Final Thoughts

"Life is a Journey, Not a Destination" ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

When I started this class back in September, I really had no idea exactly where I wanted to go with my blog.  I knew I wanted to explore the medium of photography and the effects it had on culture and society and more personally how it effected me and my family.  The creation of this blog has truly taken me on a journey.  I've researched and studied photographs and articles.  I've spent time pondering issues that I had never even though of before this in relationship to photos and their profound effects on society and culture.  I've learned things about myself and mostly I've come to understand how much I value photography and the unique qualities it has to enhancing our lives and helping us tell our stories.  Although this class is drawing to an end, I have not reached a destination -- I have only just begun a lifelong journey of discovery. . ..

Let the Journey begin .. . .  . .wherever it takes me!

Paparazzi

Paparazzi: A freelance photographer who doggedly pursues celebrities to take candid pictures for sale to magazines and newspapers

The world of photography takes on a bit of an ugly side when freelance photographers are on the prowl, hungry for the perfect shot of the unsuspecting celebrity.  The photo on the left is a picture of Tiger Wood's car taken after a late night/early morning accident on his own personal propery.  Tiger Woods has become the newest victim of the paparazzi.  Although, certainly Tiger Woods is not the first nor last victim of the persistent paparazzi, and he definitely cannot stake claim to the "most harassed" celebrity.   

 I think one of the most publicized cases of the paparazzi and their relentess pursuit of photos takes us back to August of 1997 in Paris, France, when Princess Diana, Dodi Fayed, and Henri Paul lost their lives in a car chase gone badly.

The French paparazzi admitted to taking photos only ten feet away from Princess Diana's fatally injured body.

Different Perspectives

I found a great quote by Ansel Adams, a famous photographer, and I think his words capture the very essence of what I love about photography.  

"There are always two people in every picture:  the photographer and the viewer."~Ansel Adams 

Be Inspired - Share Your Life - Take a Picture!

Photographs are such a vivid part of our lives -- they help us remember things we never want to forget and also remind us of things we would rather not remember. Photos represent a piece of our past, our present, and our future. There is a photographer in each of us waiting to capture our life story with photos! Waiting to share who we are with the world. Be creative, be inspired, take a picture!

The Family Portrait - Through the Years

How many of you have family portraits hanging on the walls of your homes? If you are like most families, my guess is that you do or at least your parents have family portraits hanging on their walls.  The family portrait is a type of photo that goes back to the very beginning of photography; however, the family portraits, themselves, have changed a bit over time. If you look at portrait of the family above, not a smile can be found, the faces of these family members are stoic and without emotion.  Everyone is formally dressed.  This is very typical of early family portraits.

As time went on, color photos took the place of black and white photos  and we began to see other  subtle changes in the way the family portrait was captured.

Photo-Sharing Sites

Computers, the world wide web, and cellular phones have changed the world in which we live.  These technologies have had a huge impact on the medium of photography.  Photography is no longer limited to a camera and film, but it has jumped into the world of computers and phones and the world wide web!

In my last post, I shared with you a means through which photography could very negatively impact a person's life.  I talked about the incident with Michael Phelps and how a picture taken on a cell phone instantly took a private moment and made it massively public. Photography has become so mobile, so easy, so accessible that a picture can be taken anywhere, anytime, and by anyone.  In some cases, this is an unwanted phenomenon.

However, just as technology has it's downside, it also has an amazing and wonderful upside.  Today I would like to explore photography in relationship to photo-sharing websites. The great thing about photos is that they tell stories.  In and of themselves, they tell stories, and in conjunction with written word, they enhance stories.  Thus the explosion of photo-sharing websites isn't surprising because people love to share their stories, they love to share their lives with others, and photo-sharing websites enhance the sharing experience to a whole new level.

I have included a link below, which includes an article from The New York Times, which gives a short explanation along with feature comparisons of the top eight free photo-sharing websites on the web right now:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/technology/circuits/05pogue.html