This assignment gave me a deeper understanding of reading and exhibition than I did in the former two weeks. It also made me more interested in photography than ever before. In the past, I took pictures just as I do now. I like to take pictures of the big environment. I feel that the environment is the most beautiful and can reflect everything. But these two reading have changed my original idea. As the saying goes: details determine success or failure, we can also say that details reflect the essence and beauty of things and that different details make up different things and give people different feelings. I also realized that we should pay more attention to the details in the shooting with media or media related things. Perhaps the details will stimulate the imagination and creativity, so you will not in the fixed thinking caused by the environment.

It’s a simple thing to pay attention to surroundings, and a lot of people think it’s enough to have a look. But how to understand and how to take pictures of what you notice is not easy. Vision can give the greatest and most direct impact, how to shoot the details you noticed and make people novelty and surprise? Montage is a commonly used method in shooting movies, and it can give different feelings to people by combining videos with different time and space in use of clipping effects. How do you make sure that the things you notice and take down can be made into a theme? Or do all irrelevant material work together? It’s my confusion as well as interest.

What are the differences and similarities between what you expected to notice and what you recorded?

As I said in part 1, I took my image on the market of my country into the shooting unconsciously, I thought that the environment market was a little dirty, market stalls were in no order, and the air was not fresh. But after shooting, I found the market was neat and tidy, the air was not bad, and even there was a coffee shop where people could sit for breakfast or lunch. All the fresh foods were put in order, and the prices were written on the side. The sellers were particularly warm, and I even felt that sometimes they were enthusiastic. People from different stores shouted that their products were the best and cheapest. Some customers and I will be intimidated. There is another thing that different from what I expected is the flow of people at different times. In my country, the market always has the most people at the beginning of the business hours, because we all think that the earlier we go, the fresher food we buy, and in the afternoon, the quality of the ingredients will drop. Maybe it is because the domestic market doesn’t have the ice chest. And when I took the picture at 7:30, I thought it was 1.5 hours since the business hour, and there should be a lot of people. But there were few people at all, just like they were just open. Sellers had nothing to do but put their products. Only a few old people and a few Asian customers were buying food, and there are several cleaners cleaning the garbage. Instead, after 11:30, the flow of people began to increase, to 1:30 p.m., there were many people on the corridors, moving slowly, and the ingredients were also significantly reducing. Rico told me it was probably because most of the ingredients were discounted in the afternoon.

But there is also a similarity. When people were crowded, they could hardly move. That was what I expected. There were a variety of voices about asking prices and putting food into a bag, which was very lively. The dark environment, with all kinds of ingredients, and the sounds of buying and selling pushed you to participate in this big shopping like invisible hands. The market is different from the supermarket, making people feel warm.

How do you think their way of collecting with media differs from yours? How has making this work led you to understand key ideas about noticing in relation to readings, exhibition, discussion?

Rico and I shot about the same; almost all of them are photos. But she recorded two videos to show the bells of the Royal Arcade and the movements of the soldier models. We discussed it carefully, and although we were taking pictures in every two hours, the shooting method was different. She focused on details, such as shop billboards or coffee shop menus, and shot carefully. But it is not just the details; I found almost all of her photos are extending from the details to the background in the distance, as mentioned in Mason and Bogost reading, the integrity and originality of the image structure combine the details noticed and unnoticed, and creates a different effect. I was surprised when she said she took a doll to shoot and thought the two were not the good match. But the pictures came out very well. The details were the elephant dolls in hand, and the focus of the shooting was on the dolls. But most of the back scenes are corridors, and the ductility of the entire layout is strengthened by the length of the corridor. Because of the bright light, in addition to Rico’s attention to the whole environment before filming, she had a good idea of the pictures. The pictures I took were different. I didn’t care too much about the details, and I took pictures of the whole environment. Everything I shot was something I liked, or what I wanted you to notice, like the hanging meat. I prefer to do whatever I want, so I don’t think it must be very beautiful, I just want to shoot what I am interested in. Of course, I also noticed a subject shooting was needed, so I took a lot of pictures of people.

