Heres a before and after side-by-side comparison! (Before on left, after on right)
Edited photo with me watching the Apollo 11 launch!
I was pretty intrigued and excited when I read this assignment! My approach for the project was to think about an important historical event that I wish I was alive for and able to observe/take part in. I have been really interested in and inspired by NASA space exploration since I was pretty young. I never wanted to be an astronaut, but I always found space exploration to be an exciting part of our countries history. The amount of people it takes to get the astronauts safely into space and to their destination is unimaginable to me. I’m especially in awe of the people behind the scenes who have to do the calculations and crunch the numbers to figure out how to build the shuttles, how to launch them, and all that comes with shooting a space shuttle into space.
By the way, little side-note, if you too find space exploration fascinating, I highly suggest the film Hidden Figures! It tells the story of three brilliant African-American women at NASA who were the brains behind the operation of sending astronaut John Glenn into orbit in the early 1960s.
So, if I had to pick a historical event to be present for, I would choose the Apollo 11 launch! This photo I found is of a crowd in Central Park, NY watching Neil Armstrong take man’s first steps on the moon on large television screens. I downloaded the photo to Photoshop. I then took a selfie where I am looking in the general direction of everyone in the crowd. I imported that selfie into photoshop and used the select and mask tool to cut myself out of the photo and paste it to the original photo. I placed it at a good spot in the crowd where there was a bit of dead space, and then I turned down the opacity on my selfie layer so I could erase parts of my photo to make it look like I am behind the people in front of me. I’m overall happy with it, but I wish both my selfie and the original photo looked the same resolution wise.
I decided to choose the famous figure, Fred Rogers of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. I recently watched the film “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” and it inspired me to complete this project about everyone’s favorite neighbor. I had trouble with the Facebook site and wasn’t able to save it, so I had to take a screenshot of my screen. After doing that, it still had elements of the building template, so I took the screenshot image into photoshop and covered up evidence of it being a work in progress so that it looked more polished like a real facebook page. I had fun coming up with a fake Twitter and sample tweet for him and decided to go with a current event that would have happened during his time. I thought it would be interesting to mention the moon landing and have Mr Rogers comment on how the neighborhood was growing bigger as the astronauts traveled to the moon and placed the American flag. He was such a happy and caring person, so I decided that his Facebook posts would all be inspirational, wholesome words, so I used some of his famous quotes as his Facebook posts.
I decided to use a slow-mo video I took this past winter of me feeding birds from my hand. I love slow mo videos of animals and birds in flight are fascinating to watch. I thought it would be kind of interesting to see birds flying backwards. I also like the beginning of the GIF where it looks like the seed is levitating into the nuthatches bill! I used an app on my phone called Reversevid to convert my original slow mo video into a reverse version, and then uploaded that reverse copy to GIPHY to complete my FIG where it is linked to above with the underlined “via GIPHY” link.
@eng304cripps This is Boomer, our loyal boxer whose personality is like an old man. He’d probably say something like, “I love my family (even when they dress me up in weird costumes) because they love and care for me and saved me from a family who treated me poorly” #tdc3077pic.twitter.com/VJSxCcMYly— MorganaQ_UNE (@MorganaqUne) June 15, 2020
Since my mom and I are both photographers, our pets are all common subjects in our photos when we are not photographing wildlife. Boxers are known for their expressive and emotive faces, and this is one of my favorite photos I have taken of Boomer. He is a very loyal and well behaved pup and puts up with whatever outfits or costumes he might be dressed up in for photos. I was doing an emulate a photographer assignment for a photography class at CCV, my previous college before UNE, and I was emulating William Wegmen who photographs his Weimaraner dogs in different poses and outfits. I just love his face in this photo. He put up with the many costume changes but this one is towards the end and it just looks like he is totally over it and done with being the subject of my photos. If Boomer could talk, I think his attitude and voice would be similar to the main character Carl from Up. Carl is a cranky old man but has a really loyal and soft side and this is very similar to how I think Boomer would be if he was a human or if he could talk at least. If he could speak, I think he would say that he loves his family as he is very attached to us and doesn’t trust strangers, only the close members of his family that he knows well. He was mistreated in his previous home so he is happy to be with us where he is loved and very well cared for.
