These are the five photos I took that are supposed to tell a story of me walking to class. The last one came out blurrier than I expected because people were around me and I didn’t want to look like I was obviously taking a picture of my surroundings/the stranger in front of me.

1. I never considered myself a documentarian. I always had this belief that documentarians were people who went out into the world and captured something on the scale of absurdity and I never considered myself the type of person to go out into the dangers or disappointments of the world, capture it, and bring it back to the people. But, after my first class with this course I realized that my definition is incorrect. I do spend so much of my day capturing my or my friends life. Social media plays the biggest part in me documenting my life specifically the app called Snapchat. Whenever I want to capture a moment I will take my phone out of my pocket, open the app, and start filming. Then I will either share it with my friends by sending the snapchat to them or save it in my snapchat memories. Sometimes when I lay in my bed to wind down, it’s nice to go back through those memories and rewatch all of those moments. I think what’s so special about them is they’re 100% real. The video obtains the power to transport me back to that moment, with those people, and those feelings which I think is a remarkable thing about life and a beneficial thing about the use of social media in my generation’s everyday life.
2. I am double majoring in Film and Media Studies and English with a writing concentration. I think I see the world with an open eye. I have always had a creative side and I think I have always been aware of it. When my friends would participate in “typical” sports I was always the outsider. I did all forms of dance, figure skating, gymnastics. I also got into singing and playing the piano at a very young age and that has been a part of me forever so I think I cherish the artsier side of the world more than others. I love music, film, writing, and art and have always had a deeper interest in those subjects versus science or math. I think my approach to issues and stories is very dependent on the specific issue or story. I think it is very hard for me to read the news frequently because I always find so much negative information and I don’t like to flood myself with negativity. I really try to shy away from that. Many people have their opinions about how it is bad for me not to know what is going on in the world, but really, if something is really important you will hear about it. News travels fast. I think what issues interest me the most is definitely animal abuse, destruction of the environment and global environment, and the issue of equality of women and men in the workforce and just mistreatment of women in general. I think documentaries are very useful and significant. I think they tell a story and spread a message with the goal of making their audience and an audience that may not be interested in the documentary aware of what is being shown. I think I would make a documentary about the horrors and injustice of animal abuse because that is something I feel very passionate about and am shocked that it is still an issue. I don’t know the Lehigh Valley very well, but maybe I would do a documentary on animal shelters or I am also interested in music so maybe find a music producer or label that is based out of the Lehigh Valley and what that might be like.

3.  Our first class activity was to find a partner that you did not know very well, get to know each other well enough in order to have your partner take an accurate portrait of yourself. Josh and I decided to be partners and we were unsure of how to start off so we just started asking random questions to each other. We skipped the small talk and asked the type of questions your best friend or family member would know the answer to. A few questions we asked each other were, “If you had to describe yourself using only 3 adjectives what words would you use?”, “What is your favorite type of takeout cuisine?”, “What is one of the weirdest things that you have ever experienced?” and so on. At first it was a little awkward just because we didn’t really know what kind of questions to ask and we basically just asked questions that would reveal a good chunk of our personality. We both came to a conclusion that a portrait didn’t fit our personalities well so we decided to take a silly selfie instead by a microphone to show that we both love music and that it is an important part of our lives.

4. Framing

I remember doing the framing exercise the first day of Making Media 1. It’s interesting doing it a second time around because I feel like I know what to look for or pay attention to. This time around I enjoyed realizing the power of the frame and how it singles out specific things in the shot. For example, when I took it out on the quad and faced it at Skillman Library, the library was the main focus of the frame and the trees were around it so I thought the frame helped emphasize the object being shown. With that said, as I stepped back, it was interesting to see all the other objects in the surroundings join in.

This was my first experience working as a team on a creative project. At first I was a bit overwhelmed by the prospect of directing, filming, and editing the short documentary in such a short amount of time but I was really impressed by how effectively my group worked together. I loved that the groups were mixed with people from other schools, and I loved getting to talk to Annie and Mekhi and learn a little about their experiences at Muhlenberg and Lehigh. Annie and Aidan were the only two film majors in the group, and took leadership straight away. Aidan was well-versed with the Lafayette FAMS department and offered great suggestions on how to set up the scene and Annie knew how to work the editing program. As a photographer (and not a filmmaker), I have lot of experience behind the camera, but I had never worked with microphones or sound before, and it was a really unique experience. Working with a group to come up with a creative project also was interesting because it was about merging all of our visions together to create a final project. Usually when I am solo behind the camera, if I have an idea for an angle or a shot I can just do it. But here, it was all about selling one’s ideas to the others. We truly had to work together and sometimes it was important to just sit back and let other people run the show, which was a new experience as I usually am the more vocal one in other group projects.