Rico and I shot about the same; almost all of them are photos. But she recorded two videos to show the bells of the Royal Arcade and the movements of the soldier models. We discussed it carefully, and although we were taking pictures in every two hours, the shooting method was different. She focused on details, such as shop billboards or coffee shop menus, and shot carefully. But it is not just the details; I found almost all of her photos are extending from the details to the background in the distance, as mentioned in Mason and Bogost reading, the integrity and originality of the image structure combine the details noticed and unnoticed, and creates a different effect. I was surprised when she said she took a doll to shoot and thought the two were not the good match. But the pictures came out very well. The details were the elephant dolls in hand, and the focus of the shooting was on the dolls. But most of the back scenes are corridors, and the ductility of the entire layout is strengthened by the length of the corridor. Because of the bright light, in addition to Rico’s attention to the whole environment before filming, she had a good idea of the pictures. The pictures I took were different. I didn’t care too much about the details, and I took pictures of the whole environment. Everything I shot was something I liked, or what I wanted you to notice, like the hanging meat. I prefer to do whatever I want, so I don’t think it must be very beautiful, I just want to shoot what I am interested in. Of course, I also noticed a subject shooting was needed, so I took a lot of pictures of people.

My partners and I wrote two note lists for the questions raised in this blog. One is: what do you notice when you see the picture taken y each other in the scene you are familiar with; the other is that what do you notice when you take photos in the scene that your partner is familiar with.

Are there any similarities or patterns between your pieces of media?

I took pictures at Victoria Market, and no video or audio. However almost all of the photos taken have this element, but the background will change a little because one of my goals is to show the changes in people at several points in different time periods. So the number of people can be seen in the picture. There is also similarity on food, various kinds of food, fruits and vegetables, seafood, meat and so on. Combining the two, I can see all the expression of people facing a variety of foods. There are different people in the market: the old man pushing the cart, the adults with different colours and faces, and the children around them, and even people a suit running around the vegetables and fruits stalls. These are very interesting pictures. Everyone is carrying various kinds of package, picking and choosing outside the stalls, watching the quality and price of the food in a closing place, or walking around to find the cheapest stall. One more thing is the light, which I didn’t notice actually. Whether it is the place to sell meat and seafood in front of the market, or the place selling fruits and vegetables from the market, there are a large number of lights above your head. Because it is indoor, the light is essential, which is more important than natural light. And I do not know why, lights in some butcher shop are red, maybe it has special meaning.

And there are some things I noticed during the shoot:

— One or two stores were closed after the business hours, and they became open at noon
— In the morning, there will be large transport vehicles to transport all kinds of meat/seafood / vegetable and fruit, while the number of them will decrease during the noon time.
— In the morning, when there are few people, there will be cleaners cleaning floors or trash cans.
— At noon, when there are the most people, cleaners are almost outside and can rarely be seen in the market.
— In the morning, I saw a piece of meat hanging outside a shop, which looked a bit scary. At noon, it disappeared, probably in the purpose of not affecting the customers.
— There is also a screen taken in the photo occasionally that shows the quality of the product in the market

Me

Rico

What did your pair notice in your familiar environment? Was there anything they noticed, that you had not noticed before?

Rico also made a list of what she noticed when shooting at the place where I picked, which was similar to what I noticed before. Of course, I saw most of what I know in the place I chose, but also found something that I didn’t notice before, which were noticed by my partners, as shown in the picture where I marked with circle. In order to be more creative, Rico learned some of the methods in exhibition and took pictures of elephant dolls in each picture. This is very interesting. There are also soldier models next to the central big clock and chimes from time to time. I never noticed that there would be bells at the fixed time, and the soldier models on both sides would move following the bell. Of course, this was recorded by Rico. I didn’t pay attention to the lights. In the past, I only see the entire construction and ornate decorations of the Royal Arcade, but did not look at the lighting carefully. It’s different from the market. It’s a combination of natural light and light. It looks brighter, and the market is a bit darker. People refers to the flow of people, it is also changing with time.  Most of them come here to visit, and few for shopping. The last is focus, which refers to the focus of shooting method. Different from mine, Rico took all the details, with an elephant doll. So when shooting, it was easier to focus on dolls or details. It seems to be more substantial in the whole environment.

what I  notice

Rico