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This week, I completed several assignments. For a quick reference, see the links below.

Visual Assignment Part 1: Reflection

Visual Assignment Part 2: Photo Safari

Visual Assignment Part 3A: Five Frame Story

Visual Assignment Part 3B: Your Favorite Photo

Visual Assignment Part 3C: Mixing 2 Worlds

Visual Assignment Part 3D: Draw It

Visual Assignment Part 4: Summary (this blog post)

What did you learn?

Many of the concept mentioned in this week’s lesson were things that I already knew. For example, pictures can be used to support stories, taking an amazing photo doesn’t require expensive equipment, luck plays a part in catching that perfect shot, etc. One thing I did learn was that creating the perfect shot is challenging. This is not something I have experience with, so I struggled with it this week. I wouldn’t say that I have learned how to manage all the elements required to get a great photo, but I am in the process of learning. This is something that will require practice. I also learned that a critical analysis of my own pictures will help me grow in the area of photography. By studying what I did wrong, I can figure out what to do right.

What was harder than you thought it would be?

The photo safari was the hardest part of this assignment. It’s funny because it was probably the quickest part. I don’t particularly enjoy creative assignments such as this one. It borders the line between scavenger hunt and set creation. Neither of these things appeals to me. I had hoped that I could just go through my house and find items that were quite literally what the assignment asked for. That wasn’t the case though. While I managed to take most of the photos, I wouldn’t call them good photos. Passion and interest and important for successful completing photo assignments.

What was easier?

The visual assignments were all pretty easy. It was nice to have easy things to do since there were so many required assignments. If they were more difficult, I might not have had the energy or drive to complete them.

What drove you crazy? Why?

While the assignments aren’t difficult, they are time consuming. I don’t understand why each week there are so many blog posts. The assignments often are multipart assignments which are quite tedious. It takes a bit of time management since my schedule is so full. I start my days at 5:30am, get on the road by 6am, and drive until 8am when I arrive at the archaeological dig site. Then I work from 8am-3:30pm. Afterwards, I grab dinner and drive home. Normally, I get home between 6pm or 7pm. Usually, I go straight to a shower after greeting my kids. By the time I’m ready to work on these digital studies assignments, it is already after 8pm. I often stay up until 1am trying to complete bits and pieces of these assignments each day. This leaves me with only about 4 hours of sleep each night. Saturday, when I am fully exhausted and needing to recover from a week of very physically intense work, I can’t because I need to complete these assignments. For example, today, pulling all the pieces of these assignments together took more than four hours and I’m still not quite finished.

What did you really enjoy? Why?

The only part I really enjoyed this week was taking the photo from an unusual perspective. I don’t know why I haven’t done that more often in my photo sessions. Usually, I only grab an unusual perspective when I see a face. I have pareidolia, which is when my mind sees faces in normal items. It’s not just faces, but I can imagine hair, coloring, clothing, voices, how they would speak, everything. Maybe one day I’ll use that creative input to make comic books or something. The characters my mind sees in a manhole cover, for example, are quite original. So, while I am familiar with the idea of using a different perspective for my photos, I haven’t tried it in the way presented in this lesson. I will definitely do more of that in the coming weeks.

I’m a little nervous for next week’s lesson on design. I feel like things are only going to get more complicated from here. Hopefully I can keep up!

Prompt: Take a photograph of something (If you take a picture from the internet, make sure to be nice and cite the original) and transform it through GIMP, Photoshop, etc, into a drawing.

This is a 2 star prompt.

Last week, I started my archaeology field school. My class of six people is working on a Rappahannock tribe site connected to the Nanzatico. We started with digging shovel test pits. Then we mapped out units to dig and set up our dig space.

We only dig the plow zone, which is the first foot or so of soil. The shovel the dirt from our dig unit into buckets. It is a long and slow process.

We take the buckets and dump them onto large screens used to sift the dirt. One person stands on each side of the screen and meticulously looks through every single dirt clump. As we sift through the dirt, the small grains and pebbles fall through the screen to a wheelbarrow below.

