Photo Essay: Car Shopping Trip

Recent trouble with my current car has had me debating whether or not to put money into needed repairs or to get a different car. Last weekend, I traveled from Milwaukee to Green Bay to go car shopping with my family. The trip got me thinking about the cost of gas and about all the summer travels I am planning. I wanted to be prepared for my car shopping experience, so I applied for an auto loan before I left Milwaukee. I was approved, and on my trip I went. The first thing I noticed was that though it is still quite expensive, gas was cheaper outside of Milwaukee. I knew that I would be looking at fuel-efficient cars. My mom drove me around to quite a few dealerships to shop, but we filled up her SUV with gas before we went.....yikes. While visiting dealerships, I noticed that several of them were using the high price of gas to promote the expected gas mileage of their used cars. I test drove six or so cars while shopping. It was definitely a learning experience - for example, the Pontiac Vibe is actually the same car as the Toyota Matrix. Kind of a surprise if you think you are buying an American car. Most impressive to me was the Saturn Ion. My perception of the Saturn brand was completely altered by my test drive. It was definitely the one I wanted to buy, but I went home empty handed. I'm waiting to see what I can do with my current car to improve its condition and increase its possible trade-in value. I am still interested in getting a different car, but have to weigh the financial implications heavily. In the meantime, I will continue to use the bus as my primary means of getting around in Milwaukee, as the bus gets more and more crowded. Even though I have a car, the bus is very efficient and you don't have to pay for parking!

People and Cameras

I think I am much better behind the camera. I don't think that i am very photogenic, and I don't care for the way I look in pictures. I shy away from the camera when its time to take pictures. Whenever I go out with my friends though, i'm the one who always brings a camera along and I end up with a bunch of pictures of the night. There is a big difference to me between taking snapshots of my friends when we are out and photographing people. When i'm focusing on photography, I dislike photographing people. I like taking pictures of architecture and landscape/cityscape. I like taking pictures of things, objects, close-up shots, traffic, and light. I don't like being photographed, it always makes me feel ackward and uncomfortable and that shows in the photos. I don't really know how to put people at ease, and for that reason the portrait assignment was a difficult one for me. I find that I get my best people shots when nobody knows i'm taking the picture and everyone is just being natural. Like me, people always have a reaction when they know their picture is about to be taken. Some put their hands up in front of their face, some turn, some hide, some give a cheesy pose and get right there in the middle of your picture wheither you want them there or not. Whether people like being photographed or not, when they are aware of the camera's presence, you are always going to photograph some sort of reaction to it.

Portraits

The portraits I took were of people in my workplace. One of these people is someone I work with on a daily basis and am also friends with outside of work. The other subject works in a different department within my building; I didn't know her until I took her pictures. I am curious to know if anyone can tell the difference. I like these photographs because the environment is the same for both sets, the workplace. When you are photographing someone you know, there is a level of trust and understanding - your subject is willing to be photographed without it seeming awkward. When the subject is unfamiliar it is always a little precarious because people are extremely suspicious of being photographed. I find that people are less concerned about being photographed than they are about the intent you have for the finished photographs. If you can help them understand that your motivations are innocent and of no threat to them, they seem, generally, to warm up to the idea. This concept of the intent behind photographs is something I discuss in my writing on photojournalistic ethics. I have included that writing here:

