WP1: Second Draft

When summer approaches, there are various activities that come into many modern American families' minds. A favored activity of the American population during the summer is going to a lake or pond to enjoy the long, hot days summer brings. As a person is at their destination, enjoying the soothing effects of the water, another common activity to do is watch the sun fade into the distance after a long day of playing.

In the image, “Sunset,” a young girl is seen standing on what appears to be a beach or some other type of land along water while the sun is setting in the distance behind her. The picture is a stunning image with very bold and vibrant colors that catch the viewers’ eyes. When a person looks at this photograph, they may think back to a special day of their childhood where they spent a whole day at a lake or some other body of water and got to experience the beautiful sight of a sunset.

However, in today’s fast-paced world, many of these modern American families don’t have time to take a relaxing trip to the lake, or anywhere for that matter. Life today is consumed by other activities, such as work, school, extracurricular activities, family members extracurricular activities, etc. One doesn’t really have the time anymore to just relax and watch the sun set.

Americans have bitten off more than they could chew when it comes to various activities we participate in today. Some families don’t even get time to take family vacations in the summer anymore because they are too busy with ball games, school or other organization fundraisers, fairs, meetings for various organizations, etc. The photograph, “Sunset” demonstrates how sometimes the simple things in life are the things we take for granted. The photograph displays this through key technical elements such as a main vector of attention, cropping and framing, and coloration appeal in relationship to the rhetorical appeals logos and pathos.

Vectors of attention are “the lines of directed attention the arrangement of photographs cause.” (CDA, pg. 350) The main vector of attention we see is this young girl, who appears to be just gazing off into the distance at an unknown object. She is wearing shorts and a t-shirt, which gives the idea that it is probably summertime in the photograph. She is standing in the sand and at her feet there appears to be a bucket and other tools children often use when playing in the sand.

The young girl’s body language seems very relaxed, possibly even tired, as if she has been there for a long portion of the day. Her relaxed pose invokes a sense of longing within the viewer for the more simpler days of childhood; days during which one would worry about nothing but enjoying themselves outdoors, playing on the beach, or just watching the sun set into the horizon. She seems to be trying to tell the photographer and/or whoever else is with her to take a moment and witness this amazing image we take for granted every day.

The fact that the girl appears to be standing alone in this photograph symbolizes the need for us as people to have some alone time. Considering the fast-paced life Americans lead anymore, the majority of us don’t take the time we need to just be alone with our thoughts and do something for ourselves. We don’t take time to reflect on the day or in anything in general. The girl standing alone could be not only saying that people need to slow down and appreciate the simple miracles of life, but could also be saying that people need to take some time to be with themselves and reflect. Take some time to do something for themselves and nobody else.

The cropping and framing could also contribute to the previous statements. The photographer may have framed the photograph this way in order to make viewers come to this conclusion. The way the photograph is cropped and framed make the lake in the background extend to the borders of the picture. This gives the allusion that this lake could be quite large. There is no sign of another person on the lake or the beach, which could be a result from the photograph being taken vertically instead of horizontally. This contributes to the argument that the cropping and framing of this photograph was intentional in order to create a feeling of isolation and the need to be alone.

While the girl catches a viewer’s eye and make them reflect, the hues could also have the same effect. The hues of this photograph are very bold and eye-catching. The bright yellow and hot pink hues almost jump out of the picture because of their vibrancy, while the lighter blues and purples of the sky seem to provide way of taming the picture a bit. The dark black of the trees and the shadows create a contrast in the image, which, in turn, also makes the image that much more bold and eye-catching.

These hues represent the bright and cheerful days of our youth when our life was far less complicated and bogged down with many various activities. They force us to think back to the times when we received great pleasure and satisfaction out of just watching the sun fade away.

The photograph does have very obvious saturation, which is defined as “how much of a hue is present in a color.” (CDA, pg 275) The photograph appears to have been taken mainly with natural lighting, which is why the colors are so extraordinarily bold and lively. This photograph still appears very real and natural, like something the viewer could find if they took the time to go outside and catch a sunset every now and again.

Photography is a wonderful hobby or activity that has the extraordinary power to make people consider many various questions and ideas. The images produced have the ability to make a person think long and hard about what they see and try to go deeper and decide how the image in front of them makes them feel.

The photograph “Sunset” has many key technical elements in it that bring up many emotions and feelings in any viewer who happens to glance at it. The coloration of the photograph not only catches the eyes of viewers, but also raises thoughts of joy and happiness because of the brightness and the actual hues of the photograph. The main vector of attention, the girl, raises not only emotions, but also many questions.

The photographer wanted to make you feel the longing feeling for the simpler days of like where you could take a day off and go to the lake and not have a single worry or care about anything else. The setting of the picture creates a calm and serene effect, because we see the sun fading into the distant horizon and we see the girl just standing there watching it without another care in the world. It poses the thought that maybe we should just take the time every once in a while to be alone and just watch the sun set and enjoy the natural wonders that this wonderful planet gives us.