This picture is highly comical.  I am from a small town so this sight is not an uncommon sight where I live and so when I found it on LIFE's website as an interesting animal picture it made me chuckle.  I also love that the color of the bird's beaks are reflected in the cow.  Even though the the birds are the dominating force in the photograph I think the cow is key to making this photo really interesting.  This photo is chaotic yet organized which, there seems to be no reason for the placement or frame of the ducks, but it is definitely important that the cow is in the frame.  The color reflection and the size differences between the different types of animals makes this picture extremely interesting to me.

Pictures like this one fascinate me...something that could never be seen with the naked eye but yet can be captured on film.  Whenever I come across pictures like the one above I find myself staring at it for a long time tying to picture a moment when I have seen anything like this.  With this picture I could only come up with one memory...the time I saw a bbi gun fired and for a split second I thought i could see it moving through the air but only when I was standind directly behind the person who shot it.  The mere idea that a camera has the ablility to capture this instant in time that we normally only see the ramifications from is astounding.  There are also astehtic reasons that I really like this photo.  For one, because I have been so focused on color I love that this photo almost lacks color except for the pink marble looking thing.  All the gray makes this pink marble stand out so much in contrast to the gray and it continues to draw my focus even in the reflection of the water.  I also love the use of reflection in general.  I think it adds an excellent sense of of dimension to the overall photograph.

With my focus on color for my photobook I have found myself drawn to really interestingly colored photos as of late in my photo searchings.  I'm really interested in how or if this photo had edits to the color saturation levels.  As I look at my own images to try and present them in the best form I have really been focusing on color saturation to bring out the best quality color of the object I am focusing on.  How altered are the blue of both the water and the sky.  They seem to match perfectly in the way the color of the water starts off lighter and gets darker into the distance while the sky does the opposite.  I love how vibrant the color is and how even though there is a lot of blue in the photo it doesn't overwhelm me at all.

I like the play of colors going on in this photo, I like that my eye is drawn to the sun and then pulled back by the reflections of the colors of the sun in the water.  I also enjoy that this photo's location is extremely ambiguous, is it cold there, warm, what time of year and so on?  But that also let's me create a story for the photo in my mind which is really great as well.  As with the previous post the reflections created by the water cause there to be so much dimension within the photo for the eye to follow and create so much depth which makes it extremely visually pleasing.  The softness of the colors in this photo also draw my attention to this photo, the play between the lights and the darks, the colors and the shadows all create a visually interesting and pleasing photo to my eye.

The reflection is what drew me into this photo.  I'm not sure if the colors were enhanced or if the clarity was adjusted, but this photograph is gorgeous with it's color and it's clarity.  I love that not only is the mountain reflected in the water but that the clouds appear to be reflected in the rocks.  My eye is immediately drawn to the mountain peak and then ventures to the peak reflected in the water.  The rock in the bottom right corner leads the eye into the photograph and intorduces the viewer to really examing the thing itself of the mountain and the reflection.  The blues and the greens are really vibrant in the photograph which compliments the browns and grays and whites nicely.

As soon as I saw this picture it made me smile, the giraffe is attempting to fulfill a basic need but his tongue and the unrealisticness of the photo is funny and over-the-top and makes me smile.  There is not only detail in this photo but it is also interesting where the frame lies in this photo.  There is this floating had holding onto the banana, you can only see the head of the giraffe, so he or she is bodiless however we assume that the rest of him is there.  But, this question makes me ask questions, is this a really tall giraffe or a really tall person? How is the hand and the head of the giraffe at the same spot.  Is the person standing on something to get the banana to the giraffe.  This photo while being ridiculous and making me smile, also is problematic in the fact that it is making me ask all these questions.  With my current focus on color with my photo book, the banana draws my attention in this photograph because it is the only vibrant color in the photograph.  After my eye is drawn to the banana the next spot my eye is drawn are the giraffes spots.  Even though it leaves me with lots of questions I still really enjoy this photograph.

