Analyzing the MSU student project by Haley Kooistra

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Photography Capstone Project

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Michigan State University

Photography Capstone Project

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Cours 5 sur 5 dans Specialization Photography Basics and Beyond: From Smartphone to DSLR

The Capstone Project is your opportunity to take advantage of the knowledge you have gained through our journey in learning about photography, to develop a meaningful project of 10 well formed photographs based in your passion for artistic expression, or a subject for documentary exploration, insightful portraiture, imaging for work-related subjects, or some other aspect of photography. We are confident that it will be a project that you will be excited to share with fellow Learners, and with Professors Peter Glendinning and Mark Sullivan too! A unique feature of this Course is the individual review and responsive input you will receive directly from Peter or Mark, who will be viewing your pictures and making evaluations of all projects at the end of the Capstone. You should plan on spending more time on this Course per week than any other in this Specialization, and much of it will be in making photographs. During the entire period of development, you and your fellow learners will be supporting each other as you work independently, by sharing your work-in-progress from the initial Project Plan to the final Portfolio. At each stage, all Learners will share comments and suggestions with each other, helping each other to gauge progress and to learn about different approaches to photography and content. By expressing your own ideas and expectations about quality in response to the work of others, you will be forming your own criteria of excellence as well. Along the way there will be multiple opportunities for sharing pictures and ideas through carefully designed Peer Review. This sharing of photographs and comments with peers, and reflecting on their comments about your photos, will be an exciting learning experience that will help you grow in understanding your own photography and that of others. Your contribution of comments to fellow Learners will not only help them understand their photographs better, but it will give you an opportunity to use the vocabulary of terms that are related to techniques, design principles, and content approaches that you have learned through your success in each of the previous Modules. A unique aspect of this Specialization is that everyone who completes the requirements will receive, in addition to their Certificate of Specialization from Michigan State University, access to substantial discounts on equipment, accessories, and membership benefits through Industry Partners from among the premier manufacturers of photography equipment and related items: Fracture, Gary Fong, Gyst, Lensbaby, LensPen, Lume Cube Lighting, Photo District News, PhotoVideoEdu, Think Tank Cases/Bags. In addition, The 'top-10' peer-reviewed Capstone projects each year will be awarded the opportunity for individual reviews, with personal responses, by world renowned photographers who have been honored with the title of Canson-Infinity® Paper Ambassadors.

À partir de la leçon

Learning from others

In this Module, Peter and Mark will comment on projects created by two MSU students and alumni, discussing the strengths they see in form and content to help you begin to form your own judgments as you either agree or disagree with their responses. The process of analyzing one's own preferences, and then actively agreeing and disagreeing about effective camerawork, composition, and content approaches, are key elements in the growth of any photographer. When we convey our honestly held responses in ways that are helpful, we not only give the photographer whose work we are commenting on greater insight into how their work is perceived, but also help open ourselves to new levels of understanding too. The Photographer's Statements by those students are also posted for you to consider, as you prepare to form your own in the future. Our Lesson Review of "Making not Taking Photographs," relates to the purposeful nature of the Capstone Project. In Peer Review, you will help each other gain insights into Project Plans, help each other by making comments and offering suggestions related to the Plans, and share first photographs with each other as well. Remember, the Capstone experience is a Journey, not a Race! If you missed the Reading in Week One, a Fable by Aesop awaits your attention! Take each week for what it is, an opportunity to grow in knowledge, creativity, and photographic technique.

Lesson Review: "Responding to Photographs," from Course One20:10

Analyzing the MSU Student project by Amy Davis17:15

Analyzing the MSU student project by Haley Kooistra11:20

Rencontrer les enseignants

Peter Glendinning
Professor
Art, Art History, & Design
Mark Valentine Sullivan
Associate Professor
Music / Innovation Hub

[MUSIC]

Well this is an exciting time.

We're going to take a look at student work and hopefully that'll be a model for you,

something you can learn from.

So let's get going.

Haley Kooistra has always been fascinated by toys and

their relationship to both the real world and the world of imagination.

Haley's a good example of a student photographer motivated

to create pictures by something important in her life.

She was enrolled in a number of photography courses that I taught at

Michigan State University.

And she always found a way to center at least some of her assignment

projects' content that she could symbolize with toy animals.

Toy soldiers and other toy figures of many types.

When it came time to make a final project in our course on studio lighting,

she was ready for action and not only with her knowledge of principles of light but

with her collection of toys and her creative spirit.

What imagery springs to your mind when you read the title for her project?

If Dinosaurs Had Day Jobs.

Think about that.

I've already given you a hint by sharing Haley's fascination with toys,

but what image springs to your mind when you hear those words?

One thing I'm sure of, and that is that you know, without seeing a single

photograph, that you're going to be experiencing something unusual.

The title is intriguing, confusing, cooky, funny, odd.

And most assuredly,

a phrase that I will wager not a single one of you have heard before.

I know I hadn't.

Near the end of this course, you'll be writing a photographer's statement

to share whatever words you think should accompany your capstone project.

Naming your project Untitled is certainly an option you could choose,

and that is sometimes the best title.

