Wk 5 BOC: Competitive Analysis

One of my goals as a professional photographer is to travel and document different landscapes. For this competitive analysis I choose to explore a web site of a Landscape Photographer that I’ve admired for years. Peter Lik has been a big name in the industry for a while now. For the past couple of years Peter Lik has had numerous galleries around the world displaying his high quality landscape images, and now currently has a show on television. The website has various links that take you through out the website showing all of his different projects. This website is definitely promoting a high quality photographer, portfolio, and business. The part of the site that separates Peter Lik’s website from others is the award section.  It displays several awards that he has won through the past years in his career as a creative professional.

A portrait studio in Henderson Nevada was the next website I decided to look up. The homepage of the site plays a slide show of stunning portraits from the photographer’s portfolio. As well as different links to various projects the photographer has done. The Mikel’s Fine Art Photography Portrait Studio is a real business advertising their services. Their good quality portraiture gives you the feeling that the photographer has a lot of experience in what her or she does, and is selling a buyable product.

A good way to get paid in the photography industry is doing freelance work. There are a lot of people who make a good living documenting different places at different times, sometimes going to drastic measures to get the shot that counts. Robert Leon is a documentary photographer. His site compared to Peter Lik’s is fairly the same, which gave me the impression that he was a well-established freelance businessman. The site contains various images that attract the eye. It displays the documentarian’s collection of different cultures and other work. The different links showing his work varies from commercial work to different environmental portfolios. The website shows a high quality business.

The next website I researched is for an entry level business called River Street Photography. The quality of the website is what gives away the fact that it is an entry-level business. I must say that the portraiture and quality of the photographers work is really good. The website is the only thing that doesn’t give the business a bad impression. The site is very well put together with links that show you information about the company, pricing, etc. Overall I would say that this is a pretty good website for a good quality entry-level business.

The last website I looked at was definitely a good example of glamour. The photographer designed this site to display his or hers portfolio. This website shows that the photographer has talent and show that he or she has a potential in the business. The site shows different images of women and men in a unique way. The fashion world is always looking for the next best thing and I think work like this has the potential to be just that. The site doesn’t really have a lot of content, just images and a link to contact the photographer, not really giving the feeling that this site is advertising a real business.

Wk 2 Photo Challenge: Crime Scene

The contents that make the crime scene in my image are all a compilation of my thoughts on what a crime scene photograph would look like. When I heard crime scene, the first thing I thought was black and white. Every crime photo I’ve ever seen has been in black and white. The photographs presented as evidence in court cases in movies and television shows are black and white. I learned not too long ago in a law class that all photographs presented in a court case before a jury are printed in black and white for a specific reason. The printed documents of a gruesome crime scene could wager the decision of the jurors. Displaying a crime scene in such a vivid and accurate way could evidentially lead the jurors to make their decisions based off the photographs alone rather than all the other evidence at hand. Other than being black and white, I tried to emphasize on the location to make for a good setting. An ideal place where a crime would occur. Crime happens everywhere, on street corners, and alleyways. I choose for my crime scene to be in a shady place. By that I mean a place that you wouldn’t normally take an evening stroll through. The graffiti on the walls and weathered background was a definite plus. It gave the image just a little; but yet significant amount of detail. The last detail I wanted to focus on was the model, or the victim. I had the subject placed in a way so that the viewer could tell that there is a person, or victim lying under the white sheet. It took several different shots and poses to get the victim to the position that I pictured in my head. In postproduction I added a quick two-step layer method to create the caution tape. As an art student I don’t have access to many things such as a crime scene and all the tape that comes with it. In that case I decided to let my creativity flow to create and add the tape manually. The dirty pavement was like the icing on the cupcake that brought all the contents together.

Wk 1 Photo Challenge: Feed Your Head

 The content of this picture describes me in a couple different ways. The final image was my original plan B due to weather the past week. Ask another photographer how this picture was created, and they will tell you the same thing, painting with light. Rather than a creative professional, I consider myself an artist. Art is a big part of who I am and who I will be in the future. Expressing my creativity has always been something significant to me. With that thought I decided the majority of the content in this image should be painted, but not on canvas or paper. I choose to paint through my favored medium of choice. Music has played an important roll in my life; I am a musician, and a music lover. Music has always been and forever will be influential to me. The painted text reads “Feed Your Head.” It is a lyric from one of the most influential bands on rock-n-roll culture, and one of my personal favorites “The Jefferson Airplane.” The band is known for their psychedelic music, with off the wall lyrics from lead singer Grace Slick. The term could be used for many different things. I once heard that what makes humans such an outstanding species is our curiosity. I like to apply “feeding your head” to everything. Weather it be feeding your thoughts and conscious with knowledge of new and exciting things that you would have never thought of before. In my Plan A for this picture, the location was going to be a lot different. I have grown up on the East side of the Las Vegas valley, the foothills of Sunrise Mountain. Growing up on the East side of town has defiantly made an influence on which I am as a person so I chose to take the picture at the very place that I have been socially constructed.