Mark Cohen's photography, classified as street photography, really surprised me and forced me to rethink photography as art.  Some of his images, if I had taken them, I would have discounted as a really poor photo.  For example, there is a picture of two girls on a bus where the flash of the camera is reflected into the photo and obscures the face of one of the women.  Before seeing Mark Cohen's photographs I would have assumed that pictures like that would be cast aside and not used.  But his eye, and his focus on framing the shot before he even takes a photograph is so interesting and unlike anything I have ever imagined to be photography.  They style of photos he produces and the style in which he takes photos is unconventional, his use of a wide angle lens, no view finder, and an in your face photography, as well as his use of both black and white and color photography make him extremely unique.  I like that his street photography captures the simple aspects of everyday life we often see but take for granted, but he not only captures those moments but creates interesting moments when he shoves his camera in peoples faces or captures just the legs of an individual.  His photography is so visually stimulating because from picture to picture there was never the same thing twice, no distinct theme, or distinct direction, just the idea that he was going to capture the everyday in his photographs.  From the show I had three favorite photographs including Go Cart 2 Kids, 1974; Bus/Show 1977; and Bingo Caller/Table 2000.  Go Cart 2 Kids struck me because of how perfect it captures a very typical afternoon in the life of two boys playing, it was so real and I could imagine myself of that street seeing them play everyday.  Bus/Show caught my attention because it reminded me of some of the photographs Stephen Shore took and I liked having knowledge of another photographers work to compare a picture that I found similar.  Finally Bingo Caller/Table was just pleasing to the eye with the way the camera was lined up and the way the lights looked around the people, it was just extremely aesthetically pleasing to my eye.  I really enjoyed the show and Mark Cohen's photography has definitely shown me that there are lots of different ways to craft art, an individual just has to find their eye and inspiration.

This picture captures great detail in buble and leaves everything in the backgroupnd blurry.  Even though the hand is in focus its relativity to the photo is just to show the action on the bubble and so the detail for the buble is heightened even more.  I also love how fast this photo had to be taken to capture this moment in time.  This is something that could never be seen with the naked eye and the exposure had to have been incredibly short.  Not only do I love the detail of this photo but I also love that it makes me think of great memories with my own experience of bubbles.

This photo has an interesting vantage point, kind of looking through the trees as well as somewhat framed by the cliff on the left.  The color of the water looks incredibly enhanced but the other colors in the photo look natural.  Normally I really enjoy landscape photos but this one has such an awkward point of view that I really don't like this photo at all.  There is also a lot going on with the trees and the branches that isn't really aesthetically pleasing and since the photo doesn't really seem like the thing itself it just feels cluttered.  Also since the color of the water looks so fake it makes me feel like the authenticity of the pictured should be questioned.

The detail in this photo is what caught my eye, how the butterfly and the flower are in perfect focus and the background is blurry but as the viewer you know enough to assume that there is another flower and greenery surrounding the butterfly.  Color has a big impact in the photo as well.  Even though the colors of the butterfly do not exactly match the colors of the flower they are close enough that they are excellent compliments to one another!  The eye's focus remains on the butterfly and moves to the flower and is only distracted from the focal point of the photograph is the blob of color in the background which is probably another flower.

This photo is an amazing example of vantage point.  By placing the lens on the road directly where the rainbow appears to begin in the distance not only do we get a really unique perspective of the natural phenomena, but we also are left with a sense of how small we as individuals are in comparison to this beautiful display of nature.  The use of color in this photo, where everything is relatively earthy neutral tons other than the rainbow, is not only pleasing to the eye but really helps the rainbow stand out as a focal point of the picture.  I also like how the rainbow divides the picture into nice weather and stormy weather.  Almost showing that there is light and dark in everything, even things that are seemingly good like rainbows.  A rainbow can only occur if there is both rain (or rain like conditions that create moisture in the air) and sunlight.

Review/Photography; A Glimpse of the 40's and 50's at the Met Museum

I love the 40's, the clothes the images, the way of life a simpler yet still socially complex time of history.  To me there is something so interesting about the way in which people lived in the 40's that fascinates me so when i saw a review of an exhibition from the 40's and 50's my interest was immediate.

