Noam Sheba

Author: noams

  • Serenity

    A beautiful dark sunset photo with the silhouette of a tree and wire post.
    50mm 1/200 f4.5 ISO400

    For my serene photo, I attempted to capture a calm sunset that I captured in my backyard. There are soft colors in the sky during the sunset, and everything else (trees, rooftops, wires) is a dark silhouette. Everything looks so calm and still. Nothing looks rushed or crazy. Everything seems serene…slow motion almost.

    The assignment was to capture what serenity means to you. Serenity means chilling around my backyard. When I was taking this photo, I realized that we take serene moments for granted. Especially ones that happen right in your own house. It can be such a simple thing as looking up at the sky that can make you feel like you’re living for a reason. For me spending time in my own yard just observing the birds and bees around me can improve my day. And if you take the time to look up, you start to look less at what’s behind you, and more on whats in front of you.

  • Aging

    A photo of a blossoming lemon tree in a quaint backyard.
    50mm 1/200 f4.5 ISO160

    For this photo, I wanted to convey aging by taking a picture of the lemon tree in my backyard. My family has had this tree since we moved into our house, so I’ve watched it grow up throughout the years. It now has fruit on it, but you can see where it’s aged in certain areas. Some of the branches are drooping and uneven, which shows the wear on the tree. Overall, that was what attracted me to the tree. Aging shows that something is continuing to grow, but it’s also been worn down. The purpose of this assignment was to photograph the concept of aging. I wanted to take this in a more literal sense by taking a photo with a story behind it. Ever since I can remember, this tree has been in our backyard growing. When I took this photo, I realized that aging isn’t just about old age. It’s about everything that something has gone through in that time. And this tree and I have been through plenty of memories!

  • Shadow

    50mm 1/64 f4.5 ISO160

    The objective of this assignment was to create a narrative using only shadow without featuring the object casting it. For this photograph, the large shadow covering most of the frame is simply that of a normal door frame. I thought it was interesting how something so mundane could create something so theatrical and emotive when framed on its own. It casts across the wooden surface in a way that feels constructed or purposeful, when in reality it was created from something ordinary and unnoticeable. I became aware of how many cool shadows are around us that we don’t take the time to notice while taking this photo. Light moves through the simplest of spaces and can create shapes and shadows that go unnoticed that feel like movie stills. By allowing the shadow to fill most of the frame and keeping my lighting low, I wanted the photograph to feel somber yet strong. This was a cool assignment that forced me to slow down and look at mundane objects in a different way. It showed me that normal light and shadows can create a story if you take the time to really see them.

  • Negative Space

    50mm 1/16 f4.5 ISO160

    The objective of this photograph was to demonstrate that negative space can actually improve upon composition by allowing the subject room to breathe. Rather than centering my lemon tree within the frame, I positioned it off to the side and allowed plenty of sky and length of fence to fill up most of the photograph. Notice how that open space isn’t wasted; it actually causes your eye to focus more on the vibrant lemons and bumpy leaves because they provide a burst of interest against the tranquil and neutral backdrop. Your eye enjoys having space to wander when looking at this photograph, whereas if it was filled with more tree it would feel cluttered. I learned while shooting this photograph that sometimes simple is better. The fence and sky act as a subtle backdrop that amplifies the color/details of the lemons. If my entire viewfinder was filled with branches and leaves the photo would have felt busy and cluttered. I feel like I have more control over the composition when I give the tree some breathing room. This assignment taught me that “negative” space is truly a part of the photograph.

  • New Beginnings

    Clay black circle with bumps and crevasses
    50mm 1/64 f4.5 ISO160

    For this photo, I wanted to capture something that symbolized beginnings but in a very subtle way. The ceramic piece in the middle is one that I sculpted last year during my ceramics course. I remember sculpting this, but feeling unsure of what I wanted it to turn into. I even painted the glaze on it myself. When I look at it now, it still feels incomplete. That imperfection is what inspired me to photograph it. The raw feeling that something is there, but it hasn’t quite become something yet.

    As I was taking this photo, I thought about how beginnings are never perfect and often feel awkward. The texture is rough, the shape isn’t perfectly round, and you can see where the glaze was painted on– but that’s what makes it beautiful to me. By centering it, I felt as though I was giving it a space to be, a space to shine. Something that is there, but often goes unnoticed. I really liked this assignment because it opened my mind to storytelling in a new way. You do not always need people or action to create a story. Sometimes it’s about objects that carry personal history and the feeling of starting something without knowing exactly where it will lead.