 Photojournalism and ethics present very sticky crossroads. I like the concept that Whitney Mundt puts forth that photojournalists should not photograph people simply because they are famous, but they should wait until they are involved in a situation that has intrinsic news value. I think ethics most need to be considered when the subject of a photo is a person or people. As a photojournalist you need to be familiar with the laws to protect yourself, but you should also just be able to use common sense. I find in general that people have become way too sensitive about things. In 2008, you should know how the world works, and that photographers are out there doing their jobs, and that there is money to be made, and that photographs have power. If you are involved in something newsworthy, I think you can expect there to be photos. I think the laws about disclosure of private facts are interesting. I think that whether something is private or not is irrelevant so long as the picture was obtained ethically. I think "Be Honest" is the most important concept for a photographer. Don't lie to get a shot, don't break the rules, get permission to be in places you normally wouldn't be able to be. I believe that as long as you stay within the boundaries of the law it is okay to shoot anything you can shoot. The whole "right to photograph anything you have the right to look at" concept. I think you need to analyze your ethics at the point where you decide what you are going to do with the finished photos. It may be legal to shoot into someone's window from the street or sidewalk, and I don't see a problem with that concept per se, but what I would want to know is why. Was there a reason for taking the picture that was newsworthy, or did the picture only become newsworthy because of what it captured? Just because you capture an image that may be questionable doesn't mean it was unethical to me. In the era of digital photos, it is easy to delete, and that is where ethics come in. Apply your ethics to the decisions you make about what will come of the photos that have been taken. I think as a photographer trying to figure out your own ethics the best place to start is to look at your own motivation. You know why you are taking a photograph....start there. 

Documenting Milwaukee Cranes

A very good friend of mine that I met in a class at UWM was in town over the weekend. She now lives in Phoenix, AZ and had not been back to Milwaukee in about three years. We went on a driving tour of our old haunts and looked at how things have changed in the city. It occurred to me that more had changed in that short time than I was truly conscious of. When change happens around you, you don’t notice how subtle changes can add up. Of particular note on our tour were the number of large construction projects, buildings being erected that were quite conspicuous due to the cranes hovering overhead. I think cranes are really interesting, powerful, and ultra transformative machines. I think there is a beauty to the way they balance high in the air, and to how much of an impact they have. I think about how “Big Blue,” the crane at Miller Park had such an impact when it collapsed. When a building is complete, the crane is gone. You can’t look at it and see how it went up. The urban space has been altered, and the crane moves on to its next project. There are cities with a lot more cranes than Milwaukee, but with so many big buildings going up here, I think that the use of cranes is a neat topic to document. I want to focus on the different cranes themselves, how they become a sort of fixture on the sites for a period of time, how they are poised within their construction projects, how they look when they are in use, how they interact with their surroundings and the materials they work with...I am interested in how documenting them provides proof to a structure’s origins. So I chose to document cranes. 

While completing this project, I ran into numerous challenges. The first challenge in the short period of time I had to complete this project was the weather. Rain prevented me from being able to get out and photograph as much as I wanted. I was also faced with the challenge of very dense fog, to the point that you couldn't see the tops of the cranes very well. The next challenge I was not expecting was vantage point. It was difficult to get close enough to some projects, and for others access was too close. Cranes are very tall, and it was difficult to find ways to get them in an interesting shot. Further back you are faced with obstructions, and too close and you cant get the crane and project in the same shot. Being able to have an aerial shot would be great, but being grounded you can only get so much. I would have liked to try to get some shots of cranes in use, but my work schedule prevented that, as sites were vacant when I was there to photograph them. In spite of the challenges, I believe I got some interesting shots.

Let there be light...and night.

Personally, I love artificial light. The glow of a neon tube, the hum of a fluorescent bulb, incandescent heat. These things excite me. I love nighttime in the city when everything is illuminated by electricity, I think there is an emotion there that doesn't yet have a name. I have always found that photographing in the absence of natural light is a rather difficult thing to do, I can never really capture an image that represents what my eyes can see. Szarkowski talks about how a photograph describes only the period of time in which it was made, and my favorite time of all is when the sun is getting ready for sleep but evening in the city is just waking up. The lights turn on and slowly warm up just in time to say goodnight to the sun in a gesture that seems to say "sleep well, i've got you covered." I love the way my pictures look when they can capture that exchange.

Learning Flickr

I've just finished uploading my first pictures to Flickr. I have never used the site before and it is still a little new to me. The pictures I chose to upload today are photos from my files that I took prior to this course. I am excited about the pictures I am working on for the Light assignment, and I am also very curious to see other work.
My Flickr Page
Feel free to leave me comments, I would love to know what you think about my photos.