Title: “Lightning Flashes”
Three descriptive tags: “night time”, “no flash”, “sparklers”
Seeing how it was the Fourth of July – photographs of fireworks or sparklers seemed to be a good choice. Problem was – the idea, concept, technicality of it all went smoothly in thought but proved to be a difficult monster in practice. Sparklers, sparklers, sparklers, need I say more.
First I had to figure how to make this point and shoot camera of mine work in firework mode without a flash. Then – of course – catching the subject (my daughter in this case) and the beloved sparkler in action. No flash, longer shutter speed, the nature of light, and movement all taken inconsideration I clicked the button and crossed my fingers as the processing hourglass filled. This is one of many that I took and one of the few that somewhat turned out that is until the camera’s juice ceased and the sparklers faded. I am somewhat happy with the final product here. The trail is cool, the spin neat, but – as others have suggested – the light from the window distracts. I tried to PhotoShop the window out but too much of the sparkler would just not look right – not quite at the professional level yet.
Back to the OPTIC (Overview-Parts-Title-Interrelationships-Conclusion) activity and try to discover what the argument is. I would then have my students look closely at the Interrelationships of the parts of the photograph – the sparkler trail, the light, the circle, and such and then determine how they work together on contrast each other. We could then discuss how interrelationships help one focus on meaning and argumentation. Then of course I would have them bring in photographs of their own to discuss.
Photograph Assignment 07 File