"Picturing the Other"...

The photo shown above was taken in December 2009 It was minutes before the ball dropped on television in Times Square. Family and friends, adults and children alike, were waiting in excitement to put there glasses of champagne (sparkling apple cider for the children) into the air. In taking the picture, I wanted to show a candid photo of everyone before they were going to raise their glasses. When I was seconds before actually snapping the picture, some of my family and friends caught me aiming the camera at them and decided to raise their glass to pose for the picture. My assumptions affected my photo because I knew that I had the chance to catch people either talking or making silly faces if I had caught them unexpectedly while waiting for the countdown to the New Year to begin. It was taken at an angle higher then at eye’s level because I did not want people to notice so I shot my arm as high as it could go with my camera in hand, which gave the picture a slight angle downwards. It’s important to note that "the other" in this photo was dozens of family and friends before entering the New Year. Thus, if my family and friends had decided to take a photograph of me then they might want to catch me doing something unexpected also. If the tables were turned, they would find me snickering or laughing in the corner of the living room. I would guess their angle would be at eye-level and possibly distorted a little because of how much I would be moving as a result of the laughter.  A caption for the photo would depend on exactly who was taking it but if I had to guess if it was my brother it would say, "And she thinks that we are weird!” The only assumptions that my family and friends would have about this photo would be that I would certainly have been caught with silly faces because they would know when I laugh; I tend to get out of hand. This exercise would not necessarily change the way I take photographs, how I represent other, or what I assume when I snap pictures of other people. I would like to catch people unexpectedly because it gives me a way to represent them in a realistic setting without the redundancy of always asking them to pose for the picture. It gives me a new way to view how I could take pictures of others. I really enjoy pictures with scenery and I enjoy viewing time lapse in the background of pictures. I could opt to take multiple pictures within a certain time limit to view how the background changes as the pictures are taken continuously after the other. 

Blog Assignment #8 Digital Manipulation

 I altered my photo using the picnik.com website. I did not expect it to be so easy to alter my photo. The software allowed me to use tons of applications for free and I began experimenting with different effects. First, I used the insta-thin application on the software and it added a small weight loss appearance. A small change that could go unnoticed was that I whitened my teeth. This biggest alteration of my photo was the sketch effect, which made it look somewhat like a cartoon or a picture that could be added to a comic strip. There was an option to add more strength and I increased it to the maximum, which was 200% and I also increased the fade. I added rounded corners and a before and after caption at the bottom of each photo. I did not have to adjust any blemishes on my face or arms because when I changed it to a pencil sketch, the actual colors of the photo disappeared. Finally, I added a white butterfly design on the upper left hand corner to add some contrast. Overall, the effect I was trying to produce was to take away all the colors so that people could focus on other aspects than immediately what colors their eyes were drawn to initially. I also wanted my eyes to stand out in the photo. I also added the weight loss effect so that I could look thinner because I always seem to be unsatisfied with pictures because it does not flatter me at a certain angle. I understand that the media has its effects on me because I wanted to alter the picture so that others would think I looked prettier in the picture when in real life looking like this would be impossible. It also avoided looking too altered or put together by taking the colors out. If I would have added the touch-up effect to the photos, people may have been able to tell. Having pictures in the public and out there for people to judge allows for society to push people to only want to put photos up on social networking sites that are visually appealing. I tried to create that exact effect by altering aspects of my photo (such as my teeth or the weight loss effect) to fit into what society or my peers believe is beautiful. 

Blog Assignment # 7: Hotel California

The song I chose to analyze is a classic from the Eagles. The song it titled, “Hotel California”. I heard the song when I was in middle school because the band happened to be my dad’s favorite band. When I was younger, I thought the song was about hell or about Satan. The song was written in the late 1970’s, more specifically in 1977 and the album it came from was title, “Hell Freezes Over”. The story initially seen in the song is that a man traveling to a resort called Hotel California is a place that is inviting and exciting but in the end, it turns out to be some sort of terrible dream. There are references to a dark place that “You can check out of, but you can never leave” or the lyrics that state, “We are all just prisoners here of our own device”. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized the metaphor within the song. There are orientations in the song that can lead someone to believe it to be about a cult or possibly a group of people but in reality, the metaphor is about always wanting more than one has or never being satisfied. The title of the song is actually referencing to the state of California but really it could be generalized to include everywhere that materialism takes place. The stanza of the song that really makes it apparent about wanting more than what we have is when the song references a woman with a Mercedes Benz and her being “Tiffany twisted”. There are also lyrics in the song that say, “this could be heaven or this could be hell”. I believe the band meant that they were stuck in between finding the place tempting but also seeing that there was an evil or underlying meaning behind it. I believe it was meant to reveal the emptiness the life of excess could bring about. It can buy a person all the things they desire in the world, but how truly happy can they be? Once someone desires a material item, who is to say that is stops there? The reality is that it doesn’t because there is always going to be something we don’t have out there. The band has come out and said the interpretations about hell and about satanic cults are false and that in reality, it was about America and consuming excess. He said they were interpreting the “high-life in Los Angeles”.

