efscsaundersjr

[efscsaundersjr]

‘Every Court has its story’

Hola, 

It has been a little while since I last updated what and how I was going to go about my final portfolio for PortDev. When I first started this process I had a handful of ideas that I thought would be interesting for my final project. 

Initially I was thinking about doing ‘shadows’, but at the time I didn’t have the motivation to figure out more shadowy type things to photograph for the type of message that I think would be proper. I do plan on going back to that thought process and maybe down the line create a series based on my original mindset. 

That said, my second choice when I first introduced my ideas for a proposal was photographing something basketball related. At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to do something revolving around the culture of basketball or just the courts themselves. What I ended up going with is a mindset similar to Ward Roberts;  he would photograph all of the basketball courts while they were bare and tell his story with the compositional elements centered around a basketball court. Here’s a link to some of his work for reference - https://www.dezeen.com/2016/07/24/ward-roberts-pastel-coloured-basketball-courts-photo-essay/

For backstory; I grew up playing basketball. When I was young; my pops, myself & brother would go to various courts around the area and sometimes other states to play with other avid hoopers on their ‘home court’. Every experience was always different from the one prior. No court/hoop is the same as another. I think that’s part of what makes each ‘arena’ special. 

This project allowed me to explore in a way similar to my younger days and get to feel some of the history from the various courts that I photographed. It was an enjoyable experience. All of that said, the theme I ended up going with is ‘every court has its story’.

I hope that with my photographs; that the viewer is able to put together their own version of the story. 

Thank you for taking the time, 

Sincerely, 

JS 

[efscsaundersjr]

Portfolio Proposal

Portfolio Proposal Blog: 

So this was my first proposal for portfolio development. I chose to work with light and shadow. I get a kick out of looking for looking for the basic elements of composition in the most common objects/subjects. 

For this particular set of photographs that were taken for this assignment were all shot in color & very little editing time was applied. Sans having the need to turn something in for academia purposes; I would typically sit on a set of photographs for quite a while and play around extensively trying to find the style/look/feel that would be appropriate for the mood I’m trying to convey. Part of the lack of editing is that I decided to shoot the majority of these photographs in jpg. Ive been doing that off & on for the past couple of weeks. There’s a certain amount of liberation that comes with just accepting the photograph for what is, with whatever profile that’s attached to it in camera and doing a slight edit. Plus, not having the camera huff and puff while it’s digesting the photographs metadata, uploading etc is a nice bonus as well. 

Regarding the objects that were photographed; these are all things that I see throughout the day around my house. I wanted to use things that were all in the same atmospheric realm. I felt that these photographs were more closely related to one another due to physical location vs utilizing other objects of interest from a different domain. That will always be subject to change though as that topic in itself is rather broad in definition when thinking about what could or could not be photographed. 

There were other ideas that I have in my head that I think would be interesting to create some imagery with as well. There are three other topics that I seemingly keep writing down when trying to brainstorm various topics of interest. Those would be basketball, jiujitsu, and drifting (gear head). All three of these would feel more photojournalistic where as if I stuck with the concept of light & shadow; it would be more associated with fine art photography. That’s all I have for now. 

Stay sWoLe humans

[efscsaundersjr]

Subject Intent

Subject Intent: 

Hola, 

So for our subject intent assignmentI bounced around a couple different ideas with myself with how I was going to go about it. I initially started with using a mailbox and then later a plate of spaghetti. Neither of those really fit into what I thought to be proper so I ended up going with an assortment of things that correlated with my morning workout. This assignment somewhat felt like I was attempting to tell a story. In that same regard; I’m starting to realize even more with how much photography correlates telling a story. Giving people something to think about; ponder over etc. I think that’s what made this assignment appealing. Slightly frustrating at times, but appealing because of having to mull it over and think about my objective in a different manner. It was a good time overall.  

[efscsaundersjr]

Serial Photography

So this was my first time every trying the concept of serial photography. I bounced around various ideas as to what I should or should not use as my content for this project. Rather than try to explain the mindset behind my project; I wanted to highlight how I found this project to be helpful with thinking about a body of work as a theme of sorts or possibly a storyline. There have been times where I have photographed something and I didn’t explain creatively the meat and potatoes as to what was going on throughout that time frame. Overall I felt that this project was helpful with stitching things together that make sense in one form or another. I may try to do something like this as a baseline framework for future projects which I think will work out to my favor.

[efscsaundersjr]

Introduction

Hola, this is the start to my blog for portfolio development. The purpose of this blog (I think) is to give my take on assignments that are intertwined with this course.  

Who am I & how did I get into photography? My name is JR and I am a guy who is from West ‘By God’ Virginia that eventually ended up in the sunshine state of Florida. My photographic journey probably started as a teenager. Started out as a casual hobbyist 20 years ago and eventually morphed into where I do something photographic related everyday. 

What intrigues me with photography? Why does it pique my interest? I think there are a lot of reasons why I adore photography. If anything it gives me something to look forward to, get better at, etc. and it’s one of those things where it’s never ending. There will always be something to photograph to tell your version of that particular time frame that you are photographing. We could all take the same picture of the same subject and still come out with various points of view that will deliver a different message. With that; that’s all I have, but I look forward to sharing my PortDev experiences throughout the semester.