However, if you're interested in creating engagement

by the viewer before they actually view any of your photographs,

setting a tone related to that content that is assertive,

bold, expressive, through the title.

You might remember Haley's title and

conjure up one that is similarly expressive.

The photographer's statement conveys whatever information

they wish to share with viewers to enhance their understanding of the pictures.

I've seen 500 word statements for each picture in some exhibits and others where

the only statement about the whole exhibit was something very cryptic and brief.

Haley's statement about her project relates more to her process

than to the content, leaving it up to the viewer and

their imagination to draw conclusions about each scene.

I've posted that statement by Haley as a reading for you in the course materials.

Haley's quirky humor is in full force in this first photograph

where she takes on preconceived notions about the value of jobs

by showing what appears to be a domestic scene.

In this case, a home kitchen with someone who, I assume, is maybe either mom or

dad getting that ready to remove the latest tasty dish from the oven.

One of her goals was to create

lighting set ups that would replicate the normal light for each scene.

And her broad, flat lighting here definitely accomplishes that purpose.

The over-the-top, joyful expression that the dinosaur now has in

its new household role is quite different than that which the toy's creators

probably had in mind for a Tyrannosaurus rex with its mouth gaping open.

Continuing with scenes of everyday home life, her dinosaur has become a gardener,

and it seems to me that they're enjoying their hobby very much.

You'll notice that in both this picture and the previous one,

the other important elements are arrayed on the side of the photograph

towards which the dinosaur appears to be looking or moving.

She is taking good advantage of the viewers inclination

to see those areas as being more important.

Of having more visual weight just because the creature is looking or

moving in that direction.

The dirt on the ground also adds an important element of reality as

the flooring did in the kitchen scene.

I think, however,

that in this photograph she did a better job of handling that background.

Here, the out-of-focus elements of

parts of a machine give an impression of reality to the scene.

In the kitchen setting, I think the addition of a window, or

small cabinets or other elements would have made the background seem more real.

Her arrangement of elements on the background wall in this classroom scene,

the example of numbers and what appears to be a flag, both of which you might find in

any elementary school classroom anywhere, is also a key to its success.

While the child dinosaurs are somewhat strangely standing on their school desk,

well, perhaps that's what child dinosaurs do.

The teacher at the chalkboard is clearly the subject of the students' attention.

Haley carefully arranged the orange tabletop on the left and

the stacks of blue books on the right to give the picture a set of

framing elements that keep the viewer centered on the content in the middle.

Perhaps in this photograph,

she's reflecting on the experiences Haley had in her drawing classes, here at MSU.

Where some very creative combinations [LAUGH] of human figures and

odd objects are often set up by the crafty professors

to challenge their students' drawing skills.

Again, she's taking good advantage of the direction the dinosaur is looking

to draw our attention through the area of it's gaze.

She continues to use that element of pattern.

A repetition of similar visual elements to create connections

that tie the photographs parts together.

There's a strong implied horizontal line

connecting the table, chair, box, and easel.

And as a viewer's eye sweeps from left to right it's brought back again

in the other direction by this artistic dinosaur's gaze and body language.

The dark empty background replicates well the darkened environment

in our drawing studios.

Here, Haley takes the dinosaurs into the realm of action and adventure

with a concrete floor, a race car, and two very busy race car repair dinosaurs.

In her control of depth of field, she had a key element here.

Keeping the dinosaurs in focus in the foreground while the oil can in

the background gives a bit of context without being a big distraction.

Notice the fall off of light in the background,

which you will remember from our kitchen table studio lesson with Peter Rabbit,

and how it creates a sense of three dimensionality.

Things are really heating up in this scene of a firefighter

applying the hose of water to a massive wildfire.

While I like the action of the figure in this picture, I think the background is so

much lighter than the foreground areas that it becomes a bit of a distraction.

And the placement of the firefighter's helmet on the left

creates an imbalance in the composition.

I think she would have improved the picture by placing the helmet

in the mid-lower-right area, and

perhaps by turning the dinosaur just a bit to aim the hose more toward the fire.

In what I think is one of her stronger pictures,

combining strength in composition, lighting control, focus selection and

props, Haley brings the dinosaurs to the disco.

The color choices, the pattern that arises from the arrangement of objects,

and the emphasis on the DJ by focus choice makes this a success in

creating an alternate reality for me.

In this final picture, Haley brings her dinosaur to life in a simple silhouette,

creating a classic white field lighting situation for the glass.

There's a certain humor and at the same time, for me,

a certain sadness to this picture that makes it one of my favorites.

The strength of composition, control of light and shadow along with

focus all with the simple elements of a glass of water, a toy dinosaur, and

a few goldfish, combine to create a scene that I find powerful in it's content.

I hope you've not only enjoyed the whimsy of Haley's project but

also seen how the consistent elements of content, propping, lighting,

vantage point, and also the variations on her theme give it a sense of authorship.

A sense of stylistic signature that tells us the work all comes from the same hand,

the same heart and mind.

And conveys a completeness that is a hallmark of success.

As you look at the projects of other photographers on various internet sites,

and at the work of your peers in the near future.

Look for the things that bring connections between pictures and

that convey a sense of consistency of purpose that you can learn from.

[MUSIC]

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