I am a third-year student at University of Wisconsin-Stout majoring in Information/Communication Technologies (ICT) and Digital Marketing Technology (DMT) with a minor in Spanish. Growing up, my parents and I would take numerous trips around the United States, which inspired my love for photography. As of August 2021, when we went to Utah and Wyoming, I have been to all 48 Continental United States. From historical trips, including seeing where the Gettysburg Address took place, learning about the Boston Freedom Trail and Tea Party, and exploring the historic Queen Mary, to scenic trips such as driving along the Pacific Coast Highway, hiking in Acadia National Park, and visiting the red rock country in Utah, I have seen a variety of sights around the United States. I have also been to Spain and Portugal; highlights from this trip included Sagrada Familia in historic Barcelona, Bilbao and San Sebastian in northern Spain, and Porto, Portugal, where we took a day cruise along the Douro River and experienced the Portugese culture.
My goal is to showcase a variety of scenery, including the UW-Stout campus, local parks, and recreation. For example, one photo project involved me exploring different items on campus ranging from my room to main campus to downtown. One video project had a "travel and transportation" theme, showcasing different modes of transit ranging from walking to campus squirrels to a windspinner to the Jefferson bus. In all, my love for travelling has opened up new ideas for my photography projects, as evidenced in the following photos and videos.
The first photo project was an introductory photo project and emphasized concepts including rhythm, balance, and variety; photos were taken mostly around Menomonie, along bike paths and on campus. While this was an introductory project, learning about the concepts was important to discover what my enjoyment was. My favorite photos were those of rhythm, by Lake Menomin, and economy, focusing on my bike along the Lake Menomin loop with a small background of the trail. While my strengths were exploring areas around Menomonie and highlighting different items per photo, the concepts of repetition and variety could have been improved.
The idea of photo project 2 was to provoke emotion through black and white photos, with concepts selected from the first project including rhythm and balance. Most photos were also taken near or on campus. Because I enjoy nature and biking, most photos revolved around the lake, Red Cedar River, or bike path with the rest around main campus. While my photos of the Red Cedar River and Lake Menomin Loop were emotionally provoking, those of main campus could have been more focused and had the grayscale adjusted. For example, my intent with the MSC Amphitheater picture was to depict a storm; however, I either made the sky look to dark or contrasted the building from clouds too much.
My final photo project used a blue-and-green color scheme with photos around campus. Areas included the dining room plateware, a rom painting, bowling ball, and a mural near main campus. I was mainly going for the economy principle in this project, as shown through the bowling ball, mural, and dishware images. For the wall painting and commons lounge photos, I attempted to depict rhythm through the angles taken (straight for the painting to look like a river, and diagonal to draw one's attention downward on the booth). While I stuck with a blue-green theme, I would have liked to keep the blue-green more of a consistent shade throughout. Overall, I had the fun challenge of finding each object in a different campus building, which I succeeded other than the bowling ball and painting being in my room.
My monologue project took place on a Sunday afternoon on Main Campus while I was sitting in my hammock. I took videos of different views of campus, including the Student Center, nearby academic and residential buildings, and one view of me relaxing in my hammock. I realize that my subject matter was not consistent with changing perspectives; however, my aim was to think differently and depict different areas of campus. To improve this video, I could have focused on me in the hammock from multiple perspectives, having a couple directly on me and bringing my tripod to take a few angles further away. This would have made the monologue flow more smoothly, and instead of describing what was happening on campus, I would have done a straight monologue with either an excerpt or short narrative.
For match motion, I simulated packing for a disc golf round on a Friday afternoon. My intent was to show myself gathering and packing my discs, then leaving the building for the course. I did have to redo this project before the original critique day because I did not understand "match motion" at first. I transformed the video from going through a disc golf round of packing, leaving, and playing to simply packing my discs and walking out of Red Cedar. While this improved the flow and narrative, I could have filmed the last clip of me walking out of Red Cedar instead of down the flight of stairs. While viewers would know I was going disc golfing, exiting outside would have made the ending more exciting.
One Second Everyday was by far my favorite of all photo or video projects this semester. Each day in November, I took a video of my activity along the theme of "travel and transportation." These videos ranged from fish in an aquarium to my grandparents' windspinner to packing a suitcase and a variety of transportation methods. I chose the song "Time" by Hans Zimmerman as background music to reflect the feeling of time passing each day. Overall, this was my strongest project not just for the enjoyment, but I was most experienced with Adobe Premiere Pro at this point. Not only was embedding music easier, but I also added an end slide of information about the video. While this required 30 days, I set a reminder daily to record this. Most days, anytime after 1 in the afternoon, I would be looking for a different "travel and transportation" item on campus to film. With the help of my friend and roommate Kyle once or twice, I was able to get all the footage I wanted. Overall, the One Second Everyday project was my favorite and most cohesive project of this semester.