Chapter 5.
Do you love photography? Do you sometimes take the time to set up that ‘perfect shot’ only to be disappointed with the results? If you’re like many of us, you value your photos greatly, but often wish that they had turned out better. Here are some great tips for helping you take better photos, both of people and of cities. Follow them carefully and your next shots will be your best!
Ⅰ. Taking Great Shots of People
Indoor Backgrounds
Backgrounds are quite challenging for portrait photographers because they often get in the way of capturing the true personality and feeling of the person. That’s why so many portrait photographers use plain backgrounds. In a studio, the least expensive option is to use a seamless background made of paper. As for colors, stick with black for dramatic portraits or white for everything else.
Outdoor Backgrounds
When shooting portraits outdoors, you have to be very careful about the background. The rule for outdoor portraits is to keep the background as simple as possible. The simpler the background, the stronger your portrait will be. Remember, when you are shooting outdoor portraits, less is more.
Outdoor Lighting
Although there’s plenty of light for shooting portraits outdoors in the middle of the day, it can often cause shadows on your subject’s face. Also, the sun can cause your subject to squint and sweat. So, if you want great outdoor portraits at two o’clock in the afternoon, be sure that your subject is in the shade, where the light and the shadows are much softer. The photos above show the advantage of doing this. The shot on the left was taken in direct sunlight and the shot on the right was taken one minute later less than 30 feet away, but in the shade. Notice how much softer and warmer the light is, how bright the color is, and how much better the model looks.
Where to Focus
Today, most professional portrait photographers say that it is best to focus directly on the subject’s eyes. This will give you a nice level of sharpness throughout the face, especially in the eyes, which is absolutely critical.
Ⅱ. Taking Great Shots in Cities
What Time to Shoot
Many pros prefer to shoot urban and travel shots at dawn for two reasons: 1) the light is perfect and 2) the streets are usually empty. You only have a limited time to shoot before the sun gets too bright in the sky and the streets start to fill with traffic, so get everything ready before sunrise. Another great time to shoot is at dusk. The lighting will be great; however, the streets won’t be as empty. There are still some good opportunities to shoot urban and people shots during the day, because cities often have lots of open shade thanks to the tall buildings in downtown areas. Afternoon is a perfect time to shoot beautiful gates, windows, children, or anything you can find in open shade.
Look for Bold, Vivid Colors
One of the things to look for when you’re shooting urban and travel shots is the bold, vivid colors of the city. You’ll often find brilliantly colored walls, doors, shops and cars. Look for brightly painted walls with someone working or standing in front of them. The combination of a bright yellow car parked in front of a bright blue wall, for example, makes for a great photo.
Don’t Try to Capture It All: Shoot the Details
Many photographers try to capture too much when they take a picture of a large building. The pros only shoot the details. For example, instead of trying to capture the entire cathedral at Notre Dame in Paris, just capture details that suggest the whole -- shoot the doors, a window, or a gargoyle, rather than trying to capture the entire structure at once. Let your photo suggest the height or the craftsmanship; the person looking at the photo can imagine the rest.
Shoot the Signs. You’ll Thank Yourself Later
When you’re shooting a cathedral, school, or building, be sure to take a picture of its sign. Later on you may forget its name, and without a lot of research, you may be out of luck. That is, unless you took a shot of the sign with its name on it.
Chapter 6
If you understand every word in a text but still fail to understand its overall meaning, you’re probably having trouble with the idioms. For example, suppose you read the following: Nobody relies on him. He tells cock and bull stories and always jumps on the bandwagon. One good thing about him is that he is a really good soccer player. He even got a hat trick in his last game! He asked me if I would like to watch his next game, but I told him that I’d take a rain check. Do you think this story is about a soccer player who likes to tell stories about cocks and bulls and ride in wagons? If so, you aren’t familiar with the idioms in it. Idioms are commonly used words and phrases which native speakers of English take for granted, as they have been using them for their entire lives. The individual words used in the idiom, however, have absolutely nothing to do with its meaning, or with the context of the conversation. However, have you ever wondered where those phrases came from in the first place and why they are used?
A hat trick is the common phrase used to mean three of anything, but is usually associated with goals scored by soccer players. But the origin of the phrase is found in a different sport, cricket. Traditionally any bowler who got three batsmen out with three consecutive deliveries would be awarded a new cricket cap by his team. This, therefore, became known as a ‘hat trick.’ The term ‘hat trick’ was first used in the 1870s, but is now used for any sport in which a player does something three times, such as scoring three goals in one game of soccer. Supporters at cricket games seldom see a hat trick, but in soccer it is far easier to do and thus much more common.
