On March 28th, 2020 I took pictures of my roommate Depeng Fang aka “Alan”, preparing himself to go out and defeat COVID-19. We have been very cautions when we go out in public to avoid spread of the Corona. The reason why I did this story is to show how bad this virus had really gotten and everyone needs to take it seriously. Alan is from China and he states that is family have been quarantined for the past 2 months and this has just begun in America. Please stay home and take this seriously.

On March 18th, 2020 I finally went outside to shoot photos after the recent outbreak of the Corona Virus. The person you seen in these photos is a woman named Jenny, and she enjoys going to Old Cal Coffee since she moved here in Southern California. During this shoot, we were the only people there at Old Cal Coffee since everyone else was in there homes isolating themselves. It felt very different from most photo shoots, it almost felt like we where at a movie set and the streets had to be clear in order to get the shot. She told me she loves drinking coffee and relaxing at Old Cal Coffee. So she posed for and I shot her drinking coffee while she experiences the rainy weather and the lonely peaceful streets of San Marcos. This is her environment where she clears her mind. If you love coffee runs, you will for sure get along with Jenny!

The group discussion about our views on the book, “Letters To a Young Artist”, was very inspiring and memorable. I enjoyed hearing everyone’s obstacles in life of being an artist and trying to overcome them to live a happier life. Just like Professor Nancy diBenedetton said, “everyone is an artist” and everyone is able to create something creative. We just have to reach to that level of higher creativity and release what we truly love. The book talks about being obsessed with your craft and how that will take an artist far. Also its all about the process and journey of finding the greater me. As of right now its unknown, but since I had that discussion with the class I looked deep into it and now I have a better direction to my goals.

The TED Talk was a bit hard to understand but what I got from it was that humans are creative and with great abilities. Just like the artist that created one of the biggest cameras, taking huge beautiful pictures of anything and selling them. I recently just saw a YouTube video where an Artist makes a living off balancing rocks, creating impossible sculptures with rocks stacked on each other defying gravity. It’s amazing what humans are capable of doing.

March 2nd, 2020 is when our photo class took a class field trip to Walnut Grove Park to explore and shoot pictures of the dead park. The park was very dried up and boring but that’s what gave us the students a chance to be creative. I tried to capture different angles and compositions than anyone else. I used the mountains, grass, tree branch, flag pole, and Justin as my subjects. The views were a bit boring but behind the lens it shows a new perspective.

I enjoyed watching “Everybody Street” documentary because I love street photography. Street photography inspired me to shoot pictures and videos. The photographers in this documentary are extremely talented and creative in their own special ways. That’s why street photography is one of a kind, the content is always different and it really captures the city or urban feels. Many of these iconic street photographers just capture the moment of the city and no need for judging in any sort. The photographers in the documentary stated that many of these photos are for the future and it is very true because in 100 years many people will look at these photos to see how people interacted. New York city is the perfect spot for street photography, but where I like to do my street photography is in San Diego Downtown. I love capturing the architecture, people, and just beautiful moments of urban feels. I really do not like asking people if I can take a picture of them but rather take a picture of someone in a position that can tell a story and make the viewer feel something. Here are some of my street photos I captured in San Diego Downtown.

These photos were taken on February 16th, 2020 near my apartment in San Marcos California. The subject in my photos is my roommate named Depeng Fang aka Alan, and he posed as model to capture these photos. Alan is wearing a casual fit but also meant for the story. The Triptych shows Alan stressed, then reflecting to himself by zoning out realty with music. He then takes steps to figure out whats next in his life. For the Diptych series, I wanted the audience to connect his head to his feet to show who Alan is and why he is.

On February 9th, 2020 I walked around Lake Arrowhead Village with my camera shooting whatever I thought seemed interesting. It was a very gloomy and cold day. I shot 16 different ways of composition and gave them a low saturated edit. All the people in the photos are complete strangers. Tried to get different angles of buildings and of people minding their own business. It was great experiencing different ways of shooting which I will use in my future photos. The reason why I took these photos is to expand my photography skills and for class.

My name is Jason Andrade and I am a second year at Cal State San Marcos studying Arts, Media and Design. I was born and raised in Lake Arrowhead, California. I love taking my creativity into creating new videos, photos and just life in general. My goals in this class is to learn how to be more professional when dealing with photography and just have a great time expanding my knowledge and skills with digital photography.

After listening to the video about National Geographic photography, it felt like I was listening to a podcast talking about how powerful photography was. It was still very motivational and inspiring listening to the artists speak about photography. However, when I listened and viewed the video at the same time it gave me a different feel to it. It showed photos while they were speaking about how powerful photography was and it made their words give more meaning to them. The photos and the words came together and made a story which led to more emotion. It is very amazing what amazing photos can do to visually please the human brain and cause change.