, Elaine, et al. Software Literacy: Education and Beyond. Springer Briefs in Education. Springer, 2017.

 

by joeygan

WEEK TEN: Video #2

How did you author the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram?
This video was taken in my hotel room during my birthday weekend (hence the over-luxurious white robe). The video was shot as POV using the boomerang feature affiliated with the Instagram app. It allows for any video filmed to be played on a constant loop. The sliding door was a lot heavier than expected which made it nearly impossible for me to get a shot that wasn’t shaky since I was trying really hard to slide it with one hand whilst steadying the camera. The affordances of modern day technology and endless storage allows me to reshoot as many times as I like in order to get a shot I’m happy with. This is a stark difference from when photography was just being introduced as present day sees an era where “people having their phones with cameras always with them and at the same time not having to worry about how many shots are left in their camera film cartridge” (Manovich, 2016).

How did you publish the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram?
Similar to all my previous posts, I slapped the ‘Moon’ filter on the video and that was basically all the editing I placed on this particular post. Due to it being a video, I was afforded the ability to choose a cover photo for the post and ensured that it was a shot that was not blurry and easy to decipher that it is in fact a video of a door. I muted the video to keep with the current theme of simplicity; that being a black and white blog with no sounds on any of the videos.

How did you distribute the photo you published on Instagram to other social media services?
Similar to the photo I took for this week, a way in which I expanded my visibility through distribution would be the incorporation of hashtags. I used both #door and #Melbourne in the hopes that more people will find my blog. Additionally, I shared the post on my Tumblr account and utilised the same hashtags to categorise my post.

References

Manovich, Lev. Instagram and the Contemporary Image. University of San Diego, 2016. http://manovich.net/index.php/projects/instagram-and-contemporary-image

 

by joeygan

WEEK TEN: Photo #2

How did you author the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram?
I took this image in the lobby of Crown Towers right before I checked in to celebrate my birthday. I physically positioned myself in front of the entrance door and waited until no one was walking through to get an empty shot. I faced a similar issue I encountered last week where I wasn’t able to accurately align the image as the Instagram camera does not afford grid lines; making it a distinct constraint. In this weeks reading, it was stated that “the majority of Instagram publicly shared images show moments in the “ordinary” lives of hundreds of millions of people using the network globally”(Khoo, 2017). It fascinated me as the term ordinary was highlighted to insinuate that the documentation displayed on Instagram isn’t necessarily a natural portrayal of reality, but is a filtered version. I personally agree, as I am naturally showcasing parts of my life that is seen as exciting and out of the norm, because let us be real, I don’t spend everyday at Crown. 

How did you publish the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram?
To relate back to the theme I’ve decided to go with from the previous week, I utilised the ‘Moon’ filter provided by Instagram. As someone who doesn’t have much experience with editing an image, I tend to get overwhelmed by the manual editing options I’m provided on Instagram so I find that filters help a lot as it provides quick solutions to make my images appear more visually appealing. I’m sure other users can agree on this as “one of the main reasons behind Instagram app very quickly coming to dominate mobile photography was its filters” (Manovich, 2016). I manipulated the tilt of the image to ensure that everything was balanced and was on a straight angle. Again, I used the same format of captions I did in the previous week.

How did you distribute the photo you published on Instagram to other social media services?
To expand distribution possibilities this week, I have decided to incorporate hashtags such as #door and #Melbourne to widen the exposure of the photo to the general public. By categorising them into such hashtags, other blogs from around the world that has a particular interest in such themes might come across my blog and want to communicate. Additionally, I shared the post to Tumblr and utilised their hashtag system with similar tags to categorise my image and hopefully reach an audience who is searching for such posts.

References

Manovich, Lev. Instagram and the Contemporary Image. University of San Diego, 2016. http://manovich.net/index.php/projects/instagram-and-contemporary-image

 

by joeygan

WEEK NINE: Video #1

How did you author the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram?
This video was taken in a restroom within Crown Towers. Initially, I was just going to take a photo of the door but found that the physical space was way too small for me to grab a photo of the entire door, so I thought a video would be a better route to take to accurately depict the functionality of it. I recorded the video in one go (because it was a public restroom and people were trying to get out). I utilised the rear facing camera and stood stationary as I had my friend walk through the door. 

How did you publish the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram?
I trimmed the video as it had a shaky start, utilised the filter ‘Moon’ because a black and white filter never fails to make something look way better than what it actually is. The affordances of Instagram allows me to choose a cover for the video and I chose a cover that was not blurry and clearly depicted that my friend was walking through a door. Similar to the first post, I included a location stamp, week it was taken in, attempts it took to take the video successfully and a humorous comment (attempted). I muted the video as I plan to not have sound on any future posts. I published the video to a total of a whopping 2 followers (students undertaking the same course). The affordances of Instagram “allows you to capture, edit, and publish photos, view photos of your friends, discover other photos through search, interact with them (like comment, repost, post to other networks), enter into conversations with photo authors and others who left comments, create photo collections, change their order” (Manovich, 2016). This rings true as friends who are doing the same course as me are able to follow my profile, collaborate and comment etc. 

How did you distribute the photo you published on Instagram to other social media services?
Since I do not own a Twitter account, I decided to grab a web URL link to the video and share it across to my friends by manually sending the link through to group inboxes I am apart of on the Messenger app. 

References
Manovich, Lev. Instagram and the Contemporary Image. University of San Diego, 2016. http://manovich.net/index.php/projects/instagram-and-contemporary-image

 

by joeygan

WEEK NINE: Photo #1

How did you author the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram?
I took this photo using my IPhone 7. It was incredibly foreign to have taken this photo through the Instagram app itself, as I’m used to taking all photos/videos on my Iphone camera, putting it through a heavy editing process before plugging it through on my Instagram profile. To get the picture, I utilized the rear facing camera and physically angled myself to ensure that the door was the main focal point in the image. The natural daylight allowed for a really high resolution shot, so I did not adjust any of the brightness or saturation on the image itself. The only editing that took place would be slapping a ‘Gingham’ filter on and adjusting the tilt, because a definitive constraint that stuck out to me would be there are no inbuilt grid lines to allow users to position their shot to ensure it’s aligned and straight.

How did you publish the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram?
This was the third image I had to take in order to ensure that no one was in the shot. My overall theme for this assignment is to photograph and video doors that are in incredibly public spaces. I have displayed a sense of consistency through curating a text caption that will be similar across all posts. I will include a location stamp, week in which it was taken for, the amount of attempts I had to take in order to ensure the shot was clear and a comment.

How did you distribute the photo you published on Instagram to other social media services?
I shared the photo onto my Facebook profile. Due to the affordances of Instagram, the text caption and hashtags utilised automatically transferred onto Facebook when I shared the image on the platform. This assignment allows for us to solely focus on the affordances of Instagram and the editing options it provides. “Instead of being concerned with hundreds of different cameras and pieces of professional equipment and endless possible editing operations available in Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom, we only need to consider one native app that have limited number of controls and filters and one type of camera” (Manovich, 2016)

References
Manovich, Lev. Instagram and the Contemporary Image. University of San Diego, 2016. http://manovich.net/index.php/projects/instagram-and-contemporary-image