Photo Assignments

Photo Assignment 1 – Compositional Techniques

**Frame Within a Frame**
The University of Wyoming Union holds a “Starbucks” for snacks and refreshments for the students. These snacks include the delicious donuts and pastries shown in the image available everyday from morning till 7 pm.

**Selective Focus**
Dominique Jones, student at the University of Wyoming, studies along with friends and many other students in the Union located on campus. Due to short break between classes and the accessible coffee and snacks in the Union, it is an ideal spot for Jones to stay productive during school.

**Diminishing Perspective**
Cold, snowy nights require caution as students of the University of Wyoming and families of Laramie head home for the night or leave in the morning for work and classes.

Photo Assignment 2 – Dramatic Angles & Motion

**Freeze Motion**
Student works out on the daily with friends keeping her health up during the stressful years of college.

**Non-Dramatic Angle**
Two individuals study in the Union located on the campus of the University of Wyoming. Both individuals come to the Union everyday during lunch hours to meet and work on homework. The Union provides a great environment to multitask with friends and homework.

**Non-Dramatic Angle**
Cheyenne Hume, freshman at the University of Wyoming, attended the Jury Showing in the Art Museum containing UW art sudents’ work varying from photography to print media. Hume gets up close and personal with some of the projects to see the detail and hard work the UW students put into their projects.

Photo Assignment 3 – Lighting

**Soft Lighting**
Sitting next to a soft light source, a classmate poses for fellow peers to practice soft light photography in their Photojournalism class at the University of Wyoming. The use of both the lamp light pictured and the ceiling light in the room make for a perfect soft lighting scene for this exercise.

**Front Lighting**
Classmate sits under a harsh front light to practice front lighting portrait photography for a class assignment. Though the heat from the light was harsh, the practice was worth it.

**Back Lighting**
A candid photo of fellow photojournalism student laughing during lighting practice makes for a great back lighting photo. The universal lighting provided through both a back light and soft box up front keep shadows at bay for this photo exercise.

Photo Assignment 4 – Landscape

**Fenced Out of the Mountains**
A simple fence barricades pedestrians from exploring the open field and running to the mountains in the distance. In the distance is a working field and large machinery as well as individuals work away.

**Homes with a View**
Family homes in Laramie tend to come with a great mountain view in the distance. These homes have a grand look today on a bright blue afternoon of the Rocky Mountains.

**Overview of the Kids**
A middle school in Laramie, Wyoming allows their kids to play outside for recess on this blue sky day in the midst of many Laramie family neighborhoods.

For this assignment I chose to shoot my landscape pictures at the top of a hill in a Laramie neighborhood due to it overlooking most of the town. Visually it is appealing due to the vast expanse of houses and the larger University of Wyoming buildings visible with mountains in the background. I chose to take these images around 11 pm due to the full rise of the sun and blue sky to add light and a peaceful aesthetic to my images. I created visual variety in my images simply by changing my view on the mountain in a simple turning of my body. One image is from the front, another from the side, and the last from behind. One hill has multiple views to see through my lens. I did not find difficulties with this form of photojournalism simply because landscape is one of my favorites. I hope to have more opportunities to work with landscape imagery in the future.

Photo Assignment 5 – Environmental Portrait

submitted 6 April 2020

**Most Important Ingredient**
Shoveling a big mound of snow, Frances Jewell collects the most important ingredient for her Unicorn Soup.

I chose my subject for my environmental portrait due to Frances’ creative and lively life that would provide for an interesting series of images. Specifically, her purple jacket contrasting against the snow as she makes her Unicorn Soup makes for visually pleasing photos. Frances is one of the girls I babysit a couple days a week in Laramie and they have now become used to be practicing my photography on them. They quickly became accustomed to being behind my camera making this much easier on me. I chose to get a shot with Frances’ unicorn int he background, her collection of snow in her bucket, and the mound of snow in front of her house to give a visually full comprehension of what is happening. I left all the photos color images to add emphasis on Frances’ imagination and creativity in making Unicorn Soup.

