Three Picture Projects

This was probably the most challenging project we have had to complete this semester. Doing the three different picture projects did get me thinking differently about myself, my environment, and the way I view different objects.

First, we had to complete a self portrait of ourselves over the weekend. This was the most challenging out of all of the assignments we've had because I absolutely hate taking pictures of myself. I am not a selfie taker. I think I am awkward when I smile, I do not understand where to look on the camera or the screen, and I just feel like taking selfies is not an accurate self portrait of how I want to be represented. I feel like it is too posed and boring. I am a fun person. I love using snapchat because I love sending funny and weird faces to people about different situations. So majority of my selfie pictures this weekend are not me being serious and just smiling--but rather making a funny face or having fun with my friends. It is hard for me to just take a picture of myself, so I incorporated some of my friends in them too! Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of the "selfie" craze so this was challenging for me to complete but I hope you enjoy A Weekend of Me.

Second, we had to get to know our neighborhood. Frankly, I do not know my neighborhood very well because the townhouse community I live in is very confusing to navigate. I know how to get to and from my house and that is about it. I started taking pictures of the first things I see as soon as I step outside of my front door. Majority of the people in my neighborhood keep to themselves and not many people are ever outside so it was hard to capture people on their front porches, working on their cars, etc. I decided to photograph pictures that made the neighborhood special to me. I live in townhouse 225 and I love how on my parking spot my house number is there. To me that is home. I also took a picture of the street where there are two huge potholes in the middle of the road. These potholes, to me, make my neighborhood unique because if someone does not live here--they usually don't see them and sometimes you can hear people bottom out when driving over them to quickly. When you see people that do not know how to swerve around them you quietly say to yourself "they clearly are not from around here." It makes me feel like my neighbors, even though we are very diverse, are connected from where we live and the characteristics that we both understandingly know and can laugh about together. In addition, I took pictures during the day and at night. I think the most favorite part about living where I do are the sunsets. I try to time it perfectly but I love coming home between 7:30-8:30pm because the way the sunsets over the mountains just paints the sky perfectly every night. It is a simple pleasure of mine every night and it is probably the only time I go under the speed limit when driving because I want to soak it in as much as I possibly can. After I drive my favorite stretch of road I usually walk back out to the main road and sit on the curb and continue to watch the sky light up with different colors. To me, it is one of the prettiest things to witness--and you cannot see the sky like this from any house. I think taking these pictures were challenging at times--because my neighborhood is not structured to be pretty--rather functional and crammed. I feel like I did find beauty in the smallest places though. Just take a stroll through my hood: 225 Surrey Club Lane and see the hidden treasures for yourself!

Third, and lastly we had to take pictures of people on a park bench--or the movement around a park bench around every 10 minutes. I decided to not go to a park because I had already spent hours at a park sitting on a bench taking pictures of random strangers as they walked by, so I went ahead and photographed something more personal to me--I decided to focus in on my team bench. This bench is where we get our cleats and shin guards on, have team meetings, have team talks, where we sit for home games, where we cheers our butts off when we play big games, where I have laughed some of my hardest laughs, shed some lonely fought tears, and lastly this bench has personally victimized me because I have fallen off of it many times. This to me is not just a bench--but more like a kitchen table that brings everyone together. It is a place where some of my best friends all gather around to spend time together and play the sport we all love. Being on a team you share a bunch of trials and tribulations together. This bench is the first place I sat down during preseason of freshman year. I remember sitting down, lacing my cleats up, my heart was beating fast because we were about to run a fitness test, and I had already started to sweat. A piece of metal with the worn off words of "Shenandoah" are some of the first memories I remember on campus. I think I will always remember that feeling of first sitting there thinking "what am I getting myself into? Why am I doing this our coach is already screaming and it is not even 8:00am? Is it too late to quit?" I remember all of these memories so vividly--but I often times forget the object in which allowed you to experience these memories--this bench. This bench is where girls make best friends with teammates, where girls clean up each others turf burned knees, and where some of the most fond college memories of playing soccer are made. Sometimes after practice I just sit on this bench and think "wow, i've made it really far since freshman year." Without this bench, would these memories be the same or hold the same value? Sunday during practice I decided to take photos every once in awhile when I could (my coach was getting a little annoyed but she got over it because she knows to me school will always come first). I did not take the pictures from the same angle for every picture because I really wanted to capture the essence of the movement that goes on during a daily practice and how people use the bench. I also tried to use different angles with the bench in the background because although the girls were not sitting there at that time, they always will go "back home" before we all part our ways. It is the starting point and ending point for all of use playing together for one practice, one season, or playing with one another for one last time. The bench is home. Furthermore, I tried to capture how the bench being used by some while others prefer the ground--but either way the entire team is gathered around the bench. I am not sure if I captured the time lapse portion of this but the bench, things on and around the bench, and the view of the bench definitely changed over the course of three hours. Here's my cheesy pun about benches and my bench pictures!

Overall, it is fun taking pictures and looking at things in different perspectives. Before even starting this, I never realized how big my forehead is or how awkward my right eye is in every picture. I never realized how much I go and watch the sunset every night and how the little things in my neighborhood like sharing a mailbox or swerving around the potholes could make me feel like a part of a community. Or how a metal, uncomfortable bench holds such fond memories and friendships. I guess sometimes you have to take a step back, view things from a different angle, and look at things through a different lens--in this case a camera lens--in order to find the true beauty behind something. For this project the true beauty for me was the memories that I cherish because of these nonmoving, objects that surround me everyday and that are the focal points in my everyday life.