I wanted to this project because I have found that pictures can carry a story and change the way people think and view the world. I wanted to focus on the beauty in Saratoga and share it with people via the internet. My initial plan was to write captions for my pictures and go around Saratoga and to get people to focus on the nature around them. The process started out with a series of failures. Instagram was not functional on the computer I have. Then I made a Facebook account. This account was a separate account named Sara Toga. This was the height of my success. I was posting fairly regularly (for a week) and continued gaining followers. I sent out around 2000 friend requests and about half responded with at least 5 replying each day. This is when a second experiment came into my 20 time. In addition to inspiring people with photography, I wanted to see how far away I could get with a facebook account. After a few days, FB began recommending friends from different countries I continued sending requests to them. Many people blindly friended me and only a few asked who I was. Many people I did not have any mutual friends with and they still friended me. This surprised me because I have always heard about people trusting too much on the internet, but it was not until I saw it for myself that I realized how people hide behind a screen and can trust complete strangers. The page grew quickly, but the security at FB quickly noticed my unusual friending patterns and shut down my account in a week or so. I was discouraged when FB shut me down, but it did give me some hope in humanity in the sense that there is security for fake people on the internet. Coming off of this I was quite frustrated with my project. I had no way to share my pictures and I felt like I had failed the project. When I regained my motivation to continue, I created a page connected to my facebook. This challenged me because I did not want my name to be publicized on the internet. At first, only a few of my friends had seen the page. This page is much less successful than the other page because I cannot send requests to strangers. Then what I was afraid of happened: a stranger started messaging me. I dealt with this by not replying. After I leave this class I will probably discontinue my FB page, but continue to take photos. Toward the end of my project, I turned the focus from the nature in Saratoga to the Saratoga Community. I took photos at events at the High School and elementary school. This is when the story of photos came through to me. I saw how a photo can be a snapshot in time for that person and the community. In the end, I don't think I can ever 'finish' this project; new experiences and moments are happening all the time. This project introduced me to photography and I think I will continue. Looking back at photos of my childhood I see how a series of photos gives you a fuller story that lasts and I hope one day I can make a story of photos to leave behind.
The end of this project I have some photos to show for my success, but not a cohesive page of my photos. This project tried my patience and perseverance. I think I deserve an A because I challenged my comfort zone by putting pictures on the internet linked to my name. I also went out in public to take pictures which also challenged my comfort zone. I could have rebounded from my setbacks faster, but I did still come back from the FB and Instagram failures.
Here are some of the pictures I am the proudest of.
Here is the facebook page.
Ted talk outline
1. Starting goal: take photos of the community to explore beauty around us
2. FB Problems and power
3. Power of a photo
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