Visual Literacy Group Photo Assignment

For this project, what worked well within my group was the different takes on our word that could be taken by having everyone work separately.  By splitting up we were able to think of our own ideas for how we envisioned our word and those different takes allowed us to reach out to a larger audience and therefore make our word easy to guess.  However this also lead to what didn't work about our group dynamic, the lack of communication.  There were a few people who were in constant contact with everyone, but aside from that we didn't really talk about the project, aside from the word we chose, until the very end of our work period.  It turned out well, but that didn't make the working process any less stressful.

If I had to do something differently, it would definitely be meeting up with my group more so that I at least would know how everyone is doing, and what I could specifically do to enhance the project as best I can.  It also would have just been nice to talk to my group about what they were doing so that I could have gotten general ideas on what I could have done, because I was basically confused throughout this entire process.

That being said, the finished product worked out very well, all of the images were complimentary of each other.  More specifically, I didn't feel that my images conveyed our word as well as they could have, however when it was placed with the others it felt like it displaying it more clearly.

Probably the most important thing that I learned from this assignment is how important context is to displaying a message.  Like I said, I wasn't proud of my images on their own, but when they were put in context with then rest of the groups images, the message became more clear.  Usually my thoughts on how to display a message would be off of an image on its own merit, but now I can see that using a story, or in this case other pictures, to enhance the image is just as important as the image itself to let the audience see the meaning behind it.

What works about this image is the contrast of colors between the oranges of the sun rise with the blue-grey sky and the black silhouettes.  It gives the picture a more calming feeling, especially along side the the glow across the horizon that the sunrise is producing.  Also the sun being off center makes the image more dynamic due to rule of thirds, and since the sun is the brightest and most colorful thing in the frame, your eye is drawn right to it.  The gentle texture of the clouds really helps in getting the shots message across.  Also, because everything that had a definite shape and line structure is in shadow due to the sun, there are no harsh lines or textures to distract or take away from the idea of the picture.