Unit 4: Photographer Research Project Introduction

Lennart Nilsson

The photographer that I chose for the unit 4 photographer research project is Lennart Nilsson. Nilsson was born in 1922 and began his career in photojournalism in the mid-1940s as a freelance photographer.  

Cover of LIFE magazine April 30, 1965 photographed by Nilsson

  He is known as a pioneer in medical photography and became well-known with his cover story in LIFE magazine in 1965 titled "The Drama of Life before Birth" and his famous book "A Child is Born" published in the same year.  These featured amazing photographs of human embryos.  Nilsson continued with macro photography with the focus on human life and close-up views of things inside the human body.
 

Inside LIFE magazine April 30, 1965 issue; Photos by Nilsson

He experimented with photography and light microscopy to create his beautiful photographs and later used a scanning electron microscope in his work.  He has received numerous awards and his work can be found in a number of museums and institutions around the world.

Inside LIFE magazine April 30, 1965 issue; Photos by Nilsson

I admire Nilsson as a photographer and artist and appreciate his fascination with the wonders that the human body can hold.  As a soon-to-be nurse, I share the same appreciation which is probably what drew me to research Nilsson.  I am excited to share with you what I learn about him.

Unit 3: Outdoor Photo

Revised Photo

Original Photo

This is a photograph of one of my garden cherubs in the snow.  As you can see, in the original photo the cherub got washed out a lot. In order to get the statue to stand out more from the white of the snow, I increased the shadows all the way.  I then cropped it slightly to remove some of the excess snow.

Unit 3: Indoor Photo

Revised Photo

Original Photo

For this indoor photo, my subject is my dog Baby.  She was standing at the top of the staircase and had heard something that peaked her interest outside.  She is looking at the front door.  I did not use flash in this picture, so I increased the highlights and fill light to make it look as bright as it was in person.  I straightened the photo a bit to make the stairs parallel with the bottom of the photo, and then I cropped it a little to get rid of the ceiling that was showing.

Unit 3: My Name in Images

This is my name, Maria, in images from pictures that I took from around my house.  

The 'M' is from the top of a vanity in our guestroom:

The first 'A' is the handle of my coffeepot:

The 'R' is a portion of a chandelier:

 

The 'I' is a bannister in the staircase:

 The final 'A' is a hanger hung on a closet door:

For each of these images, I cropped, straightened, and adjusted the highlights and shadows until I got an image I liked.  I grouped all five images together in PowerPoint, and then I cropped it to be 10" wide.

Unit 2: Bold Cropping

Revision

Original

I chose this picture to crop because I felt as though it had a lot of extraneous details that distracted from the central focus of the picture which is the kids.  I wanted to crop out the mail box on the right and most of the house in the background on the left.  The result shows a better representation of what was really going on in this picture, which was kids being kids.

Unit 2: Lightening Assignment

 

Revision

  

Original 

I took this picture last summer after a sidewalk paint fight between my son and his girlfriend.  What I especially like about this picture is the colorful splashes of liquid chalk on their skin and the goofy expression on my son's face.  The one thing that the original photo did not show was the warm, natural sunlight that was shining on them at the time of this photo.  I chose to edit this photograph in Picasa by adjusting the fill light, highlights, shadows, and color temperature until I reached the desired effect.  Lastly, I cropped the photo to focus in on their faces.  I think the resulting picture is much brighter and more cheerful: it is more representative of that delightful summer day.