I had a lot of fun scrolling through the videos from the last few months on my iPhone. Sure, I haven’t done anything super exciting due to quarantine, but home videos are most treasured and special to me when they show a funny, exciting, or important moment I share with my family. Like most people in quarantine, not being able to visit the hairdressers has caused some whacky, longer than normal haircuts! My dad’s hair has grown much longer than normal and sometimes he would jokingly put a hair tie at the top of his head to try and get it out of his eyes. We had just finished eating dinner and my dad was checking his phone. My mom said she was going to “style his hair” but she decided to play a little joke on him and get some scissors from the drawer and pretend to cut his “ponytail” off (she didnt actually cut any hair)! His reaction was priceless and I knew this moment in the video was perfect to be made into a GIF for this assignment! I used the site Giphy and decided to add a little caption with a fun animation that really added to the GIF.
If I were an animal… I’d be a Sea Otter 🙂 They are small chubby (fluffy) mammals who love the ocean. They are gregarious, playful, and close with their family. I can relate to that 🙂 (Photo credit to https://t.co/revUDMauP2) #tdc3072#ds106pic.twitter.com/yz8ScAbwey— MorganaQ_UNE (@MorganaqUne) June 11, 2020
Southern Sea Otter Enhydra lutris Monterey, CA, USA Photo credit to Suzi Eszterhas and seaotters.com
I went back and forth for this daily create when trying to decide which animal I would be. I think I started off thinking about my favorite animal rather than what animal I am most similar to. At first I was thinking I would be an orca or bottlenose dolphin, as these are my two favorite animals. However, I wanted to choose an animal that fit me as a person more rather than just an animal I would like to be. I kept thinking about marine mammals, because aside from birds they are my favorite group of animals. I ultimately decided that the adorable Sea Otter is the animal I would be if I wasn’t human. They are kind of chubby and a bit lazy at times, but very happy and playful. They are intelligent and form close bonds with their friends and families. I can relate to these otter traits and thanks to this assignment, I have decided that the Sea Otter is my new spirit animal. I also decided to find a photo of a Sea otter on google to share with this post because they are too adorable not to share a photo!
It guess it shouldn’t surprise me that the image that caught my eye was the one with a bird in it. I saw some very powerful images relating to covid19 deaths and other sensitive subjects, however I personally felt it insensitive to think of a funny or witty caption to put over the image as it would take away from the real issue that is very serious for many people. So, even though there were many powerful images that caught my eye, this one of a woman feeding a seagull seemed worthy of a caption. Due to current events in the world, there are two major subjects that are on my mind on a constant, daily basis and that is the coronavirus pandemic and the black lives matter movement. After looking at this photo for a minute, it made me think about the many complex and interconnected ways that a virus pandemic affects humans, the environment, and wildlife. I am in no way downplaying or overshadowing the devastating effects the virus has had on humans and the countless lives lost, however, a pandemic like this doesn’t come without it’s impacts on wildlife, good and bad.
The original caption of this photo was about the human in the photo celebrating a local food joint opening for the regular season in February and her sharing with a gull. However I took the image in a direction that focused more on the gull than the human. This image made me think of how certain species of wildlife, or vermin as most people refer to them, are dealing with a large decrease in human activity outside of their homes for several months. It made me think of an article I read back in April. The rats in NYC have become desperate and cannibalistic during the pandemic due to decreased human activity in the major city. Restaurants and stores are closed and not producing waste that is the main source of food for the rats. This also made me think about other species that seem to rely on humans for food. Gulls and pigeons don’t solely rely on humans for food to the extent the NYC rats do, however, a good portion of their diet is fast food and other human waste thrown on streets or in trash cans/dumpsters. It sort of made me think if the gulls that relied on feeding from McDonald’s customers and the dumpsters, transitioned to acting more like how we would think a typical gull would act; feeding on ocean life on beaches and out in the ocean. It also makes me wonder how practices of food disposal will change following the eventual end of the covid19 pandemic and what effects this will have on wildlife.
I have been feeling really overwhelmed and emotional lately with everything going on in the world as well as my dad losing his job due to Covid19 (it’s understandably hard to employ a catering director at a college during a pandemic). Nature is always the place I go to calm down my thoughts and find peace. This assignment came at the perfect time and rather than go into a town or city where choosing one specific color would be easy, I decided to go to one of my favorite birding hotspots, the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge in Swanton VT (about 40 mins from my house). It is a very lush and green place at this time of year, but not many flowers or colorful plants grow on the trails. So, I thought of colors that I might see in both the flora and fauna. I went with yellow because I knew Yellow Warblers were common in the area and I knew that buttercups covered the fields that I walk through to get to the marsh trail (my favorite part of the refuge).
