I would say the laziness that has been instilled in the American people is one of greatest threats facing the US, “factors, such as technology and the way we build our communities has influenced our lives. Both of these factors have left us more sedentary” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2017). One out of every three adults and one out of every six kids in the United States are obese. Obesity strongly correlates with heart disease, cancer, and diabetes; all of which are major causes of death in the US.
The goal is to take interesting photographs that play with movement through in-camera operations like shutter speed and post-processing such as photoshop. I would like my photographs to inspire people to take up an active hobby and change their lifestyles.
I chose more abstract activities like surfing and skateboarding. These activities are fun, freeing, and abstract in comparison to typical fitness-associated activities such as running or weightlifting that many would glaze over. I hope that in combination with interesting activities and compositions of the photographs that people will spend more time analyzing the photographs and have the message of finding a physical activity one is passionate about sink in.
Combatting the modern age of the sedentary lifestyle
Jake MacConnell
Department of Graphic Communication, California Polytechnic State University-SLO
GRC 301: Digital Photography and Color Management
Professor Hocheol Yang
Media Link: https://www.behance.net/gallery/121081819/Combatting-the-modern-age-of-the-sedentary-lifestyle
Combatting the modern age of the sedentary lifestyle
It may seem weird to talk about activity and fitness as a societal issue when there are many other grievances the country faces simultaneously. However, I would say the laziness that has been instilled in the American people is one of the greatest threats facing the US, “factors, such as technology and the way we build our communities has influenced our lives. Both of these factors have left us more sedentary” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2017). One out of every three adults and one out of every six kids in the United States are obese. Obesity strongly correlates with heart disease, cancer, and diabetes; all of which are major causes of death in the US. Cal Poly is an outlier compared to the rest of the country. On campus and around San Luis Obispo people are active everywhere whether it be running, walking, biking, surfing, or swimming. On the other hand, back East it’s quite the contrary where most people are finished with daily exercise after graduating high school and later college.
This is something I wish to help change through my project. The goal is to take interesting photographs that play with movement through in-camera operations like shutter speed and post-processing such as photoshop. I would like my photographs to inspire people to take up an active hobby and change their lifestyles. The photographs I took initially capture the struggle and sadness of being locked to a chair. I feel as though I could better demonstrate that with chains although I have no realistic budget. Moving on I wanted to show a contrast from my first three depressive photographs to more action-focused photographs. In the desk scene photos, I utilize blue hues and natural lighting, along with what I feel to be a composition that gives a feeling of being closed in on or trapped. My action photos on the other hand utilize brighter colors associated with happier moods such as yellow. My action shots are meant to make people want to try new activities. This is another reason why I feel as though I chose more abstract activities like surfing and skateboarding. These activities are fun, freeing, and abstract in comparison to typical fitness-associated activities such as running or weightlifting that many would glaze over. I hope that in combination with interesting activities and compositions of the photographs that people will spend more time analyzing the photographs and have the message of finding a physical activity one is passionate about sink in.
To make my project stand out I had to use a few different techniques and inspirations. I attempted to use color as a way to show the contrast of moods throughout the photos. The sadder photos use blue, and the happier photos show greens and yellows. A good way of thinking about this would be by referencing the concept of antiquing reality. Antiquing reality is closely aligned with personal photography, done by everyday people with themselves, their family, and their friends (N.A. Van House 2011). When you look through old photographs, especially your parents or grandparents, they bring sentimental value and fond memories. Now looking back through digital photos is great and social media outlets such as, Snapchat, Instagram, and even older media outlets like Flickr, provide incentives for people to rarely go out without a camera, which is no longer a problem with smartphones (Julia Davies 2007). However, there’s just something about looking at the faded colors of a polaroid or the black and white photos of your grandparents that grasps an alternate emotional attachment to photos. I believe a lot of this does indeed have to do with color. Therefore, I attempted to utilize exposure and aperture to aid the camera’s digital sensor in taking in all possible information of my composition in order to be able to utilize what I wanted in post-processing. In order to bring out the mood and feeling of the colors, I used lightroom and the histograms to adjust the light and exposure of each photo to give more color to the photographs, while still striving for realistic-looking pieces. Another way I could have done this would have been by purchasing colored lighting for the indoor shoots.
Another aspect I wanted to technical explore was the combination of composition and shutter speed. Pho Hoai Do says in his respective work, that a good photographer utilizes composition to register with a strong emotional attachment but does not need to follow the rules of composition strictly in order for their work to register with the viewer (Hoai Do 2018). My professor Hocheol Yang shared in class an interesting example of a long exposure photo utilizing motion blur through a long shutter speed. I set out to experiment with motion blur through my final photographs. I do not own a tripod and I also shot in daylight so in order to capture the essence of motion blur I had to make sure my composition was plain yet intriguing enough to be able to stand on its own. I sat in one spot and utilized faster shutter speeds in contrast to slower ones, taking multiple pictures of the same subject in motion. After taking these photos and adjusting the lighting and color in Lightroom, I transferred the photographs over to Photoshop where I would create the effect of motion blur during this post-processing. I took several photographs and created masks over each of the subjects. Then I merged all the photographs into one compositional piece and used varying opacities in order to best replicate motion blur. I am glad to say that I am proud of how these photographs turned out and I am extremely happy to have been able to have the experience to explore such concepts in my final project.
I believe I utilized the technical aspects of color, exposure, composition, and shutter speed to the best of my ability with the available equipment to compose intriguing photographs that relate to a cause that I believe in and understand. I remember from the beginning of this class that a photographer can’t shoot a subject correctly if he doesn’t understand the subject. I understand not only the subject but the cause and intent behind each of the photographs in this project. I am joyed to have been able to have this wonderful experience and if someone can look at these photographs and understand their purpose and see the story behind them, not individually but as a collection, then I did my job as a photographer. In the end, hopefully, I can help inspire more people to get active and change their lives for the better through the medium of photography.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017, December 4). The Obesity Epidemic - transcript. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/cdctv/diseaseandconditions/lifestyle/obesity-epidemic-transcript.html.
Hoai Do, P. (2018). The Impact of Product Photography on Consumer Attention and Perception. thesis.fi. https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/154557/Product%20photography%20-%20Phuong%20Do.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1.
Julia Davies (2007) Display, Identity and the Everyday: Self-presentation through online image sharing, Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, 28:4, 549-564, DOI: 10.1080/01596300701625305
Nancy A. Van House (2011) Personal photography, digital technologies and the uses of the visual, Visual Studies, 26:2, 125-134, DOI: 10.1080/1472586X.2011.571888
