GRC Photography

GRC Photography is a company founded by Gary Coppage that takes pictures at many equestrian sporting events across the east coast.  The photographers working for GRC have to use impeccable timing and lighting to get pictures of horses jumping at the perfect time and galloping at just the right pace in order to get the riders to purchase their pictures.  This is not as easy as it seems, as timing a horse jumping over a jump can be really tricky.  
 Good picture:

Picture with poor timing:

Six Feet Under

Six Feet Under is a television series that I have recently started watching on Amazon Prime.  It is an older series that began in the early 2000's, but I decided to watch it "just because."  Each episode begins with a death, the death of either someone that the funeral home knows or simply a stranger.  They spend the remainder of the episode setting up a funeral for that deceased person, along with the drama between the family members and the daily stresses of running a funeral home.  Strange and morbid...I know, that's what you all must be thinking...but this show is really not as weird as it seems! The way that screenwriter Alan Ball gives insight into the dysfunctional Fisher family funeral home is almost like a trainwreck...you don't want to watch but you can't take your eyes off of it! Below is an example of how each episode starts....just a strange death, comparable to an episode of 1000 Ways to Die.

American Sniper

In order to try to keep myself at least somewhat sane during the semester, I try to watch at least one new movie a week as a break from my school work.  I watched American Sniper directed by Clint Eastwood.  This movie goes through the life, deployment, and ultimately the untimely death of American hero Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper in United States military history.  While this movie got many mixed reviews suggesting that it glorified a murderer, Chris Kyle did exactly what he needed to do to protect his country and should be considered a hero.  The actors that were chosen to play the different characters in the film were excellent choices on Eastwood's part (who doesn't love Bradley Cooper?!)  and Siena Miller played the perfect wife of a deployed soldier.  All in all, I really enjoyed this movie. 

Compare and Contrast Essay Reflection

So I found this assignment to be the most worthwhile one that we have done in the class.  I chose to compare the film version and novel version of my favorite text, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. I learned that as similar as I originally thought these two texts to be, I found many differences that were much more significant than I realized.  I learned through doing this assignment that I really liked reading the book, but the movie left much less to the imagination and was nicer to not have to think about what I was watching. 

Media Issues Report Research Reflection

Peyton and I did our media issues research assignment on how the media constructs different versions of reality.  This honestly was just assignment I was not excited to do, mostly because I absolutely HATE talking in front of other people....especially large groups of people I don't really know. While I dreaded the presentation part of the project, I learned quite a bit about the media and how it has the ability to affect the minds and opinions of viewers.  I knew that the media had an effect on body image (hello...fad diets, weight loss television, buying skimpy clothes to make yourself feel better) but I had NO idea it had that as much of an impact as it does.  I also didn't realize how much of an effect the media plays a role in our relationships.  I subconsciously treat my boyfriend differently because of what I see Serena Van der Woodsen do on Gossip Girl..? The more I think about it, the more possible it seems.  It really is crazy how much doing simple assignments like this affects our perception of the world around us.