Random Paradox

I took a look around on the web today to find other "artists/photographers" ideas of paradoxes. Some are really interesting, and other are very simple.

1.) Here is one of the first ones I came upon. I find this piece of art interesting. It looks to be the women's life if she had taken two different "roads" at one point in her life. Ironically the one where she has lost her arm makes her look stronger then then one with both arms, yet it's the same person.

http://www.creepmachine.com/posts/art-of-the-day/page/6

2.) David Spriggs The Paradox of Power, 104 x 124 x 36 inches, Sprayed acrylic paint on multiple sheets of transparent film in display case, detail, 2007

This one took me a few "looks" to atually like it. I thought it was jsut a blury blob, however after reading up on the art piece, I descovered it to be multi layer prints. It has 4 "pictures" of a cow in different positions. What throws you off at first is that it's upside down. But I like that about it. This way you see the art work, think about it, try to figure it out and then actually see what it is. Very interesting.

http://www.davidspriggs.com/paradox%20page.html

3.) Self Paradox
http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/grandfather_paradox.html

(photo above is an Excerpt from the Encyclopedia Britannica without permission. )
This could definitely make your head spin. I would say in this instance, to photograph the "paradox" all she/he would need to do is take a self portrait.

4.) Archer Paradox
= The word paradox, here, refers to the fact that in order to strike the center of the target, the arrow must be pointed slightly to its side.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Archers-paradox.svg

Finally Paradox... I Think

FINALLY I believe I came up with a good idea for "paradox". I had this vase full of sunflowers on my desk. They had been sitting there for three days now. Still in good condition. I decided to play around with interesting locations, have them "growing out of places they shouldn't be. OK so since I was sitting at my desk i put them in my pen holder. Boring and not a paradox. I started to head out side, thinking maybe I'd find something better. Then I placed on on the floor in the corner of a room. Even more boring and well just bad. I headed out the front door, the light was still good enough to shoot in, even with out a tripod. So before the sun went down I found a parking lot. How interesting would it be to have them "growing" out of the pavement. I walked around a bit and found a water drain. Perfect, with the added element of water I hoped it would add to the idea that life could be growing. So I stuck the flowers in the drain as if they were growing out of it. I took a few steps back and loved it. I think the bright color of the sunflowers on the white ground makes them stand out. I took a bunch of shots from different angels. Since the sun was setting, and I had no tripod with me, I set the camera to "action" mode to get a quick shutter speed. They came out well. A little dark under on the stems, but that can be fixed some in post editing. (Hmmm I believe I'm using the "Sport" mode too much, and I need to start to adjust the settings more on my own)

STATS
Shutter : 1/200
Aperture : F5.6
Mode : Sport
Focal L. : 55m
ISO : 800
White B. : Auto
Flash : No
Edits : I cropped down the image slightly, turned up the contrast and color slightly

Rifle Range (In Doors)

I went to a fire arms range today and brought the camera. I really wasn't thinking of taking to many pictures because you have to be serious and not get in the way or fool around. However, I did bring the camera JUST in case. While my boyfriend was sighting in the scope on the rifle I had a few minutes to reach in to my bag and grab the camera. Picture one... FLASH! Oops. Not that it was a big deal with the other shooters since we were all in our own little booths, but, I didn't want the flash to bother anyone. I changed the setting on the camera to "action" and closed the flash. OK, the next few shots were... "OK". Then I changed angle and lowered my perspective. MUCH better. I was able to get the feeling of being right over the shoulder looking down the rifle at the target that was down lane. It was good, kind of yellow, but that is from the color temperature of the lights. Again a manual white balance would have helped out here. But like I said I only had a few minutes to snap some shots. If I was going for a "warm" feel, i would have hit it right on the mark.

STATS
Shutter : 1/8
Aperture : F4.5
Mode : Sport
Focal L. : 38m
ISO : 800
White B. : Auto
Flash : No
Edits : None

Looking a Head

I looked ahead on my syllabus to see what projects were coming up. One of the final projects on the list looks really interesting. Take an object and transform part of it in to something else. I think I'm going to have fun with this one. Ironically I took a picture of a wine bottle whit a cork screw with a very simple back ground. I thought to myself.... how interesting would it be to change the cork screw in to something else. I flipped around the net for a bit and came to a picture of a wood pecker. PERFECT I would remove the cork screw and add the wood pecker in it's place.

