This week’s assignments seemed to be overwhelming at first because I am not typically one to go around and take picture….i tend to avoid cameras.  When taking pictures this week I tried to use new types of angles and effects that my camera could do.  It was cool seeing how different angles made some images look completely different, but then again that is so be expected in some cases.  When taking pictures I tried to see where the sun was and how that impacted the picture.  I did my best to get the best effect from the sun but I don’t think I am close to being good at that yet.  I can tell that it takes a lot of practice to become a good photographer.  It also takes an eye for creativity and abstract thinking to get a great photo.  Sometimes photography comes naturally to people while other times, which this is the case for me, some people have difficulties distinguishing between when a good and a bad time to capture the perfect moment is.

The main thing that was completed this week was a photoblitz challenge.  I did my photoblitz while I was at Shenandoah playing tennis with my friends.  I thought it was going to be more challenging that it really was.  I grabbed my camera and just started taking pictures of anything and everything I thought could make a good photo.  I also read the outline of the photoblitz criteria which helped me to focus on certain things for some of the pictures.  To record the time I took a picture of the watch I was wearing once as I started the challenge and again once I completed the 20 minute challenge. The link to the blog is below…

 http://ashstegemiller.com/wordpress/2012/09/30/photoblitz-at-shenandoah/

This week I also organized and personalized my flickr more.  I created two sets….one for my family pets and another for the photoblitz challenge. Another way I personalized my flickr account, making it easier to share photos, was that I connected my iphoto application to my flickr account allowing pictures to directly upload to flickr from my iphoto application.  This linking will make life a lot easier sense I wont have to upload pictures individually.  A link to the blog about creating a set is listed below…

http://ashstegemiller.com/wordpress/2012/09/29/personalizingorganizing-my-flickr/

 Through out the week I completed 3 daily creates, 2 of which utilized flickr while the other used soundcloud.  I have come to enjoy the dailycreates because they are quick and easy and you can see how creative others have been with the dailycreate for the day.  I wrote a blog about my daily creates and the link for it is listed below…

http://ashstegemiller.com/wordpress/2012/09/30/creativity-for-the-week/

This week also included a daunting task of completing 10 stars worth of Visual Assignments and writing a blog about each one.  It was cool looking through all the options I had to chose from and I really liked completing each one that I did.  Below is a link to each blog that was created for each visual assignment, along with the amount of stars it was worth.

1) When Unicorns Explode (1 star)

http://ashstegemiller.com/wordpress/2012/09/29/unicorn-exploded-on-my-keyboard/

2) Your Camp Collage (1star)

http://ashstegemiller.com/wordpress/2012/09/29/camp/

3) Draw it. (2 stars)

http://ashstegemiller.com/wordpress/2012/09/29/picture-into-a-drawing/

4) Show Us Your Dream!!! (2 stars)

http://ashstegemiller.com/wordpress/2012/09/29/dreams-that-are-coming-true-very-soon/

5) Before and After (2 stars)

http://ashstegemiller.com/wordpress/2012/09/29/prepare-for-impact/

6) Caught Mid Action

http://ashstegemiller.com/wordpress/2012/09/29/wedding-adventures-caught-mid-action/

The blogs for the visual assignments go in depth on how each one was created and a short story on the history behind each image used.
Looking back at this week through photography the things I would want to work on when taking pictures is getting a proper background and foreground for a picture.  I would also like to learn more about angles and what are the best angles to approach for each situation.  Im sure that I will figure some of this stuff out by just practice but I will also look into some ways to better myself at it.

The last thing I did this week was talk with my ds106 radio show group about our theme for the show.  It was difficult coming to a conclusion as to what to our theme should be but through majority vote we were able to come to a conclussion.  I wrote a blog about the theme for the group show and the link for the blog is listed below….

http://ashstegemiller.com/wordpress/2012/09/30/ds106-radio-show-theme/