Photography Essay

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David Doubilet and “Circle of Barracuda, New Ireland, Papua New Guinea”

Famous Image First

David was born in New York in 1946. At 8 years old Doubilet began snorkeling and at age 12 he was taking pictures underwater. Doubilet graduated from Boston University in 1970 and the year after he graduated he shot his very first story. He shot garden eels in the Red Sea for National Geographic.

He has been a contract photographer for National Geographic since 1976 all the way till today. He has explored and photographed all over the world. Since his photography style is pretty much all underwater shots he has photographed many different types of underwater animals and he has received numerous awards as well.

Lighting: He is low in the water and the sun is light source which is high in the sky. He is looking up, making the sun shining directly at the camera.

Location: The image was taken underwater and probably taken in the ocean. Possibly in the Caribbean because of how blue and clear the water is.

Camera Settings: He would have used a medium ISO like probably around 800, a low aperture around a 5, and a medium shutter speed like 200. All of this because it was darker since he was in the water, but still pretty bright because of the direction of the sun.

Body Position: The man is in the middle of a school of fish slightly turned away from the camera.

Clothing and Props: The man swimming was wearing scuba gear so that he could be down in the water for a while.

Composition: The photo uses circular because the fish form a very nice circle around the scuba diver.

Jeff Widener and “Tank Man”

Famous Image First

Jeff Widener is best known for his photo, “Tank Man”, which he took in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China of a man in front of a line of tanks during the 1989 Tiananmen Square Uprising. This is one of the ten most famous photos of all time. Jeff began his love of photography at 7 years old after a Life Magazine photographer took family portraits. He became obsessed with photography at 15 when he saved up enough money from working to buy his first Nikon.

Widener changed schools senior year so that he could take a class, to have the famous photographer Warren King as his teacher. That year Widener won the 1974 Kodak/Scholastic National Photography Scholarship beating 8000 other kids in the US. Winning the scholarship also included an African safari which really pushed Widener into his photojournalism career. He has covered new stories in in more than 100 countries during wars and other events, which led him to be a photojournalist in China where he ended up taking one of the most photos in the world.

Lighting: The light used is the sun and it is pretty high in the sky and to the left. This causes some small sharp shadows from the tanks and from the man.

Location: The image was taken in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China, in the middle of the street.

Camera Settings: He would have used a low ISO like 100, a low aperture around a 5, and a medium shutter speed like 200. All of this because it was taken during the middle of the day outside.

Body Position: The man is facing away from Widener and towards the tanks.

Clothing and Props: This was not a staged photo so the man was wearing his work attire.

Composition: The photo uses leading lines of the man all the way to the last tank. The street lines go the same way as well, so your eye follows the line of the man and the tanks.

Thomas Mangelsen and “Brown bear, Brooks Falls Katmai National Park, Alaska”

Famous Image First

Mangelsen is a nature photographer who has traveled the world photographing the greatest places on Earth. He has loved the outdoors ever since he was a little kid. He has been largely inspired and motivated by his father, who was always doing outdoor activities with him. He went through many different schools, studying different science fields and ended up meeting Bert Kempers at the University of Colorado, who hired him to make a documentary of the Whooping Crane. This documentary was nominated for an Emmy award.

After this he produced many other documentaries and films for various companies like PBS and BBC. Mangelsen has photographed for more than 40 years and is very well known. He has been nominated for many awards and has been named one of the most important people in photography multiple times. He also has produced three books and is trying hic best to spread nature everywhere he can through his photos.

Lighting: The light used is the sun and it seems to be pretty high in the sky. There aren’t any hard shadows from the sun so he may have used flash fill as well.

Location: The image was taken in the middle of a river where the water dropped down lower

Camera Settings: He would have used a low ISO like 100, a low aperture around a 3.5, and a pretty high shutter speed like 800. However there is motion blur, so the shutter speed would not have been super high.

Body Position: The bear is facing away from him to the right and the fish is facing the bear directly.

Clothing and Props: This was not a staged photo so the bear is just in the water about to catch a fish.

Composition: The photo has a high contrast between the bear and the water because the color of it stands out and because he is in focus while the water is not.