Link to the song:
Hotel California- Eagles


Lyrics to the song:
On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night
There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
’this could be heaven or this could be hell’
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say...

Welcome to the hotel california
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the hotel california
Any time of year, you can find it here

Her mind is tiffany-twisted, she got the mercedes bends
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

So I called up the captain,
’please bring me my wine’
He said, ’we haven’t had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine’
And still those voices are calling from far away,
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say...

Welcome to the hotel california
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
They livin’ it up at the hotel california
What a nice surprise, bring your alibis

Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said ’we are all just prisoners here, of our own device’
And in the master’s chambers,
They gathered for the feast
The stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can’t kill the beast

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
’relax,’ said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave! 

Iconic Images Blog Assignment

I chose the food pyramid as my iconic images because as a part of health education, it will be my job to focus on nutritional guidelines for patients, especially in an overall health wellness setting. Health education focuses on a variety of subtopics but most commonly nutrition is a recurring theme in this area.   Typically, most individuals recognize the food pyramid, provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1992. It was formally titles the Improved Food Guide Pyramid and was initially adopted from Denmark to replace the earlier food groups classification system. The original food pyramid consisted of horizontal lines separating the six food groups (dairy, protein, vegetables, fruit, grains and fats). The horizontal lines originally served two purposes: to separate the different food groups, but also to represent the percentages of each food group that we should be consuming on a daily basis. It is based on four different levels with one or more food groups on each level, such as the level with protein and dairy for example. 

This iconic image has been changed but experts agree only to improve the research that has been completed in the area of nutrition. The USDA as an updated version of the original created a newly improved food pyramid called My Pyramid in 2005. The new image was created to emphasize physical activity as well moderation all the food groups in appropriate combinations. The food pyramid has now included a new symbol, an individual on a set of stairs, to represent the physical activity aspect of maintaining good health. It also includes the measurement of food items in ounces and cups instead of the previously used measurement of servings. 

The food pyramid has always been a well-balanced nutritional guideline for Americans to follow to carry out a healthy lifestyle. It had changed to encompass physical activity and overall health wellness over the years since it was introduced. I believe the food pyramid to be a metonym in today's media formats. While, it can be viewed as simply a pyramid-shaped diagram consisting of pictures of each type of food group, it also took on the metonym of simply good nutrition or more generally nutrition education. It was replaced with a different idea that was closely associated with it. When one speaks about the food pyramid, it is usually an unspoken assumption that an individual is seeking to get healthier or possibly change their eating habits to include more nutritious choices. It has been associated with getting healthier and possibly happier with the new changes being made. It is an iconic image because America has been promoting this idea of a healthier lifestyle as we face more and more problems with diseases. In the United States today, the norm is larger portion sizes but with it comes problems of heart disease and possibly obesity. The United States Department of Agriculture wants Americans to refer to the pyramid as a reference tool on how to eat certain foods and particularly which foods to choose over others, which would reduce risk of diseases. More evidence of this is that the USDA now has a website for children and young kids to target Americans early before their eating habits become permanent or possibly spiral out of control. I think the USDA uses the pyramid in brochures, pamphlets, and promotional tools for nutrition education.It is now used among our public schools to help promote healthy eating. The food pyramid serves to foster the overall idea of healthiness (with the idea that following the guidelines will help createan overall healthier well-being) and has evolved since it was introduced in 1992. 

