Happy Akins Building: Irony of Words

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Akins

The tops of 2009: Amercan Veiw

Top picture of 2009: July Lunar eclipse: we all know that a lunar eclipse happens very rarely, and that they are a well known fact among everyone in the world. this was taken about 20 seconds from a total lunar eclipse in China.






Top movie of 2009: Inglorious Basterds: Quentin Tarantino is a natural and joyous filmmaker who feeds off his own tory story that fearlessly rewrites history. It finally comes down to a conflict between a fatuous Nazi monster and a fearless French Jewish heroine, with Brad Pitt as a knife wielding American commando leader. You have to hand him this: it's one World War Two movie where we don't know the ending. Waltz won best actor at Cannes 2009, has swept the critic's awards, is a shoo-in as best supporting actor.

Top favorite song of 2009 (not mine): Poparazzi: It's a love ditty for the celebrity-obsessed, and it defines the rapidly expanding career of one Lady Gaga. She assured us it was OK to 'Just Dance' and continually reinvented her 'Poker Face, but really all she does is sell the same sound over and over again to the obsessed wannabe's.

Top piece of news this year: the H1N1 Virus. many thought it was going to be a zombie outbreak. it was ridiculous. not only did it hardly kill anyone, but it did not affect the whole world as an epidemic. it was a shock to people everywhere that something actually evolved into something different, and what happens when different happens? people start to freak out. its human nature. The Swine flu was what everyone talked about, posted on myspace, facebook, twitter ect. it was THE center of gossip for the nation.

Starting to look: Portrait Preview

this has to be my favorite self portrait out of the contest winners. the sepia look really took my eye not only to the guy in the chair, but also helped me absorb the surroundings. then my favorite professional photo had to have been Arnold Newman's photo of President Reagan in his office smiling. again the colors really brought my attention that complimented his spirit. What I think that makes a good photo. many things make up the photo but 2 major things really stand out to me when I look at a photo. 1 is the subject. nothing too fancy, and nothing too boring that you don't even bother. the other is the color scheme. colors may include lighting, or the background around you. this needs to be able to compliment the main subject of the photo and act as a leader to help it stand out.

Portrait Shoot Overveiw

Portraits in my opinion are harder than self portraits, but can be more rewarding if done correctly. What I plan on doing: A. Find a good candidate. not all people are what you call photogenic, I plan on finding someone that is not afraid of the camera. B. Find a good background for the shot. What I plan on having is someone against the wall. this is a relatively simple background that will not draw any focus away from the main point of the photo. Finally, C. the theme. what I always enjoy is making it look like its not obvious. I will intend on having someone look in some other direction while they are against the wall. this makes the photo interesting, and more unique giving it depth.

some good techniques that I will be looking at are

1. Alter Your Perspective

Most portraits are taken with the camera at (or around) the eye level of the subject. While this is good common sense – completely changing the angle that you shoot from can give your portrait a real WOW factor.

4. Experiment with Lighting

Using techniques like slow sync flash can create an impressive wow factor.

15. Hold Your Camera on an Angle

Horizontal and Vertical framings are not the only options when it comes to shooting portraits. While getting your image straight can be important in when shooting in these formats holding your camera on a more diagonal angle can also inject a little fun into your images.