Tuesday, July 30, 2013

My little iMap

Post no. 11


This is my current imap, I'm leaving in some extra space for the points of my remaining 4 posts.

The Past and the Present of photography

Post no. 10

"A photograph is a message without a code.."

"Certainly the image is not a reality, but at least it is its perfect analogous and it is exactly this analogical perfection which, to common sense, defines a photograph."

pg.17 Roland Barthes, “The Photographic Message, in “Image Music Text”.

Basically what this book is trying to say is that the connotations determine the denotations of a photograph. The color schemes, arrangement of elements and composition all determine the meaning of its reality. Like Instagram, with its provided filters, one can insert a false sense of nostalgia and dating into their pictures although just taken a few seconds ago. This changes the denotation of the image from what its original was. Therefore, drifting further apart from its analogous similarity with reality.

This argument is mentioned by one of the professional photographers I have analysed, who too had mentioned about how all Instagram photos that have a filter on them no longer have a meaning as they all have the same look and denotations.


Monday, July 15, 2013

Articles that talk about Professional Photographers and Instagrammers.

Post no.9

Digital Trends - Photographers tussle over whether ‘pro Instagrammers’ are visionaries or hacks.
An article by Molly McHugh

What interests me most is about how this article summarizes itself on how Instagram is a complementary feature for professionals. The app provides an extension of their work, ie. behind-the-scenes footage or by just being paid by large companies to run their Instagram accounts.

Other than that, it mentions its disregard toward being a professional or not, as to them, talent and attitude of any person gets the job done. Very diplomatic.

PhotoShelter  - Why Instagram is Terrible for Photographers, and Why You Should Use It
An article by Allen Murayabashi

Why is Instagram good for us, but horrible for photographers?
- There is royalty free content all over the app.
- The quality in these photos are not as high compared to digital cameras. There would be pixelation and motion blurs as well as color distortions.

Basically, this app is aimed toward unprofessional photographers and its content are mostly focused on documenting life events. Therefore, it just a simple picture diary that delivers simple messages.

ReadWrite -  How Instagram Remade Photography ( And could do the same with Video)
An article by Nick Statt
What shocked me when I was reading this article was the immediate shocking truth at paragraph two where its states that a daily newspaper with their 65 years of history, dissolved their photography department and started handing out iphones as replacements to cover live feed. The Sun-Times said that they would only rely on freelancers rather than permanent photography employees for professional photographs.

How soon will it be when Instagram photographs grace the pages of the front page of our daily newspapers?
Personally, although I favor the app, I wouldn't want to see Instagrammed photographs on my newspaper.

The article then states with this app, everyone is now a photographer. A professional photojournalist Scott Strazzante says that using his iphone to take pictures are much lesser of a hassle compared to lugging the heavy DSLR around especially in more challenging, and tight situations, it is way more convenient. However, professionally, he doesn't agree on Sun-Times actions to hand out iphones to photo journalists as it does not appear 'professional' or 'serious' enough.

Instagram all in all isn't anything to compete about, it's just normal day to day documentation of life.


TheGuardian -  Instagram is Debasing Real Photography
An article by Kate Bevan
This article butchers Instagram when she mentioned on how Instagram has provided an outlet for amateur photographers to post images that spoils a photo with the provided filters in the app. She says that all the images have no meaning all look the same as they were given a faux aged look to them. She thinks with the technological advances we have today, we shouldn't be degrading our images making them look dirty and old but thrive on the high megapixels we have on our mobiles.

In my opinion, she might have had a conclusion that these filters only belong to the 60's where photographs generally fade off to that effect. She just couldn't see it in our current era on why would people bring their images to the past when it is currently in the present. She isn't totally wrong, but users who are not able to judge which filter complements and enhances the photo destroys the image and then makes it unrecognizable. However, they do learn over time after viewing their feeds of other users who do know how to use those filters.

Onto the part where she says all of the Instagram photos look 'the same', I had to disagree because those filters give very different color effects and feel to the image. Filters like Brannan, make the image appear more white and contrasted unlike the Kelvin filter which turns the image to a more yellower tint to give a warm feel.


More professionals!

Post no.8

Analyzing three professionals is just isn't enough to give a more overall conclusion to the argument. Gonna be analyzing six more!

A freelance photographer -
Nate Benson
Blog: Instagram or Latergram – Pro photographers potentially ruining a fun photo sharing community?

Alright, so far what I've picked up from his blog post was about how he rejects the idea of professional photographers uploading their high 'resolutioned' DSLR shots onto Instagram just to get noticed. He mentioned that there were other social networking sites like Flikr which it's sole purpose was to serve this purpose. I totally agree with this statement because Instagram, is instant like he said. It's quite pointless to upload your professional photographs onto Instagram where this app is connect people on a more personal level.