The goal of this dig is to find Rappahannock artifacts. Maybe these artifacts are connected to one of the previous site owners, Ned “Gunstocker,” or maybe they are connected to other indigenous groups or colonizers. We found lots of ceramic pieces. We even found a native bead. But the best find was a projectile point.

Everyone was soooo happy about that find. Even if we find nothing else, this will be the highlight of our archaeological dig.

Prompt: Using an editing software, edit a photo and crop to an 11×17. Then add text for the location or something fun.

This is a 3 star prompt.

For this assignment, I wanted to do something slightly fun. Being a lover of architecture, I decided to use this image of the Hearst Castle pool. This is an indoor Roman pool. From the image, it just looks like a flat floor space.

I’m also a fan of Star Trek. I’ve probably watched everything Star Trek, except the movies. I don’t really enjoy the movies. So thinking about the challenges presented by architectural space and the challenges presented by actual space, I thought this was an apt statement. Additionally, the blue and gold in the picture kind of mirror some of the images one might see in outer space.

Hopefully this resonates with preservationists and trekkies.

Image credit: https://www.reddit.com/r/woahdude/comments/38shgh/the_azure_blue_indoor_pool_at_hearst_castle/

The image is used for educational purposes only.

Prompt: It’s simple. Choose your favorite photo you’ve taken and tell everyone why you love it so much.

This is a 1.5 star prompt.

This is my favorite photo. Yes, it’s a photo of myself. Usually my favorite photos are nature pictures. Rarely do I have a favorite photo of myself. in fact, I don’t enjoy taking pictures and often avoid being the subject of any photo.

I took this about a week after returning home from my study abroad trip in Paris, France last year. I was sitting on my couch, in front of the living room window. I decided to talk a couple selfies, just wasting some time. In my mind, I was envisioning the Mona Lisa, which I had seen at the Louvre not too long ago. The actual Mona Lisa wasn’t an impressive picture. At least, not like people make it out to be.

I took a couple photos, just sitting there. The pose was the same but I changed my expression slightly. Maybe a smile or a slight move of the head. Ultimately, I fell in love with this selfie. The lighting contrast is good. I don’t even mind it that some hairs are out of place because it’s a natural photo. No enhancements, no filters.

I’ve got a big nose and big eyes. Often, in photos, my eyes go right to my nose. It has always annoyed me. But here, my attention is drawn to my eyes. I love that. Plus, my gray hairs aren’t super obvious due to the lighting. That is nice because sometimes my gray hair makes me look a lot older than I am. Right now, this is my favorite photo.

Prompt: Tell a story using five photos. Basically, that’s it. Figure out the story you want to tell and then take five photos to tell it. If you need to edit, add filters, etc. in order to get the effect you want, go for it. 

This is a 3.5 star prompt.

I chose a different path for my story. First, I thought of a story in my mind. Then, I chose pictures to tell the story without any narration. After looking at others’ stories, they created whole narratives with the pictures as supplemental objects, enhancing the story. My mind went a different route with this, where the pictures are the only storyteller. Hopefully, this is acceptable. Below is a slideshow. Click the right arrow to figure out what happens to me.

The story:

One day KP is out for a walk in an old historic city. While enjoying her hike, she happens upon an old building with a do not enter sign above it. Being an avid video game player, KP knew that the best places are those labeled as “Do Not Enter.” KP’s internal historic preservation conscience told her that she shouldn’t open the door, but she couldn’t help it. After all, what if there was some great historic object housed just beyond the door? She opened the door and entered into a dank, dark, stone tunnel. Above the tunnel entrance was another sign, “Turn Back!” “Well,” she said to herself, “It’s too late now. Might as well push on.” She continued down the tunnel.

