My Journey/Philosophical Statement

When coming into this last semester of school I was wondering if what I did was correct from the start. I joined a class and was presented with the ability to dig deeper into something that had been bothering me and that was, was I right going to school for photography when anyone now days can just go get a DSLR and go call themselves a photographer. I knew there was a darker meaning behind it because I liked to believe that I received a classical training in a art skill for my education. What bothered me though is being able to find a job once I finish school because I face everyone who didn't go to school for photography already taking the jobs which is entirely possible but on the other side I could be wrong. I took my time through this class and did my best to get into the nitty gritty details of what it really meant to be a college graduate and what the future of technology looked like for myself and for the future of the world. Im excited that I was able to do this course and Im glad it went so well.



Believe in the future we make for ourselves. The reason we should do this is because we can only do as much as we let ourselves do. The world is always changing around us and if we don't want to be left behind, we have to keep moving forward. We have to go against the grain sometimes even if its scary but life isn't perfect and it is really all we can do. So Keep Moving Forward.

Full Dive Technology

I watched a show that someone recommended called sword art online recently and found that it is basically the future of video gaming... We also see this same kind of tech in movies like the matrix or James Camerons Avatar... but more realistic. I have talked about the oculus rift and the omni before being both very early versions of putting yourself into a video game but when I went looking for more information about such technology I have found out that this technology is already in the works of being made like the Electroencephalogy which is a machine that maps human brain electronic emissions and makes it so you can control a computer just by thinking.

 Electoencephalogy Machine

 This would mean a technology that would allow someone to transfer their mind into a video game/world and be connected to a personal in game avatar. We see this already with a headgear that can control a quad copter

Puzzlebox Copter Video

The oculus rift to control what we see so who's to say both can't be integrated into a single headset where you simply just lay down and play a game with your mind.

I know it sounds bogus but we have the beginning stages of this technology and I seem to think it is completely plausible in this life time and there are already companies and groups of scientists trying to tap into this technology. If this technology was even made possible the applications could/would be endless and I am borrowing from the show here as an example but *spoilers* There is a character in the show who has a terminal illness and instead of living her life in pain she lives it in this full dive world where she can meet people and not be bound to the limits of a hospital because it is online...

CyberCulture

Model Mayhem is an online community where Photographers, Models/Actors, Clothing Designers, Makeup Artists and ect... can all go into an online community and essentially find work. The whole purpose of the website is to post work and appear to be professional as a way to network with other people and collaborate and work together. I have used this website in the past and in my experience the website works for what it is intended for. Everyone is open to concepts and Ideas and you can search for profiles based on information you are looking for. For instance if I had to do a swimsuit photoshoot. I would simply select swimsuit and the general area I am in and be able to find anyone in the area who does swimsuit modeling.

Using Model Mayhem also deletes a middle man and gives you way less hassle with trying to find a model to shoot because you will not have to go through a booking agent to find these people to work with. I have been using Model Mayhem for 5 years and have had no issues with using the site and it honestly has given me the range to be able to work with people from New York to Florida to Texas to California and not only that but I am able to network with people all over the world including people coming into the us to shoot and then Id get the opportunity to work with them also.

Above are some of the Images that I have currently posted to Model Mayhem. This shows the ability like any social media networking site that people can look at your images and either provide feedback  or just simply say that they like your work. The possibilities are endless when it comes to using this site. Also because of this site I have had to opportunity to be publish multiple times through a couple of different magazines. Below is an example of one from costa rica that handles alternative photography.

Digital Ethics

This blog is the record of time spent while in Elise Kermani's History and Theory of New Media Course at Empire State College. All work here is original and the credit has been given to original authors and creators for any works mentioned or applications created. All mentioned work will be and has been properly cited in the MLA format. All applications or websites discussed are free use nor have they been downloaded illegal for negative intent. Please use such applications at own risk.

Paper Outline

Table of Contents

Cover Page………………………………………………………………………….1

Title, Author, Course……………………….……………………………………….1

Date, Professor…………………………………………………….………………..1

Introduction……...………………………………………………….………………2

Thesis……………………………………………………………………..……….....2

Background………………………………………………………………………....3

History of Photography……………………………………………………………...3

Digital Age Photography……………………………………………………………3

Pros…………………………………………………………………………………5-6

Cons……………………………………………………………………………......7-8

Additional Research………………………………………………………………9

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….10

A Career in Commercial Photography: Is a college education worth the time and money?

1 Introduction

a.Thesis

2 Background

a.    A little history on Photography up to the digital age

b.    Digital Age of Photography History.

3 Pros

a.    Cost

b.    Experience learned in class

c.     What is learned in school over the internet.

d.    Terry Bodie explination

4 Cons

a.    Cost

b.    Online Experience.

c.     Advancement in tech over what is taught currently.

d.    Fran Interview with in depth analysis.

5 Additional Research

a.    Timeline

b.    Wiki Entry Information

c.     Discussions to further explain in detail both sides

d.    Blog Posts on Subject and expanding on applications

6 Conclusions

a.    explain findings and find a logical course of action while remaining neutral.

