My Thesis

This research paper, a semester-long project, had consumed my life. Every where I turned, something would relate to my topic, and I'd have to keep writing, until I finally felt a sense of completeness. This paper discusses the changing world of photography and photo-taking devices.

A Rant (In the Form of a Final Project)

Hello viewers, and more importantly, my professor!

This blog post is my final project for my Social Media class at the George Washington University. I have created a short video of me ranting (what more could you want, right?) of me discussing the battle between phone cameras and regular digital cameras. The write-up below discusses how I relate my video topic back to important theories I learned in class this semester.



Social Media Final Project from Merideth Tumasz on Vimeo.

In Jurgen Habermas’s, “The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere,” written in 1964, he developed the concept of a public sphere. It is a realm of social life where something like public opinion can be formed. It allows access to all, regardless of status, inclusive, and does not restrict people’s freedom to express their abilities. When he wrote this, the internet was not in existence, so while the concept of the public sphere existed, an actual portrayal could not have been explained until the success of the internet, as Benkler describes.

In Yochai Benkler’s, “The Wealth of Networks," he discusses the new, networked public sphere that is present in today’s society. When Benkler wrote this in 2006, it was before the explosion of smart phones, where the public sphere became even more connected. In the old public sphere, so pre-internet, the flow of information would go from one to many. Now, with today’s technology, this information goes from many to many. As a result, today’s public is living in a world of information overload. With so much content being spread so rapidly, the idea of internet “babel” is prominent and it can be hard for a user to sift through all this information. Because the cost now to participate in the public sphere is very small, anyone feels like they have the right, and capabilities, to add information into this massive public sphere.

If everyone is sharing content, why would anyone pay for any of it? Benkler also brings up the point of if money still matters. With peer production, why would we pay for something a friend makes, when the idea of a gift economy is becoming bigger and bigger? In a gift economy, everything is socially motivated; no one is concerned about the money, it’s all about the reputation. If someone’s picture gets a lot of “likes” on Facebook, it makes them look very prestigious and helps improve their reputation. So if a friend’s photo taken with an iPhone receives several likes, why would someone with an expensive DSLR camera waste the money on the camera if it won’t even receive the same appreciation? If no one is paying for pictures anymore, what’s the point in paying a lot of money for a digital camera when a person’s smartphone is so readily available? This is a growing struggle, not just for me, but for professional photographers and photojournalists as well.

This public sphere, as discussed by Habermas and Benkler, is key for the idea of spreadability. Spreadability, a term coined by Jenkins about the ease of sharing content throughout the digital world, is what makes users think it’s okay that pictures no longer cost money. By allowing media, especially pictures, to be able to spread so quickly, this is just one reason why the gift economy is becoming so successful today. Sharing my pictures, or even this video, enhances my street cred (excuse my slang). The more people that look at them, the more "likes" on a picture I get, the wider my audience becomes; it helps my virtual reputation. When things are easily spreadable, such as my digital photos, it makes it easy for people to want to spread the word and continue the flow of ideas, as Jenkins discusses.

So how does all this tie into my video rant? Without today’s digital tools, like a phone camera, none of this information connectedness would be possible. Because almost everyone (I'm referring to in the United States) has a phone with a camera, the playing field is equalized on who can and cannot be considered a photographer. This networked public sphere allows for the sharing of massive amounts of content, into what seems like an information-overloaded society (just see how many pictures are on Facebook). One can even call it an "image-overloaded society," but because it costs nearly nothing to take a picture, it’s really not all that bad. If we were still having to pay each time to get our pictures developed from a film roll, people wouldn't be sharing their pictures as much as they are today. With the ease of spreadability digital photos have today, it’s not a surprise we rely on the gift economy to justify why we take and share the pictures we do. So even though I ranted for four minutes about how camera phones do not deserve the same recognition as DSLR camera do, a picture is spreadable, no matter what it was taken with.

References:

1000memories.com - http://blog.1000memories.com/94-number-of-photos-ever-taken-digital-and-analog-in-shoebox

 Daguerreotype Process: http://www.photohistory-sussex.co.uk/dagprocess.htm

Phones Taking Over Industry: http://www.simplyzesty.com/mobile/are-phones-about-to-wipe-out-the-digital-camera-industry/

Photo Quantity Statistics: http://hyperallergic.com/48765/how-many-photos-do-americans-take-a-year/

Laugh it Off

Shit happens, right? And you simply can't do anything about it; you just gotta laugh about it and move on. This post is going to be my last for awhile, got that whole finals thing to worry about...

So this week is going to be a little unorthodox; a funny, carefree post, to remind you to enjoy the little things in life. Also, sorry not sorry to all my friends I may have slightly embarrassed with these pictures.