Sources Used for this Assignment:

http://www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid/index.html

http://www.lifeclinic.com/focus/nutrition/food-pyramid.asp
http://www.healthy-eating-politics.com/usda-food-pyramid.html

Blog Assignment # 5: Images of War

The concern among the portrayal of images of war is the idea that some photos should be altered or not shown at all to avoid certain reactions from the viewers. In Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag argues, “With our dead, there has always been a powerful diction against showing the naked face” (70). I believe Sontag is correct in assuming that the closer we feel or relate to the individuals in a certain photograph, the more likely we are to depict them in death without revealing their faces entirely. Take for example the events of the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. There are no pictures that exist of the dead that were found among the rubble and ruins of the buildings. Americans did not want other Americans to get emotionally disturbed or to cause chaos if pictures of the dead had been released in mainstream media. It seems that the farther away a disaster or war occurs in, the more likely we are to show photographs of the victims as naturally and revealing as possible. The idea is that maybe if we separate ourselves from those we see in the photographs, it will be easier to view them as they are in death. Surely, this would not be as easily done for the families or friends of the victims. Another example is Letters from Iwo Jima, which is a 2006 war film directed and co-produced by Clint Eastwood. The film portrays the Battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers. While this film is suppose to portray the way the Japanese would have written a war movie, the film still contains evidence of American viewpoints. To prove this, there are numerous scenes in the movie that show the Japanese soldiers getting killed or hurt, all the while showing their faces up close. A gruesome example of one of these scenes was when all the Japanese soldiers decided to commit suicide in the cave rather than submit to the enemy. Another scene in the film showed the Japanese capturing an American soldier, but the film does not show the American’s face up close as they stab him to death. The camera actually moves to the wall of the cave simply to show the blood splashing across the wall. The concern is whether we can view pictures as raw as they come even when they appeal to those who we can relate to. While concealing the images of war, we cannot fully consume artistic images as they should be shown, raw and unaltered. 

Blog Assignment # 4: Facebook

On Facebook, a persona can be created with photos, comments, videos and status updates.  As we un-tag ourselves from objectionable photographs, we create a character that merely portrays the outer surface of our true selves. We cannot fully exhibit who we might be because it is often flooded with parents, or employers looking to evaluate individuals based on what their portrayals of their facebook persona. 

As with upholding a certain persona on facebook (especially when involved in a sorority), its important that I do not post pictures of myself with alcoholic drinks in hand or anything that could be thought of as suggestive when wearing apparel or items hat signify my sorority. I feel it is important to uphold a brand that you have chosen to openly exhibit. It is also about representing the organization in a good light and being respectful towards the organization itself. Often times, in college, it is easy to create stereotypes that could hurt the organization or strain efforts to recruit new members. The University of Florida states that individuals representing organizations on campus should remove pictures that contain alcohol or drugs or anything suggestive. Generally, it would be too difficult to point out every single person who is guilty of this, but as a woman I feel it is even more important to uphold a certain ideal, especially on a social network that can be viewed by mostly everyone. In choosing to place pictures that do not portray me as a drunken college student, I am trying to portray myself as a responsible, careful individual. This persona I am creating is not at all entirely true because like all other college students, I choose to drink but the difference is I choose not to place evidence of it on facebook. The picture I have shown below is typical of what I may post in a party-like scene. Although, anyone who views my facebook can tell that there is a party in the background, (this usually consists of a darkly lit room, tons of people in the background and usually plastic cups everywhere) I make sure the pictures I post have no one in my sorority holding a cup or beer in their hand.  As you can from this picture, there is clearly a table behind us (my sorority sisters) and we made sure right before the picture was taken to place the drinks down on the table before we posed for the picture. The second picture shows Amy and I posing for a picture with brothers from another Latin Fraternity. This picture is a good example of a picture that did not contain any alcohol (even though the kitchen 2 feet away had plenty of it) because we were both wearing necklaces that had our Greek organization’s letters and colors on it. 

My facebook tends to portray me as an out-going, friendly individual who loves taking photographs as memories. The truth, which would be revealed unless they actually knew me personally, would be that even though I tend to enjoy the company of others, I tend not to carry a camera when it comes time to take pictures. Typically what ends up happening is that someone else will take a picture of me or of me in the picture and will later tag me so that that same photograph will show up in my photo albums. To date, there have been maybe ten photos that I myself have placed on facebook. Consider this first picture below. It is a picture of myself but as the viewer can see, it was taken at an angle that someone else must have taken the picture. Furthermore, the picture shows me turning around to my left side to pose for the picture for the person who is in the backseat of the car. Often times when I go out with friends, they just tell me where or when to pose for the picture and I oblige. The second picture below is one of the few pictures that I post in my photo albums that are picture of me taken by me.  I added blue and green hues to find it more interesting and instead of smiling, I chose to look thoughtful. I notice I have fewer self-portraits than most facebookers. The reality is that although I am grateful that I am able to have so many memories from others taking pictures, I tend not to be the one is taking the pictures hardly ever. 

