Blog # 14

Street photography is photography that features subjects, such as people, in candid situations in public places.  Matt Stuart is a street photographer.  He takes pictures of genuine moments in the lives of everyday people.

Quite often, the moments that he captures are quite funny and sometimes you'll have to look closely at the photograph to understand why the picture was taken or to get its charm.

Street photography is able to capture those fleeting moments, ones that will probably never come around again.  Also, street photography showcases people when they are most real.  That is because they don't know they are being photographed.  When people don't know they are being observed they are more  themselves but when a person knows they are being looked at, they tend to act differently.  People act in a different way for many reasons: to fit in, to seem more interesting, etc,.  As well, people can act differently in front of different sorts of people.  You may act one way when you are with your parents and another way when you are with your  friends.  I think rarely does a person actually show who they really are to another person unless they are truly comfortable with them.  But street photography is able to show people for what they really are, I think that's why I like it so much.  

Blog # 13

Symmetry is something that is just inherently attractive to the human eye.  How symmetric a person's face is usually dictates how attractive they are, but is a perfectly symmetrical face always beautiful?

Muggum, a iPhone/iPod touch app can show you.  The app bisects a photo of a face down the middle then doubles the image letting you see what a person would look like if either side of their face were completely symmetrical.  The app has already been used on photos of many celebrities, people who are considered to be attractive, to varying results.  

Both are, by general consensus, attractive women but their completely symmetrical faces are not quite what their "imperfect" face is.  In my opinion, neither women need the symmetry.  

This app is obviously not perfect and is probably highly ineffective due to camera angle, a person's expression, etc., but what I'm trying to say is, I think being perfectly symmetrical is not all it's made out to be.  In fact, I think it's impossible.  Everybody has something that makes them "imperfect" but I don't think that is a bad thing.  If you have a crooked smile or maybe one of your eyes is a tiny bit bigger than the other you shouldn't be self-conscious but I know that not being self-conscious is hard in today's society where beauty is everything.