Design the good and bad

     I have chosen Back packing water bottles for my good and poor designs. When back packing the key usually is to stay light, pack as little extra weight as possible. So my good design in this case goes to the plastic water container where the heavy duty one is going to be the poor design. The Black water bottle as we will refer to it just to be completely clear on our conversation isn’t designed the best for the back packer’s idea of the trip. First of all they do not have anywhere to hook the bottle onto a lanyard or any sort of hook so you must have on your back pack available somewhere to slide the water bottle or hold it in your hand the entire time. When you look at the blue bottle you will notice that it has a hook on the very top that you can hook to any belt loop or lanyard you please making it very back packer friendly.

    Similarity can be found in the fact that they both hold roughly the same amounts of water, but differences apply when you look at the transparency. You never really know exactly how much water you have in the black bottle because you can’t see the water levels. With the blue bottle you always know how much water you have and you never have to guess.

     The simplicity of the blue bottle is above all others, it is a plastic bag that can be rolled up into a super small object when not needed or be folded out to a water bottle when in need. The black bottle must remain that same size and shape the entire time which makes it tough to take everywhere.

     In closing remember this, if you are going back packing, you want to keep your pack light. Choose the lighter style of water bottle and enjoy it. When the blue bottle is empty you won’t even notice it is on your pack because you can fold it right up and make it disapper. Where with the black bottle you cannot exactly make it disappear, nor can you clip it onto you pack because it doesn’t have anywhere to clip to. Stay light and you will succeed.

side notes

Both bottles were sold between the 12-20 dollar range and both had the option of a water filter add on as well.

Contrast, Balance and Harmony "Ball Is Life"

In this photo the eye has a tendency to jump all over the place right away. So much going on one might say. Why is there no balance to this picture? All the different shades are getting to me, but to me this picture calls out from a deeper point of view. Sports, the phrase ball is life, hits home with me really hard. My entire life has been based around sports and that is what I know. Like any match, tournament, game, ect... there is no balance. You never reach that comfortable stage in sports if you are trying to get better. 

This picture demonstrates multiple forms of contrast, size, texture, position and shape. The size of the balls ranges from basketball clear down to golf ball. Each ball has its own texture that you can see if you put your eye to the test it almost brings the feel of each ball to your hands.

This photo is clearly Asymmetrical as it is not really centered around anyone object and it is created with a number of different sized and shaped objects. What I was going for here is trying to test some tension with the un-balanced approach to taking the picture just the way I wanted it.

This photo wont have the same cultural or psychological effect on everyone as it does to me and other sports enthusiasts. As I stare into this picture it brings back years and years of competitions in each of these sports. I can look at the driver and golf ball and be taken back to my fourth place finish in the high school region golf tournament in 2008, or it can take me to winning the two man scramble I entered in the last week of July with a friend of mine. The softball glove, ball, cleats and bat bring back memories made with family and my best friends in softball tournaments over the past 4 years of my life. Basketball and shoes can take me clear back to the very first time I shot hoops with my dad when I was less than a year old. Or it can take me to those days and hours spent in a gym just drowning out the bad days while shooting hoops.

     

The volleyball up front really brings the balance out in this picture if you were to get rid of everything else in the picture. It is very symmetrical in the sense that all of the shades of black match up with one another right where you would expect them to.  

     

Harmony is found in this picture in two ways for me. The first being the light grey-scale coloring, not too dark and not too light, it sets a comfortable mood. The second is just the thoughts and memories it brings back to me that have a harmonic tone to them. The saying that is so commonly used with athletes now days is "ball is life" and this photo describes that saying perfectly, and for me ball really is life.

My Visceral Response

I have decided to select this photo that left me stupefied in more ways than one.
This photo brings back memories I have which add to the effect of the picture for me. The picture I selected is a picture of a waterfall in Havasupai. This picture shows a vertical line on each side of the waterfall. As the water falls the eyes of those who see it can imagine the falling and kind of follow it down to where it becomes part of the pond.
Also in this picture you can see the amazing amount of color produced by the growth behind the water fall from the mist that waters the grasses growing up the side of the cliff. The form I pick up when I see this picture is actually the form the rock takes from the water as it rolls off the top of the cliff at the beginning of the water fall. Also very intriguing to me is the texture that you can see in the rock cliff because of the light from the sun. I noticed while there the texture changed (changed to your eye not really changed) depending on the time of day and the amount of direct light it received from the sun.