Final Project PDF – Angus
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Author Archives: adillon
Angus – Research
Individual Photos:
I find inspiration from these photos because I think they do a magnificent job of capturing the beauty of the little things in nature. Instead of a shot of an entire landscape these photos focus in on something specific like a water lily, a duck, or a cloud. I’ve tried to emulate these photos in my final project, photographing specific things in nature.
“Water Lilies” by Frans Lanting
“Petrified Sand Dunes and Reflection” by Jack Dykinga (1996)
Christopher Dodds
“Split Rock and Cloud” by Galen Rowell (1976)
Christopher Dodds
Photo Books:
I find John Shaw and Frans Lanting’s photography collections to be really intriguing because a large majority of their photos capture the beauty in smaller/more specific things in nature.
https://www.johnshawphoto.com/
Articles:
https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2010/04/21/the-greatest-nature-photographs-of-all-time/
This article helped me see some of the greatest nature photographs and learn about some of the greatest nature photographers.
https://www.wildfocus.org/blog2/2017/11/9/early-wildlife-photography-and-art
This article is pretty cool, because it discusses and shows some of the first wildlife photography ever. It’s pretty cool to see how these old photos were composed, how flash is used in them, etc.
Final Project- Angus
Work in Progress- Angus
These are some photos I have taken the past few days and am considering putting in my blurb book for my final project.
Final Project Proposal- Angus
For my final project I want to create a blurb book compiled of photographs that highlight the beauty in the little, and conventionally ordinary, things in life. I plan to mainly use nature photos of seemingly insignificant things like a rock, or a tree trunk to show how such objects that we inherently cast as mundane can actually be pretty spectacular. I anticipate I will mainly use photos I have taken during this semester on my iPhone and photos I will take in the upcoming days. But I will look through my digital photo library as well to see if I have any additional photos that may work well under this theme.
This project is important to me because I have found that for me personally, life becomes a lot more pleasant and meaningful when I consciously take the time to appreciate my surroundings. My senior year of high school, my English teacher would start our 8am classes by asking us to share something beautiful we saw that morning. Although this may seem like a pretty basic warmup for the class, when I was forced to reflect on my morning, I found that there were a lot of beautiful things I came across that simply passed over me. I didn’t take the time to acknowledge the sunlight reflecting off the morning dew, or the fresh breath of the crisp morning air, or the smile on my friend’s face as we passed each other in the hallway. This daily exercise helped me see that the simple act of being more aware of my surroundings can help illuminate the beauty in life. I hope to illustrate this belief in my final project through photos that capture the beauty in seemingly ordinary things.
For this project I will not be manipulating my subjects in any significant way in order to replicate the idea of stumbling across the natural beauty in life. I will also mainly use more formal composition methods to present each subject’s beauty in a clear manner. I am not totally sure how I will arrange my photos as a series yet. But I like the idea of placing the photos in a more random fashion throughout my blurb book to reflect how we often stumble across beautiful things randomly. It’s easy to forget to take in our surroundings, but I think that the process of compiling this book will help remind me to consciously acknowledge the beauty of the little things in life.
Timeline:
4/28: Take photos
4/30-5/1: Take more photos
5/2: Decide which 20 photos to include in blurb book
5/3: Design blurb book with images and possibly text
5/4: Revise book, make changes if necessary, then place order
Slow Seeing- Angus
For this assignment I decided to revisit some photos I have of the river where I’m staying. I used a photo of the river that I took in the morning a couple of days ago and compared it to photos of the river at different times. I first compared it to a photo of the river 2 winters ago, then to a photo taken on the same day but in the evening, and then to a photo taken about 3 weeks ago.
Photos of my Mom – Angus
Goofing around
I don’t have access to our family photo albums right now, so I started off looking through the pictures I have saved on my iPhone for my winter garden photograph. Most of the photos I had in my phone of family members were pretty mundane, however, so I talked to my mom (the photo keeper of the family) about what old photos she might have on her computer. I looked through the photos she had on her laptop but still didn’t see anything that really caught my attention. As I was struggling to find a photo to choose, my Mom then remembered she had a few print photos from her childhood with her. I took a look at them and one of the photos in particular stood out.
It was a photo I’d never seen before of my mom in her late teens making a wacky pose on the beach in New York. This photo captured a part of my mom that I love, and it was pretty crazy to see it on display 20 years before I even existed. To me the photo captures something that I’ve always admired about my mom, that she’s not really concerned with what other people think of her.
This trait of hers often comes out through her extroverted and goofy nature. Whether its singing or dancing throughout the house, she’s never afraid of making a fool of herself in the process of having fun. This has always been one of my favorite things about my mom and seeing her display this wacky, fun-loving side of hers in a photo from the 1970s was really cool to see.
Making it Real – Angus Dillon
Going through essentially the same routine every day, the days have all started to blend together. As the days become the same, I’ve found myself having the same recurring thoughts. The coronavirus doesn’t seem to be slowing down soon, and the only thing we can really do to slow it down is nothing. This has made me think a lot about the lack of control we have as individuals and that maybe we are all being driven by some larger force. Adapting to this new stationary lifestyle, has made me feel sort of out of my habitat and stuck as well. I tried to capture these recurring thoughts I’ve been having through these images.
Pictures That Matter Now- Angus Dillon
Hey Everyone! I stayed on campus for the start of spring break so luckily, I was able to pack up all my stuff and head home to Seattle after Bowdoin kicked us out. I’m now staying with my family in Eastern Washington and have been going for a lot of walks to get exercise, clear my head, and reflect on this unique situation we’re all in. I thought I would share some of the photos I took on these walks of things that made me stop and think when I came across them. Admiring the little things I see on these walks has helped me find perspective and comfort in these times. I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe!
