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.