Category: Snapshot Day (Page 1 of 2)

I took this photo while I was walking along the western side of Central Park looking for good snapshots. I incorporated the Rule of Thirds by placing the building on the left third and the truck on the bottom third, and I made sure that the truck had a bit of space to move into. When I was taking pictures in Central Park, I was frustrated by the shadows cast by all the trees. It made it difficult to get a shot of an object and its shadow like I mentioned in my previous photography post. But now, I see that I accidentally used the shadows to my advantage. The building, which is the focus of the piece, is in direct sun, while the truck and foliage are in shadow. The lighting contrast is pleasing to the eye and helps to emphasize the building further. You could even go so far as to say that the dark foliage and well-lit building give off a nice contrast between the natural and the artificial However, the foliage in direct light works it against this somewhat. The way in which the branches extend offscreen help to capture the expansiveness of the forest and act like a natural frame. I’m not sure if white, blue and green is considered a good color combination, but I think it looks pretty good.

Side note: I have no idea what this building is or what it is for.

This photo for snapshot day was taken in the evening on the stoop of my house. I had been sitting there, keeping an eye on my young niece who playing around in our empty driveway. She came and sat next to me when she tired herself out, and she pointed to all the things her little eyes could focus on. “Mare Mare, who lives in that house? Who lives in that house? Why is that tree so big? That light is so orange why is that lamp outside?” On and on, her questions went and it made me think about how intently she was taking in her surroundings, and how long it had been since I had done the same. There she was, pointing at the same houses I wondered who lived in, the same tree I stared up at, the same street lamp I stared at during snowstorms, and so on. I took out my camera and snapped a photo of the street that I had grown up looking at but hardly ever taking in. This is a photo that fills me with the nostalgia of really looking at the street I lived in, instead of merely glancing at it all- a habit I would have been stuck in were it not for the eyes of a five year old to remind me what that is like.

I took this picture with the rule of third in mind. I made sure that the tree was placed off center and to the right of the frame. In addition, I made sure that the row of houses in the background were slightly diagonal; were they shot on a perfectly flat, horizontal line, the image would not have been as appealing. When focusing on the street, I ensured that there would be a visual path to be followed, as I angled it to give something traveling along it room to move across the street. This does not count the car on the right, though; it has no room to “move” but that is because it was not in motion; it was parked and so I did not know if it needed a visual “path” to move across. 

-Mary Yanez

On October 11th I spent the day traveling to Philadelphia with the Quidditch team. As we were driving away from New York we watched as the sun rose over the skyline of Manhattan. I knew I would not be able to take photos during the day so I wanted to capture an aspect of the city at the first chance I got. It was hard to catch a clear photo as the cars passed around us over bridges and through tunnels. This photo is a contrast to the stressful and busy day that I had. The small portion of light in the middle third of the photo focuses the eyes to the colors of the sunrise. The profile of the face blacked out in the photo gives an interesting border to the skyline behind. While this picture is not similar to Kertesz’s Montmartre, I think there is a simplistic aspect to the composition. The photo does not project any ideas of movement yet the gradient of colors suggests the passing of time.

-Eli McClain

This is the photo I took for snapshot day. It is located in Central Park East, exactly where I don’t exactly know because I had been wandering around for some time prior to my discovery of this bridge. My intention for the shot was to contrast the small family in the bottom right with the large bridge that horizontally intersects the page. The families relative size both in number of member and in relation to the bridge is a metaphor for the significant decrease in importance placed on family by today’s society. Family as I priority is frequently placed behind academics, work, friends, and extracurricular activities. Families have stopped eating dinner together and talking about their daily events. There is a large looming pressure, especially for adults and older children, to bridge the gap between professional life and home life. One one side you have to do well in your school and work career so that you can continue to support your family. But on the other, if you are not spending enough quality time with your loved ones is your financial support and security worth the damage that befalls your nuclear relationships? Especially female professionals in this era are under constant pressure and scrutiny for their priorities and values. If you spend too much time with your children you’re giving in to the misogynistic views that have oppressed our gender for centuries. IF you spend too little time with your children in favor of advancing your career you are considered unfeminine, callous, and cold for not caring about your responsibility to your family. This is a bridge we cannot escape and we cannot ignore as it casts an almost constant shadow over our life path. We must cross under it, as it is unavoidable, and find a way to salvage what is left of today’s familial priority. This snapshot was meant to capture today’s familial struggle and the way in which we must face it, together.

For this assignment, I wanted to capture a scenic photo of Lincoln Center, a place that remains in the background everyday as I run errands, go to school, meet up with friends, and much more. As I prepared to take a picture of the front of Lincoln Center, none of the pictures seemed interesting enough for me. My focus was too large–I could not pinpoint an aspect of the place that I wanted to capture. When I returned home, a look through my window caught my attention, as it provided a more realistic glimpse into my everyday perspective.

