Behold, the Birth of the Communications Building

Shooting wide exclusively was challenging because I had to constantly remind myself shoot wide...shoot wide! My hand would lazily reach for the zoom lens. The camera and I got dirty (it was the camera I was concerned about not my out fit), got hit by small shards of brick, a big brick almost hit me, but I'm really happy with the angles I achieved. The demo crew were really great they pulled out the grinder for me to shoot, and told me they were tearing down the outside wall. I think shooting wide for this subject matter worked better. The few shots zoomed in didn't convey the drama as well.

Gestalt

Law of Pragnanz


As a result of the the close perspective of the leaf, and it's relationship with the sun burning through forces the eye to first notice the shape the veins and there connections to each other. The leaf is dried out and has breakage creating gaps, and contrast of texture. It took a moment to pull back and see past the detail of the veins to see the steam, and realize I was seeing a leaf. The water or frost is reflecting light.

Law of Continuity


I know this is a piece of architecture. I think it is the top corner of a building with windows or gaps flooding in light.. This image displays the Law of Continuity because the angular shapes pull the eye to the right, but in contrast the shadow pulls to the left. The dark shapes at the bottom of the image pushing the eye back in repeating the previous motion.

Law of Similarity


The arches of the bridge mirrors itself in the river. The reflection is so crisp it is easy for the eye to link the arch of the bridge with its own reflection producing circles. The photo's hues and contrast have been manipulated making the distinction between the river and the bridge hard to differentiate the separation.


Law of Proximity

The girl's hand is reaching out, because of perspective it looks as if the rainbow is coming out of her palm.

Law of Closure


This image might be a stretch to apply to the Law of Closure. Although, the delineation between magazine and the person is obvious; it's successful because of the context. The placement of the magazine page on the face of the subject blends together to represent a single person. This image makes an interesting comment how women see themselves, and the portrayal of women in media. The "elegant" headline is a nice touch emphasizing social definitions.

Figure/Ground Relationship


I'm not grasping these principles very well. I thinks this applies because of focal planes. If I'm off mark here let me know. I think I'm making this harder then it is.

Balance

Epsonality
The Epsonality website utilizes the interactivity available in internet use. The website represents the technology of the products produced by using humor, floating graphics, audio, stimulating action; meaning, the cd's spinning and the man working in the background of the sites page. From a consumers perspective the site's technology can only reflect the ability of Epson's products. 'If they can do this with their website, what can their printers do?'
Aesthetically the design of the website is balanced. The page is broken up into thirds. A graphic is on each side of the screen. The center is the Eposonality test or the featured product displaying a moving graphic for each function. The display of functions is symmetrical.
The audio provides an entertaining vessel to educate consumers on their products and individual functions without having to read a page of text. Reading about printers is entirely more boring then the British tech supplementing information with his humorous anecdotes. This site is successful because it's entertaining, interactive, cutting edge in web design, and its purpose is to find the right Epson product for each individual consumer. It's comforting when a company isn't trying to sell their products for sales numbers, but directing the perfectly balanced product for each consumer. Though by providing a personalized printer would increase sales. Hence, Epson just sold another printer.

Pretty Loaded
The rule of thirds is used in "Underworld Evolution" by the liquid graphics being dropped on the right, left and middle of the screen. The breaking water graphics reveals the loading time which has elapsed. When the screen switches to a different loader it was genuinely disappointing.
Asymmetry is displayed in the "JBL Destination Anywhere" by the tour bus giving a sense of motion diagonally across the screen. The passing road signs on the right show the elapsed time of loading. Funny.
Symmetry is used in most of the pre-loaders whether it is the Ford Fusion acceleration dial, Nike Air, Bacardi, etc. They are cool, but expected. "The detective" has a finger print being brushed and reveals more of the print as loading progresses, this is innovative thinking.

Meet Douglas Gubler

Doug Gubler contracted HIV in 1986, he was 26-years-old.
After giving blood to the Red Cross in Dixie College’s Institute building, Doug’s family received a certified letter. Doug was in Honolulu at the time so his mother opened the letter, and had to tell her son he had been infected with HIV.

Doug says surprised. “I think I’m going to out live my mother. For a long time I thought I would die first, but since I’ve been on the drug cocktails my health has improved so much.”

“In the fight against HIV new drugs, called protease inhibitors and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, have brought hope to many infected persons. When combined with older drugs like AZT, these 'drug cocktails' are very effective in suppressing the amount of HIV virus in the body. However, new research suggests that even when suppressed to almost undetectable levels, the HIV virus remains in the body for a long time, perhaps even for life.”
About.com:Biology. “HIV for a Lifetime” [Online] 19 January 2009
http://biology.about.com/library/weekly/aa050699.htm.

Q: Do you know who infected you? How many sexual partners did you have until you contracted HIV?
A: Nine or ten. Yeah, I’m pretty sure. I was really drunk and someone forced themselves on me.

“That’s why I feel people need to know by getting drunk, getting stupid, getting drunk, gets you
infected.”

“Can you see what the HIV has done to my eyes?”

“Because HIV attacks the body's immune system, eye infections are common in people with the virus. Incidence of eye infection is high in people with T-cell counts of less than 250.”
CNIB. “What is HIV/AIDS?” [Online] 19 January 2009. http://www.classroom.com/community/connection/howto/citeresources.jhtml.

