zachgray - Three [makeup]

zachgray - Cowboy Kenny [Final]

zachgray - Vision [wk 3]

This week's challenge was to emulate another photographer's vision or style. I chose Stefano de Luigi from VII Photo Agency.

De Luigi's style is much different than mine and that's what made me want choose his. Many of his photos are dead-on, straight and wide. He usually keeps his subject in the middle with a lot of space around it to tell about the environment. Another thing I noticed was the oddly common occurrence of having people in his photos with their backs to the camera. That is not common for most photographers. Oftentimes a subject's face can make or break a photo, so to have a person with their back turned is strange.

zachgray - Techniques [wk 2]

I found this scene after walking for 30 minutes to the cross country fields, my pace hindered by the shin-high snow. This shot is arguably not too photojournalistic, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The tall, ice-encrusted grass held the beautiful golden light of the setting sun against a soft blue sky with a tree bare from winter in center.
This was found by chance. This group of guys passed by on the street and as they rested at a stop sign, I caught up to them and jumped in their truck bed after introducing myself. I hung my camera below the tailgate and waited for them to show some emotion.
Here, I was out looking for winter features and had the idea to follow the guys that have to endure it all - postal workers. This was Thursday when the snow was supposed to hit hard, but instead it was freezing rain, which is far more painful that fluffy flakes. On this one, I ran ahead and set up a high-angle shot as he dropped mail in someone's box.
For this, I was focusing on trying to catch a candid moment. There were probably twenty ducks and geese being fed by a handful of people, but only this one was aggressive enough to seek his own dinner.
This is something I saw on the way back from shooting a women's basketball game. The sky was a beautiful, albeit strange, blue and I noticed this classroom on the side of Morrill hall completely empty other than the one student at the back. I thought it was interesting and as former New York Times photographer George Tames said, "If you see a picture, you should take it – period."

zachgray - Free Shoot [wk 1]