Digital Photography Comparisons

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am a very visual person, so photography is something I really enjoy. I love taking pictures and am always carrying my little digital camera with me in case the opportunity arises. Since I have never been able to take any kind of class, I was very excited to get some tips from Clemson's photographer Pat Wright.

I have been in Europe for about six months now, so I have had ample opportunity to take many many photos. One thing I like so much about a photograph is that it instantly takes me back to the moment I took it. So many details are recalled through that one shot...where I was, what it looked like, who I was with, what we were doing...even what I was thinking!

Here are some good and bad examples of how to follow Pat Wright’s tips and my rationality behind the shots.

Compariston #1: flash vs. natural light

 

As mentioned in the video, you have to know when to use certain settings on your camera. I took this first picture on the way home from Christmas eve dinner. My family and I were walking across the Seine towards our apartment in the Marais and the back side of Notre Dame was lit up so beautifully. My first picture still had the flash on from when we were inside at dinner. As you can see, the picture is a fuzzy gray and the flash picked up some raindrops, which kind of interfere with the picture. I quickly realized my error and turned off the flash and I think the second picture came out much nicer.

Comparison #2: using different angles

 

These next pictures were taken at the Nasch Market in Vienna. My Austrian friend recommended it for breakfast, so I was wandering around the stands one morning when I came across this group of school children ogling the candy booth. I thought they were cute, so I wanted a picture. The first one was taken straight on. I like that the merchant is smiling at them, but the facial expression of the boy on the left is not my favorite. I kept walking and took another picture from a side angle that I like a lot better. I think it has more depth, showing a little more of the outdoor market scene and how many kids there actually were. I also like how the little girl in the corner is standing on her tippy toes to get a look at the candy.

Compariston #3: near vs. far

 

When I was in Prague, I took the Sandeman’s New Prague castle tour and I totally recommend it. We went to places I would never have found alone and heard a bunch of interesting stories. One of the things we saw was this dripstone grotto wall at the Wallenstein palace and garden. I took two pictures of it. One is from far away with people and trees in it for scale. The other is a close-up detailed shot of the faces hidden among the bumps and lumps. You should go see it yourself to hear the story behind it! Prague has been my favorite city in Europe other than Paris, so far.

Comparison # 4: horizontal vs. vertical

 

These pictures aren’t really of anything in particular...I guess I was just recognizing the pattern of the lamp posts and I liked how they looked. The setting for these photos is above the famous Musee du Louvre. I like the vertical frame for this picture for a few reasons. First, I think there is too much extra “noise” going on in the horizontal picture. The vertical frame makes the subjects of the lamp posts much more obvious, therefore creating depth in the photo. Secondly, the vertical frame doesn’t cut off the roof of the building like in the horizontal one. And lastly...I just think it looks better.

Photography is very subjective so you may all have totally different opinions than me. I’d love to hear some feedback!

ENVY Analysis

Rhetorical Analysis of an ENVY Magazine Advertisement

Kairos (context): This advert was on the wall inside a metro station underneath the Champs Elysees. This is a very famous boulevard with lots of shopping and heavy heavy traffic...meaning LOTS of people will see this advertisement. Perhaps on their way to or from shopping. The placement of the ad is hitting the right audience (see below).

Logos (logic): As we all know, fashion is a way of life for many Parisians so it makes sense that they have her digging around in a shopping bag. Lots of people can relate. Also, the fact that you cannot see her head makes it easier to picture yourself “in her shoes” so to speak. 

Pathos (feeling): Well this ad is for a celebrity fashion/gossip magazine (it’s like our equivalent of People or Starz), so there’s not a whooole lot of emotional appeal to work with. I suppose the ad has kind of a flirty tone...with all the bright colors and the girl wearing tight pants, red heels, and kicking up her leg. This woman is tres chic (what so many Parisians strive to be) and the ad is suggesting that these are the kind of people who read their magazine...and maybe what you could become if YOU read it too.

Ethos (ethics): The caption for the advertisement reads: ”Ne cherchez plus, toutes vos envies sont dans ENVY.” This roughly translates: Don’t look anymore, all your envies are in ENVY. Here they are establishing themselves as the authority on all things we want to know and we should want to know...at least in regards to the celebrity, fashion, and gossip world.

Vive McDO!

With some of the highest culinary standards in the world, it seems like the French would snub the likes of fast food (gastronomical blasphemy I tell you!), but many of the french have come to embrace McDO, as they’ve so lovingly named it. I am also an avid lover (of McDonalds and all things fast food for that matter), so I was more than happy to have an excuse to go this week. They have locations all over Paris, but I chose the one on the Champs Elysees. 

The Arche de Triomphe and the golden arches living side by side in harmony.

The first thing you should know about McDonalds in France is that it would never by any means meet the American standards for “fast” food. I wish I had a picture to demonstrate what a catastrophe the enormous queue was, but the big man in the black suit wouldn’t let me take one...he was probably ashamed of how crazy it was in there. The French are typically a civil group on the whole, but when it comes to lines at McDonalds and department stores during the soldes, it's a whole nother story.

Another thing you should know is that the menu is notably smaller in France and so are the serving sizes (yet unfortunately not the prices). Rest assured they still have the McMuffin and le Big Mac, but that’s pretty much it in terms of specialty sandwiches. When I visited the french webpage, I actually laughed out loud because the first thing that popped up on the screen was a big block of cheese on a wooden cutting board. It is an advertisement for their new “Premio au Parmesan” burger, a limited-time-offer in France right now, which is basically just a hamburger on fresh bread with parmesan cheese sauce. I got the “menu” which included FRENCH fries (pommes frites) and a large coke. Yummm.