Having professional photographs on Instagram defeats this purpose. Viewers might just be looking at another magazine. However, certain photographers are desperate for recognition these days where they put their work everywhere in order to gain more 'exposure'.


A former journalist who has authored 3 books, advised more than 10 members of the Fortune 500 -
Geoff Livingston
Blog: Is Instagram ruining Photography?

In Geoff's blog post, I have realized that he was actually quite pleased with the app. However, he started off the post critiquing critics on their critics. I'd have to agree that Instagram  is being used by many shop accounts that try to sell their products as well as spam accounts.

Instagram to me, does not degrade the quality of photographs. It somehow teaches users some basic fundamentals of photography like he said. Given the limitation of the cropped-square image, users are forced to fit their content into the provided space where it could give the most information. Users can get inspired on the different angles and ways of taking their photos through other popular photos on Instagram. They learn more and more every time they use the app. But does that make them a professional photographer? No. So critics and skeptical pro photographers shouldn't be so worried about their jobs being in jeopardy,

VoxMagazine
Article: Instagram goes pro: What Columbia photographers think of Instagram. 
Professional Photographers:

GERIK PARMELE
Parmele mentions about how Instagram is a creative outlet for him. He thinks its a space where he has freedom to take whatever photographs he wants to without to answer to a client.

His opinions on professional photographers and Instagram were that professionals need to adapt and evolve with the fast paced technology. He said that we are a strong visual culture that thrives on images. *which makes 9Gag and tumblr so successful and made Facebook change it's layout to a more picture friendly preference*

GREG KENDALL-BALL
Kendall too uses Instagram as a visual diary. He says he does mix his work with Instagram where he covers events and posts live feed photographs directly to the social networking site. He seconds his notion where he brings in examples of companies like Time and The New Yorker encouraging professional photographers to post their images immediately on Instagram.

He basically describes how a person can view the users personality through their photographs. Therefore, he says some of his employers actually requested to view his blog and Instagram photos to evaluate his character.

He then said Instagram was a tool that will be used well or poorly and is very excited on the whole 'ecosystem' of Instagram users. Therefore, he thrives in it.

DAK DILLON
For Dillon, Instagram is a space where he could explore for abstract photographs. He prints them out and uses them as decorations at his professional work space. He thinks Instagram is a great idea to help aid pro photographers so that they could be updated with the current events.

CATHERINE RHODES
Rhodes however uses Instagram as an extension of her professional work where she provides behind-the-scenes photos and such for her clients. As a professional, she says she could use Instagram as a link between her and her clients.

Generally, she thinks its a great app to be used for personal documenting.

In conclusion, these professionals actually like the app and aren't rejecting it.

Friday, July 12, 2013

Who,what,when and where did Instagram come from?

Post no. 7

I could go all lazy and just paste the FAQ's from their site, but I won't. haha.

Okay, back to Instagram.


What is Instagram?

The name of the app itself is a combination of two words, which are 'Instant', and 'Telegram'.

According to their site, they mentioned about the world's ability to be more connected through photos. Which I find quite true since pictures do speak a thousand words as well as our eyes do tend to recognize an image quicker and reading regular texts.

Instagram is an app available on Iphones and Android devices (not yet Windows Phones) for free.

These images are said to be a way to share meaningful experiences instantly while giving the user a choice of a list of filters to help enhance the photos to give it a more 'seasoned' feel. They said that pictures that are uploaded online are quite mediocre.



 This platform also provides a more quicker, and efficient way to upload your images online as it is linked to various social networking sites like Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Flikr. This social networking service launched in 2010 and has over a 100 million active users.

The app has recently released a video function where users are able to record a 15 second video instead of the traditional static images. You are to hold down the video record button and let go if you would like to cut the scene. Another senior app to have this function is Vine.



Users that have this app on their mobile phones are able to 'Follow' their friends or famous accounts to get updates as they are subscribed to their images.
They can 'Find Friends' on Instagram that connects to your Facebook account. By tapping the Explore button a.k.a the star icon, users are able to view famous photos of the day.

To upload the photographs, users are to tap the blue camera button in the center of the lower column. They then can choose whether they would like to have a video or an image uploaded.

Users are also able to like each others' photos by double tapping the image. They could comment on them and tag their friends when uploading the images onto Instagram. The orange pop-up is an alert on the current activity that's happening in your profile. The speech bubble signifies the unseen comments, the heart icon would represent the likes on the photos and the head icon would be the number of followers that has recently followed you.

When your followers like a photo, it would be shown like the image below under the News tab. You would able to know which images are liked or commented.


And of course, the users are able to view the number of likes under each photograph. When the number of likes exceeds 10 however, the usernames of the users will no longer be shown and will be replaced with a number.

The last icon which looks like a name card would be the profile tab for the users. As a user, you are able to change your profile picture, edit your 'About Me's' and manage your photos. The home button would be the live feed of all the photos from the people you follow.