**Unicorn Soup is a Delicacy**
Frances Jewell collects snow with a small shovel and bucket for Unicorn Soup on a somewhat warm day in Laramie, Wyoming.

**Bucket Bowl For the Unicorn**
Frances Jewell uses a blue bucket and small shovel to collect snow for her Unicorn Soup.

Photo Assignment 6 – Farm Life

submitted 13 April 2020

**Polish Chicken With the Afro**
The small “farm” at the Mayers home consists of these polish chickens, known for their afro like hair on the top of their head, and many more poultry like critters each with their own “condos” as Mr. Mayers likes to call their cages.

**Duck Feeding Time**
Mr. Mayers is feeding his ducks with a bucket of corn in their cage which leads out to the lake for them to reach water and swim.

**Guinea On the Lookout**
Not everyone knows what a guinea is, but Mr. Mayers has an abundance of them on his small farm adding to his collection of poultry.

Due to the COVID 19 outbreak and the stay at home mandate currently enacted in my home of Virginia, I chose to take pictures of my dad’s poultry and other bird specie collections. This was a convenient way for me to take photos but also a good exercise for me to get created with my shots. Because I was shooting animals it did take longer than expected to get good shots of them. They move a fair amount or run away from you so you must be patient for a good shot. Taking my photos I had a fast shutter speed and fairly closed aperture in manual due to the bright sunlight available to light my subjects. These settings were best so I could alter the lighting some due to shaded areas and practice full control of my camera settings to better my photos. I did not find anything difficult in this type of photojournalism other than the fact it takes much patience. That I will definitely have to work on.

Photo Assignment 7 – Fashion

submitted 21 April 2020

**Hanging Through Prom Night**
Sophia Mayers’ prom dress stays hanging on April 18, the night she was supposed to get ready and wear this dress with date, Jack Leopold, to prom.

I chose to photograph my little sister’s prom dress that she would have worn this past weekend on April 18, however, her high school was unable to hold prom due to the corona virus. I have one photo of her wearing the dress to have a human contact photo and to demonstrate how it looks on an individual. I also added in two general images of the dress to show its length and full design, and a close up of the design. I hung the dress up and had both natural light and flashlights (a light source I could find around the house during quarantine) shining on it to demonstrate the shimmer it produces. This would appeal to the viewer in getting a full affect of the dress and its qualities that may benefit the individual to wear it. I chose to highlight the length and the shimmer design of the dress due to that being the two most important qualities of the dress. I found it difficult to engage in this type of photojournalism due to me being held into my home and not having proper equipment to have a studio type area with a simple backdrop and foreground, and good lighting to photograph products. Furthermore, it is not one of my favorite types of photojournalism so it took a lot to get my mind and heart into it to attempt my best under quarantine circumstances.

**Modeled Prom Dress**
Sophia Mayers models in her prom dress she would have work for her high school prom her junior year of high school if not for the corona virus.

**Close Up of the Shimmer**
Sophia Mayers’ dress is a simple floor length design but attracts much attention due to the shimmer it shows off when light hits it.

**On the Corona Road**
Sophia Mayers drives the roads of her hometown Mechanicsville, Virginia on her way to Rural Plains Foundation where a historically known plantation is and where a Civil War battle was in 1864.

I decided to shoot this location because I had never been there before, but I knew there was a historical significance to the location. Furthermore, it was a very nice day outside and the plantation would be an outside type of adventure to walk through. I chose to highlight the informational station to show that it is a designated public location one can “travel” to. In my case, my little sister “traveled” there via two minute drive due to it being down the street from my house. I also added in an image of her driving to show the aspect of going somewhere to emphasis the travel and destination topic of this assignment. I did not think it was too hard to avoid “postcard syndrome” due to me not knowing of any advertising of this location before hand. Also, I was never in on typical viewpoints of the plantation or battlefield to focus on that aspect of the location but instead focused on my sister and what she chose to observe or where she chose to adventure to. I believe simple postcard photos are either large groups of people touring the location or no people and only the buildings or objects. I had one individual and buildings or objects as a second focal point in my image most of the time.