歴史文化 １年
First, Mr. Roger showed that the big difference between “taking” photos and “making” Photos. Those differences are whether the person thinks about hot to express the object effectively or not, and how long we take for deciding the object or getting a photo. Then, he decided the 5 elements (and added the last one when we did in the exercise) with the real photos and a quiz, which was a really effective way to understand his concepts. As he said, we ,these days we tend to take photos without deep thought. So from now, remembering the elements, I’ll “make” photos, being careful about angles and how to express what I want to show.

英米　２年
Thank you for your presentation. Before your presentation, I didn´t think taking photos needed so many techniques. I took a photo of something with no special thoughts. I just wanted to do it to save something as a good memory, and I felt like this position was good, so I pushed the button - in the past. However, now I learned how to “make a photo” in your presentation, so I think I can change my old, ‘no-thought photos’. Thank you for your presentation again and thank you for the Black Thunders. (but I didn´t get one.)

英米　４年
I’ve noticed how some of the principals apply to film. In “A bug’s Life” the film makers created a scene that startled me as a child. Rain, something that has never scared me before, was captured on camera as a flood. At the same time, I didn’t notice why I was so scared, but now that I’ve taken this class, I understand that they used a bug’s perspective, making object look larger than how we see them in our everyday lives.

英米　４年
Today´s topic is really interesting because I kind of hate taking pics when I see people taking too many pics or even especially when my mom´s taking a lot of selfies. Now I understand why myself. It´s because most pics look boring and look alike as well. I think the persons´ intention makes the difference. If people just want to share with others on SNS, that could make us take usual (ordinary) pics. On the other hand, if we really want to take pics of the target subjects, we will “make” good one. So, I bet we can be a little bit more thoughtful when taking pics.

スペイン　２年
I loved tour presentation. I really like photography, so those tips you gave us are very interesting and important. You said something that had a great impact on me, which was “make something familiar, unfamiliar.” I think that means we need to get out of our comfort zone and have a new perspective. That can be applied not only for photographs but also to our daily life. Changing angles, putting something on the side, focusing on something or having an empty space are all about having a new point of view and creating something totally new. That lesson is what I learned from your presentation.

中国　２年
He taught us two important things. First, what the difference is between taking photograph and making a photo. Taking a photograph is descriptive, but making a photograph is thoughtful. I haven’t ever noticed those things, so it was very interesting when he told about that. Second, he spoke about seven photograph skills such as the rule of thirds and negative space. The most impressive thing is perspective, because this is most interesting skill and easiest to practice to take photos. So, next time, I want to take the photo by using perspective.

国際関係　４年
Photographic composition taught me a new view of photos and I really enjoyed the lecture. I think I’ll be able to make “interesting photos” with thoughts from now on. However, I personally feel that photos taken spontaneously are more connected to my own personal feelings. They bring back the memory of when it was taken, as spontaneously as it was taken. Maybe these kinds of photos are boring to others, but to each person the photos belong to, it could have a BIG meaning behind it. From now on, even for the photos that seem to be boring, I will not just judge them by whether they are good or bad, liked or not, but as a record of someone’s life - something that doesn’t need to be judged.

留学生
My biggest take away from your lecture is curiosity. Curiosity to try these concepts out myself. I got a concern a few months ago, tried it out a bit, but then life was my life and I left it on the shelf. I actually bought it with my semester in Japan in mind and last Friday I met out to try it. It was dark and rainy and I felt like a desolate vending machine would be a nice subject. I went out, took a bunch of photos, set got nothing I really liked. I think next time I will think more about I want in my picture. Maybe I will only take a few them, get if I will get one I like it will surely have seen worth the effort. Thanks for the inspiration!

留学生
The study of photography as an art brings out several questions, the one that stands out the most for me would be the psychological side of photography. Things like the attempt to portray a feeling, capture it with a mechanical, electronics, or device goes way beyond the push of button. It seems to me that we could learn humanity a bit better if we could just change the angle a little bit, as poetic (and generic) or it may be sound. For instance, Picaso’s photograph was so full of hidden elements, but what actually caught my attention were the wrinkles on his forehead and how expressive they were.

留学生
Hearing your thoughts on photography made me consider some of my own views on it. I’m a person deeply attached to memories, which is obviously not always a good thing, and so often I take away more photos than necessary just for sake of making memories. Even though, hearing about the compositional elements made me realize that I have unconsciously been following some of those rules, so perhaps I’m not that much of a lost cause! But either way, like I said, it made me want to try putting more time into taking pictures. I’ve faced a similar thing in summer school-it’s a very special place with a whole bunch of traditions (including some weird ones) and fascinating events (even weirder), and the second time I came there, I tried taking as many pics and videos as I could, cause those memories are very precious to me. But the people behind those traditions and events weren’t so happy, and for a while I wouldn’t understand why. At that summer school but just this year one of the staff members took a photo of me when I wasn’t looking, and it might’ve been the first time I like myself in someone else’s photo.
Another bow of gratitude to photography from me is in the context of figure skating. Joseph Marthinson (might’ve gotten the spelling wrong) creates absolutely stunning photographs of my favorite figure skaters, even working people who don’t watch figure skating became interested in it. For me, as some in the contest, it feels absolutely magical.
All in all, I don’t think “reacting” and “taking” pictures is necessarily bad, but hearing people who know their stuff ramble on about what photography means to them makes you want to treat it with more respect and consideration, which I think is great.