Looking through my foggy window into the back of Lincoln Center has been my view for the past five years in Manhattan. The back of Lincoln Center is a much less glamorous view of such a famed building, as most photos of Lincoln Center consist of its large and extravagant features. In order to emphasize a more gritty, flawed point of view, I tried to focus on an imperfection on the building. Instead I noticed a paint splatter on my window, and decided to focus on that. I used the Rule of Thirds, and placed the paint splatter on the upper left corner of the frame, which allows for the viewer to not only notice the imperfection in the frame, but also its background: a seemingly dreary building filtered through a foggy window.

I was in Coney Island on October 11th. I was alone, without the intention of swimming or playing games or riding rollercoasters. I was there because I was in the process of gathering research for a subway ethnography which I had to write for anthropology, a process which involved riding a subway line from it’s first stop to the last. Coney Island is the last stop on the F line, which is the line I chose to research. By the time I arrived in Coney Island, it had been roughly two and a half hours since the train departed from Jamaica, and I was desperate for some fresh air. I stepped out of the train and immediately felt and smelt the sea breeze. It was incredibly refreshing, and so I followed it toward the boardwalk, and then even further to the pier. Engulfed by wind chill and afternoon sunlight, I walked all the way down to the end of the pier. It was reinvigorating to be surrounded by nothing but the natural elements – water, air, and light – after having been drowned in the industrial anti-nature of the New York City subway system. I turned to the shoreline, and I knew I had to capture this moment of beautiful juxtaposition.

When taking this picture, I made sure to keep in mind the placement of the horizon line and where the focus of the photograph would be. Following the rule of thirds, I placed the shoreline, the tall buildings specifically, in one of the focal points (the top left). I wanted to emphasize the presence of the city because, although I took the picture mainly to capture the feeling of being overwhelmed by nature, I could not forget that this was still, inescapably, New York. However, by filling most of the frame with the image of the sea and the sky, I feel I still captured the feeling of nature. Most of the photograph is water because, when standing on the pier, I was literally surrounded by it, and I was in awe at the immense volume of it. I also made sure to include the sky in a significant portion of the photograph because it was beautiful as well, and lent a type of symmetry that balance very well with the water below it. The horizon is placed in the higher third of the photograph to give the illusion of movement, specifically toward the shoreline. This short “getaway” to Coney Island was much needed after hours underground in the subway, but the city is still, for the time being, home, and we must always return home.

I chose this picture for my Snapshot Day picture because it’s a beautiful scene that I unknowingly pass every day on the sky bridge. The sheer physical beauty of the scene is only a small part of why I chose this photograph to take. I happened to look to my left while walking to the library and found it overwhelming how far into the city you can see from the middle of the east side. For such a simple picture in a place where we pass by on a regular basis, I found the setting important in realizing how big New York City is. It is a humbling experience to be seemingly dwarfed by scenery that is part of your every day life, especially if your life was not previously comprised of such a big place.

I chose to center the picture the way I did in an attempt to go by the “Rule of Thirds”. I tried to align the beginning edges of the buildings with the third points of the frame . Something else that actively tried to include in the picture is space for the moving parts to “move into”. It doesn’t look the people crossing the street are going to run out of walking room, which would make the scene appear more stagnant. I made sure to do the same with the cars. Despite being truly stagnant at the red light, the room in the picture makes the picture appear more dynamic. The picture is easier to look at when it is oriented properly but it won’t insert into the website, which can take away from the purpose.

Glenn Collaku

There Lurk Secrets Here

I was walking along this basement at night and I was really entranced by the pipes on the ceiling above me. It was a really long hallway, and there was no one around, so I got this sense of isolation and abandonment. It kind of reminded me of a horror genre video game, so I wanted to capture that cross between horror and isolation when you’re looking at something the right (or wrong) way.

I tried to compose my shot along the rule of thirds. The pipes take up primarily the top two thirds of the photo, and the line of the hallway moves from the upper left intersection to the bottom right. For extra creepiness, I made my shot kind of shadowed and dark and kept the ‘exit’ sign just within the frame.

-Jessica Ng

On Snapshot Day I found myself walking through a shortcut in my neighborhood. After living almost two months in the dorms, I really came to appreciate how New York City is a mix of busy and quiet places. This shortcut is a tunnel under a railroad for the LIRR which made me think of that mix of busy and quiet. It is also a place that I have always walked through, usually rushing to some other place. The girl who was briskly walking to the tunnel is under the word in graffiti “HER” and caused me to remember those many times. Looking at the picture afterwards, I also find the graffiti “HER” to emphasize how everyone has their own story. In essence, this picture allowed me to present everything I think of to make up New York City.

When I took this picture, I focused on the positioning and on using the rule of thirds. I wanted to have the girl entering the tunnel to stand out while being near the word “HER,” so I positioned her on the imaginary line on the right. In addition, I tried to have the top of the tunnel fall on the imaginary line on the top. I left room in front of the girl such that there is a sense of motion for her. I also took the picture from a side angle instead of straight on in order to make it more interesting.