Description:

Like my interest in videography, I have also developed a keen interest in photography. The two of them may sound similar but has a lot of differences. The process of both and end result is very distinct. Photography being a visual art has a lot to express in a subtle way. Each photo expresses a mood or a theme or an expression, which needs to be analyzed. I do this out of self-interest, not to make any sorts of profits. To edit photos, set the perfect exposure, and to be able to focus perfectly is an art which is not possessed by everyone. The perfect click gives me joy and can express a lot of things.

Reflection:

LO 1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

Some people might not know the difference between photography and videography. But as I am a creator of both the art forms I do know and let me tell you there are a lot of differences. The preparation, flow, settings in the camera, editing and polishing of the pieces are very different. I came to know my strengths and weaknesses from practicing both the form of artwork. Photography may seem an easy job to do; nowadays a bunch of teenagers with camera call themselves photographers. But that is not all to it, Photography includes a lot of settings to mess with and each one should be accurate like focus, exposure, ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. I found that I am good at clicking landscape photos where there is nature in the frame because nature takes time to change and I can set the perfect shot by changing a few functions for a perfect photo. I am building up on that strength of mine and constantly learning in the process too.

LO 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

After you click a perfect photo one needs to polish and edit it a bit to make it appealing to your viewers’ eyes. To complete all of the above processes and finally being ready with the photo is a tiring task when you have hundreds, or thousands of photos to go through. After all of the hard work you need to find a platform to post your photos where you might or might not find enough viewers. This became difficult to handle because not finding enough or no viewers for your work is a bit depressing. But with time and patience, I learned to ignore this factor and also the negative comments from my peers or strangers. In the beginning, I did not know what a single term means in a camera. Which was a huge problem for me because there are like 100 options to choose from in a camera. I learned about all the functions with time as I used my camera more and more. Viewing videos on what some like aperture means on Youtube helped me overcome this challenge to some extent. The main help was using of a camera.

LO 4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

Photography is an activity wherein people take years to shoot a perfect photo of a thing. So I started clicking photos about 2 years ago when I got my first professional-beginner camera. I continue to click photos till date and wish to continue this activity for as long as possible. I enjoy a lot when showing the world through my lens. This shows my commitment to this activity and this artwork. As I said earlier I do get negative comments on my works and I try to not take it personally and improvise next time onwards. This allows me to learn new things in photography. For example, in one of the TOK classes when we were taught about Arts, we were supposed to click pictures and I shot a picture of our school showcasing the symmetry of the school. The judges did not see what I saw and what I intended to show and gave me poor comments. I learned from that incident to explain your artwork as extensively as possible.

Final take away:

This particular activity is based on my passion and wishes. No one tells me to work on it and I enjoy a lot clicking photos. I am on a learning stage where I experiment a lot with changing the exposure, aperture, ISO, and focus. I am no master of photography but I can safely say I click decent quality photos. I share my work regularly on social media, with my friends and sometimes print them for my own use. Even after all these difficulties and challenges, I continue to click some photos every now and then.