Thought Piece #1

            After reading LaBelle talking about how he keeps a notebook everywhere and just writes down every idea he has, it made me think about how many ideas I have had and just forgotten because I didn’t write them down somewhere. I think that maybe I should start writing down ideas that I have so that they can actually become something instead of letting them float off into the abyss. I have thought about keeping a notebook or even just a pen on me at all times and just fail to do so.

            I found his picture story of the older couple where the wife had multiple sclerosis very interesting because I see a relationship where one person has MS all the time. I find it really interesting and heartwarming to see how loving and caring the other person in the relationship is toward the one with MS. I have never seen one where the other is discouraging about the disease. It also gave me a really good example of a picture story that doesn’t necessarily have this big hoorah ending.

            The story he told about the little girl that lost her life due to what was supposed to be a life saving transplant was appalling to me. I think that it is absolutely ridiculous that the journalist just barged in like that and pretty much demanded answers. I genuinely don’t understand how someone could have possible thought they were in the right for doing that and interrupting that moment for the parents. I love how he brought up the fact that there are times to be taking photos and times to not be, I feel like sometimes people just don’t know if they should or shouldn’t be putting themselves into the middle of things to get a shot or answer that they want.

            The picture essay confused me a little bit, even with the captions separating them into sections because my brain just couldn’t connect the pictures for the life of me. I think it could be a really cool concept but I just had an issue trying to see how the photographs could be related to each other. Obviously, after reading the captions, I understood it a little bit more but it still felt like it was just kind of all over the place in my mind.

            I really like that he mentioned how its important to make time to shoot fun photographs. To not make your life just constantly work work work but to make time for the photos you enjoy. I really like that he added that in because it seems like there’s a lot of things that just try to make you do work that you don’t necessarily want to do and that sometimes is discouraging. But I love being able to know that it is okay to want to do what I want to do and make the time for it. Which, obviously, I knew this before reading that but sometimes it gets into my head that I need to take the things that need taken rather than the fun things.

            I think that getting to see some examples of picture stories apart from the ones from other students was really helpful for me to kind of visualize and ideate a little further on the topics that I already have in mind. It also helped me see that the photos don’t necessarily have to be super similar as long as they are in the same story and add some depth to it in a way.