Last design assignment before we start what I think will be my favourite section of the class: audio.* It’s a mix of Tim Owen’s “The Big Caption” assignment and “The Big Hip Hop.” See, I did what I thought was “The Big Hip Hop” without reading through all the instructions. Instead of picking a song from the Top 100, I picked a song from my collection that I thought fit the photo.** So I’ve put this under both assignments because technically what I created doesn’t really fit either but is in the spirit of both. This was created at Picnik using a photo from the Big Picture. The song is “Canned Heat” by Jamiroquai from the Center Stage soundtrack.*** Enjoy!

*Three and a half years on the radio, 11 years playing the clarinet, singing since forever, and I’m a music major. There’s a reason I consider myself an audiophile.
**Though I’m sure I could find a Top 100 song that would fit the photo just as well if not better. In fact, from the Top 10, Katy Perry’s “Firework” would work (and I only know that song because of Glee don’t take my hipster accreditation away from me.)
***Before I realized I like chocolate and am always going to be 5’10″ I wanted to be a ballerina. Nine years of ballet classes prove that fact. And I still like that movie and I still really like the soundtrack.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/01/winter_sports_beat_winter_blue.html

For my Design Assignment I decided to do “The Big Caption” assignment by, Tim Owens. I found this picture on the website that was given (http://www.boston.com/bigpicture). Do you like the caption I made for it?

OUCH!

Here are my additions to “The Big Caption” assignment…

Source: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/02/afghanistan_january_2011.html

Source: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/02/chinese_new_year_2011.html

Source: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/02/pakistan_daily_life.html

I decided to try and create a picture for “The Big Caption” assignment posted by Tim Owens.  Well, I didn’t create the picture, I just copied one from this website.  But I ran into problems when it came time to insert a message on the image.  I was not sure how to do that period.  When I pasted the image in Word, I added a text box, but I did not know how to match the background of the text box to the background of the image.  So I gave up, slightly.  I found a website that adds text to images, but it is limiting in the type of fonts you can use, the position, color etc. This is the website. If anyone knows a better way to complete this assignment, please comment below with tips. Thanks.  For now this is what I came up with.

My “Big Picture” assignment. I have a particular love for this helicoper more than a disdain for Mrs. Palin. The helicopter here is a Russian made MI-8 which I flew in while working in Afghanistan. I was fortunate enough to log nearly 1300 hours as a passenger.

After some rapport building vodka and smokes my Ukrainian pilots trained me on how to fly the beast. Logging nearly 40 hours behind the collective I was able to fly a MI-8 over the snow capped Hindu Kush through the perilous Korenghal Valley and to numerous military bases. My thinks go out to Rost, Oleg and Ivan for their instruction and faith in my flying abilities. Spaciba pratiya parushio, eta zaybies!!!

An interesting assignment, full of possibilities — take any random photo from The Big Picture and add typographical text elements in a way that changes the message, in the spirit of The Big Caption.

It took me a little while to decide which assignment I’d choose for this week, I must admit.  I spent some time working on “What the Font?”, where you are supposed to bring typographical elements to life, but after spending a healthy amount of time on it, my vision was nowhere. So, scrapping the idea, I decided to follow through on “The Big Caption” assignment, an assignment I had thought about doing in the first place.

After browsing through The Big Picture and The Big Caption, I ran across three different images I wanted to edit for this assignment.  The first image is actually a screen shot of a simple HTML file I created with the original image at the center (i hate trying to center things in photo editors, and in the end I think this was much easier to do in HTML), and the last two images were done using Picnik via Flickr.

If you would like to view a larger version of the image, just click on the thumbnail.

This image is taken from the 2011 edition of the Dakar Rally, a 9,500 km (5,900 mi) race held in 13 stages across spectacular and varied terrain in both Argentina and Chile. This particular image is of BMW car driver Stephane Peterhansel and co-driver Jean-paul Cottret, both from France, competing during the 9th stage of the 2011 Argentina-Chile Dakar Rally in Copiapo, Chile, Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2011. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

The original can be found here.

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This image is taken from the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, and is of England’s goalkeeper Robert Green reacting after he allowed a goal by the U.S. during a 2010 World Cup Group C soccer match at Royal Bafokeng stadium in Rustenburg June 12, 2010. (REUTERS/Darren Staples)

The original can be found here.

This image is taken from a collection of photographs intended to show signs of Spring, 2010. In this photo, Avery Smith, 23, of White River Junction, Vt., makes her first attempt at pond skimming during the the fourth annual end of season Junk Show at Whaleback Mountain in Enfield, New Hampshire. (AP Photo/Valley News, Jason Johns)

The original image can be found here.

The Big Picture definitely is an interesting source for photography, and I was really amazed at some of the images they had on the site.  I don’t know how these images stack up to The Big Caption, but I had fun doing the assignment.

Source Image http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/chinese_new_year_2011/bp16.jpg

The Boston web page had some really interesting photographs, I thought the ones they had of the winter Olympics in particular were very cool. No Pun Intended. I’m not sure which sport this is, but here is a picture of a bunch of people jumping into freezing water. I never see this event in the Olympics!