iPhotoing Part 2: What story are you trying to tell?

Like I said briefly at the end of my last post...I strongly believe everyone is inspired by different time periods and seasons when they are editing their photos. 

iPhoto has a series of in-built editing functions that make it easy to choose the mood, time period or season you want to use to "inspire" your photo and change the memory of the event you are representing. 

For the image above - I simply applied some "Antique" and "Fade Colour" effects and suddenly it looks like I am presenting New York in a film noir context.

Now thinking about it...this choice of editing in my photo, reflects my deep interest in the culture of New York from that 1940s/1950s time period, and how I am attempting to represent that through this photo as a homage to Hollywood films of the time. The history of this photo has been re-written to show how I would have loved to experience the region in a different context. 

So the way photos are edited isn't simply for the purposes of looking more GLAMOUROUS or POLISHED, it reflects people's deeper cultural interests.  

So if you weren't thinking it already, yes I was a little inspired by this famous scene in An Affair To Remember. =P

Found this here, good to know someone else still loves the classics.

Okay so maybe what I was thinking with this second edit using the "Adjust" tool was that I just didn't want people to know how cold and cloudy it was...

It's natural that sometimes image edits can be for vanity purposes, but normally there's a deeper cultural message behind it. 

Paul 

Instagramation Part 2

Howdy bloggers

Just thought I'd share this Facebook post that came up on my news feed a few minutes ago, which made me reflect on my Instagram journey so far...

Keeping that comment in mind, here was my first Instagram capture for last week:

 NB: Yes. Those are in fact cheesecake strawberries. 

It's funny isn't it? We embark on a social media journey- one minute Facebook, another minute Instagram- always setting out to either create, nurture or change our social identity. But what is often overlooked is this need to appeal to our cultural genes, the need to show the world how fabulous and cultured we are by using "the visual web" to tell the story of our lives. I'll tell you now, I definitely do not eat cheesecake strawberries every day, nor can I afford to always visit the kind of places that would serve them. But I purposely and selectively included this photo to tell my story. Why? 'cause it makes me look interesting. 

So... there's my answer to the Facebook post. Ba-da-bing ba-da-boom.

xx Nicola

The Facebook Profile Pic.

This video sums it up what i've said below in my posts.

What are the images that make up my online identity?

Today, I took a journey through my Facebook. What photos have i chosen to represent myself online? Which photos construct my online identity?

The profile photo: This photo is 16 months old. It was taken at my Aunt's engagement party, i've cropped my cousins to my left out. It remains my profile photo because i like it. My face is clear of blemishes, i look happy and relaxed. 

The cover photo: This photo was taken during the winter break while road tripping in New Zealand. Where my other cover photos have featured US monuments while on exchange there, or of The Great Hall set up in exam mode many decades ago while i was studying for my exams, this photo is just fun. I chose it to be my cover photo because its fun and happy. 

The album cover photo: This is the only photo i haven't selected, it's been selected for me (ie. the most recently added photo of me). The photo is of a few pieces of furniture - odd? Very. But what very few people could be able to tell from the photo is of the story behind it. When i was packing up my apartment last year upon nearing the end of my semester exchange in North Carolina, i gave my housemate my black lamp. Boring right? This photo, however, is of my housemate's new apartment and she's tagged me to show that she's still using my lamp. Yay!

So they're the 3 photos people come across when they look at my Facebook profile. Are they representative of me? Sort of. They show that i've been travelling - a Giant Kiwifruit one could assume is a tourist attraction. My profile photo shows a happy and relaxed self. Is that me? Currently no. At the moment i'm tired, stressed and my skin's not terribly clear. Why haven't i taken a photo of myself of that? Because i don't want people to see me like that, or think of me as grumbling. I don't want to grumble, although tired and stressed i know it will soon pass and why drag down the mood of an online identity that shows me happy and enjoying myself. 

But I wonder why we do this? Why do we only choose the pretty photos of us, the one's we show us as happy. I know you asked this Anna in your post. I wonder if this is something we should explore? On what grounds do we choose our profile photos? Perhaps how do we construct our online selves in relations to photos? I'm sure this can be put together in nicer words, but it's a good question.