What is the subject for your photo essay and where did you take your photographs?
Animals were my focus and I took my photos at Buttonwood Park Zoo.
Why did you select this place?
I selected this place because I used to go there a lot when I was a kid and I always wanted to go back since I was younger so I could take in the animals more closely.
Why is it important to you?
I used to go there a lot when I was younger with my family so I have a lot of great memories there and wanted to photograph some of the animals in the zoo that I remembered from when I was young.
What concept are you trying to portray about this topic?
My concept was trying to capture whether the animals were happy or not in their habitat having people look at them all day long.
Visually, how did your images capture the narrative or “story” of your essay?
I got them just doing what they would do regularly every day. So that it would show how they are in confined spaces and have people looking at them all day long, but they also get well taken care of. I made sure to get them relaxing, eating, sleeping and going about their normal day so that I could capture what they do and let people form their own opinions on whether the animals are happy or not.
Discuss: the order and arrangement of your photos, composition, viewpoint, angle, lighting,color vs black and white....How did you visually unify your series of photos?
I kept all the pictures in color so that you could see the peacefulness of the nature background. I captured the texture of the animals fur and made sure to capture them inside the habitats to focus your viewpoint on certain aspects of the photo.
Animals were my focus and I took my photos at Buttonwood Park Zoo.
Why did you select this place?
I selected this place because I used to go there a lot when I was a kid and I always wanted to go back since I was younger so I could take in the animals more closely.
Why is it important to you?
I used to go there a lot when I was younger with my family so I have a lot of great memories there and wanted to photograph some of the animals in the zoo that I remembered from when I was young.
What concept are you trying to portray about this topic?
My concept was trying to capture whether the animals were happy or not in their habitat having people look at them all day long.
Visually, how did your images capture the narrative or “story” of your essay?
I got them just doing what they would do regularly every day. So that it would show how they are in confined spaces and have people looking at them all day long, but they also get well taken care of. I made sure to get them relaxing, eating, sleeping and going about their normal day so that I could capture what they do and let people form their own opinions on whether the animals are happy or not.
Discuss: the order and arrangement of your photos, composition, viewpoint, angle, lighting,color vs black and white....How did you visually unify your series of photos?
I kept all the pictures in color so that you could see the peacefulness of the nature background. I captured the texture of the animals fur and made sure to capture them inside the habitats to focus your viewpoint on certain aspects of the photo.
What images did you select for your double exposure?
The picture of a fence and a picture of the school outside.
How do the objects relate compositionally?
They are both outside and don't have any distracting aspects in the background of the photo.
How did you manipulate and modify each image?
I cropped each image to fit the same size so they would fit together and I changed the opacity until the two photos molded together.
What steps did you take to merge layers to create a unified image?
I changed both photos to black and white, changed the levels so that the amount of light and shadows in the photo were fairly similar and changed the opacity to display the better aspects of both the photos.
How do your images relate conceptually?
All of them have to do with nature. The photos with Rebecca have the flowers which give it a peaceful nature feel. The picture of the zoo habitat and the elephant has the rocks in the background. The tree's with the water with it has the peaceful nature feel that reminds you of a sunny summer day.
What concept, idea or meaning does your double exposure convey?
I took the idea of nature and man made. So the building and the fence is obviously man made and the scenery behind it has a peaceful aspect to it. There is no distracting aspects to the photos. Just the nature in the background shows nature when it is left alone.