{"id":1135,"date":"2018-07-23T07:52:14","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T07:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kellyfish.me\/?p=1135"},"modified":"2018-11-04T21:11:56","modified_gmt":"2018-11-04T21:11:56","slug":"through-the-eyes-of-a-photographer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kellyfish.me\/index.php\/2018\/07\/23\/through-the-eyes-of-a-photographer\/","title":{"rendered":"Through the Eyes of a Photographer"},"content":{"rendered":"

I scope out a location and raise my camera to frame the scene. My left hand turns the lens to focus the image while my right scrolls the command dial to change the shutter speed. I press the release button to freeze a moment in time.<\/span><\/p>\n

I signed up for a photography course at school in 8th grade. I had never tried photography before, and the dial preferences and various lenses confused yet intrigued me. When studying the interior processes of how a camera takes a photo, I was reminded of a human eye. The aperture of a camera mirrors the iris dilates and contracts the pupil. Both film in cameras and the retina in eyes are sensitive to light. The lens of an eye focuses objects we see, just like how the lens of a camera can be twisted to sharpen an image. Thinking about photography with the help of biological systems allowed me to master the use of a camera quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, I see photography not just as a form of skillfully capturing an image, but as an art that requires unusual perspectives and angles. It both complements and enhances my scientific interest, much like a camera being simultaneous replication and extension of a human body. When viewing the world both with and without a lens, I like to seek out the individuality of a scene. With architecture, I consider the logic behind the dome-shaped Palace of Fine Arts, or the chemical alterations of chipped paint on century-old buildings in the Forbidden City. When it comes to nature, I focus on the complexity of a chrysanthemum flower, or the natural occurrences that have formed the grand landscapes of Yosemite. Photographing during leisure time, I consciously seek out unusual angles or details. I adore accentuating symmetries in my photos. With effects like bokeh and long exposure, I can turn a simple scene into a fantasy world, and trick viewers’ eyes with lights and colors.<\/span><\/p>\n

With photography, I have learned to uniquely capture the fleeting moments of sunsets, the festivities of holidays, and the majestic views of nature. The texture of the lens and the sound of a rapid shutter release have become commonplace to me. However, beyond the visual creativity, photography allows me to interpret all aspects of life through a finely tuned \u2018lens\u2019. The frozen images are slices of time, and stimulate my thinking about the rotation of the earth, the growth of biological lives or the decaying power of natural laws underneath those beauties. They run in parallel to the astronomer that stares at stars through telescope, the chemist that synthesizes compounds through mixing of solutions, or the biologist that peeks into the cells through microscope. It helps me better understand what is seemingly insignificant, and broadening what I had thought to be the limits of visual and mental perspectives.<\/span><\/p>\n

Time rushes by during these moments. With little time in the day, I prioritize my work, allowing for instances of entertainment, excitement, and laughter.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I scope out a location and raise my camera to frame the scene. My left hand turns the lens to focus the image while my right scrolls the command dial to change the shutter speed. I press the release button to freeze a moment in time. I signed up for a photography course at school […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kellyfish.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kellyfish.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kellyfish.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kellyfish.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kellyfish.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1135"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kellyfish.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1322,"href":"https:\/\/kellyfish.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135\/revisions\/1322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kellyfish.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kellyfish.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kellyfish.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}