A Cock and Bull story is likely to be untrue and without any real facts supporting it. There are many stories about the origin of this idiom, but the most believable one is the following one. Stony Stratford is a Buckinghamshire town located almost exactly halfway between London and Birmingham and Oxford and Cambridge respectively. During the great coaching era of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the town was an important and busy stopover point for travelers, tradesmen and mail coaches. The two main inns in the town were called The Cock and The Bull and both became known throughout the country as the center of all news traveling either on foot or by horse. The competing inns established a rivalry as to which could come up with the most exciting travelers' tales to be passed on to the major cities and as a result many unbelievable stories were dismissed as 'Cock and Bull' tales.
Take a rain check is a term used when refusing an invitation on one occasion, but keeping it open for another day. The phrase began during the 19th century when American baseball clubs noticed smaller crowds during the colder months. It became obvious that the fans were not interested in games played on cold or wet days, especially if there was any chance of bad weather stopping play. That was until one bright marketing person came up with the idea of promising a ‘rain check’ to any fan who wanted to leave the game because of bad weather. The ‘rain check’ became a safety net for fans as it let them attend a game on another day if the one they paid for was rained out, ensuring their entry fee had not been wasted. The club, therefore, not only kept the money, but also ensured the fan would return again another day so they retained his goodwill.
To jump on the bandwagon means to join in, often uninvited, an already successful venture and gain some sort of self-benefit. In the Deep South of America traveling bands often performed on their wagons in front of political or other gatherings. Usually the bands would be the highlight of an event, attracting the largest crowds, so it was common for political or religious leaders to climb up on the wagon, interrupting the music and gain an immediate captive audience. Crowds would often put up with this knowing the musicians would return soon. The idea of jumping on the bandwagon is not always seen as positive. Some think it shows a superficial desire to be on the winning side, regardless of one’s true personal beliefs. Others see it as a last minute switch by those seeking safety in numbers.
Chapter 7
There’s a lot that happens here during the year but what brought us here was the famous La Tomatina, the famous food fight held on the last Wednesday of August each year in the town of Bunol, near Valencia. John and I (Oh, my name is Mike) had organized our trip well in advance about one month. All the hotels were fully booked, of course, because every backpacker in Spain was there. We managed to book into a hotel through the Internet at the reasonable price of 50 euros per night (the usual price is 80 euros). We arrived at Valencia the night before, and it seemed that the hotel was full of people just like us, backpackers. The hotel wasn’t in Valencia, but there was a subway station just a 2 minute walk away, and it was only 6 stops to the old part of town where you’ll find the restaurants and shops as well as the Valencia Central Station. For our first dinner, we ate tapas and had a delicious curry.
Tomato Fight
The tomato fight in Bunol has been a tradition since 1944 or 1945. No one is completely certain how this event originated, but one of the most popular theories is that angry citizens attacked city councilmen with tomatoes during a town celebration. On the day of the event, we got up very early in the morning at 5:15, and were thinking that we were smart because we would get ahead of the huge crowd of people who catch the train to the event. We got a taxi at 5:45 a.m. and headed to the train station in the middle of Valencia, but to our disappointment it was already packed! We had to wait for the next train, which left at 7:08 a.m. While waiting, we took some photos and talked with some backpackers from France and Brazil. They were friendly and funny, though we had to use a lot of gestures to understand each other!
We arrived at Bunol at approximately 8 a.m. The sun shone brightly and the gentle anticipation of the festival had already filled the streets. The festival didn’t start till 11 a.m., so we had a fair bit of time to spend. We walked down a steep hill to get to the city center and had some delicious pasta at a street cafe. We also bought a waterproof bag with a disposable waterproof camera and some goggles, just in case! We then headed to the street where it all happens at about 10 a.m.Tomato fighting is a battle with no winners, just one where everyone has a great time! By 11 a.m. everyone’s inhibitions had come undone. “Ol?! Ol? Ol?!” chanted the excited crowd, in anticipation of the reverberating cannon shot that would signal the beginning of the tomato fight! While the crowd chanted, the first truck arrived. There were about 10 people on the truck who constantly threw handfuls of tomatoes to everyone. This is where it got exciting; every 5 seconds you would get a tomato to the head! Five massive tomato-filled rockets were fired into the skies above the town. Three more trucks followed, and an hour of completely chaotic entertainment ensued! From that point on, it was every man, woman and child for themselves as the event turned into a tomato slinging battle site. About 275,000 pounds (about 125,000 kilos) of tomatoes in total were thrown as the streets turned into rivers of tomato-slimed juice.
As chaotic as the event is, there are a few rules you’re expected to follow, according to the Bunol Town Council: It’s illegal to bring any kinds of bottles or other objects that could cause harm. Tomatoes must be squashed before throwing them so that no one becomes injured. As soon as the 2nd rocket is fired you must stop throwing tomatoes. To date, the town claims to be free of accidents during the tomato throwing festival. I was having a great time throwing tomatoes as hard as I could every which way. John was much happier, except for the fact that he was feeling a bit ill from the strong tomato smell. We were completely covered in tomatoes even though we weren’t there for that long, but we still experienced what it was all about.