In Andy Grundberg review of the art exhibit, A Glimpse of the 40's and 50's at the Met Museum he provides historical context for the inspiration of the photos and highlights the comparisons between the seemingly very different photographers.  The exhibit was organized by Morris Hambour, the museum's photography curator, and she did so in such a way so that viewers could appreciate the "major stylistic impulses of those years without drastically oversimplifying them."  This first photograph above is a Sid Grossman photo entitled Harlem, New York from 1939.  It is one of his earlier pieces but the exhibition too was started with one of his pieces, Seagulls, (which I could not find a image of) but was used to introduce the rest of exhibition.   

 Grundberg described it's use as "an essential clue to what follows: verging on overall, nearly chaotic pattern, it is less about the seagulls it putatively depicts than about a pervasive urge toward abstraction in photography."  The rest of the exhibit is organized into a Cool Zone and a Hot Zone.  Artists depicted in the Cool Zone include, Aaron Siskind, Bill Brandt, Irving Penn and Otto Steinert, Mr. Callahan, Mr. Metzker and Mr. Tomatsu.  Those artists depicted in the Hot Zone include Robert Frank, Mr. Klein, Garry Winogrand, Lisette Model, Leon Levinstein.  Throughout both rooms the photographers shy away from describing the world in perfect texture and detail and if we ignore the "emotional temperatures" of the room overtones of futurism.  The photo on the top left is by William Klein and shows his common technique of blurring out the image.  The bottom photo is by Bill Brandt, and the two photos together give examples of work by an artist in the Cool Zone and one in the Hot Zone.  I really enjoyed how accessible Grundberg mde the exhibition.  Even though it was difficult to find images from the actual show, from his description and contextual evidence I think I would be able to walk through it and identify the different zones of hot and cold and appreciate that the artists were attempting to do at the time.

First and foremost I love elephants so the content of this photo draws me in, I want to be that person hanging out reading with the baby elephant.  I want to be the baby elephant's friend.  The other reasons I like this photo are because even though the clear focus of the picture are the elephant and boy sharing the rock, there is so much going on in the background that you don't really notice right away.  There are elephants and trees in the background at different distances away from the focal scence giving the picture a sense of depth that it otherwise wouldn't have.  There is also a lot of detail captured in the foreground of witht he blades of grass.  I can see varying colors and empty patches.  Even though this photo has a clear focus it is surrounded by lot's of details that serve to make the photo visually more interesting but not to clarify context.

I love how the lights in this photo create lines for your eye to follow, as well as the shape and composition of the buildings.  Color contrasts between the light of the buildings and the dark of the mountains is also very striking.  This photo has a ton of depth and texture, from the layers of the buildings to the contours of the mountains there is a rich amount of depth to this photo that make it visually interesting both vertically and horizontally.  Even though there is detail in the texture this photo more captures the theme of "The thing itself" with the thing being this community of housese set in the mountainside.  Because there are few distinctive markers this phot makes me ask a lot of questions, like where was this photo taken, are these houses or is this part of a hotel or something else entirely, how was the unit built into the side of the mountain, what's on the other side of the mountain beyond the skyline and so on.  My favorite part of this photo is the light dark contrast between the building and the natural landscape.

Lightening is a fantastic display of mother natures power and when it can be captured in a photograph it's magnificence is captured in time.  Capturing any weather phenomenon is an example focusing on time within photography but due to lightening's short bursts capturing it truely depicts capturing a moment because as we've all experienced it is here one second and gone the next.  What's truly incredible about this photo is the fact that four bolts of lightening were captured at once and even though they have such a grabbing display of light, the lights of the city are in no way diminished in this photo.  Even though the lightening bolts are the focal points especial the one in the center of the photograph the city holds it's own as a very interesting compliment and a symmetry is almost created with the bolts and the buildings.  I really love this photo for the colors and the awesome weather that's captured in it.

I love the frame of this picture, how the water is completely surrounded by rocks and how that natural element was captured so nicely by the photographer.  The reflection of the light draws the viewer in to the center of the photograph and then the view is lead out of the cave through the back right corner of the photo left to imagine what more is beyond the scope of the lens.  There is so much going on with light and highlights and reflections in this photo that I find it incredibly visual interesting to looks at.  While the majority of the photo is natural tones, the light and the highlights created vibrant blues and greens and reds that are so interesting to the eye.

