Assignment/Activity Title

Photo Final Presentation

Skill
Photography, presenting, creative thinking
Competency Media and Communications

Year Freshman
Portfolio

Over the past several months, the CAP Photography class has essentially
taught me everything I know about photography and how to affect images in Photoshop.
The pictures I took over Winter Break based around the theme of How Families Spend
Their Holidays (specifically my family) is a compilation of what I learned in the First
Semester of my freshman year in CAP Photography.
One tradition my family has kept for a long time is travelling to my grandmas
house in Ohio where we have a huge family celebration. My dads mother had seven kids
and now has 14 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren, most of who come to visit for
Christmas. Near my grandmas house is the best ice cream store in all of Ohio, Dietsch
Brothers. One of my pictures is my brother eating a huge ice cream cone when we went
there this break. This picture uses depth of field, one of the photography principles we
learned in class. The foreground, which is my brother, my cousin, and my grandma, is in
focus, while the background, which is the sign at the top, is out of focus.
Motion Blur, another compositional aspect of photography, can also be seen in the
photo of my mom throwing money into the fire. My mothers father, my grandpa, or wai
gong as I wouldve called him, died December 28th, 1993, before I met him. It is Chinese
tradition to burn fake money and gold bars so our ancestors will have money throughout
the year. We do this every year on the 28th in memory of his death. It is also seen in
several other photos, such as the one where my family is sitting at the Cheesecake
Factory celebrating my birthday, and my aunts hand is noticeably moving to the brownie
sundae placed at the center of the table.
In the same picture at the Cheesecake Factory, perspective is used, by getting
close and zooming out. The table seems longer and the people seem farther away. The
same perspective is used in the photo of my family sharing gifts in my grandmas, where
the family is not pressed against the background and seem separate from each other.
However, perspective is used differently in the picture taken through the window of my
family burning money. I stood far away and zoomed in to take this picture, and the image
appears more compressed.
The holiday season is and has always been a joyous time for me because I get to
see my family and spend time with those I dont get to see all year. Normally, I dont find
a reason to take photos, but this project gave me the best reason to document my family
in their natural habitat. Not only do I keep the pictures for this project, but I also keep the
memories of Christmas time with my family.

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