Stumped

My next project has me stumped. I continue to come up with contradictions and not paradoxes. I thought of having a body builder trying to pick up something small. Showing something seemingly strong having a problem picking up something seemingly light. But that is more a contradiction then a paradox. So I will keep looking. I found a Dunk-n-Donuts next to a weight watchers place. I may go back to take a picture of that, but I'm not sure that is at all a paradox.

Class Day

Again I find it interesting to see other people's work. This always makes me nervous. I don't like being critiqued. I never like it back in college in my film classes. After a few weeks it would grow on me and I'd be less nervous of it because it was always helpful to hear what other people had to say about my work. But I still get butterfly's when it's my turn. It was interesting to see that people pick similar themes as "play". From the most obvious sports teams to a little less obvious like a poetry reading.

As I looked at my images, I actually liked them more and more. Things were pointed out that I never even thought of. For example one of the pictures of the baseball team setting up the field, that I thought was junk, ended up being a good example of different shape elements in the composition of the photo. Also I realized that I got caught in the trap of putting my subject dead center. This i believe came from my love of macro photography, where I would normally focus on the center or close to it. Something I'll have to work on for the next project.

Piper Play

I went home after work to see my dog and play with her in the back yard for a while before the sun went down. And realized she would be perfect for my class assignment "play" So i grabbed a ball and started throwing it around the deck. I set the camera to "sport" and multiple shot. The dog wasn't actually the issue in this photo shot, rather the size of my deck, by the time I threw the ball and put the camera back in position she's practically be back with the ball. I took a whole bunch of shots and as frustrating as it was I think I got a few good ones. She's really quick even for the "sport" mode. Other then placing the camera on a tripod, which I thought would be a bad idea because the deck would "shake" as the dog ran around, should I have used a faster shutter speed and larger aperture?

STATS
Shutter : 1/125
Aperture : F3.8
Mode : Sport
Focal L. : 18m
ISO : 800
White B. : Auto
Flash : No
Edits : Cropped the image down, turned up the contrast a few clicks, and the over all color a few clicks richer.

More Play

Another Archy range day.
I was at the range and had my camera with me. I took some interesting shots of my arrows perfect for my "play" assignment.

STATS
Shutter : 1/125
Aperture : F5.6
Mode : Sport
Focal L. : 55m
ISO : 800
White B. : Auto
Flash : No
Edits : Cropped the picture for "centering" but nothing else.

Camp Fire

I rode my motorcycle to work and managed to bring my camera with me. Nothing. I found nothing I wanted to photograph. That night I went up to NY with my boyfriend to a restaurant we frequent. It was a chilly night, so I decided to ride in the car instead of the bike. I had my camera with me but didn't want to bring it in. As the night went one we decided to light a fire in one of the restaurant's outside fire pits. Perfect opportunity to take a photo for class. It was really beautiful, I have not sat around a fire in years. I think the photos were ok. I could have played with the settings a bit more to brighten up the surroundings. But over all I think it came out ok.

Oh yeah.. I've decided to keep a log of the "stats" of each photo taken for class.

STATS
Shutter : 1/5
Aperture : F3.5
Mode : Program
Focal L : 18m
ISO : 100
White Bal : Auto
Flash : No
Edits : Cropped the image for "centering" but nothing else.

Class Day (Play)

Class was fun, we went over the functions of the camera and discussed the differences of Aperture and Shutter. These two have confused me so much over the years. One of the reasons why I stopped using my Nikon N6006 functions. I always seem to have difficulties getting the two to work well with each other. I always seem to get too long of an exposure and every thing is blurry or dark. I really need to spend a few hours playing with the settings and actually documenting what settings i used so i can go back and refer to it as a what worked and what not to do. My next assignment = Play. Hmmmm... This cold be fun.