kristian.n.johnson
all focus on the bird
For the past few years, I have been absolutely obsessed with National Geographic (the channel and the magazine) as well as the Discovery Channel. Watching "Planet Earth"; on Sunday nights two years ago, when the BBC nature documentary series first aired on the Discovery Channel, changed my life. I love nature, and I love animals even more. I stare at National Geographic pictures for hours, wondering how in the world the photographer was so lucky to have captured such a unique, powerful, natural and inspiring photograph. Every photographer in these nature documents as well as the cameramen for nature documentaries has inspired me for this assignment. I have read and watched hundreds of documentaries in my life. I reviewed many of them as study material for my project.
Instantly upon taking this class I knew I wanted to do my final project on nature or animals. I wanted to capture the world's natural beauty and in an ideal world I would have gone on some African safari photographing the wild animals at play or unique scuba diving trip, taking beautiful pictures under water. Unfortunately, I do not have that opportunity right now, and living in NYC I was bummed by the fact that even shooting nature can be difficult in such a concrete world. After much deliberation I decided to take a trip to the Bronx Zoo (not expecting too much because how could a good zoo be in the middle of a city). To my surprise, the Bronx Zoo was fantastic and absolutely huge and is now one of the scenes for my final project. I planned to shoot pictures of different animals in what I feel like is the closest opportunity I have right now to capturing them in their natural environment. Zoos are not about containing animals and holding them captured, it's about protecting wild animals, many of which are endanger or cannot survive in the wild on their own. A zoo is also about education, it is a place where people of all ages can learn about and see other species.
Throughout my experience shooting my final I have decided that animals are VERY tough subjects. A lot of people take pictures of animals at the zoo but I was looking for more then just the standard shot. I wanted angles, details, and special moments that are often hard to capture in a moving animal. These animals are wild, they do not listen to your commands, they do not wait and hold their poses for you, they just roam around, doing whatever they please so it takes a lot of time and effort to get that perfect shot. It also takes fast reaction time, something that took me a long time to master. I think that with the monkey, if you zoom in closely you can see the actual drops of water coming out of his mouth after drinking. It was the perfect moment. Or the snow leopard licking his lips or the seal coming out of the water, they all took precision and timing.
Overall, my audience is everyone who loves animals, ranging from kids to adults. I want to capture special moments with the animals like a monkey taking a drink, a seal splashing in the water, or a lion yawning. These pictures could be in any type of print ranging from the National Geographic, to a zoo pamphlet, to a children's book and so on. I have really enjoyed my final project, although difficult to shoot, animals are beautiful photography subjects.
all focus on the bird
For the past few years, I have been absolutely obsessed with National Geographic (the channel and the magazine) as well as the Discovery Channel. Watching "Planet Earth"; on Sunday nights two years ago, when the BBC nature documentary series first aired on the Discovery Channel, changed my life. I love nature, and I love animals even more. I stare at National Geographic pictures for hours, wondering how in the world the photographer was so lucky to have captured such a unique, powerful, natural and inspiring photograph. Every photographer in these nature documents as well as the cameramen for nature documentaries has inspired me for this assignment. I have read and watched hundreds of documentaries in my life. I reviewed many of them as study material for my project.
Instantly upon taking this class I knew I wanted to do my final project on nature or animals. I wanted to capture the world's natural beauty and in an ideal world I would have gone on some African safari photographing the wild animals at play or unique scuba diving trip, taking beautiful pictures under water. Unfortunately, I do not have that opportunity right now, and living in NYC I was bummed by the fact that even shooting nature can be difficult in such a concrete world. After much deliberation I decided to take a trip to the Bronx Zoo (not expecting too much because how could a good zoo be in the middle of a city). To my surprise, the Bronx Zoo was fantastic and absolutely huge and is now one of the scenes for my final project. I planned to shoot pictures of different animals in what I feel like is the closest opportunity I have right now to capturing them in their natural environment. Zoos are not about containing animals and holding them captured, it's about protecting wild animals, many of which are endanger or cannot survive in the wild on their own. A zoo is also about education, it is a place where people of all ages can learn about and see other species.
Throughout my experience shooting my final I have decided that animals are VERY tough subjects. A lot of people take pictures of animals at the zoo but I was looking for more then just the standard shot. I wanted angles, details, and special moments that are often hard to capture in a moving animal. These animals are wild, they do not listen to your commands, they do not wait and hold their poses for you, they just roam around, doing whatever they please so it takes a lot of time and effort to get that perfect shot. It also takes fast reaction time, something that took me a long time to master. I think that with the monkey, if you zoom in closely you can see the actual drops of water coming out of his mouth after drinking. It was the perfect moment. Or the snow leopard licking his lips or the seal coming out of the water, they all took precision and timing.
Overall, my audience is everyone who loves animals, ranging from kids to adults. I want to capture special moments with the animals like a monkey taking a drink, a seal splashing in the water, or a lion yawning. These pictures could be in any type of print ranging from the National Geographic, to a zoo pamphlet, to a children's book and so on. I have really enjoyed my final project, although difficult to shoot, animals are beautiful photography subjects.