Other than that, users are also able to share their location, which then could be located through another social app called FourSquare.

When Users upload their images, they are able to 'Hashtag'/# their photos so that they could be manually categorized in a list of other photos that are similar from different users all over the world.

Examples of famous hashtags,

#yolo  (you only live once)
#selca (self-cam)
#ootd  (outfit of the day)

Users also use hashtags to achieve more likes and followers.

Instagram has been a phenomenon on the internet world as well. Here's a video that basically summarizes what users do with their apps.


As for privacy settings, users can set their profile to public or private. The difference between the two is that the private settings do not allow other users to follow their Instagram account without their approval.

So, there's Instagram in a wrap.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Creative Professionals in the Photography Industry. What are they saying now?

Post no. 6

In this post, I'd be blogging about statements from different professionals on their opinions of the industry of photography today. There's three for now.

The first professional I analysed:


ANNIE LEIBOVITZ

I've linked her name for the article she was interviewed in. Big fan of her Disney Inspired works.

"I think photography is stronger and better than ever before. Those of us who are photographers, the difference between us and everyone else is that we take what we do very seriously.

..What is going to happen now is that we are the sensitive matter. You, the photographer, are the sensitive matter."

From what I understand from her statement in the interview is that she is actually happy on the the advancement of technology on photography. She takes it seriously as something she would like to see flourish and grow and it is up to these passionate photographers to maintain their art and professionalism to go along the fast-paced world.

Her views are a little bit more optimistic compared to the second professional I analysed.

The second professional is:





FRANK DESANTIS (a link to his Linkd in profile)

What he said about the future of photography is in the Linkd-in photography group forum right here.

I copied his comment over here from that link:


"Ah, change. It doesn’t look too hopeful to me. I see it going the way of the typesetters, the pre-press houses, the printers. Even this new generation of computer graphics will take care of that photographer or client wanting to do the “big budget” shoot.

Why would anybody need a photographer? Very soon the whole world will be cataloged. There will be a picture of everything, for everything. Like Google knows words and websites. When I look around I see that only web designers have work. And that I think is because people haven’t figured out how to do it on their own. Soon, with enough templates being made and made easier; web designers too will be out of work. The client who turns me away because “we can do it ourselves” will soon find they are without clients because their clients don’t need them either because they “can do it themselves.”

Anybody remember having to borrow a tool from a neighbor? Who does that anymore? Everyone has their own set of tools. There is no longer a dependence on anything or anyone else. It looks grim, because less and less people are seeing the importance of craftsmanship. Respect for the artist or professional is becoming non-existent. We will all need to find new meaning in the word “work” not just photography.

We all need to help each other find that new meaning.
Like Diane says we need to move with it not against it."

Okay, from his comment, I could already tell that he isn't too comfortable with the advances of photography these days. However, he is not completely against it, but more so aware that he should be adapting to the change and improving himself with the current technologies instead. He might be concerned with the demand for photographers these days as everyone could do so themselves through the convenience and availability from digital cameras and phone cameras which could instantly be connected and uploaded through social media accounts to provide live feeds for the user.

Hmm. There are more self-thought photographers out there, with the help of professional photographers that provide tutorials online. So, in order to truly protect the industry, should professionals be selfish and hold hostage of all these tips from armature photographers? One flaw about this 'technique' to preserve, is that professional photographers too, need exposure and income. They are able to do so through these tutorials and by building softwares and machines that make photography editing easier. They then sell them to amateur photographers that are not able to replicate the works of professional photographers. The industry is always growing, and the internet, provides open-source content.


I found this article on an e-book which actually mentioned some of the points in my brainstorming session posts! Yeay! Now I have professional back up on my points!

The Third professional:



FRED RITCHIN - After Photography

I'd like to highlight points 3 and 4 in the link I embeded under the highlight reels.

3.On how digital and cellular phone cameras break down limits on who can get images out into the world. :

This gets a little bit controversial when the summary talks about how amateurs have more interesting content compared to professionals when it comes to news. They talk about prisoners putting up videos pleading for help, but get murdered instead. These videos are put up and therefore gaining a lot of popularity in content. By using their telephone devices with their built-in low resolution cameras, anyone would be capable of having footage even more significant compared to professionals. Lets say, the Tsunami or hurricane footage that has been taken by the public would then be bought by news channels. It could be viewed as live, in-your-face action as timing plays a crucial role in these one-time events.

4. The everyday uses of digital photography in the future:

He describes the cyborgization as something that affects users today. Everyone seems to be attached to their devices, having them at a close radius around them at all times. What he also says is that this new media, for example Instagram is the current medium of photography which matches the fast-paced, learning world. It is forever evolving.


Overall, these professionals have their doubts, but are actually quite supportive of it in the end.