My favorite part of the exercise was watching everyone else’s documentaries and seeing how diverse everyone took the topics. Because a lot of us did pets, I assumed they would all be similar, but it was clear everyone had a different vision of what the prompt was asking. Although all the documentaries were entertaining and well-done, I loved the political documentary group because it was so raw and so powerful. It made me want to watch more. I was thankful for Annie and Aidan’s demonstration of how B-roll can be used for creative effect and I was really proud of our overall final product. My role in the group was just to provide ideas for how to integrate everyone’s stories together as I thought up using pet therapy as a way to weave the stories together. It was quite strange for me to be in front of the camera as I am always behind it, and I found myself unable to talk normally while filming (I felt more like I was acting).

Overall, I really enjoyed this project and it got me even more excited about this class and the future opportunities within it!

Watching Grizzly Man was interesting. When the movie opened with the clip of Tim Treadwell in the wild I was initially hesitant to laugh because I wondered if he had a mental illness of some sort. However as the movie progressed and I gained a better understanding of the person they called “grizzly man”  I’ve come to the conclusion Tim was simply a man with tremendous passion, who didn’t necessarily care for what detractors had to say. The way Tim lived his days on earth is admirable; he found a cause that mattered to him and wholeheartedly devoted himself to it. In America we are taught that fitting in with other humans is important, and that money makes you happy. I believe the reason some people struggle to give Tim credit for the path he walked is because he served as a living antithesis to many mainstream American values.

As Lisa and I were talking, we discovered quickly our mutual interest in and passion about the environment, her as a dual major in environmental studies and film and myself in geology, undecided on a minor. Both of us are intrigued by the connections between humanity and the ‘natural’ world, as well as the lines drawn between these worlds, and so we attempted to take our photos of each other with some manifestation of this in the frame. We decided outdoors was a good idea, and took these photos with stark contrast behind us of the constructed building, wires, and brick, with the greenery.

Framing life was a little intimidating at first. I wasn’t necessarily keen on a bunch of people seeing me walk around Bethlehem staring at random things through a piece of cardboard, but eventually I got over it. In the end, the framing activity led me to the highlight of my Sunday. On the way to my destination I took a path that I had previously walked, but I noticed a few things that I hadn’t before; specifically a sculpture depicting two birds and a pavilion like structure. As I walked farther I found that the framing activity continued to force me to observe the background of my surroundings, unique bricks in the sidewalk, and a mural on the back of a brew house to name a few. By the time my 30 minutes was up I had a bunch of new ideas for video I wanted to shoot in the future, and I ended up at a pretty cool car show at Steelstacks.

• David Owolabi (Lehigh University) is a goofy guy who enjoys playing sports and being with friends.
• Natalie (Lafayette College) likes staying fresh, going to the beach and hanging out with his friends.

It was nice getting to know my classmate Natalie. In the beginning of our interaction we stuck to pretty standard small talk. Soon after Natalie and I started talking we saw the group next to us looking at each other’s Instagram accounts, and decided to do the same. Looking at our Instagram accounts was surprisingly effective. After we scrolled for a few seconds I would say we both had a better idea of each other’s personality than a standard introductory conversation would have afforded. The activity was interesting because in the end we both used the exercise as a means of testing how effective we were at using our social media to represent ourselves.

This series of three photographs is intended to illustrate the drastic influence of humanity on natural systems.

These three photographs were taken at Delaware Canal State Park, by the convergence of the Lehigh and Delaware rivers. The Lehigh pours into the Delaware here, but before it does it must pass over a human-made dam in the river. I took these photos last semester, for a research project on human/nature relationships for my Culture & the Environment course.

The first photograph is of a sign posted by the dam, showing limits on fishing; this demonstrates how humankind has caused problems with overfishing in the river environment. The second photograph shows the illusion of a lack of interference: from the Lehigh, ones perspective is such that the dam is hard to see. The water flows over into the Delaware, the dam almost imperceptible; humans are in denial of the havoc they wreak upon the world. The third photo is of a canal no longer in use, running off from the dam. Man originally had a use for this canal, at least some kind of purpose for the introduction of this dam into this river system; however, that reason is currently moot.

I went out to frame the world just after 5:00 PM, as the sky was clearing from a day of inconsistent rain. I walked the blocks of the streets near my house. Some cars passed and a few people, but not many.

At first, I felt self-conscious with my carelessly carved cardboard frame. However, as time passed and I grew used to holding it, it felt increasingly familiar. I found myself comparing the world inside the frame to some piece of art, not a photograph or a film but something definite that was not quite reality.

The lines of the frame were relatively thick, so there was a definite boundary between what was inside the frame and outside. I found myself paying so much attention to what was inside the frame, that I was less aware of the periphery.

I began to invest a lot in the way in which I framed the world. I moved the frame to include certain things while I was walking, and to frame the path artfully. I tried to move everything I considered important in the scene into the frame. I found through this experience that adding a distinct boundary to ones normal view of the world changes perspective immensely.