Project 6: Save the Children

In this assignment, we had to produce 3 competition prints for the Save the Children competition. The theme of the competition is Universal Education.

Project 6: Save the Children-Image Bank

Abbie Trayler Smith
Abbie Trayler Smith was born in 1977 in England. She taught photography herself and started with photography for the student newspaper. Then she continued to work for the Daily Telegraph. She has visited a lot of third world countries including, Ethiopia, Sudan, Malawi, Iraq and Darfur. She is mostly known for her documentary photographs in these countries. The above pictures are also from one of her documentaries. Since 2006, she is working as a freelance photographer with a wider variety of clients and focuses on her own projects.

As can be seen above, her documentary pictures are very similar to the ones on Save the Children website. They are mostly from third world countries and bring a sense of empathy for the subjects in the photos. Moreover they are mostly in colors and do not have a lot of editings done. However this seems to work the best with documentary pictures as they do not need any extra aids to convey their points. Additional editings will actually distract the viewers.

Karen Leslie

Karen Leslie is an American photographer and she specializes in modern portrait photography sessions of kids, familes and dogs. She is based in Central Florida. She went to college for marketing executive but changed her mind to photography and now she owns a small business, called KarenLeslie Photography.

This photograph is black and white and it arouses the feeling of motherhood. This could relate to the topic "Universal Education" as the baby's sister is teaching the baby something. They seem to be very connected and this brings a sense of family.

Meredith Zinner

Meredith Zinner is an American photographer specializing in infants, toddlers, children and families. She is a professional natural light photographer and is based in New York. During her sessions, she allows the children to show their individuality and characteristics naturally, instead of "preconceived notions or standardized props and set-ups." She also has her own business called, Meredith Zinner Photography.

This picture, on the other hand, does not depict universal education. However the connection between the father and the baby is very well shown. It once again shows the familial sense.

Sarah Lasker

Sarah Lasker is an amateur American photographer, base in Phoenix. She is a registered nurse and takes photographs as her hobby. She has a Flickr account in which she has a lot of followers and she goes as "sarah lasker" on flickr. Her photographs are of a wide variety including still life, portraits etc.

In this picture, the little girl is trying to take a picture of the dog. In the description of this picture, Sarah Lasker made a comment about how she was starting early with photography. Of course this may have been a joke but it could also connect to the education theme.

Project 6: Save the Children-Printing Compositions

This was one of my ideas for the final print; however I did not use this idea as my final print because first of all, it did not look nice to me and secondly, the idea did not come through as well. Even though this was an initial idea, it was very blurry and unfocused because I had to take it in a manual mode due to the close-up.
This is the original copy of my first final print. When I was taking this picture, I tried to use depth of field with the two kids in focus and front, and the teacher and the wall out of focus. Even though the focus worked, the background seemed a bit messy. I also liked this picture, because the two kids are wearing bold colors which help them be in focus.
This is the original copy of my second final print. I used the same technique as the one above when taking this picture. However the problem with this photograph was that the viewer's focus was not on the kids but on the teacher in the back because she's in the center and because of her size. Even though she is not in focus, the viewers immediately look at her before looking at the kids.

This is the original copy of my third final print. I, again, used depth of field in this picture and it seemed interesting to me how there are three subject in this picture. The pencil and the teacher in the back are out of focus, while the boy is in focus. I did not have much problem with this photograph.

This is the original copy of my last final print. This was added the very last minute, and so I am not very fond of this picture. However it diverses from other pictures in that it is of older children and it shows the higher education. Again, I used depth of field.

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This is my first final print. On Photoshop, I cropped the picture smaller to hide the messy background and made it brighter, to bring out the subjects.
This is my second final print. I had to edit a lot with this picture because of the problem that was already mentioned above. I first made this picture black and white and made my two subjects in color to bring them out. Then I blurred the background for more focus on the kids. Even though it kind of looks as if the kids were put in with Photoshop, it was the only way to make them focused.
This is my third final print. As I mentioned above, I did not have much problem with this picture and so, the only editing I made was the brightness. I also had to find out the name of this kid.

This is my last final print. As I mentioned above, it was last minute and so I did not have much time to think of what to edit. I cropped the picture on the right because it was a bit messy and made the girl in the front stand out by using the sharpen tool in Photoshop.

Project 6: Save the Children-Theory Notes

advertising strategies and techniques

Kellogg's: a product

Kellogg's is a company mostly known for producing cereals. Since the Beijing Olympic in 2008, Michael Phelps, the 23-year-old Olympic swimming champion, has made a contract with Kellogg as a corn flakes spokesman. However, after a photo of him smoking a marijuana pipe was exposed on internet, Kellogg's decided not to pursue the new contract with him because "his behavior from the picture was not consistent with the image of Kellogg's." Not only did he get cut, he was also suspended from competition and denied financial support for three months by the national governing body of swimming. Kellogg's demand has not been affected as much since Phelps's picture did not become as controversial as it expected it to. However there are some boycotting actions from drug users against Kellogg's for dropping Phelps.

For the actual advertising, Kellogg put in the head shots of Michael Phelps in their products and because it has not been long since they signed the contract, there are no actual commercials with him in them. By putting a picture of him on their products, Kellogg's tried to prove that their products are healthy.

Tag Heuer: a brand

Tag Heuer is a famous brand that produces watches, mobile phone and eyewear. When consumers think of Tag Heuer, they immediately remind themselves of luxury and brand. This is due to the celebrities that it employs for commercials. Some of its spokesmen include Leonardo DiCaprio, Tiger Woods, Maria Sharapova, Shah Rukh Khan and Lewis Hamilton. As can be seen, they are all the bests in their areas and are recognized individuals.

Tiger Woods, a renowned pro golfer, recently went through a scandal of adultery. He apparently cheated on his wife, Elin Nordegren, several times with various women and now, customers do not have a positive view on him anymore. Despite of the fact that customers turned their backs against him, TAG Heuer still supports him. According to the brand, Tiger Woods and the brand has maintained a friendly and productive relationship. Therefore it will continue its contract with Tiger Woods.

SOURCE

Amnesty International:a social, economic or environmental cause

Amnesty International is a non-governmental organization that campaigns for internationally recognized human rights for all. It holds more than 2.2 million members and subscribers in more than 150 countries. Amnesty International in Switzerland published new outdoor campaigns on May 29th created by Walker Werbeagentur Zuerich. In this campaign, the tagline above says "Es gescheint nicht hier aber jetzt." or "Cela existe. Pas ici, mais maintenant." These are German and French translation of "It's not happening here but it's happening now." By using transparent billboards, it allows the viewers to feel as if the scene is happening right beside them. It arouses sympathy from the viewers.

SOURCE

Project 6: Save the Children-Diary Entry

We did not have to use our film cameras for this project, and that fact relieved me, because I am not very efficient with film cameras. Maybe it is because I have a DSLR, but it seems to me that I can work better with digital photography. The photo-taking process was quick and I only had to make 2 visits to the primary school area. The kids seemed enthusiastic and helped us get the pictures that we wanted. I also realized that I highly enjoy taking portraits, instead of still life. I would like to have more experiences with both themes.

Even though I finished taking the pictures early, the editing part was difficult. In one of my favorite pictures, the viewers' focus was distracted to another subject that isn't supposed to be. So I had to try my best to put the focus on the subjects I wanted. I used color, depth of field and many other tools on Photoshop. Lastly, I had an idea of a picture that I really wanted; however when I actually took them, it did not look nice at all. My idea was a kid taking a bite of an apple of knowledge. However when I had two different subjects try this pose, it did not look nice, and so, I dropped this idea.