Social Event I

i.  Leah Moak: 12/04/2010

    Camera: Nikon D70

    Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec

    Exposure Program: Aperture priority

    F-Stop: f/5.3

    ISO: 200

    Focal Length: 180.0 mm

    Lens: 75.0-240.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

    Tripod: No

ii.  Leah Moak: 12/04/2010

    Camera: Nikon D70

    Shutter Speed: 1/500 sec

    Exposure Program: Aperture priority

    F-Stop: f/5.3

    ISO: 200

    Focal Length: 180.0 mm

    Lens: 75.0-240.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

    Tripod: No

iii.  Leah Moak: 12/04/2010

     Camera: Nikon D70

     Shutter Speed: 1/400 sec
     Exposure Program: Aperture Priority

     F-Stop: f/5.3

     ISO: 200

     Focal Length: 180.0 mm

     Lens: 75.0-240.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

     Tripod: No

 

Social Event II

i.  Leah Moak: 12/04/2010

    Camera: Nikon D70

    Shutter Speed: 1/3200 sec

    Exposure Program: Shutter priority

    F-Stop: f/5.0

    ISO: 200

    Focal Length: 80.0 mm

    Lens: 75.0-240.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

    Tripod: No

ii.   Leah Moak: 12/04/2010

     Camera: Nikon D70

     Shutter Speed: 1/500 sec

     Exposure Program: Shutter priority

     F-Stop: f/4.8

     ISO: 200

     Focal Length: 105.0 mm

     Lens: 75.0-240.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

     Tripod: No

Social Event III

  Leah Moak: 12/04/2010

  Camera: Nikon D70

  Shutter Speed: 1/500 sec

  Exposure Program: Aperture priority

  F-Stop: f/5.6

  ISO: 200

  Focal Length: 92.0 mm

  Lens: 75.0-240.0m f/4.5-5.6

  Tripod: No

  Tripod: No

Hannah

    This is a portrait of Hannah, my friend, colleague and the head organizer at Montana Conservation Voters.  MCV endorses local political candidates who make conservation focus of their platforms and campaigns heavily for endorsed candidates.  This is a photograph of Hannah in her MCV office at around 2 p.m. on election day, well before any election results were posted.  "Pam Ellis", the name directly to the right of her head, was a candidate running for election to the House of Representatives and the primary focus of Hannah's job.  She organized extensive neighborhood canvasses for Pam and interpreted the results of those canvasses into phone lists of voters likely to vote for Pam or those likely to vote for her opponent.  Pam lost soundly that night, as did the majority of MCV endorsed candidates; Hannah was devastated.  This images captures Hannah's hopes, fears, and her great anticipation of the results of the election.  She is sitting at the desk where she spent months planning; the photograph captures a bit of the messiness and chaos that came with her job.  I chose to convert the image into black and white in order to instill a sense of timelessness (the same reason I strove for some graininess in the image) and to enhance the editorial nature of the portrait.

Hannah

Leah Moak: 11/02/2010
Camera: Nikon D70

Shutter Speed: 1/10 sec

Exposure Program: Shutter priority

F-Stop: f/13

ISO: 200

Focal Length: 75.0 mm

Lens: 28.0-80.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

Tripod: Yes

Social Comment

     The cat dissection portion of my Vertebrate Anatomy class left me feeling disconcerted; the animals came from animal shelters around Billings and were put down after failing to be adopted.  After each laboratory session spent dissecting, I went home and played with my own cat, Annie (herself a rescued stray from an animal shelter); throughout my interactions with her I felt guilty and dishonest, and I asked myself: how is it that people welcome certain animals into their homes to be treated as members of their family, and simultaneously treat other animals as subjects of experimentation, food sources, or simply as pests to be exterminated?  This image is meant to force the observer to reconcile two portrayals of human interaction with animals.  The first photograph depicts my sister Ellen with our cat Annie; I wanted them to interact lovingly, but I also wanted the image hint at something sinister.  Ellen's eye contact with the observer suggests knowledge, information that we share about a different facet of human-animal interactions.  The second photograph portrays the dissected cat; the head of the animal is in focus, while the open thoracic and abdominal cavities are blurred as a result of the shallow depth of field.  I didn't want the gruesomeness of the dissection to overwhelm the photograph; I wanted the viewer to have to search the image in order to discover its true subject.  In order to emphasize the parallels between the dissected cat and Annie, I placed their eyes in roughly the same plane and used minimal color to focus the viewer's attention on the animals.

Social Comment

i.  Leah Moak: 11/17/2010

    Camera: Nikon D70

    Shutter Speed: 1/6 sec

    Exposure Program: Shutter priority

    F-Stop: f/3.5

    ISO: 200

    Focal Length: 28.0 mm

    Lens: 28.0-80.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

    Tripod: Yes

ii.  Leah Moak: 11/23/2010

    Camera: Nikon D70

    Shutter Speed: 1/3o sec

    Exposure Program: Shutter priority

    F-Stop: f/3.8

    ISO: 200

    Focal Length: 31.0 mm

    Lens: 28.0-80.0 mm f/4.5-5.6

    Tripod: Yes