Author's Statement
When thinking through aspects of our first writing project I had to decide from which side I wanted to present my project. I did the practice writing assignments with the rest of the class; however I didn’t feel I was adequately presenting the intended arguments of the photographers. I have a hobby for taking pictures of different types, normally pictures that do not include people. It was a great opportunity to experiment with this project and learn how points and arguments can be rhetorically presented through certain aspects of an image. So the choice of doing the photo essay was not all too difficult to decide. I was able to sift through pictures that I have taken, select a common theme and topic, and decide how I could manipulate each photo to better reach my point and argument.
After choosing a series of ten photos, I took into consideration my anticipated argument and used the parts of the photo that I wanted to alter to enhance the photo. Some of these I did initially when I took each photo, wanting to get the part of the landscape that appealed me most. I had to place them together in an aesthetically appealing way that would stand as the base of my argument. When I was finished with the placement, and captions, of the photos I needed to form an author’s statement and a conclusion. In these I needed to explain the purpose of my essay and how I manipulated each photo to present pathos, ethos and other rhetorical devices, I also needed to give explanation as to why I chose each picture.
When I received input from my rough draft of my essay I had confused, or mixed up, my conclusion. I needed to switch them around to better set up the essay. It was necessary to switch them to the appropriate places. The author’s statement is used to describe what you wanted to accomplish with the essay and give some background to what you did. I instead told the audience what I had done to the photos. I went back and tried to switch them back to the right format and made some of my wording more professional to readers. In my previous drafts, my words and sentence structures were elementary in a way. For example in my rough draft I said, “I then tried to mess with the saturation….” I changed them and reworded for my final draft. I was also told, for future reference, that my photos were unsymmetrical and drew away from the essay itself. I know now if I choose to do another essay like it, I need to make certain to fix each image to make it add to my argument rather than causing distraction.
I feel that my final draft has improved from my previous projects. Each suggestion, and reading over it, helped me delve through what I needed to fix with each section. It was a good learning experience for me. I was able to learn how to better choose photos and how to use technical and aesthetic aspect to my benefit.
Final Draft
I tried to form a sense of serenity and peacefulness in my photo essay. I took different portions of my trip this summer, to four different parks in western Nebraska, and put them into this photo essay. Each landscape, and the trip itself, reminded me of the simple beauty of nature and how some of the simplest things are in fact very complicated and intricate in their own way. Each rock and element work together to build the bluffs in Fort Robinson and Chadron State Parks. Each toadstool in Toadstool Geologic Park was shaped by a shallow river that passed through the area. This river exposed fossils and the different levels of rock on the edges of the river bed. Through this photo essay I wanted to expose the natural beauty and impressive result of weathering, and just pure nature. Also the simplicity of landscape that still manages to awe and inspire people is viewed in my pictures. I tried to form a sense of pathos by trying to allow my audience and opportunity to relate to my pictures and get a deeper sense of meaning out of each tiny piece of the natural landscape located right here in Nebraska.
During my week long trip this summer I went to four parks. Chadron and Fort Robinson State Parks, Toadstool Geological Park, and Agate National Park, all of which are in Nebraska. Each Park had portions of land that were intensely beautiful. Portions were altered for visitors to experience the beauty. Beyond the fort at Fort Robinson is the bluffs where you can look out over the valleys, buffalo, and antelope. You can look back and over the fort itself and see how small it is compared to the nature around it. Following the badlands of Toadstool Geological Park an expanse of a tall grassland spreads outward from your point of view. In the midst of Agate National Park, there are cliffs to walk on, and fossil beds that hold the past.
I used these parks to capture scenes of peacefulness and serenity. Then I took into account brightness, hue and saturation. Differences in brightness, hue, and saturation alter the emotions we perceive from an image. For example, take the two different shades of blue, one dark and one light, the darker shade of blue generally evokes the emotion of sadness or calmness. In contrast, the lighter shade of blue makes the emotion more happy or upbeat. For example, in my ninth picture I made sure to not only get the sand hills surrounding Toadstool, but also the storm front that was coming in over the horizon. I felt that in contrast to the light sand color of the hills, the shades of blue in the sky would peak interest. I noticed the change in the shade of blues from left side of my view to the right where the storms had originated. That change was something I wanted to capture, so I focused on to that portion of the landscape to document it. Also, in my fifth photo I altered the shot so that the rock formations framed the grass and brush in the foreground and opened up the background into the sky with one or two clouds spotted amongst the bright blue color. I then tried to alter the saturation of the photo to enhance the greens, browns, and blues. In these photos I tried to bring about a cheerful and serene feeling to the audience. I did this by brightening the colors in some photos while in others making them seem more simple and basic. For the majority of the photos, I wanted each individual color to stand out. I felt it would bring about the feelings of awe and admiration for the landscape that I experienced while taking each image. The colors of each image, enhanced or natural, adds to the overall pathos to my essay. I intentionally avoided implementing dark color into my essay. I wanted my audience to experience an uplifted feeling.
In order to shape, or direct, the audience's view of my pictures I had to frame or crop out portions of my photos. And I kept in mind the aspects I wanted to appear in my photos to be noticed. I decided to keep my pictures from being too crowded with elements. When too many objects are in the image, the audience can get distracted from the purpose of the photo itself.
Each natural, or enhanced, aspect of my images work together to give the photo essay the outcome I wished to create. Through my visual hierarchy and simplicity I was able to establish logos. And through the images’ and landscapes’ color, hue, and brightness I was able to create a form of pathos, thus shaping the viewers experience.
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1. Road wrapping around the curves of a bluff in Fort Robinson State Park leading to the valley bellow. | 2. Rock structure at the top of a bluff at Fort Robinson State Park. |
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3. Large valley in on the edge of Fort Robinson in Fort Robinson, Nebraska. | 4. Different colors of the rocks at the base of one of the dunes at Toadstool Geological Park. |
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5. Rock formations outlining the curve of the large river bed in Toadstool Geological Park. | 6. Small ravine branching off a river bed in Toadstool Geological Park. |
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7. The wisps and curves of a cloud hanging above Toadstool Geological Park before a storm rolled through. | 8. A larger, more expansive view of the smaller toadstools at Toadstool Geological Park. |
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9. Storm rolling over the dunes at Toadstool Geological Park. | 10.Creek branching through Agate National Park in western Nebraska |
In conclusion, I made each portion of my essay work together to gather the correct perception. With the photos from Toadstool Geological Park I wanted to gather the structure of the toadstools from the closer and more detailed aspect, to the larger view with the clouds and sky spreading far and wide. In the same respect, I did this with the majority of my photos. I exposed the expansive view but then showed aesthetically, the smaller parts that also add to the serenity. Each aspect in my essay works together like building blocks to develop a sense of calm and serenity. In addition to cropping and framing my photos, I also manipulated the colors and brightness of the pictures. In the majority of my photos, I made the contrast between colors greater allowing for an affect of awe. Like in my personal favorite photo, number eight, you can see the expanse of a portion of Toadstool Geological Park. The colors are bright and the contrast between the sky and the rocks themselves evokes the desired sense that I intended for this essay. While in photos one, two, nine, and ten, I made the colors less contrasted to show calm.
By manipulating the photos' color and using framing and cropping, I was able to establish my argument and aesthetically present it in a beneficial way.