My first photo came when I was walking through the buttercup fields. I was going to stick with just a shot of the buttercups, but then a Bobolink decided to drop in and show off his soft yellow cap on his head that fit with the buttercups nicely. As I walked along the path leading to the marsh, I heard the familiar call of the Yellow Warbler. Their song sounds like “Sweet, sweet, so so so sweet.” Once I got a few shots of these irresistibly adorable birds, I arrived at the first view of the marsh and continued along the edge, stopping to photograph birds with any yellow on their plumage. I first saw the Kingbird that has a muted yellow lower belly. I then saw a very common sight for the marsh, Red-winged Blackbirds. The female sporting a yellowish face, and the male sporting his famous red wing patches, with a small yellow patch right below it. Then I continued along the marsh until I got around to the opposite side, close to the entrance to the woods trail. I looked into the marsh and saw a massive Bullfrog and was entranced by his yellow eyes. I wanted to make it an even 8 shots, but the clock was running down and I only had a few minutes left in the 20 minute time frame. I knew that Great-crested Flycatchers inhabited the woods and they have a beautiful, pale yellow chest that I was hoping to capture for my final image. However, I heard rustling to my left and saw a Painted turtle taking a leisurely walk through the forest. His bold yellow striping on his head was the perfect focal point for my final image. I had a lot of fun with this assignment, and even though it took a lot longer than I expected to create it with the timeline website and google spreadsheet, I am happy with the result!
ds106assignment
DS106 Week #3 – Movie GIF (Say it Like the Peanut Butter)
I am a big movie fan so it was tough to just pick one movie scene to make a GIF from. I used the website Gifrun and it was a lot quicker and easier to do than I thought it would be. I am not only a fan of live action films, but also animated films. Not the cheap budget, low creativity made only for kids animated films, but the smart, beautifully animated, wonderfully scored films that offer kids and adults alike an experience. One movie that fits those categories for me is the How to Train your Dragon trilogy which is (in my opinion) the best animated trilogy to date. It’s characters are well developed, the animation is ground breaking and beautiful, especially lighting and the environment in films 2 and 3. I love this film trilogy most of all for the relationship between the main viking protagonist Hiccup, and the main dragon protagonist, Toothless. It is one of the best human-animal relationships I have seen in a film and its made even more engaging due to the fantasy element of dragons living among humans. There is such a beautiful arc for the two main characters. Hiccup starts as a young viking that is taught to kill dragons since they set viking villages on fire and steal their livestock. However, Hiccup is unable to commit this act against another living creature and ends up forming an unbreakable bond with the deadliest dragon species the vikings know of, the Night Fury. By the end of the trilogy, every viking has their own dragon companion and they must say goodbye to their dragons in order to protect them from other vikings who are still set in their ancient belief of dragons being vermin that need to be eradicated. Not only does the film boast beautiful animation, storytelling and characters, but it also has one of my favorite film scores ever, by composer John Powell. I chose a very important scene from the first film for my GIF, when Hiccup works up the courage to try and touch Toothless for the first time, and Toothless is learning that Hiccup means him no harm and could possibly be a friend. If anyone hasn’t seen the trilogy yet, look up How to Train your Dragon Forbidden Friendship scene on youtube and watch the (approx. 5 minute) video for a wonderful scene from the first film!
This daily create is definitely pushing me out of my comfort zone. I have never been that good at drawing. Photography is the art I’ve always found success with. I enjoy sketching on my iPad, but I’m never happy enough with the result to share it. So, when I saw this prompt, I knew it would definitely take some motivation to get myself to get it done and share it with others. I used the Adobe Draw app on my iPad and my apple pencil to sketch this scene. I decided to draw the boy and cat in a little valley walking over a log to cross the fresh mountain stream. The pink airplane flying over the mountains looks a little out of place, but I wanted to make sure I followed the prompt. I definitely have a lot to learn regarding drawing on my iPad, but it feels good to come out of my comfort zone and share my work with others. However, I think I’ll stick to sharing my photography with the world and keep my drawings to myself. 🙂