  • Center Frame Portrait

    Good looking bald man sitting on the couch and working on his computer by himself.
    50mm 1/200 f4.5 ISO160

    The objective of this assignment was to create an image centered around loneliness through centered composition. That was my objective when taking this picture. I wanted my father to be directly in the center, cut off by the empty space around him to make the photo feel very secluded and peaceful. While he is sitting in his home in his comfy chair, the emptiness of the background and lack of action makes you feel lonely, tying into the prompt requirement of loneliness.

    What I was thinking about when taking this picture was more about emotion rather than action. My father is completely focused on what’s on his laptop screen. This small thing creates distance between him and the audience, giving him that lonely vibe. This assignment made me understand that you don’t always need dark shadows on a screaming person to convey emotion in a photo. My objective wasn’t to make people feel sad when looking at my picture. I simply wanted to capture loneliness in a normal, everyday way, and centering my picture allowed me to do so.

  • Water

    A photo of a mason jar with a little water sitting on a napkin on the table, jar takes up majority of frame
    50mm 1/200 f4.5 ISO160

    By using a mason jar as the focus of the photograph, water is both celebrated and made to appear as if it is something valuable and worth looking at in detail. With such warm lighting and a soft, unfocused background, the mason jar of water also evokes feelings and ideas of how much water is a part of people’s day-to-day lives. Isolating the mason jar on its own and having the light streak across the glass is a way to turn a mundane event in life into a recognition of how we should cherish the normal aspects of our lives that we sometimes take for granted. The paper napkin below the mason jar also helps to make the subject of the photograph relatable, which is a reminder that water is important in our daily lives, and this image is not the only way to capture its importance. This message was communicated because water isn’t always only found in interesting or majestic landscapes or perfectly still reflections; it is also present in humbler settings. I rounded the image on top of this to show the photo transforming into the shape of the cup like how water does, to give it a meaphorical deeper meaning that makes you analyze it.

  • Holiday Traditions

    A unique Menorah framed in the center of the photo
    50mm 1/200 f4.5 ISO160

    The image uses a contemporary menorah as a means of exploring a sense of visual and conceptual balance in the performance of holiday ritual, as well as a more personal resonance that this piece is the design of my father, and that he designed it over several months. It is a triangular object balanced against its forward lean by a single brass leg and candle holder. The asymmetric physical balance and placement suggests a considered intentional weight which is then counterpoised by the continued presence of familiar and stable traditions, even as those traditions may shift over time. The warm, soft light in the scene reinforces the sense that the ritual of lighting candles during Hanukkah exists in quotidian, rather than curated spaces, as does the simple wooden tabletop. The physical act of lighting the menorah year after year also becomes a part of the tradition in and of itself as my father’s labor and craftsmanship in bending the metal is what literally upholds the candles we light.

  • Leading Lines

    50mm 1/200 f4.5 ISO160

    The image above uses the brick pathway as a leading line which draws the viewer’s eyes directly to the subject. I took this photo with the intention of having the bricks create a sort of “channel” in the frame that would lead the viewer towards the subject. The pattern of the bricks in the foreground also creates a strong contrast with the soft bushes in the background, giving emphasis to the composition. In addition, I also wanted to add some sort of everyday human element to the picture, so I decided to have my model check his phone as he was walking on the path. I had my brother as a model for this shot – he is actually a previous student of Freestyle. I set my camera to manual and chose my settings so that the bright sunlight in the background would contrast more with the shadows on the ground and the pathway. This helps to define the pathway a lot more and add to the effect of the leading lines.

  • Sunsets

    50mm, f4, ISO 500, 1/64

    The Photo is the last of the sunlight on a residential street, and I tried to make a calm, but not completely silent, feeling. I did not take it with the lens facing the sun, but rather the effect of the late afternoon sunlight, which was still golden, on the trees, street and parked cars, as the sky gradually darkened from the warm tones of the late afternoon to the blue and purple ones of the approaching night. The fallen leaves and long avenue naturally draw the eye into the frame, and the blurry and desaturated colors also contribute to a feeling of calm of the last moments of the day. Because I used the manual mode, I had to balance the exposure between the bright sky and the darker street, and this has been a valuable learning experience to give me more control over exposure in low-light situations. In this way the image tells a story, with light, color and atmosphere conveying not only the street at sunset, but the stillness of a neighborhood transitioning from day to night and the emotion in that moment.