I am not teaching any lessons in this post, or saying that these images have any artistic value; I just feel that will all the sugar.honey.iced.tea going on in the world, we all just need a few things to laugh about.

Snap some candids! I swear, people have the best smile when they aren't aware there's a camera hiding in my hands... You're friend is surfing the internet? BAM, beautiful portrait with a nice soft lighting from the computer screen. Someone's cooking dinner? SNAP SNAP, you now have a nice, fun picture.

The funny pictures are always the ones most remembered, so don't be afraid to take an ugly picture. What else is your friend supposed to use as blackmail 20 years from now? There's a reason we don't take old-fashioned pictures like this anymore.

Hopefully you still found this post enjoyable, despite the lack of educational value...

Like I said before, I'm going to take a little hiatus with the blog; sorry! Keep checking back for more posts though. And if you have future post ideas or questions, please let me know in the comments!

Come On, Light my Fire

This week, I'm giving a shout-out to all my pyros. This week's post will deal with fire and fireworks, and the best ways to take pictures of them.

FIYAAAAHHHH. It's fun, it's exciting, it's hawt. So how do you take pictures of it? It's honestly not that hard. The hardest part is making sure you have a proper shutter speed. Just about all fire and firework pictures are taken at night, so it's hard to find the right shutter speed that doesn't make the subject (the fire) too bright and the background too dark, if you want it to show in the image.

So these three pictures are kinda cool, right? But they're just kinda okay; nothing too exciting, but not painful to look at. So how do you make them better? Hint hint, longer shutter speed...

So these look a little better, right? More colors, you're able to see more of the subject, and they're more visually appealing. But what if you want EVEN MORE??? I'd recommend using a tripod for exposures longer than 1/20 of a second, especially at night. 

These four pictures show what happens when you leave the shutter open for anything longer than 1/2 second. The longer the shutter is open, the more light that is let in, and you can also see movement with this. So that's how I got the paths of the fireworks to show up in these four images above. Don't be afraid; you will have bad pictures when still trying to find a shutter speed you're happy with. Just hopefully you figure it out before the fireworks end!

Now, I'll switch gears and show you some pictures of sparklers. They are small, can be close-by, and more consistent than fireworks, so it's easier to get the perfect picture with them.

The first picture is not in succession with the other four, but I still think it's pretty cool, so I included it. The last four show four stages of the life of a sparkler. The nice thing about these is that usually you have a box of them, so if you screw up your images on the first sparkler, you can simply learn from your mistakes and start over and light another! (You really can't ask people running a fireworks show to "start over"...)

So... Tips:

• This lesson was pretty simple, but MESS AROUND WITH THE SHUTTER SPEED
• This is why you use the "M" manual setting, NOT AUTO.
• Use a tripod if you're planning on taking long exposures at a fireworks show
• Bring a flashlight. As dumb as it sounds, you don't want to be fumbling with your settings on your camera in the dark.
• Don't get burnt.

Hope you enjoyed my post this week. Tell your family, your friends, that random guy at the grocery store about my blog. If you have any questions, comments, ideas for future posts, please post in the comments! It makes me do this when you comment!

Good luck and have fun shooting!

Flower Power

Greetings loyal fans! I'm going hippie-dippie this week and focusing my posts on flowers. One bouquet of flowers, though. That's right, just one. Taken from multiple different angles. They were a gift. Now that I took pictures of them, THEY CAN LAST FOREVER. MHUAHAHAHA (I apologize, my caffeine intake is higher than usual today...). Hope you think at least one of these pictures are pretty. If not, please tell me in the comments, so I can please you, oh fellow readers!

I am going to give you a little mini lesson before I subject you to several more pictures of flowers though. Probably should've told you in one of my first posts, but better late than never, right? It's called bracketing. For these three pictures, I changed the shutter speed so I could change the brightness/darkness, but still maintaining the blurred background. If I didn't want the background as blurred, I would've changed the f-stop. 

I like the middle one the best, but let me know which one is your favorite in the comments!

Now for shameless self-promotion of other flower pictures I took. Sorry not sorry.

If you're wondering how I got this cool lighting with the sun pouring in, I literally put the vase of flowers on the floor of my apartment in a patch of sunlight coming in through the window. Then I got on my stomach and pointed the camera up, having the sun come through the flowers in the background. Super easy, super fun. The more angles I tried, the better and more interesting the images came out. 

So I know what you're thinking. Damn, these are really good. Right? If you agree, let me know in the comments; I am desperate for feedback (and post ideas...)

Don't forget to stop and smell the roses every once in awhile! And after you do that, take pictures of the roses. Bam. 