Unfortunately we couldn’t take many pictures, as I didn’t want to risk my digital camera getting destroyed. After the tomato fight we decided to take a shower, which was freezing yet refreshing. We got all cleaned up and headed back to the train up at the top of a huge hill, which completely drained us. We caught our train back home, which was packed, as you would expect, and went back to our hotel for a nice afternoon nap. We only planned to stay in Valencia for 2 nights, so on what was meant to be our last night, we went out for some traditional Spanish cuisine: a jug of sangria and a big plate of paella! Valencia is said to be the original home of paella. We could only find flights from Barcelona to Warsaw, so we had to get up extremely early yet again for the third time that week to catch a train to Barcelona. So our two weeks in Spain had come to an end. We had a great time and I think we both would like to return one day. I know John would really love to get back to La Tomatina in the future and stay in the tomato fight for the full hour next time.
Chapter 10
Media influence has grown rapidly with the advance of technology. First there was the telegraph, then the radio, the newspaper, television and now the Internet. We live in a society that depends on information and communication to keep moving in the right direction and fulfill necessities of life such as work, entertainment, health care and education. In this chapter, we’ll have a chance to think about the influence of the media on our life.
1. What is Mass Media?
Mass media includes newspapers, magazines, television, the Internet, and so on. It informs people about events that they would otherwise know little about. Mass media communication is usually fast, because the media will report an important event as quickly as possible after it happens. In fact, some television reporting is live; that is, the viewers can witness an event as it happens. It is also transient; that is, it doesn’t focus on one event for a long time. This is captured well in the expression “there is nothing as old as yesterday’s news.”
2. The Benefits of Mass Media
The media can be very helpful to people (and their children) who carefully choose what they watch. With high-quality programming in various fields of study -- science, medicine, nature, history, or the arts -- TV, videotapes, and DVDs increase the knowledge of people of all educational backgrounds; they can also improve a person’s thinking ability. Moreover, television and other media benefit elderly people who can’t go out often, as well as patients in hospitals and residents of nursing facilities. Additionally, it offers language learners the advantage of real-life audio-visual instruction and aural comprehension practice at their convenience. And of course, media can provide almost everyone with good entertainment -- a pleasant way to relax and spend free time at home.
3. Impacts of Mass Media
(1) The Media Replaces Other Activities
Some people watch ‘the tube’ for more hours in a day than they do anything else. In a large number of homes, TV sets -- as many as five or more in a single household -- are always on. Many people also spend hours playing games or surfing the Internet on their computers; they download music, movies, and other forms of entertainment. Instead of spending time taking care of their kids, parents often use a video screen as an ‘electronic baby-sitter.’ As a result, television and video can easily replace family communication, physical activity and other interests.
(2) The Effects of Violence in the Media
When we watch TV or a movie, we often see a lot of violent images. The problem with this is that it can have a negative impact on us. Our values and beliefs can become aggressive or we can lose our sense of reality. In past years there have been some cases of kids bringing a gun to school and even hurting others with it. Those kids may have been exposed to violent video games and images of war. Another problem is that real war is used as a form of entertainment by the media. We should be aware that war is not a form of entertainment and that there is no win or lose like in video games. It is also crucial to understand that in a real war, everyone loses.
(3) Dissatisfaction with Normal Living
Because of the visual media, some people may become dissatisfied with their own lives. To these people, everyday life seems mundane when compared to that seen in movies or TV dramas. They realize they aren’t having as much fun or excitement in their lives as the characters they see in the movies or on TV. In addition, average people with normal lives may envy famous media personalities, who seem to make large amounts of money and get lots of attention. Also, media watchers might feel depressed when they can’t take care of situations in real life as well as the characters on TV do. On screen, they notice, actors can solve serious problems in one hour or half-hour programs -- or in twenty second commercials!
(4) Media Influences on Buying Decisions
The media makes billions of dollars from the advertising they sell. We buy what we see on TV, what our favorite celebrities promote and what is considered acceptable by society based on the styles that the media has imposed on us. We want to be accepted by our peers and neighbors. We want to be loved and be successful. The media creates the ideal image of beautiful men and women and tells us the characteristics of a successful person. We can see it in movies and on TV. It’s a subliminal way to tell us that if we are not like them, we are not cool, so it’s time to buy the stuff they buy and look like them.
4. How should We Accept the Media?
Should you always believe what you see or hear in the media? What is presented as fact is not always so. Sometimes errors occur because the reporters did not check the facts properly. So it’s up to us to use information from the media properly. The media goes through the air, and in fact, is so crucial that we can’t live without it. Because it has such a big influence on us, we must be careful when we make decisions based on it. We must also try to avoid being overexposed to the media because it is likely to distract us from our real life and put us into a fantasy world.
