Multimedia Critique

URL: http://vimeo.com/16285298

It is an art work rather than a photojournalistic one; but I do think it is amazing because it answers a question of mine: why a photography / video technique, such as slow shutter speed or slow motion, is used in a certain project? Because the technique helps to present the theme, not because the photographer wants to show that he / she is able to use that technique.

The content of this multimedia is extremely simple; but I guess what the producer intends to do is just making you sit down and stare at the model's hair flying in air for two minutes, without thinking anything else. We see plenty of female who have long hair, do not usually see women's hair flying in such a slow and graceful way; so the multimedia actually creates an atmosphere in which we begin to pay attention to a kind of beauty that is often ignored by us in daily life. When we concentrate on it, we can feel the beauty. In this sense, I appreciate the technique of slow motion in this multimedia; because of the limitation of human eyes, we are not able to see slow motion with bare eyes, but camera helps. The slow motion technique is used to give us the feeling "I have never seen such things; and I never knew women hair could be so beautiful". If it is a picture which freezes the moment of hair flying, there will be no such miracle because we have seen a lot of similar moments.

Interactivity is one reason why I personally like vimeo. This project, similar with other vimeo videos, allows viewer to have control on many things such as progress, volume and size, and sharing to others. In the multimedia window, the viewer’s control buttons appear only when mouse move within the window (when under full screen mode, only when the mouse moves). Viewer can control the progress, pause or play, decide volume, switch to full screen or switch back, or even watch it again when it ends, all within one click. There is no navigation bar as we did in class; but it is not hard to go back to vimeo homepage, or go to the multimedia producer's vimeo page, or go to watch more multimedia from the same producer.

When watching the multimedia (or when finish watching), viewer can easily find the buttons for him/ her to "Like" the video, share it with other people, or embed it to other sites. Leaving comments is also easy and quick. Beyond this, the page even gives detailed information of how many people have viewed this multimedia in a certain period and how many of them like it; who have liked this project and who are they (with their Vimeo links in a sidebar of the page). If interested in this topic, viewer can find more relevant projects through several ways that are all easy enough: there are links to other projects done by the same producer just beside the multimedia window; the project has tags that enable viewer to find other projects relevant to this topic; viewer can also possibly find similar contents by visiting the pages of people who also like this project, or by visiting related collection. In this sense, Vimeo users are given more freedom and bigger space to find what they like to watch.

For the layout, personally I do not really like it because there are too many things in the page and the multimedia window is made too small. I would put the "More video from this producer" sidebar under the multimedia window to give more room for the video. If not, at least there should not be so big space of comments -- it may be better if only ten or twenty comments are shown in one page. Also, personally I wish the background color was black, not white.

The quality is satisfying; images are really high quality and audio is fine as well. The loading speed is fast. I tried both HTML5 player and Flash player but I did not notice any difference.

EPJ Final Project Update

I contacted three subjects in March and have been waiting for two of them to come back to me for quite a few weeks. Now I think I have to give up the original idea and revise my whole storyline.

I have worked with one local artist instead of three. She is Marilyn Cummins, who has a studio in Orr Street and works there. Besides painting and drawing in the studio, she also takes art lessons there from Joel Sager, another local artist. She is also a member of a jazz band The Mere Mortals. She plays bass in the band. Marilyn is also a mother of a 15-year-old boy; her son is also a young musician at school choir.

Some of the pictures I have taken:

Marilyn at her studio

At PS Gallery where her works are on display

At Atlandish Gallery

With her art teacher

Drawing in her studio

At home with her cat

With her son Will

Rehearsal with her band

In performance in Peace Park on Earth Day

There will also be short video clip of interview, in which I would like to have her talk about what she feels about being an artist.

Website Critique

http://www.artsmithphotography.com/

Art Smith's studio is in downtown Columbia and I have passed by it a few times. The studio looks really low-key but the website is impressive. The color combination of homepage is fashionable and the image helps avoid the dullness of simple black-white. Big-sized texts make it highly readable. It is easy for viewers to know at first glance whose site it is, what it is about, what the photographer's business includes and how to contact.

It is good to see some recent work from the photographer; horse show pictures are really cool. But I get a little bit lost when I click the big title of "Art Smith" on the top and expect I would be guided back to homepage. Unexpectedly it comes to another different page which seems to be Spanish.

The About page is fine but one problem is that when I click on the "homepage" link at the bottom and return, the top image does not load. Same problem occurs every time when I want to go back to homepage from any other page's bottom link. However, apart from the image problem, the design of the bottom links is really user-friendly; it ensures that viewers can go anywhere at any point when wandering the website.

