Typology Mania

This week in my Fundamentals of Digital Media class we learned about Typologies. According to The Free Dictionary Typology is the "study or systematic classification of types that have characteristics or traits in common." We did some reading on Bernd and Hilla Becher's typologies of industrial buildings and structures that were organized in a grid fashion. When first reading about the Becher's photography, I was completely overwhelmed... once again taking the lesson too literally; where was I going to find something unique, large and interesting to take a picture of?! Luckily my professor posted some really great examples from her previous students - like coffee mugs, scarves and bottle caps. Oh, duh... I immediately knew I wanted to make a typology of some of my rocks.

I've been collecting rocks all of my life, sometimes I tumble them and other times I like the natural roughness and leave them be. It's always nice to go on a trip and to be able to bring back a little piece of that place with you. I particularly adore my rocks from India, two of which are featured in the grid below.

I thought that my weathered back deck would make an interesting backdrop to the rocks, so I started there. Once I had all 16 pictures ready to go, I used Pixlr's Advanced Photo Editor to adjust the levels, crop the pictures into a square and then to resize the pictures. I then created a new document, adding each picture as a layer and evenly spaced them before flattening it down into my completed image. Here's a handy tip: don't freak out while using your new laptop and accidentally close the browser when you are thisclose to finishing the project... it isn't fun to start all the way over... Anyway, I hope you like it, I adore it and I think I'm going to have it framed.

Animoto Video - Urban Landscapes

Urban Landscape - Revisited

This week in my Fundamentals of Digital Media class we were asked to use Animoto to create a video from our edited Urban Landscape set. I used Danny Elfman’s “The Boat Arrives” from the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory soundtrack because I wanted to add some suspense and darkness. I used the Dusk Retreat Style under the Photography Category because I thought it created an eerie setting for the shots. I laid the pictures out as a story, starting off innocently enough, as the music crescendos the scene gets darker and more ominous ending with a view toward the heavens.

 

Urban Landscapes

This is my favorite picture from my Urban Landscapes group. This sign is not too far from my house, I've always wanted to come here and get this shot on a dingy gray winter day. Of course, the day I was able to get it, it was a beautiful sunny day. Boo. I used Pixlr Express to get my dingy gray day anyway.

I first cropped out the billboard and streetlight to put more focus on my sign. I then used the Smoke - Above overlay to darken the image, and the Too Old - Logan effect to give it the aged patina look, along with Grunge - Stoned overlay at 58% and then the Canvas - Carbon overlay to give it more of an edged dirty feel. I used the Rounded Corner - Round Flat frame in black to make the picture stand out. I feel the adjustments to color and use of filters really made it darker and much more interesting.