So Pattie convinced me I should just ask Prof. Kuykendall if he'd let me take the class. Turns out it was a good idea.
Journalism: "A controlled response to what we see, which we will translate to the audience." We discussed that as well as convergence journalism in particular.
He talked about the "comfort zone," something that will be difficult for me as I'm pretty shy for someone who wants to be a journalist. I've mostly dealt with administrators and people who were clearly part of news stories, but approaching people with a featureish approach is different.
"F8 and be there." I like the simplicity of that approach to photojournalism. I think most of what I'll have to worry about will be technical. We went over lighting, aesthetics and color. Lighting is something I'll have to pay a lot of attention to- direct light and diffuse light have different effects. As far as aesthetics goes, I should look for geometric shapes when composing photos. Color is probably what I'll be worst with. Hues and nuances can define a subject in more detail than black and white, which is fine because I prefer color. However, learning to use contrasting colors, warm and cold colors, will be more of a challenge.
The photographer thinks in 5 dimensions. There are the 3 physical dimensions, then the fourth is time. Thinking about how a photo may be better in a few minutes when people walk through or the sun starts rising. The 5th dimension is the ability to see something extraordinary in the ordinary.
So my first subject, for the window portrait, was Eryk Salvaggio. He photographed me for the same assignment back in January, so I figured he owed me. I took pictures of him from different angles, trying to get the diffuse light to illuminate him as well as possible. Hopefully it came out all right.