The Story of My Existence...

Everyday it seemed, I was happy to be a part of such a loving and close-knit family. To be in a large Mexican family meant every Sunday, cousins, aunts, uncles, and others of the sort would come over to eat Sunday breakfast and get together to make sure everyone was caught up in each other’s lives. To be the daughter to parents who had been together for thirty plus years, only brought more stability and love into my life. I have everything because of my parents. My brothers were so much older than I was that they had left to college before I had even started kindergarten, but having two over-protective brothers wasn’t a bad thing at least till later. So here it goes… The story of my existence through the eyes of my family…

          

He hadn’t expected for him to fall in love so easily. After all, he had only been in Lake Worth, Florida for a short time before getting to know this new woman he called a mystery. She wasn’t like other girls. She fought him on everything and he enjoyed it. She was a challenge and a girl that couldn’t have one pulled over on her. She called him Antonio, which only his family called him. They married mere months after they had had their first dance.

Not long after they were married in a small court ceremony did they conceive a son by the name of Pete. Both Antonio and his wife, Lupe, worked two to three jobs each to provide for their son. Four years later, another son, Mark, was introduced to the family. They were polar opposites. Pete was more serious and tended to blow things out of proportion while Mark was more of a clown and was more prone to crack jokes at his brother’s expense. They both got along really well because they were close in age.

Antonio and Lupe had decided it was time to build a future for their children. Antonio was so devoted to work, he knew he could start a small business and build it from the ground up. His specialty in construction was drywall. His motivation led him to take the examination for the drywall specialty. About nine weeks later, he received the letter in the mail that said he has passed the exam and could now hold a drywall license. Both Antonio and Lupe were ecstatic.

He had asked her, “Would you help me build this company into something we’ve always dreamed about”?

She responded, “Of course, haven’t we survived already”?

 They toiled to find someone who could estimate the cost of the contracts they acquired. Soon, they found a man named Joe. It was with the three of them that the company was able to begin. They had decided to call the company, Boynton Drywall of South Florida, Incorporated. Antonio thought it had a nice ring to it and that he would be able to receive many clients this way. They started off with small jobs here and there and as they became more and more experienced about how to manage a drywall company, they would get bigger jobs that came along such as public schools and big downtown buildings. The company would be fully running within two years and would later become a successful, expanding business for the whole family to join.

It wasn’t long after they had started the company that Lupe had found out she was expecting again. This time she would have a daughter, and they called her Bianca. Her first name was Toni, but as she got older, it was too confusing to have two people who were named the same so she decided to use Bianca. Her mother would put her into dance classes the minute she was able to. She would go off to an arts school for dance and right after she would go to a dance studio for another couple of hours. Dance consumed her life and also consumed everyone else’s. 

Her parents were happy to have something to keep him or her busy and would always go to every recital and competition. They were always strict on her when it came to her grades, which only helped her later in high school when she was accepted to the University of Florida for the fall of 2007. For Bianca, it was a hard pill to swallow leaving home. It meant leaving the beach, leaving her friends from high school, leaving her comfort zone, but more importantly it meant leaving behind her family. She was able to do it because she knew she was to begin the next chapter in her life…

Analysis: I placed my photos in non-sequential order so that it was harder to determine what my story was actually about. I did this because I believe if I had placed them in order, it would maybe have been too easy to decide what it was about. At the beginning of the story, I wrote in first person because the narrative is truly about how I came to be about in my family. Right after the first paragraph, I developed the hermeneutic code because the enigma was finding out the story of my existence or how I came to be. I wanted the readers to question… Who is this person?

            I combined my words and images in a pattern that involves switching every photo from the right to the left and back to the right and so on. I did this while also placing the photos next to either the paragraph that corresponds to it or the paragraph before it corresponds to the photo. I feel that when readers view the photos I have placed at the beginning of the blog, it allows them to get use to the style I have posted in the story. I also believe that when the readers view the photos, they will devise a story that starts from the end of my story and work its way backward. I try to create balance among the photos by placing them on either side of the words while also alternating. The photos themselves allow the readers to devise a meaning with ease. Some photos are more literal such as the map of Lake Worth, Florida or they took more interpretation such as the dancing photo, which could take on several meanings. I wanted the story to flow and not be choppy, which is also why I designed it the way it  is in the story. There are also small events  (proairetic code) that lead up to the development of my enigma. These events can include the forming of my family, the development of the family business and me dancing. These events are not reversible and also add the enigma.