April 7, 2011: For this assignment we were instructed to take a good picture and then a bad one with the same subject. I don't think any of my pictures were great. I was nervous while I was shooting so I didn't spend as much time as I should have with each subject, I shot from too far away, I didn't shoot with the correct settings for the light I was in and I didn't take chances by exploring more angles. I learned what I need to work on. I'm posting these so I can go back and see how much I've improved by the end of the class (otherwise I'm a bit embarrassed to put these up with the label "good").
The first four photos are the ones I presented as good and bad along with a self analysis. The others are from the other photo shoots I did for this assignment. 
Ten-year-old Rem Schroyer plays a Jimmy Hendrix song at Three Trees Coffeehouse open mic on Tuesday, April 5, 2011 with his guitar teacher Thayne Yazzie. He says it is his second time playing at the downtown coffee shop. In September Schroyer met the Lynyrd Skynyrd band after he wrote a letter telling them how much he loved their music. “They sent me free tickets,” he says. “It was so cool.”
Critical Analysis
Although the subject is in the back-corner third of this picture the action draws your eye to him. The subject provides an active foreground while the background is clean. The front-corner third of the picture provides context to the picture by introducing the crowd as another character in the scene. Although the composition and action of this photo are fairly good I think the lighting needs to be fixed. The subject needs to be darkened so he stands out from the background more. I should have taken more shots from this angle after changing settings on my camera.
From this photo shoot I learned the importance of intentionally chasing people down to get their names and contact information. I couldn't use some of the pictures from this shoot that I wanted to because I didn’t get every one's names. Next time I will keep better track of which people I have captured in my frames and track them down before they leave. 
Bad Picture #1
I like the action and expression in this photo but it is too busy. My eye is immediately drawn to the bright lamp in the corner, away from the subject. There is a lot of “stuff” in the background which I think could be okay if the subject was brought into clearer focus and the background blurred more. I don’t think there is a big enough contrast between the background and foreground. I need to learn to take better pictures in low light situations and get a lens that has lower aperture settings. 
After almost a week of rain Brittany Delorme and Aaron Mcloud say they are happy to be outside at Lake Padden on Wednesday, April 6, 2011. Mcloud, a student at Whatcom County Community College, says they bring Casey, their chocolate lab, and Walter, their six-month-old puppy, to the lake to swim when it isn’t too muddy. “We are trying to teach Walter to swim,” Delorme says. “But he’s afraid of it.” Critical Analysis
This picture has an active foreground with the two people and two dogs interacting. The background is clean. The line of the shore leads the eye from the bottom right corner of the picture to the action. There is a shaddow on the chocolate lab that I don’t like because it hides part of the action and makes the scene look a little crowded. But I like the action of the man throwing the stick and the emotion on both of the people’s faces. I need to be bolder when I’m photographing people and not be afraid to get closer. I don’t think I explored as many angles as I could have in this photo shoot. My new goal is to be bold! 
Bad Picture #2 This is not a good angle. I tried kneeling down but the picture became too full of the brush and branches. Both people are facing away from me and the dogs are also hidden by brush coming out of the lake. Although there is action and the background is relatively clean this was just not a good angle and the action is too disconnected with the camera for my liking.
Other photos from this assignment:
Western sophomore Kate Dodge says she stumbled into the Viking Union Art Gallery when searching for a different room on Monday, April 4, 2011. She decided to take a break from homework by participating in the opening day of the VU gallery’s “drawing jam.” Students are encouraged to use the materials provided to express themselves by drawing or writing on the walls covered in white paper. The event will continue through April 22, 2011. “I’m not an actual artist,” Dodge says. “I’m an artist of love.”
