I chose to do Exercise 2 where I took 10 photographs of 1 small subject, I chose a miniature van and photographed it from different angles and sides. I also placed it in front of various backgrounds, this activity pushed me to be more creative, even playing around with the light and shadow. Being able to view it from numerous perspectives made me appreciate the details that were present and discover the hidden ones later on.

Before the exercise, I felt a bit intimidated by the size of my object (a miniature whale shark souvenir from Dumaguete), as I figured that it might be hard to plan how to make something ordinary creative. During and after, though, I realized that creativity need not be planned; sometimes, I just had to rely on the way I choose to see things at that particular moment, which may depend on different factors such as, in this context, lighting, positioning, and my own vantage point/perspective. In relation to our discussion, I saw through this exercise the somehow mutual relationship between perspective and creativity, which was manifested in how the way I saw things depended on my personal creative direction, and such creativity taught me different possible perspectives on the same object as well. 

Before doing the exercise, I decided to go with portable objects of a single color (blue), assigned to me by an online randomizer as my artificial restriction. As I was doing the exercise, I found that the subjects of my photos were in no way connected with one another except for the fact that they are all of the same color. In a similar light, the concept of perspective can allow one to find unity in seemingly disconnected objects or concepts, and that what seem to be “restrictions” can actually serve as guides to find order in chaos, as well as to turn the unapparent into the blatant and obvious.

Take 10 unique and/or abstract photographs of 1 small subject.

I initially thought that taking 10 photos of an object isn't so hard, but when I was doing it, I realized that it was difficult to find 10 unique and abstract photos of an item as small as a correction tape. Instead of taking photos of the correction tape as a whole in different positions, I opted to take photos of its components, sides, or parts to make it even more unique and abstract, even though it felt a little hard to do. Afterwards, while looking through my gallery, I thought that perspectives are essential to creativity since they allow us to completely and intensely study the subject in order to formulate creative solutions to a problem, just like this activity where we used perspectives to find 10 angles/components to photograph.

Just thinking about doing the activity felt very exhausting to me because I had this mindset that I am not creative and I would not get much out of it, however, I decided to do the activity as if I was gazing at clouds and imagining various shapes with them and before I knew it, I had reached the quota for photos. Post-editing was fun for me because I was able to better demonstrate the ideas I visualized while shooting. It was very interesting how many perspectives I could come up with than just the primary purpose of the object which is to be decorative flowers because rather than boxing myself to a certain idea, I was able to explore other prospects and come up with pretty interesting point of views. 

To view clearer pictures: https://www.canva.com/design/DAEdxzyBZTY/gOS_UO62_Tj2wPRjWO7KhA/view?utm_content=DAEdxzyBZTY&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=sharebutton

Restriction: Manual mode only, One prime lens, Only things below you, 2-3pm only

Before starting the challenge, I am used to some restrictions such as the manual mode only but I wanted to put myself within a time limit since I always took my time when photographing, during the exercise I felt lost at first but as I explored my surroundings, I was amazed by what I usually overlooked and had fun, not even feeling stressed with the restrictions. After the photos were taken, I appreciated the surroundings that I usually overlooked since we usually just kept a fast-paced life.

When looking at subjects from a different perspective it gives off a different story or interpretation on how it’s framed, and with the restrictions of the exercise, it helps the audience see what the photographer wanted to emphasize on and tell a story, this gives an entirely different appreciation on the different perspective, on the photographer’s side, the lesson helps them challenge themselves and understand the different stories they may create with only one object.

For a closer look of each photo pls refer to this link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-B_a6es67Tjj_yHitR0k0bftimwkgqKB?usp=sharing

Words I drew out: pixelated, dull, floral, exciting, glass

Parameter: all pictures must be taken in my brother’s room 

Before I started this exercise, I expected that the parameter I set would bring out my creative side since I’m not familiar with my brother’s room and I thought that it would be fairly easy to find things to photograph in my brothers room since there’s a lot of random things inside and I’m bound to find something to photograph. However, as I started doing the exercise, I found myself having a hard time finding things to photograph because there were so many things to choose from and I wasn’t familiar with the things in his room. By the time I finished the exercise, I believe that I  was truly able to find creative things that would match the words I drew out, and I exercised not only my creativity and photography skills but also my perspective taking skill by thinking outside the box and thinking from my brother’s perspective to find things to photograph. 

Link to clearer photos: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-KpCyUhpePkPY1D4N5j6Ht8VmAIY-Yf7