Topic
For my senior capstone project, I will be focusing on outdoor photography, including photography of landscapes, nature, and wildlife. I took a photography course my Sophomore year at Saint Joseph’s and thoroughly enjoyed it, however I have not picked a camera up since. I felt as if I excelled in the introductory class, and want to continue to pursue this passion of mine. This project in a way can connect to my professional goals because in the future I may be tasked with a project where I need to take my own photographs for it. For example, if I am making a flyer for an event that the company I work for is hosting, I may need to take original photos. While that may be applicable, this is more of a passion project for me.
Form
My finalized project will be a select few different photographs I have taken and edited. These will be the best of the best from a wide variety of photographs captured over the weeks. I will work in Adobe Lightroom for post production of the images. In the end, I will have an Instagram account that features these successful photographs, as well as hope to have a printed photo album.
My first example is a photographer named Spencer Cox. I use Spencer as an example because he has a variety of nature, landscapes, and wildlife. Cox is also a photographer who has focused a lot on Macro Photography, something I plan to feature in my work as well. In looking at Cox’s social media page, one can see that he only posts his best work. This is something I will be doing so that I stand out as a successful photographer.
My second example is Laurence Norah and his partner Jessica. Laurence and Norah are outstanding photographers who travel frequently, achieving many different subjects for their outdoor photographs. Their work resembles many different depths of field, focal points, lighting techniques, etc. I also use Laurence and Jessica as an example because I found them through their blog about the perks of using an ND filter. In some of their images, they have used an ND filter to strategize light and smooth out water or blur clouds in the sky. This is something I hope to work with.
Audience and Impact
The primary audience for this project is people who are interested in photography and seeing what I produce. The secondary audience for this project is people I know who may not necessarily be super interested in photography, but follow to support me and my work. I think people will want to follow and be interested in my work since this is a new endeavor for me and something I am starting fresh. I think this project could potentially turn into something bigger than just a project. I also think these skills will be beneficial to me moving forward. I would not say my project is necessarily needed at all, but I think it will be enjoyed by many.
Prior Experience
As previously stated, I took a photography class here at St. Joe’s in 2021. It was an introductory class, however my professor challenged us in many different ways. We worked with still life photography, architectural photography, photo essays, etc. We studied and used a DSLR camera, which is what I will be using for my project. We went through the process of importing, editing, and exporting images.
Here is my photo essay final from the class.
My current project will be similar to this project simply because I will be using the same equipment and some of my photos will be of nature / the world around me. My project however plans to be very different specifically just from first glance at the images. These images were very slightly edited and were constrained to a topic. My project will not have many subject restrictions other than outdoors. This project is going to challenge me because I am focusing primarily on outdoor photography and want to master different skills associated with this genre, such as cacro photography. It will also challenge me because I am going to have to pick up an old skill.
Educational Experience
I mentioned previously this project stems from a photography course I took and I will be using all the same skills learned in that class. From the manual controls of the camera, to the positioning of the camera and beyond, I will be using what I learned to produce professional looking images. Not only does my prior education in photography play a role in my project, but I believe this project also reflects some of what I have learned in the Communications department. For example, last semester I took Bsocial where I worked in a group to create an editorial calendar of social media posts for a non-profit organization. This project is similar in a way that I will be producing images and posting them on a social media site that I will be running. I will have to use basic skills of gaining and engaging an audience through well thought out captions, hashtags, time of posting, etc.
Research
Something I will definitely need to do is research on the genre of outdoor photography and how to be a successful outdoor photographer in a world of many. I also will need to do some research on editing images in Adobe Lightroom and creating presets. I also will research manual camera settings to refresh my mind, as well as have a manual camera cheatsheet with me at all times to refer to when needed. During the introduction to photography class, we briefly discussed this and did not work with presets or editing much at all. There are YouTube videos and different TikToks that I can watch to regain this knowledge.
Obstacles and Resources
Some obstacles I may encounter could be finding different subjects for photographs, camera issues, issues importing or exporting, and trial and error with refreshing my mind on manual settings. For this project I have all of the equipment needed: a DSLR camera, an SD card, my computer, and an Adobe subscription. However, if I may need to invest in a ND filter if this is something I plan on using, as well as printing an album of the photographs at the end.
Timeline
Feb 5 – Feb 27: Extensive research on outdoor photography.
Feb 27-March 10: Play around in Adobe Lightroom editing images.
March 10 – April 24: Take photos each week with different subjects. Have at least 50-100 photos each week. Attempt to have 10 quality images by April 24.
April 24 – May 8: Post production of images. Post images on social media account. Have album of photographs printed.
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