I love that the background is bathed in red which makes the two individuals stand out so clearly in contrast.  This picture is more a depiction of time rather than the thing itself.  From the original caption the viewer knows that the man on the right is the focus of the photograph, however when it stands alone that is not as apparent and the more striking part of the photo is that the two individuals are in the middle of a performance.  One that was occurring before the photo was taken and one that continued after the photograph was shot.  Both men have facial experssions that show there is continuity in the photo that it is not stagnent but had a beginning and will have an end.

This photo really captures both elements of time and of the thing itself.  Not only is the baseball player(Oswalt) being caught in the middle of his windup, a position you as the viewer know he can't stay in, but he his also the sole focus of the photograph, he his clear and detailed while the background is our of focus.  Oswalt also fills the whole picture with his body taking up most of the three center blocks in the grid.  The begins with his lead foot, follows the line of his leg up his torso to the concentration on his face, and finishes with the ball in his hand where the viewer is left in anticipation for Oswalt to finish his motion. 

The use of vantage point is fully in use in this picture of the ostrich.  Not only is the photographer taking a photo from a very close position to the ostrich but it it also taken from underneath.  This serves to make the ostrich's mouth all that more imposing and takes advantage of capturing the beauty of the sky as well as the heads of all the other ostriches in the background.  The photograph feels balanced between the bottome left and top right corners and between the top right and bottom right corners, between ostriches and clouds.  You can see so much detail in the in the ostrich's mouth and the hair on it's face that protrudes out from behind the mouth.  This is where the detail ends however and the rest of the photo is dominated by all that surrounds the ostrich's head.

The Thing Itself
In this photograph the young lion is captured in a vulnerable state, in its element, sleeping, being exactly what it is... a lion.  The light falling on the lion leaves shadows on the face and the front of the rock making a nice color contrast between where the sunlight hits the lion and the rock directly.  The background it fuzzy demonstrating that in this photograph the only thing that is important to view is the thing itself, the lion sleeping on the rock.  The eye follows her front up to her face and then takes in the rest of her sleeping body.  She looks so peaceful and gentle in this photo.  It makes me want to pet her and bring her home with me.

In this photo I love how the blue of the car draws me to other blues in the photo, like the blue in the woman's shirt in the doorway, the blue of the building farther back, the blue of the hanging laundry.  I'm not sure if the car is the focus of the picture but the reaction time of the camera was not set fast enough to completely stop motion hence the car is blurry implying movement.  I like that the photo has a nature vanishing point that the eye follows down the street and that you can just make out some of the things happening in the distance.  It's strange that the car in the bottom right hand corner of the photo was included, and I wonder if it was a necessity in order to get the rest of the shot.  I think the line of parked cars does make a nice frame to the right side of the photo.

This picture is beautiful and I just want to stare at it.  I like that there are three main colors that dominate the photo of white, blue, and grey.  The line of the pathway draws your eye out to the little white chapel were you eyes then follow the draw of the white color into the clounds. The chapel sets in the center placement of the grid and the horizon is nicely placed as well, not too high or low but easily at eye level drawing focus across the picture to offset the etreme desire to follow the stone path into the depths of the picture.

When I first saw this photo I did not really like all the yellow, I felt like it was too harsh for the eye.  However it uses grid lines nicely and the photo seems to begin in the bottom right corner where the eye is initially drawn to.  It is difficult for me to understand the meaning that is trying to be captured in this photograph.  To me it is something unique and organized sprouting from chaos, which is a beautiful thought however I don't know if this is meant to be the interpretation.

This photograph draws me in because of the intense color in the center and the lack of color around the edges.  Even though there is not a lot of interest in the bottom right hand corner where the eye is first drawn I feel like that is intentional because it slowly prepares the eye for the intensity of the color.  Being drawn next to the dripping paint before taking in the full splotches of color is pleasing to the viewer.  The use of primary colors is also interesting, I don't know if these colors are necessarily aesthetically pleasing however they are common colors that everyone is used to which may have some sort of cognitive appeal.