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Seize the moo-ment!
I posted the following image in the #storytelling channel of the Pilot Group's Discord Server.
I was only planning to send it on the #anything-goes channel but I realized it would be funnier if I told it as a joke.
Compositionally, a subtle frame within a frame can be noticed in the image, the tree to the foreground bushes encircles the cow emphasizing its position naturally. Vibrant colors fill the page and there is a variation in texture across the numerous greens. Even the sky does not showcase a still blue, rather it is painted with soft hues of white that vary in intensity.
These visual elements all form together to frame the cow in a fashion similar to Disney princesses, it is as if my camera and nature coincided to capture the subject in a well-lit and well-framed environment. Upon further inspection, three birds can also be seen on the back of the cow, further completing the package. If I were to actually name this photograph instead of using it as an entry to a punchline, I would call it the "Cow Princess."
However, setting aside the image's aesthetics, Cow Princess also holds a sentimental value that reflects a significant moment in time — before I underwent a point of no return. which will be discussed below.
I shot this image with my phone, the Mi 9T, while on my daily run. This was back when the Pilot Group's Discord channel recently went through its final stages of design. After weeks of online testing, the server incorporated forum channels that made the flow of discussion much easier, the number of active participants increased, and things were starting to settle down.
I hoped this to be the case but fate instead capriciously tug me to the other side — towards chaos. An incident had occurred, my laptop of seven years suddenly bricked and many of my unbacked files were gone. I have tried numerous ways of recovering the said files but all proved to be ineffective. If Tom Ang said, a single "picture can be worth far more than a thousand words," then with the gargantuan number of my files irrevocably gone, I've lost hundreds of thousands more.
Cow Princess was one of the few that remained in my possession seeing that I uploaded it digitally right before the incident occurred. It is not only an image that I find beautiful but it is also one of the remaining tethers to a world that I will no longer be able to see.
We capture timeless moments in images. They are visual media that can serve to shelter us in comfort when we feel blue. They are used as means of looking back into the past or cementing an iconic memory to share with others. Many of the deleted images hold great importance to me, so much so that a part of me beat myself up for being complacent and not backing it up in the first place. The incident felt like several rooms in my house were burnt to dust, I could reminisce but a clear picture will never arrive.
I record my past in extreme detail due to personal circumstances in my life. I write an extensive journal detailing my days, and I take several images that capture many of the events in my life. For a person like me, losing those data means losing a part of yourself — a testament to the damage a single-bricked laptop can do.
By exhausting all available options, there is nothing else to do but grieve for what is gone. Days and weeks passed and things did get better and I got to create new memories — and even better images, now that I have improved as a photographer and also upgraded my camera. Still, I do feel bittersweet when comparing Cow Princess with my recent shots.
Reflecting on past occurrences has also prompted me to reflect on the course as a whole, I enrolled in the pilot group expecting Zoom calls and informal discussions on photography. What I got back, however, was much more fruitful; newfound friends, the possibility of future creative collaborations, and a deeper appreciation for the craft of taking photographs.
I discussed in my self-introduction that I would need a refresher course for the fundamentals of photography (composition and exposure) and I would want to learn more about lighting in the course. Now that I've finished it, I can say with complete certainty that I have securely accomplished my first goal. As for my second goal, taking pictures of the assignments, specifically the Bucketlist and the Self-portraiture, allowed me to gain significant growth in my understanding of lighting. A solid proof of my improvement in lighting is my perfectly lit self-portraiture headshot.
The pilot group for me is a huge success, I was able to make the most of the opportunity and improve my photography to a higher level. However, a large part of my success comes from the fact that I was very active in the class. As a moderator that was tasked to improve the discussion in class, I adjusted my interaction with my peers based on the feedback I'm getting from them.
During the first few weeks, I was focused on giving much of what I know to help my classmates ease their way through photography. Moving forward, however, I and the other moderators find that heavy text tends to push away other students as it does require much more effort to get into, in comparison to the average message. Thus, I transitioned to focus instead on fostering engagement in the pilot group, trying to utilize my extraversion to build relationships with my classmates.
As time progressed, I stayed in the voice channel for long periods of time, giving my peers and the class tutor a unique type of interaction that one would not normally find in a normal class — that is, instant two-way feedback that is not constrained by academic boundaries. In other words, an informal discussion is held in the Discord voice channels, with topics ranging from course materials and course activities to daily life and leisure. This flexible nature of communication is what I firmly believe to be the strongest asset of the Pilot Group.
By comparing this much more flexible mode of communication to the main class's rigid forum-based discussion, it is very much a one-sided battle in favor of the Pilot Group. Even though there are much better students in the main class, the amount of learning one receives is significantly much more in the Pilot Group. This does not even consider the Face-to-Face session which was attended by 90% of the pilot group participants.
The only caveat to this learning process is that the much more concentrated amount of learning will require more time from its participants in comparison to students from the main class. I am quite well aware of this trade and will gladly accept it. This is because besides the higher concentration of learning a participant receives, it is also more fun as time can also be spent enjoying non-academic activities with peers in the Pilot Group.
The Cow Princess now stands to me, not just as a reminder of a difficult event but also as a time when I have yet to see the fruits of joining the MMS 173 2023 Pilot Group. It is crazy to think about how outside events reshape the context of an image, from a representation of grief to a budding ray of hope, well beyond its intended meaning of a cow mixed in greens and blues.
MMS 173 Assignment 4: One-shot Summary
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