Portfolio is super cool but some images just do not come out. Another point is the pictures are a little too big, so when I want to go to next picture, I have to scroll down the page and then find the "previous" or "next" button. Except for this, the portfolio part is excellent. It is easy for viewers to enlarge the image or get back to normal size just within one click; it is also convenient to go anywhere in the site from any part of the portfolio, such as back to homepage, go to next category, or see other pictures in the same category.

Capability page and price page are fine; I do appreciate the big size and bright color contrast of the texts, which allows my eyes to keep comfortable when reading such a big block of texts. Contact information is also done well; the email address is both copy-able and clickable. Overall the website is well-designed and the photographer's personal style can be seen from it.

EPJ Final Project Proposal

I plan to do a project of Columbia local artists. My possible subjects include: 

Paula-Allen Thomas (nicknamed PJ), freelance painter and wedding photographer. She was in the army before she enrolled in school and studied graphic design; after a few years she found her passion in photography and painting. For PJ, art is her career. 

Gloria Gaus, manager of a landscape maintenance company and freelance landscaper painter. She has a business career so art and painting are merely her personal hobby and minor income source. 

Marilyn Cummins, freelance magazine editor, painter, bass player in a jazz band. She is also a mother of a fifteen-year-old boy who is a young talented musician. For Marilyn, art is both a personal pursuit and a bond linking she and her friends and family together. 

I am also contacting a young girl who does clothes design in Atlandish Gallery, downtown Columbia. She does the whole process of designing, making and selling women clothing, including handmade skirts, sweater dresses and small accessories.  

My story is about how the local artists live their lives and how they see their own art. Since art is only part of each of them's life, what do they think of this part? Is it a method of delighting themselves when under pressure, a passion or dream which makes their lives more beautiful, an opportunity for them to know friends and getting well with family members, a life pursuit that pushes them to become better persons, or simply a way they make a living? How does it feel to be an artist in small town like Columbia, and how those different feelings change their lives? I think it may be an interesting story to tell. 

Video Interview

The video clip is an interview of Liz Pierson introducing her favorite picture. Liz is a very friendly and talktive interviewee. The cooperation was a happy experience of mine.

We did meet some difficulties in the process anyway. Both of us had done the whole thing twice to make a successful one. In my first time, I did not set the camera correct, so the whole video was out of focus. It was really a silly mistake!

The lighting was basically like what we did in lab. One key light from the subject's left front; two filling lights for the background. However, I failed to make the background illumination as even as it should be, and it caused some trouble later when I tried to drop out the green wall.

I asked her several questions but only kept her answer of the first question, which was a description of how she took her favorite photograph and why she was fond of it. The photograph is vertical, so I could not make it a whole background. I choosed to put it aside of the subject, as if she was pointing to it and introduce it. She had a lot of gestures when talking, so I did not create much movement of the picture, in order not to distract.

Audio Inspiration

URL: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/09/11/realestate/20090913-habi-audioss/index.html

I like it because it sounds mot perfect but very natural. The ovbious ambient noise makes me feel the lady is directly talking to me in the room. And the pauses, slight stutters, hesitations and repeating "you know"s in her description also strongthen this feeling. Because the topic is about a common but warm story, this natural, imperfect method of sound editing is just proper for it.

One word about the photography, I like the details which are not directly showing the lady with her cats, instead, some pictures show the cat carriers in her closet, and decorations of kitten image. They enrich the whole story and create a sense of real, daily life.

Multiple Flash

Qi An (Angie)

Multiple Flash Self Evaluation

   This is the most unsuccessful assignment I have ever done! When shooting on location, I found myself sometimes just forget I was dealing with more than one flash. Theoretically I am very clear that I should use a key light, a filling light and a light for either lightening background or emphasizing a subject. However, in practice I got everything messed up. When I changed my position and angle, I always forgot to tell my assistant where she shall move to cooperate with my camera, or which person she shall focus on. Also I feel sorry for my partners – my SB-600 seemed just not go with their SB-900, which caused a lot of trouble for our cooperation.

   Most of the outtakes have the problem of unbalanced lighting. The lady in white, who appeared in many pictures, got too hot. While the filling light was not used well, so the background was either too dark or too bright. Since people kept moving around, I did not make good composition. Another problem (I will not forgive myself ><) is that I used manual focus instead of auto focus all the time, just because in the last assignment I used manual and I forgot to change it back this time!

   In the first select, I intentionally kept the shadows on the wall, instead of softening them by filling light, because I thought the shape of the dancing people’s heads and bodies were interesting. In the second select I used a slow shutter to create sense of movement, but I did not know how to set rear mode on my flash, so I could not freeze the other dancer as I imagined. Both selects are not satisfactory. I guess I do need more practice on multiple flash.