The floor was slick at times as water occasionally dripped from the ceiling. Other times, she encountered pieces of bone and other debris. While it was slightly dangerous, the tunnel was lit, so she continued on. As she walked, she began to notice side tunnels connecting to the main tunnel. These side tunnels were just openings into the darkness beyond. They were not lit and they had not doors or gates blocking her entrance. KP didn’t have a light and was afraid to venture into the darkness. After about 15 minutes of walking, she started to hear eerie sounds. At first, the dripping of water. Then, skittering, like rodents or bugs crawling across the stone floor. The tunnel descended steeply and KP lost her balance, sliding down into a puddle of water. Wet, cold, and more frightened than before, she continued on. KP began to shiver from the chill in the air and her wet clothes. Then, she heard moans coming from behind her. Was someone else in the tunnel? Or did something or someone enter the main tunnel from one of those dark side tunnels? KP was terrified. She wasn’t supposed to be here and now something creepy sounding was blocking her way to the entrance. The moaning sound came close. KP started to jog through the tunnel, taking random turns, trying to escape from what was behind her. The sound continued to follow her, the moaning thing sometimes hissed and sometimes screamed. Exhausted and lost, KP decided to wait in one of the dark side tunnels for the moaning creature to pass by. Maybe after it passed, she could find her way back to the surface. She turned right and waiting in the silence. The creature came closer. KP listened, trying to silence her breathing and slow her heartbeat. The creature moaned and screamed and hissed, the sound growing so loud that KP thought she would lose her mind. Then suddenly, it stopped. The only sound was water dripping from the ceiling to the floor. Plop! Plop! Plop!

KP strained her hearing, listening for anything ominous. After what felt like an eternity, but was only about 10 minutes, KP gathered her courage. She decided to count to three and then dash from the darkness and into the main tunnel. She thought to herself, ‘One, two, three!’ She jumped into the main tunnel and came face to face with a terrifying monster. The creature, part woman, part snake, hissed and screamed at KP. The fright of it all turned KP to stone. In anger, the snake woman flicked her tail at KP, sending her stone body crashing to the floor where it broke into several pieces. KP’s head broke away from her body. The snake woman took the head and entered into the dark room where KP had been hiding. Having night vision, and needing no light, the snake woman could clearly see other heads lining the wall of this room. She slithered over to an empty spot and mounted KP’s head on the wall. Hissing in pleasure, she turned and slithered back into the main tunnel, returning to her den.

After some weeks, KP’s stone remains were found in the tunnel. The police pinged her phone and found her last location when hiking. They wandered through the woods until they found the entrance to the tunnel. Hesitantly, they entered the tunnel and wandered from room to room. Each side tunnel led to rooms filled with things too unspeakable to describe. Eventually, they found the remains of KP. It took them several hours to remove all the stone pieces as KP was not a thin woman. Eventually, her stone remains were buried in a local cemetery with the epitaph, “Curiosity killed the cat.” It wasn’t a nice thing to put on a headstone and it surely didn’t give an accurate account of her deeds during life. Sadly, her life was minimized to a warning for others who might decide to venture where they should not.

I walked past the painting that sits in the basement like normal, but unlike most days this wasn’t normal. This time when I walked passed the painting it has a small silhouette. From what it looked like to be was a, diglet? Like as in the Pokemon. I was confused and continued to stare at it for a good while. It moved from the center to the bike. Like it was living in a sense. It was the weirdest thing that day. I thought I was just tired then, but the longer I looked it showed that it really was

In Breath of the Wild, the lore states that the Yiga clan love bananas. What if they used bananas for their weapons too? It would lead to the game dropping a banana knife. Just having Link walk around and a Yiga clan member pos out to hit you with a banana. That would lead to one of the best screenshots in the game and many wanting to obtain the banana knife. A Yiga with the power of their bananas.

My dog is a poodle mix. So, her fur gets long all on its own. Now comes the dreaded day as she puts it if my dog could talk. A haircut. Her being left alone for a few hours is terrible to her. Not to mention they are taking away her fluff. In the end, she will be able to see properly and feel so much cooler, but for now, she will not let us go. She knows what is coming and she hates it. The only way we can get her into the car is by calling out ‘want