Digital Photography Blog: Michael Saccio

     My first and most favorite photographer that I discovered was Masashi Wakui. All of his work appears to be photos of the Tokyo Proper area, a city so large that an artist can base an entire career off of different photos of it. His work is very traditional in terms of styling and technique, but in my opinion, is unparalleled in quality. Wakui would take every photo at night, using only the city lights to illuminate his subjects. For example, a photo of a man holding an umbrella would only be recognizable because of the radiating colors coming from a neon sign behind him.       I have learned and practiced many useful techniques like the rule of thirds, close-ups, and how to use leading lines and diagonals to create perspective. My favorite project would have to be project two. I enjoyed the freedom of taking photos that were bound by very general requirements. Some of the other projects required me to take a picture that matched a predetermined description, and didn't r

This Kaleidoscope started as a photo of a bouquet of flowers that were all about the same size and shape. I was entertained by the idea of making an edit that looked like a bunch of the same flower, however in practice it looked too monotone. I then took the same image and inverted the colors in photo shop and then layered it over the original kaleidoscope to make a harsh contrast in color. I made this Kaleidoscope using a cropped picture of a small section of stairs. Although the stair photo can't really stand alone, when displayed in a radial fashion it creates an illusion of an infinite loop.

In this project I practiced using basic camera controls and explored the surface level of photoshop. I did this by taking pictures with a shallow depth of field, a deep depth of field, fast shutter speed, and slow shutter speed. The photo that represented each category was then duplicated and then edited to help either amplify the effects or add a certain dimensionality that wasn't previously visible.