Summing up everything

From Postcards to Reality

Throughout middle school, high school, and even my first year of college I only saw the Eiffel Tower on postcards, history books, and movies. I never thought that I would be there and be taking this photograph during my life. However, when I first heard about the interterm opportunity I had to take the class and experience Europe before I expire from this Earth. Seeing the Eiffel Tower was definitely a huge accomplishment for me especially because I am the first in my family to ever see it in person. Walking around the Eiffel Tower was the highlight of my trip, I always dreamed of seeing it one day and that dream was realized 3 weeks ago--I learned a lot in Paris and London and I now know that I want to work in London after graduating college for a few years. Overall, I don't regret taking this trip whatsoever, I met new friends, experienced new things, and most importantly a dream of mine was lived...

Experience in London

Street Business

In London, I noticed that there were fewer homeless people than in Paris. I automatically found the reason for that. I noticed that a lot of people would act, play musical instruments, but they would not ask for money. Is it because people in London are cheap and they don't give them money? I didn't think so. I found this very respectable. I respect someone who is out there entertaining people instead of bothering people for money. In France, I saw a lot of this however I did see more homeless people; people that seemed as if they gave up. In London, I saw a lot of "street entertainment" and I am sure that they make more money entertaining than just giving up and asking for the money. 

Street Art in Paris

In Paris, I thought I was going to see a lot of fancy cars driving around everywhere. However, I was wrong, I saw a lot of these trucks (picture above) that had a lot of art on them...This graffiti or art, whatever you want to call it, really adds a lot of aesthetic to a city and shows the creativity of their people. The truck above was full of art all around, the other side was also spray painted with beautiful shiny colors. When we arrived to London, I expected the same welcoming, but I noticed that London was a lot more clean. I literally did not see any art anywhere! When I was on my way to the airport in the Tube I saw a sign; the sign basically said that it is illegal to vandalize or in other words to express your creativity...The sign asked the citizens of London to contact the police if they witnessed anyone doing this--there was also a reward to the whistleblowers. There was little to no incentive to go out and show your creativity...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/89359031@N08/sets/72157632218193522/

My Relationship with Photography

"Photography"

Reflection

Dear Henry Fox Talbot,

I appreciate your contribution to photography. I just started my interest in photography and I took an interterm in Paris and London and I sure did learn a lot. Initially, I thought that a quality photograph was one with the highest quality, showed one side of the object completely, and removed all other objects around it. After taking this class I learned how to keep the quality of a picture, use the best angle from the object to make the photograph creative and fun to look at, and also through the change in shutter speed and/or the aperture one can keep everything behind the main object but blur or darken it so the person looking at the photograph knows what to focus on. For example, the picture above I would normally take it with the man walking but after taking a few lessons from Roddy, I thought I'd get a little creative and capture his reflection on the wall...by doing that I thought the picture would be more attractive to look at and also make the picture look different. In the future, I see myself taking a lot more photographs and making photography a hobby of mine. 

Sincerely,

Jesus Hernandez

http://www.flickr.com/photos/89359031@N08/sets/72157632236473573/

Sense of Self

"Jesus Hernandez"

While in Europe, I learned a lot about myself. I learned that sometimes I need to figure stuff out by myself, usually I sit back and let other people direct me. I also learned a lot about photography and found that there's a lot of attractions in Europe to take pictures of. Not only that but I learned that the US always wants to buy the cheapest product and squeeze out every penny out of it. This is why I think the USD sucks! there's not a lot of beautiful architecture (lack of beautiful attractions) and there is a huge wealth disparity. I really despised the strong pound, every time I spent a lot of pounds I always converted it to USDs and it made me not want to spend that much money. For example, Assael and I went to Chipotle and we paid 10 pounds for a burrito which is around 17 USDs, it was not exciting paying that much for a burrito but then again every other option was around the same price...Since I am a business major, I also quickly thought that I want to work in London and make modest money and bring it back to the US and have a lot more USDs. All in all, I learned that life continues and that one learns a lot of new things (good or bad) as life proceeds.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/89359031@N08/sets/72157632218193522/

Vandalism or Art?

Creativity 

In the United States, it appears that any type of public creativity is considered vandalism. The art above is a piece next to the Eiffel Tower and if you look closely you see that the woman has a red clown nose. If this happened to an attraction anywhere in the US it would've been removed immediately. I passed by this structure a couple times and I still saw the red nose on it. Personally, I like this! I really like that the person who did this has a sense of humor. Also many other tourist appeared to like this "vandalism". After seeing this, I realized that most of the vandalism in the US inner cities is not creative so that's why many people find it disgusting. While in France and Britain, I saw a lot of creative graffiti, signs, and additions to statues that were very creative and enjoyable. Ultimately, I learned that art in the US needs to become more of a priority so we can create alluring and amusing cities!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/89359031@N08/sets/72157632240848462/

"Photography and Death"

The picture above looks like a neighborhood of full of people. I captured this picture because these tombs actually look like homes, we also have a typical European street sing on the bottom right, and even doors to these "homes"...I think this picture is perfect because it shows a community full of dead people and all through a photograph. I also chose to edit this by adding the Sepia theme and I also darkened it a little more to make it more evil looking. I think this effect makes the community look a little more scary like a funeral is supposed to be. This picture not only captures a community of tombs but also trees that are losing leaves which makes this picture even better. Overall, photography and death are both associated by dark colors, crosses, and tombs which is all shown on the picture above.

Click here for more pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/89359031@N08/sets/72157632111639528/