Saber Digital Reflection

Writing in a digital form allows you to more easily add audio and visuals to your writing. It can make your writing more interactive. I have added photos to my writing. While most of the photos are ones I took of actual places, some of photos are of my own drawings.

The drawings didn't work nearly as well as I had hoped. The photos didn't capture nearly as much detail as the drawings had. While offering an image more personalized for the scene it was illustrating, they didn't translate from analog to digital very well. The details were lacking compared seeing the drawing in person, but the overall meaning of it was still visible. In that way, it was at least slightly successful. One downside to using drawings rather than photos is that they are in black and white rather than color. A possible solution to this would be to create small paintings rather than drawings. These would provide more color, but would also reduce the number of details that I would be able to add.

The photos that I took were more colorful than the drawings, but required having access to the either the objects or places that were being described in the scene. One problem I had was that How Kingdoms Fall takes place in a medieval fantasy world and featured castles. For some of the chapters, I needed pictures of alcoves, dark hallways and castles that didn't look modern. At first, I used pictures that my mom had with her permission. Eventually, I replaced them with photos I had taken in Rhode Island, Bermuda, and on the Latin trip to Italy and Greece. The one trouble I had with the photos from the Latin Trip was that they were mostly of ruins and the buildings they represented in the story are intact.

The piece I am most proud of that I have completed is Chapter III of How Kingdoms Fall. The chapter begins the set up for future events, and provides one of the more ominous lines. It is also a fair amount longer than the following chapters. This chapter shows both descriptive details and conversation.

Of the pictures I have taken, I am particularly proud of the picture to the right. I am not entirely sure what species of bird it is, but I am fairly certain that it is a white peafowl through comparisons to other peafowl, such as more commonly known peacocks. The photo is fairly well framed and an interesting shot. It shows my ability to take candid photos and still get some that are well composed.

Throughout the course, I have gotten better at asking people for information or for their help in photos. If I had not taken this course, then I wouldn't have done two photo shoots with my sister. While they were mostly comprised of our own shenanigans, it

was a lot of fun and offered some inspiration for a photo essay which I am currently working on. The photo to the left is from the shoot and mostly originated from Sam finding a stick on the ground and, being the person she is, ran toward me in the weirdest way possible.

During the shoot, I asked Sam to do different things, including lying down in the snow and standing in different ways. I also borrowed Sam for another shoot later on where I had her wear some gray wings. It result in the cover photo along with others.

This course made me slightly more confident and able to ask Sam and others to pose for photos. It also encouraged me to take more photos and gave me a focus for my photos, rather than taking photos for fun.

At the beginning of this course, my photos were unfocused and could have been composed better. As time has passed, I have gotten better at figuring out how to compose the photo to convey the emotion I'm looking for. The photo below is one I took before the

course. While it is interesting, it isn't very well framed and doesn't convey any meaning. It would probably be better from a higher elevation and at a lower angle. My more recent photos are better framed and give off some sort of emotion.

My writing has also improved slightly throughout the course. I have gotten better at balancing descriptions and dialogue within stories. I also have gotten better at social media posts, considering I hadn't used social media before the class. While I still don't enjoy using social media and I'm not very confident in the quality of posts I make, I now have some idea of what goes into making an informational post.