juan a pons

Juan A. Pons was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. At the age of sixteen, Juan began attending high school at Chapel Hill-Chauncey Hall in Waltham, Massachusetts. The school had an excellent photography program lead by an inspiring teacher, Alice Solorow, and it was here that Juan’s interest in photography began. Juan’s studies focused on the essentials of photography such as light, composition, and developing an artistic eye. Juan concentrated on black and white photography in high school, developing his own film and processing his own prints.

Upon graduating from high school, Juan attended Clark University where he continued to pursue his interests in photography and gain experience working with the media. Juan worked as student photographer for the university’s communications department and also took on occasional photo work for the university newspaper and yearbook. In addition, he helped develop photo portfolios for several aspiring models/actresses. - taken from the juan pons site

This shows he was also interested in portrait photography but his more modern work is more landscape and wildlife bassed

 Juan a Pons :- i chose this photographer as i can see similarity's between his work and a few pictures of my own the f-stop on Juan a Pons  camera has olso been turned down so that montion blur is in deliberate effect (not through camera shake) in the case of the picture above the photo is taken so slowly that the traffic turns into apparent streams of light when infact this is regular traffic recorded over a period of time. as is the still images caught as focal points and in perfect clarity in seveal places within his photo style the only differnce is that in similar to my own work the focal points, allthough still have been imposed onto this pictures for the same amount of time aren't moving giving the illusion that makes the photo surreal asit can't be caught using the naked eye.

  A lot of the motion blur in specific shots is deliberate to make the photo more interesting i've tried to keep the central focal points (other people!) still, whilst capturing a fast moving image utilising a slower f-stop. This is done so the moment can be experienced more intensely it gives the viewer a further feel for the fast paced moment that those specific moments were taken in

 

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harold e edgerton tennis player
ed van der girl refugee , durban south africa
Andre Kertesz street photography

Church

This is another classic example of how the polish have held on to their heritage the photos taken here are of a 14 century polish church, most of ours were destroyed around the time of Henry VIII (when he decided to create his own religion) sadly these pictures were taken on my camera phone so i wasn't able to adjust the lighting, shutter speed etc. but even though is far from ideal these photograph portray the culture of the city places like this are well respected and the polish (at least those living in Torun) clearly respect their past and heritage. actually the street plan of the city itself has changed little since medieval times. 
 

As you can see the entire building is huge with almost gothic overtones, i can remember feeling slightly intimidated by the height and beauty of the place (this is  obviously accomplished deliberately as a subconscious reminder 'you've entered gods domain, tread lightly!')

            

The stain glass windows really weren't given the status they deserved by these pictures. They stood around 50ft probably a 100 different colours, breathtaking!

vodka driven post wedding reception

Me with Mr& Mrs parker

lacour /jim garner - Cutting of the cake

lacour this photo is the classic cutting of the cake photo which is an elelment of most traditional weddings

The photo on the right a is by lacour this photo is the classic cutting of the cake photo which is an element of most traditional weddings mine may be just as symbolic but lacour's was obviously taken with superior equipment and it's a better picture all-round but there are some parallels between the two, both are a significant part of the wedding ceremony, both involve the bride and groom cutting the cake and both are devoid of colour for effect although i've gone for sepia (in my final revision after altering the usual aspects) and lacour’s is classic black and white.  i decided to use a similar style of photo by Jim Garner to compare and contrast to my own underneath, again there is a similar feel and event to both photograph even aspects of the lighting are similar but the differences are very clear apart from the overall quality being better in comparison to my own image. This particularly uses more colour than the one i altered in Photoshop but not so much so that the lighting is over stated, The style of photo is romantic in nature but also has a darker almost gothic affect to it like most of lacour's work in this field. what makes the composition of this particular piece is that Garner has used specific light sources as focal points and to draw the eye to different aspects of the photo for example the candles in the centre are usually the first focal point that your eye is drawn to, simply because it's the brightness piece of the photograph and it's also central. what makes this piece more interesting is the main focal point, the husband and bride are second to be noticed and blend with the background well, making this picture slightly more unique.

jim gamer

Nicolaus Copernicus's house

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer, priest and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentriccosmology, which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe

Camera make - Sony Ericsson - W850i

Exposure time - 1/4 second

F- Stop f/2.8
ISO Speed - 800
Original dimensions 640x480

Whilst i was in Poland the balcony of our apartment overlooked the house he grew up in (had i known that i would be doing a photography course I'd have spent more time getting a higher quality image as apposed to the move artistic interpretation of the building) Partially due to Copernicus's notoriety i felt it was important to include this image as people associate Copernicus with Poland and i want the viewer to feel that these pictures were taken in Poland to experience the Mise-en-scène of a polish wedding the actual building in the photograph is now a museum in the honour of the previous occupant, didn't get the opportunity to go in though, to busy celebrating. The very existence of this museum says something about the polish or at the very least the people of Torun, that they are proud of there achievements and hold on to the roots of there culture, elements of this attitude run through the city's veins.

Among the great polymaths of the Renaissance, Copernicus was a mathematician, astronomer, physician, quadrilingual polyglot, classical scholar, translator, artist, Catholic cleric, jurist, governor, military leader, diplomat and economist. Among his many responsibilities, astronomy figured as little more than an avocation – yet it was in that field that he made his mark upon the world.

 

in the beginning.....

Donkey of Torture

Torun Poland, Donkey of Torture

I was lucky enough that when i was in Poland last month at a wedding, we walked through the town square, The polish keep a  replica of a medieval torture donkey/device right in the centre of town as a reminder to those who would commit crimes in there city that they will receive punishment!, obviously it's not just about the picture itself, it's about the message. Back in medieval times if you were unlucky enough to be caught for a minor crime such as stealing a loaf of bread the punishment for this offence was to be strapped on top of a similar sized donkey with a metal ridge down it's spine about the same design as the one pictured above. The villages would chase the animal through town, whipping it across the cobbled streets in order to cause the perpetrator more pain. what's so interesting about the piece is that it's a commemoration of a particularly brutal form of punishment, fairly unique to early polish culture, which is still important enough to them to be displayed in the town square as part of there culture.            

Lighting:- The actual picture itself was taken around dusk in order to capture the mood and slightly disturbing nature of the piece, you can clearly see the height and width of the metal bar and the low lighting works to illuminate the dark nature of the statue.

Composition:- the composition of this is made up of the replica of the donkey the classically tiled streets which also give off connotations of the past and the lighting comes from a distant street light it serves to accent and shade certain aspects of the statue.


perspective:- perspective is about the translation of a three dimensional object to a two dimensional
picture in this case the picture is fairly close to the focal point and comes off quite well the ears are obviously further away in this second picture in relation to the back end so it gives the slight illusion that the back end is larger than it is.


Focal point:- The main focal point of this picture is the statue


        F:-(around) 4 was chosen as the subject of the photo is not moving so the length of time the photo takes to be captured is not important.
        ISO:-(around) 150 seeing as there isn't a lot of light (no sun and minimal external light sources