Final Project: A Story of a Traveler

This is a traveler's story.

The journey will soon begin. Packing doesn't necessarily require perfect skills. Mental preparation is more important.


With money and a credit card, she can do anything at the new place. Camera is for keeping the memories. And sunglasses, haha, some people just need them.

Always keep her schedule in mind. The plane is taking off.

She can give up a lot of things before and on the trip, but not the passport. Passport is the life of the traveler.

On board. Take a deep breath and enjoy the weird feeling of her ears.

Here we go! She's finally at the destination, but no one will pick her up. Cars go by, but none of them is for her.

Before she gets a new cell, or an international phone card, public phone is her only choice to be connected with her family, her friends, and ...


Unpacking is an art. She doesn't want to overdo it. But it's not optional.

On the road, signs help you choose which way to take. In your life, "signs" help you choose which way to take.

Endless road trips. They could be boring sometimes. But looking back, she never regrets.

Cars get dirty.

And suitcases get worn out. This is a traveler's life, adventurous, exciting, nostalgic, but unforgettable.

So this is my final project, a picture story. Having worked on techniques a lot throughout the whole term, I'm sort of confident of my techniques. So this time I decided to focus on story-telling. I would say technically, some pictures of this assignment were not perfect. A couple of them had too much exposure. And looking at individual pictures, I didn't get amazed by my own works. But looking at the whole project overall, I think it was a success. When I chose these 12 pictures from about 500 shots, I considered more about if the picture fit into the story rather than if it's cool-looking or stuff like that.

This is it. THIS IS IT.

"And the wind will set me racing, as my journey nears its end, and the path I'll be retracing, and I'm homeward bound again..." --Homeward Bound

Done with shooting... FINALLY

Yeah you read it right. I got done with shooting this final project TODAY. And I'm aware that it's due TOMORROW before class. As long as I don't sleep in tomorrow and miss the first class, I will get it done. And it won't be very crappy. I'm confident of that.

So something fun about the shooting this time. I tried some new things.

First, it's the first time I actually took a road trip to go shooting. After I had "begged" Kathleen to take me to the airport for about 3 weeks, she finally had time to take me there. I didn't spend a lot of time there, but I did get some good pictures. Surprisingly, I had a lot of fun shooting on the highway. It was hard to control because the car was moving all the time, but I enjoyed it.

Shooting at the airport was embarrassing. I could tell everybody was thinking, "What's this girl doing here without any luggage but a camera?" I tried to shoot the moving checked-in luggage on the machine, but a person in uniform came over to me and stopped me. Dude I'm not a spy, Okay? I'm just a high school student who's doing a photo assignment. Geez! And I saw some good photo moments, such as family hug, saying bye, and things like that. I was too nice to interrupt and take a photo. Hmm... interesting experience.

Also my shooting is more spontaneous than usual. Some people might think it's a bad thing because it means I didn't pose my objects deliberately, but I think it can be a good thing because they're all real things. Things look the most natural in this way. It's hard to control, but I like it.

Anyway, tomorrow at 8 a.m., I'll show up in the photo lab on time and finish printing this project. See ya!

Final Project Proposal Round 3

This new proposal is an extension of Round 2. Round 2 is the basic. And this round 3 will add some details and new ideas to it.

So I read a photo book called Aren't You Happy Today? The author organized a series of photos to tell a complete story about fighting depression. It came to my mind when Mr. Slade talked about some steps of being a traveler. It's the same idea. I think I'll go for it. It can be "A Traveler's Book". The first few pictures will be packing and other preparations. Then I'll show the traveler's life on the trip. His/Her emotions, memories, ...

It should be really fun! I can't wait to do it! But right now I'm still stuck in the AP forest...