7. Works Cited

            Here I would give the Works cited information for all information in the paper.

Flickr

Flickr is an online-based social networking community that is meant to have people who enjoy photography be able to join and upload their images to a community where they can enjoy their photos and let others see their images. 

Flickr was first created in 2004, which was at the very early part of the digital age of photography, and later Yahoo purchased it in 2005. 

I began using Flickr when I first started uploading images to the Internet because I wanted to show people the kind of work I was doing. Normally being from a small town the only place I would be able to show my photography was in a small local coffee shop. 

 This application gave me the tools needed to be able to show a progression of style and a body of peers who were looking for the same thing could critique me. Someone to look at his or her images is a powerful thing because you can improve. Flickr was meant to give a community to people and be able to make their photos available to people who mattered to them. Flickr has continued to evolve and change just as photography has in the past before.

Why is Film Photography Still Taught In Schools

Photography taught in school has always been an interesting subject when it comes to photography in General in this new Digital Age. The issue with photography now days are that is what is being taught in school still relevant. Thanks to the digital age many people believe that the entire process of spending hours in the dark room is no longer needed. Thanks to the digital age photography has evolved in such a way that you can almost instantaneously have what you want from an image and if you don’t like the image you simply delete it unlike before where you had to wait and shoot an entire roll of film to find out that none of your images came out. The whole process of needing to keep and eye on your shot count to then going into the darkroom to transfer film to a container an then correctly measure chemistry for a clear and timely development to make for the best images. 

Many institutions still like to teach the old ways of photography with requiring for you to take black and white photography. Which means that you are required to learn all the traditional ways of photography but this goes back to is learning film photography still relevant and many people believe that it should be required. Many places still require the use of film photography and the knowledge of such things due to the kind of work it is. As an example the NYPD or New York Police Department has changed from the use of digital cameras back to film photography because of the advancements of digital manipulation. This was done because it has been found that it is to easy to manipulate a digital image and the use of digital photography in a court system is not considered evidence for the reasons that it is to easy to change an image where as on film you have to directly change the negative of an image which is much harder to do. As of 2010 the NYPD bought out the majority of the stock and Projectors from B&HPhoto and Video due to this issue with tampering with crime scene evidence.

Another example would be that there is many school in Boston that still teach film photography over digital and it was shown over 40 different accounts where they had bought analog cameras and supplies of film. Archy LaSalle who teaches at Cambridge says that Students learn more then just learning about a camera. The importance of film photography teaches you how to compose and how to envision an image as you take it.  Cambridge has two black and white photography labs and four levels of classes and photography is actually the most popular class with the classes always full. A Student of Cambridge named Cynthia Eliacin says that Film allows her to concentrate and compose a image compared to digital where you see it instantly. Photography and many schools in Boston are finding the Analog is far more popular then Digital.

"Darkroom over Digital: Film Photography Still Popular at Some Local Schools." BetaBoston. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2015.

"Free Newsletter." The Admissibility of Digital Photographs in Court. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2015.

500PX

500px is a online photography community where people can join the website and network with other artists on a personal and open level where anyone can openly view your work at any time and either leave a comment on said work or even follow your work and see the progression. As someone who is apart of the 500px community I find my self also openly sharing ideas or borrowing concepts based on what I have saw on the website.

 Not only that but on multiple occasions have emailed photographers to find out how the photograph was created and often find them very open to share how something was done. It is a learning experience and with photography you can never stop learning because there is always something new to come out or a new way to edit or a new way to photograph something.  The other part of it is that photographers can also buy and sell their photographs. Over all is a great experience  and I highly recommend it if you do photography as well as want to be in a community full of great photographers who can help you get better at photography and if yo want to increase in skills I highly recommend going to dig around.

https://500px.com

New Media Artists Fashion @ Nervous System

          The creators over at Nervous System have done something revolutionary that it will impact the future of the fashion industry and the way that fashion is made in the future due to 3D Printing. This will eventually directly affect me because as a commercial photographer I have the opportunity to shoot commercial fashion on multiple occasions through out the year. The amazing group over at Nervous Systems has created a 3D printed dress. While you might think a dress is something easy but when you think about how it was created you would be surprised. The dress had to be created in a 3D mapping program and created in such a way that it doesn't require being put together. It is one solid piece designed in such a way that it is hinged together.

Computer Generated Image of the dress in its beginning shape to the actual dress

 The dress is then sent from the computer to the printer and the printer prints for two days to make something amazing come out of it. The amount of 3D modeling that such a person had to go to school for to learn how to use these programs is amazing. The to take into account fashion and clothing making added into the mix and both harmonize so well that it becomes apparent that these genres of art aren't very far apart because they both can create something cohesive and beautiful but keep in mind that this dress is still hard plastic and the dress is designed to feel very natural.

The Gif above shows the process of bringing the dress from its natural shape into a flatter piece.

