What is larger than the average sports car, and smaller than a modest size home? It has to be interesting enough for a roll of thirty six and be shot from many different angles, at different times of day.

This is what my professor has challanged us with for our point-o-view assignment. Any interesting ideas would be greatly appreciated. I have recieved great ideas for my other assignments, making it more interesting for my professor to critic as well as my fellow students. Thanks for all the great input.

-- martha goldsmith (oscar@unidial.com), October 18, 1999

Answers

How about a tree? Camp out at the zoo for a day and photograph your favorite elephant. Maybe a garbage dumpster covered with graffitti- I don't know...

Where did your professor get his/her teaching degree???

-- Asher (schachter@a1.tch.harvard.edu), October 18, 1999.

Statues, fountains, signs, above ground pools, large rocks, small caves, building materials- beams, etc., big round hay bales, silos, medium size sand dune, small pond, snow drift, large machinery, small aircraft, train car, diner made from rail car. Neat!

-- Conrad Hoffman (choffman@rpa.net), October 18, 1999.

Not bad, we have a rail car here that was made into a country kitchen, but they sort of ruined it by creating some wierd stucco cave on the end of it. But I could probably avoid that. I wish there was something interesting around here, but we are aesthetically chalanged around here. I have to really like the subject also to spend a day shooting it, and a day looking at it in the darkroom, to accomplish two good photos. We just had a hurricane come through here a ruin all the beautiful trees we had and alot of other things too.(I lost a hundred year old oak in my back yard) But thanks I need to be more creative, usually it's not a problem but when someone else tells me what I have to shoot I go blank. I'll try to look for some of those things. We have a small airport here too. That's another good place to look. Thanks again! By the way my professor is really good, but he tries to get us to use divergent thinking and sometimes it just leaves more questions than answers. But maybe that's what I need....

-- martha goldsmith (oscar@unidial.com), October 19, 1999.

I know how you feel. It always seems like there's nothing around here that's interesting. Maybe that's why people travel and why instructional photo books often suggest shooting in ones own backyard. Our fall colors are just peaking here in upstate NY, and a few places are really spectacular. It's a bit challenging, however, as my only interest is B&W. ;-)

-- Conrad Hoffman (choffman@rpa.net), October 19, 1999.

Do you have a macro lens? You could photograph small representative elements of larger object. Sort of like a jigsaw puzzle approach.

I meant no disrespect to your professor. It's great that s/he is creative and unconventional.

-- Asher (schachter@a1.tch.harvard.edu), October 19, 1999.

Is there a zoo nearby? Spend some time with the elephant. That should be fun.

-- Joe Cole (jcole@apha.com), October 19, 1999.

They have a "weird stucco cave" at the end of it - and you WANT to avoid it. Why? That's exactly what makes it different and unique. Don't you get it? Photographing the strange things people do shows the individuality of the world. Where is this thing? If YOU don't want to photograph it, I sure do.

-- steve (s.swinehart@worldnet.att.net), October 22, 1999.

I know it probably sounds closed minded, I'm sorry I didn't mean to convey that. It may have been a creative idea for them to do this but they didn't quite pull it off. It is about fifteen minutes from Cocoa Beach Florida, in Cocoa. (A completely different town, You would miss it if you were to blink.) When I was a kid there was this wonderful old deco era train car. Actually a number of them that was turned into a reasturant called Victoria Station. The cars were still up on thier rims and they were refurbished in the fashion of thier time. It turned into one of my favorite memories. As I thought I was important going there with my Uncle. That was Detroit. I believe. Michigan. I suppose this could be a good representation of tacky. Which does reflect an awful lot of the world today and "Art". After all thats what makes the world unique and interesting! If you would like to photograph it, it's sitting on 520 headed west from Cocoa Beach, towards Orlando.

-- martha goldsmith (oscar@unidial.com), October 23, 1999.

Thanks. I get to Florida at least 2-3 times per year & if I can work out the logistics & time involved to get from Tampa to that area I'll sure do it. I would make the suggestion that you might want to look at some of William Eggelston's work if you want to see how to find subjects in areas that are "aesthetically challanged."

-- steve (s.swinehart@worldnet.att.net), October 25, 1999.