Assignment: Photograph your City

Subject: Your City:____________________________________________________
You could focus on the people of your city, the buildings of your city, the interaction of people and the city, the city interacting with its surroundings. There is no better subject than a city. The variety of subjects is unlimited.  You could spend your whole life exploring your city.

- Explore landmarks, but everyone does that. How can you make the landmark your own?
- An interior shot of something your city is known for could be a great image. What is your city known for? I live in Las Vegas where we are known for gambling. You cannot photograph on the gaming floor. How could you make an iconic photograph of gaming in Vegas?
- Is your city known for a food specialty?
- Get off the main drag, explore the back alleys and roads less traveled.
- Shoot the cityscape: Get off the ground, shoot from up high to show us a different view.
- Shoot the city with an interesting active foreground leading to the city as a place of reference.
-Reverse your view, from the city out. Where does looking out lead you in your city?
-Mood can be directed in the photograph by time of day. What would long shadows do for your composition and content? What about harsh mid-day lighting? Explore!
- Including people in your shots can add to the impact. Remember, if people are on the move, get their stride in action. Placement of the people can make or break the image. Think about placement and moment. You can shoot more than one frame. Sometimes I will shoot 10 to 20 to get the SHOT.

Technical Skills:
Shutter Speed, Aperture, ISO, Focus.
Use of composition in the image.

Objective:
- Get out and explore. Do not be afraid to get close to your subject.
- Get into your subject. Learn/research your city. Make images that show a greater understanding of the place than that of the tourist or hobbyist.
- To explore and learn your camera’s dials and menu settings, I want to see a variety of ISO’s, shutter speeds and apertures explored.
-Shoot in low light, sunny, inside, cloudy, all lighting conditions you can come across.

Concentrate on content as the central component in building a vision. Subject matter is the defining measure by which most work in photography gets known.

Inspired:
- Sara Jane Boyers
- Vincent Laforet
- Scott Dalton, Where the River Bends
- Margaret Bourke-White

Tell the story of the city

- Shoot the city in motion. Capture the city and its people - the energy of the city.
- Juxtaposition, the old and the new.
- Get up high.
- Make ten images before you move on. Explore the subject with your camera.
- Blend into your surroundings, don’t stand out, dress appropriately. Dark colors are best. Why would that be?
- Alter your distance to your subject.
- Where did you cut that off?
- Don’t crop the image on the computer. Frame the image in camera.
- What happens if you shoot all of your images for the day horizontally?
- Why did you make that photograph? Question as you go.
- Look for emotion.
- Make a ton of images.
- A smile goes a long way.
- Don’t shoot from your car!
- Where is the light?
- Shoot for yourself.
- Stand in one place - An interesting place - Wait for the action/shot to come to you.
- Experiment.
- Make boring exciting.
- Look at the edges of the frame, as well as the middle.
- Abstract the literal.
- Create a relationship to the image.
- Keep both eyes open when shooting. Anticipate the next image.
- What did you exclude? Should you include it?
- Explore the details. Do they add to the content?
- Small cameras help blending in - Don’t bring your biggest lens.
- Always have your camera ready to shoot. Keep it out and the lens cap off.
- Explore public transportation.
- What’s everyone looking at? Look back at them.
- Shoot from down low.
- Revisit a spot multiple times throughout the day.
- Don’t be afraid to talk to people.
- Look for vibrant color.
- Avoid other people’s art. If shooting a cool mural, make it your own, not just a document of another artist’s work. How would you do that?
- Bus stops are a great place to snap people.
- Don’t bore your viewer - Edit your images before showing them.
- Look for reflections, explore people in the reflection.
- Alleys and streets that are off the main drag are a great place to explore a city.
- Go out in bad weather.
- Shoot from the hip.
- Photograph the locals, the tourists, you can shoot candids or have an interaction. When photographing the homeless, I don’t unless they know I am making the image and they have given me consent.
- Were you rejected? Go try again.
- Shoot complexity. Layer your scene.
- Have fun!

SUBMIT:

•You should shoot a minimum of 100 images to select your 10.
    -The focus of this project is Your City - Las Vegas. As you look at the city pull from what we have been exploring,  line, shape, form, pattern and texture in the frame. What time should you make your images? The blue hour in Vegas is spectacular for cityscapes.
•All images must be shot and conceived for this project. No old images will be accepted.
•You will choose 10 images to edit in Adobe LRMobile.
    -All images must be edited.
    -All images must be properly exposed and in focus.
    -All images must have a strong composition, cropped or straightened if needed.
    -Cloning or healing if needed.
    -Use a profile, color or black and white. Use a preset if desired.
•Create an album for those 10 edited images and submit the URL through Canvas.
    -In Share and Invite, turn on Anyone Can View.
    -In the Link Settings, turn on, Show Metadata - Show Location - Allow JPG Downloads.
•In the comments:
    -Tell me how many images you made for this project.
    -Tell me any thought about the work including any questions you might have.
    -Tell me how you explored the city and what you learned while exploring.
    -Tell me about what you want your viewer to see and experience when looking at your images.
    -Tell me the specific edits made for each image.

-The album must stay live for one week past the semester’s end. Any deleted album will delete your grade for the project.