Q: How long did it take to have positive outlook on life?
A: I didn’t feel worthy to be Christ-like for a long time. I had to make amends with god and myself. I was 44-years-old before I could love myself.

Q: Are afraid to die?
A: Yes and no. The best way to describe it is as long as I continue to surround myself with good people and work with the youth to try to stop the spread of HIV, I’m happy. So I’m not scared because I have a purpose. Making amends with the man who created me has given me a place her at Dixie.

Q: What legacy do you want leave here at Dixie State?
Laughs. . .
A: To love one another. My goal is to spread the principle of equality of all kinds.

"Right now my ultimate goal is to stay healthy. Otherwise there’s no reason to go to school, I’ll be dead."

Contrast

The soft round shape of the moon in contrast to the breaking waves is surreal. How do take a picture like this? The dark shadows of the waves in emphasized by the highlights radiated from the moon. The contrast of of the motion of the wave about to crash into the still water a few feet in front cradled by the light of the moon creates real drama. I don't think this photo would be as successful in color.



The contrast of the burning match with the smooth and soft smoke highlights the difference of it's color. The warm vibrant flame is exemplified by the change of motion of the smoke in the image. Interesting how bright life is, and the dark of death. (I learned in science fire is considered a living organism.)



The relationship of the biker and the walk bridge (?) gives the view a real sense of space. He is flying up there. I can only wonder how many times he fell before he could sore with such grace. (The concrete below is awfully hard.)



The purple and blue hues reflected in this child's eyes and tears evokes profound emotion. The contrast of his dark complexion and dark eyes highlighted by his tears really makes me feel his pain.



This image is fabulous example of the power of lines. The sparks vector over the entire circumference of the image. It draws the eye in then around. The shape of the grinder blade parallels the shape of the greater image. The man in the image is crisp, and his dark skin and dark clothes contrast nicely with the bright yellow of the sparks.



The texture in this image emphasizes the emotion portrayed my the model. It's like her entire being is crying. The contrast in of the black back ground and her fare skin highlights the detail in the water sliding down the glass.

Get the Glass

The game Get the Glass has beautiful 3-D graphics, and the objective of educating the player about calcium defiency promotes milk in an innovative way. The crime files have the criminal and medical history of each charater. Which cover every democraphic: women, men, girls, and boys. The game cleverly identifies how calcium can effect bones, teeth, menstral cycles and the health of hair and nail growth. As the game progresses and the Adacie van lands on either misfortune, fortune or mastermind card. Each card allocates an interactive task or provides information related to calcium health. Get the Glass is an excellent avenue to test and explore personal knowledge of the effects of calcium.

Visually the game is pure eye candy. The graphic detail in Get the Glass is breathtaking, and looks very expensive. After reading a few blogs evaluating the site I have been converted to the thinking the game itself should be more dynamic. The game gets boring to play multiple times because you end up playing the same cards and challenges consitently. One of the responses to a blog I read (don't remember who and now I can't find it) made a valid point indentifing that the creators spent so much money producing the game why isn't the game more dynamic to make you want to play more then once.

Argueably creating a great game is easier said then done, but after spending so much money on aesthetics how much more work would it have been to add a few more mastermind cards to change it up a little. After playing a while I only continued because I wanted to take a closer look at the graphics not because the content propelled my interest forward.

On a final note the Adaci's and their quest to Get the Glass is histerial. The attention to characterization is what makes this game work. Putting the Adaci's in the context of the game makes the jokes and the self promotion of milk quarky and informational. I forgot calcium helps ease the aliments of PMS and sparked conversation (which I assume was the point of this promotion). Get the Glass is a gorgeous peace of interactive art work. The content could be enhance to prolong the life of the participent playing the game.

I watched the film Nine Lives over the weekend. The acting is astounding. It took me back to my roots in acting. All the hours of the "importance of subtext" is required in producing authentic and honest performance being drilled in my head. A great performance isn't about what a character is saying; but rather, what they aren't saying. This film is a great example of what a performance should be. Any aspiring actors or directors seeking to direct actors is a must see film.

I paticularly found Robin Wright Penn's performance in the grocery store inspiring. How the simple act of pushing a cart can show her character's anxiety, excitement, responsibility and unbridled love without saying a word.

The third sequence, starring Lisa Gay Hamilton's performance is unmatched by anyone in this star studded film. Watching her wait for the impending confrontation with her father is complex and honest. She shows us their history and we don't ever see them speak a word to each other. I was moved.

The theme of the film is death. Noting not all death ends in grave, but still wears the same weight. Refreshingly this theme wasn't shoved down the audiences throat. Instead breezes past it and if your not listening like the characters in the film listen you'll miss it.

The first image here is edited with lightroom 1.0. Notice the detail lost in the snow in the second image, which I edited with photoshop CS3. Photoshop forced me to make to two layers so I could bring the exposure of the stone up. (Which totally sucked because I had to spend a ton of time outlining the division of layers.) Lightroom is so much smarter! What took me a good hour in photoshop (partly because I had never done it before) took me seconds in lightroom.