They also add a few other touches of French flair to the menu such as the Croque McDO, chocolate flan, and even macaroons.

Leave it to France to turn a McDonalds into an art museum, huh?

To make things even more interesting, i went to do my investigating with one of my au pair friends from Austria...and she wanted to make sure I added a little tidbit about her country as well. She says that in Vienna, McDonalds are like the cool hangout spots where people go to chat with their friends over a coffee or just chill out and take advantage of the free wifi...kind of how we think of Starbucks back in the states. She also said that most of the ingredients are organic and they use the color green instead of red to reinforce that in their logo.

Now for The Rhetorical Analysis of the French McDonalds Website

Kairos (context): I guess this one is pretty obvious...the French McDonald’s website is intended for a French audience because it’s in the French language and only pertains to French customers. Should I say French again? French.

Logos (logic): The design of the website is very simple and sleek with pictures/adverts on rotation for you to scan as you please. It looks like it’s trying to be more sophisticated (at least more so than the US site) which makes sense because, in France, food is nothing to mess around with. I noticed that the sections for children are aimed less at “kids” and targeted more towards “family.”

Pathos (feeling): If you look down at the bottom of the screen, on one of the tabs is the phrase “venez comme vous êtes” which means come as you are. Since most people in France tend to dress up for meals...well, actually they tend to dress up all the time...I think this can be interpreted as a friendly gesture by McDonalds saying, “Don’t worry. We won’t judge you if you’re not wearing Chanel or Dior.” Just kidding. But seriously this is one of the only places I don’t get shocked and disturbed glares when I’m wearing my Mountain Hardware fleece.

Ethos (ethics): In many ways, McDonalds represents American capitalism so this might not be seen in a favorable light in France. In fact, people were really upset when the first chain opened here (back in 1972). In order to counter this negative reaction, the McDonalds in France make a big deal about their produce coming from French cows and French farmers. There is also a big ethical appeal through the environmental and hygiene information available on the site. For those of you who didn’t know, France is a VERY environmentally conscious country, which is great. I took a look at the site map and “environnement” was the second largest (of eight) sections! There is also an entire section devoted to explaining the hygiene regulations that keep McDO a sanitary establishment. From the looks of it, they are going to great lengths to overcome their dirty stereotype here.

Compositional Mediums

Prompt #2: Nicolas Carr tells of Friedrich Nietzsch’s typewriter, which allowed the eye strained Nietzsche to touch type and write with his eyes closed. Carr explains that “...the machine had a subtler effect on his work. One of Nietzsche’s friends, a composer, noticed a change in the style of his writing. His already terse prose had become even tighter, more telegraphic. “Perhaps you will through this instrument even take to a new idiom,” the friend wrote in a letter, noting that, in his own work, his “thoughts’ in music and language often depend on the quality of pen and paper.” “You are right,” Nietzsche replied, “our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts.”

After a bit of reflection, I have found that I definitely reserve certain compositional mediums to communicate certain things...and I think these mediums also influence how I communicate through them. In other words, the medium I am using to compose affects the WHAT and the HOW I communicate.

When I use scrap paper, my writing is usually messy, disconnected words or lists used only to jog my memory and later be disposed of. When I’m writing on stationary or a post card, my handwriting is noticeably better. The content is generally heartfelt, structured, and well prepared because I know there’s no undo button and I would have to start all over again if I messed up. Even the type of pen I’m using makes a difference: the nicer the pen, the harder I try to make my handwriting look nice.

Pretty much all of my other compositional mediums are on the computer. I prefer to take notes and do all school assignments on a keyboard because I am a faster typer than writer and I know that I can always come back and organize later. This can make for some seriously unorganized class notes (at first), but it works for me. I prefer to use use email for all things school or job-related and then keep in touch with friends through Facebook or Twitter. This helps me keep my professional and social lives in separate categories.

I’ve never really thought about this before, but the very nature of these social networking sights affects how I communicate on them. There is such an expectation to be "witty" with your posts or album titles that I often find myself at a loss for words. Also, because of the limited space you have to work with (I think it’s 140 characters on Twitter), I find myself getting straight to the point with my posts...using abbreviations or sometimes even omitting words. Actually most of my fbook status updates are usually only one word (i.e. “Prague” or “snow”).

On the other hand, we have an unlimited amount of space on our blogs. The content is mostly academic, but I find myself rambling more on here than I probably would if I had to turn in these assignments on paper in class. I guess that’s because most of the blogs I’ve come across before have been pretty stream-of-consciousness, almost like diary entries...but you also have to keep in mind that you’re writing to a larger audience so it’s important to keep things light.

Photos and videos are a good way to accent our blogs...and these are also forms of compositional mediums in themselves. I am a very visual person, so to me a picture really is worth a thousand words. I just think I can communicate better through images than through text. Since everyone has their own imagination (think of all the books-turned-blockbuster disappointments), I find it best to have a picture to refer to if you don’t want something left open to interpretation.

For instance, take this picture of the Centre Georges Pompidou...I mean honestly I wouldn't even know where to begin in describing this building to somebody. I just don't have the vocabulary. Since many of us abroad are immersed in completely new cultures, we are going to be seeing completely new things and having completely new experiences. I'm sure there is going to be a bunch of "uncharted territory" that a camera may come in handy for in our explanations.

Films are even better because they include sound and movement. I'm not very good at this, but here is a short video I shot of some Parisian street performers in the 6th arrondissement. Street performers are a big part of the culture here so I've taken several pictures of them since I've arrived. I'm glad to have a video now though because a picture hardly does a song justice!