Exploring Georgetown

This week's post is going to be slightly over the place. I went to Georgetown's waterfront in Washington, DC to take some pictures. This post will show you the best images, with also critiques on them. This way, you guys can see what I did wrong, and now you'll know not to make the same mistakes I did. I went around sunset time, which can be a hard time to take pictures if you miss the nice lighting window, because then subjects become too dark and shadowy.

I also sincerely apologize for all the duck pictures. They are just so cute, swimming around like they do. I couldn't help it!

Look at these two pictures. Which one looks nicer? The second one, right? That's the correct answer, so just pretend you said that one. Sunsets can be so pretty, but if it's not the only thing in the frame, the non-sunset subjects can be difficult to capture. For instance, with the second picture, the sky looks pretty sweet but you can barely see the details of the trees and buildings. In the first image, the trees and buildings are properly lit, but the sky is extremely washed out. Mess around with your ISO or shutter speeds until you get a combination that you like.

This was the best I could get, in terms of capturing the nice sky and the architecture and trees in the frame as well.

Birds in the air with a nice sky backdrop are a hit or miss shot. You guys can decide if this passes the test. On the plus side, at least it's not a duck picture... not yet anyways.

(Photo Credit: Jad Tabbara)

While all three of these pictures seem very different, I actually took them all in the same place. I literally popped a squat on the edge of the boardwalk and just stared into my viewfinder until I saw something I liked. Also, this lady in the last picture is not a model. She was demanding that the man with her take pictures of her while she posed awkwardly in the middle of the busy boardwalk. It was quite hysterical. But it made a good image, so I took it!

Here are a few out of many duck pictures I took. The water looked especially pretty, and the ducks filled out the frame nicely. Also, when taking pictures of water, try to work with ripples or waves, like the last picture. It looks very symmetrical and appealing to the eye. Granted, I wouldn't want to get anywhere closer to the Potomac River, but at least it looks pretty with the sun setting on it!

Recap:

• Be aware of when you're planning on going out to take pictures. Never go mid-day; that's the absolute worst time to take pictures outside. Go right after sunrise, or a little before sunset; that is going to be your prime lighting opportunity.
• Do the best you can to balance out the vivid colors of a sunset and proper lighting to show detail in buildings or trees
• Don't be afraid to just sit down and wait for pictures to come to you, especially if you're at a busy place like the Georgetown Waterfront on a Friday night. You don't always get lucky like I did, but sometimes good things to happen to those who wait.
• As I mentioned in my animal photography post, slow-moving or sitting animals can be extremely easy to take pictures of, so try to make the image even more interesting by off-centering the animal or working with the background instead of making the focus solely the dog, or cat, or in this case, a duck.

So get out there, be a creep. Take your camera out. And tell people about my blog. That last one is really important.

Thanks guys!

Seeing in Black and White

When taking pictures in black and white, there's a lot of grey area, no pun intended. Crisp, clean photos need the blackest black and a true white, with varied shades of grey in-between. This week's pictures have all been taken with a 35mm film camera, and I developed both the film and pictures myself.

Don't be afraid to have multiple objects in the image to create a nice full frame. Look for balance and make sure all the attention in the image is on one side.

With black and white photography, it is very easy for detail to be washed out and things to be lost from parts of the image being too dark or too light. For example, it's very difficult to see the snowman's arms in this pictures because the tree background is too dark.

This picture is cool and all, but it could be better. Can you think of anything right off the bat? I'll give you a hint: there really aren't any true whites or blacks in this image, it's almost all grey. Greys are fine to have in a black and white photo, but when that's all there is, a picture can seem very flat and not very appealing. 

Don't be afraid to try new things. If you're using a film camera, you are limited to how many pictures you can take, but if you're using a DSLR, snap away! This picture I took as an experiment and I think it looks pretty cool. I have a feeling though that it wouldn't have looked as cool if it was in color. 

Black and white pictures are excellent for showing extreme detail in subjects, especially in nature. Focus can be on drops of water or each leaf on a bush.  Look for cool textures and patterns to make a really rad black and white image.

Tips to Remember:

•   To have a really nice-looking image, make sure to have true blacks and true whites, with varying greys. If a picture is all grey, it appears to look washed out and not very appealing to the eye

•   Shadows look exceptional with black and white photos, so if you can play around with lighting and shadows, do it!

•   Watch out for things being too washed out from objects in the image being too dark or too light. Because it's harder to see slight changes in color in a black and white photograph, things can appear to be washed out or hidden, so watch lighting when taking pictures (example, the snowman picture)

•   Because we live in a digital age, it is easier to take a picture in color, and then edit it to a black and white photo. I obviously could not do that with these film pictures, but don't be afraid to take a picture and then alter it to black and white to see how it looks