It takes make different aspects to make this dress happen, many kinds of technology as well as a artists mind to take it from paper to a computer to reality. This new form of dress making and tech is going to change the future of fashion as we know it. Many other fashion designers have teamed up to make these kinds of elegant dresses. 

While the one im talking about above costs only 3,000 US. The one made by Swarovski and Michael Schmidt for Dita Von Tease cost well over 100,000 US to make.

I find that this is correct and it could be the future of clothing as we know it because the applications are now possible and I think we are becoming fully aware of what 3D printing can do for us especially with the materials that we can now 3D Print.

http://www.wired.com/2014/12/dress-made-3-d-printed-plastic-flows-like-fabric/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63Xozzh_uHM

All Images above are property of Wired.com

Instagram and Iphoneography

In 2010 Instagram was launched and quickly became the #1 photo sharing platform for many people including photographers who specialize in this kind of social networking. For many like myself I use Instagram to post my photography. I don't use the silly included filters but I have other applications that I can edit with on my phone but most the time I don't use my phone camera for photography. I simply just take a photo on my DSLR and then upload the image to my computer and do the editing I need to do before I email it to my phone and then post it on Instagram. Many people use Instagram very differently in that it is a way of documentation which photography was always a form of documentation but with the vast amount of followers you can accumulate, your personal life and memories becomes the worlds memories where they can simply follow your life and what you do. I believe Food Porn comes to mind most of the time... "HEY GUYS LOOK WHAT I HAD FOR DINNER!" Yep can't say I haven't saw that a time or two in my time on Instagram. Instagram and iPhone photography in general are the new thing because its easier to take out a cellphone and click a picture and toss on some silly filter and call it photography. Clouds, Food, Babies, Club photos, Ads, It really just depends on who you follow and who follows you to depend on what you see. Photography clubs now are offering classes on Iphoneography which is exactly as it sounds.. Photography on an iPhone where you can actually take external classes and learn how to become an iPhone photographer... REALLY PEOPLE!? The art of photography is being downgraded to this degrading thing just because of technological advancements and because having your cellphone is more convenient? I carry my camera anywhere I go.. If its that important.. Ill take a photo otherwise I could care less.  Below you can see my personal Instagram header where it basically flat out tells you that I am a Commercial Photographer and even my name describes quite enough

Upon scrolling down you will see... as an example from November

That I post mostly photography and thats one month.

Of course there is many uses and applications out there for one and I am in no way downing Instagram because I use it as a form of social networking to get my name out there so my followers can also see what I have been doing but so I also can see what my photography friends are doing.

I just find that advancements of this sort in technology are taking away the meaning of a lot of things such as private galleries or photography and how it is presented. I truly believe photography is a medium that will have to evolve and change over time because its a tech medium unlike drawing or painting.

Case Study

 Im posting this here so you can look at the case study as it involves my M3 Tool.

Photography, the Dying and Evolving Medium in a Digital Age.

Photography as a medium was a major change for how we like to capture the world around us to this day, With its original purpose to be documentation over time that part hasn’t changed but what has changed is how we ultimately do photography and what we use it for where as now we use it for birthdays or vacations or even a night out at the bar with friends to schooling and work, where it used to be used to document specific photography surrounds out everyday lives even when it comes to social media but photography like a lot of modern day art mediums is changing and evolving to something much more. How we do photography has evolved from exposures that take hours to exposure that take milliseconds and from photos you had to wait to develop to see to photos that you can see immediately after capturing that moment for immediate remembrance. Photography and how it’s evolved has changed how we socialize with each other with the coming of Snap Chat and Instagram to new psychological disorders (PsychologyToday) following the “selfie” which is taking photos of your self and posting them to social media for the world to see. We as people are evolving with photography. Schools today are teaching obsolete programs on photography to such a point that half of what you learn in school about photography outside of college you probably wont use again with an example being film developing. With the coming of the digital age the job market today doesn’t even require knowledge of black and white photography and developing. Egg Harbor Township that handles most of Spencer’s advertising requires that their photographers have a Bachelors in Science with a Concentration of Photography/Advertising or Similar with a strong knowledge of photo editing (sr.

 photographer) and manipulation. This tells me that the photography we are learning today in college is obsolete. While yes in college most photography degrees require digital photography courses but it is one course of many courses that you are required to take in order to receive a degree in photography and one of the main pre requisite courses is in fact Black and White Photography with Dark Room that no job now days requires. The process of Black and White Developing lasted for about 161 years with the first Digital Camera being invented in 1988 and the first photograph known being made in 1827. (Wikipedia) With the coming if the Internet and the digital age It allowed most people to just learn photography online through social applications like YouTube or EBooks online where you can also learn photography and photo shop and have access to extensive tutorials on anything you could possibly imagine. Photography will continue to evolve and already has begun to with the influences of 3D imaging and with the new increase of 4k photographic systems not to mention to sociological changes to come.

"Senior Photographer." Jobs in Egg Harbor Township, NJ. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.

"History of Photography." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.

"Snapchat." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.

"Instagram." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2015.

"Are Selfies a Sign of Narcissism and Psychopathy?" Psychology Today. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2015.