New To Photography-Need Help

First I would like to say hello to all of you and any help will be greatly appreciated. I am new to the world of photography and I am taking a course at the local college here. For an assignments we were given some shots to take and bring to class. I need help on what they mean.
DESIGN:: Nature as designer: Man as designer
Can anyone help me.

First off, welcome to the forum...

As I posted in anothe thread, the best way usually is to research the word or theme in the dictionary and thesaurus for a deep understanding of things. Then go out and brainstorm ideas.

That being said, DESIGN is mostly a reference about patterns. Lines, shapes, curves all combining to with colors to create patterns. Therefore, Nature as designer, would be about finding said patterns and taking them as shots. more like close up shots (macro is also an option),

Man as designer, would be pretty much products created by man!

So go out and have fun... also you could combine both, take a shot of both man and nature designs....

Looking forward to your photos

Part of the fun and creativity comes from your own definition of the term. This seems to be pretty wide open, but you could think about the way they are similar and also the way they are different. For examples, man made structures that seem to be influenced by nature.

For Nature as designer your scope is vast, Could be a nest, a copse, the bark of a tree in close up, the colours on a bird... This is an endless topic and is open for you to see what is around you.

Man as Designer could be a barn, city, architecture of all types, to a spoon, again a wide open topic.

Hope they spark some ideas for you.

Roger

Advice above is good...let us know what you come up with.

Or take both at once.
Find a natural design and man-made design that are similar.

Spiral stairs, spiral of a snail shell.
Crow wingtip feathers, wingtip extensions on a crop duster (for the same reason too, vortex reduction).

Or very different:
Camera lens, eye.
Microphone, ear.

There is unlimited potential here, if your imagination is up to the task.

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Originally Posted by lday555

First I would like to say hello to all of you and any help will be greatly appreciated. I am new to the world of photography and I am taking a course at the local college here. For an assignments we were given some shots to take and bring to class. I need help on what they mean.
DESIGN:: Nature as designer: Man as designer
Can anyone help me.

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What a pointless exercise. Instead of doing something that interests you, you have to do something where you have to think. I try not to think about what I'm photographing, I do enough of that at my real work. For photography I just go out and shoot.

But never mind. Your probably have something to learn from your teachers so better humour them. I guess you have to find something natural that looks organised then find a similar man-made shape. Anout the only thing I can think of is a nautilus shell and a spiral staircase, as someone else has said.

Charles, to throw my 2 cents in...a STOP sign at an intersection is a man-made design - now there's a theme for you man-made road signs STOP/YIELD/Highway Numbers...etc.

Nature designs...around here all the leaves are gone off the trees, so I would go and shoot leaf-less trees - pure nature designs. HTH.

Cheers,

WesternGuy

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Originally Posted by lday555

Nature as designer: Man as designer. Can anyone help me?...

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First of all, welcome to the site. I really don't want to sound critical of you right off the bat, but personally, I find your post odd.

Natural design versus man-made design is about as basic as it gets in the visual world. Do you really need that explained to you?

Plus, if you run to a fourm like this and ask for help with your most elementary of visual discovery exercises, chances are you're never going to learn to think and figure these things out for yourself.

IMO, the best way to use this site is to begin these challenges on your own, then post your initial attempts and get feedback so you can improve them and explore them further.

Trust me, we want to help, but holding your hand evey step of the way isn't the best way...

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Originally Posted by Franglais

What a pointless exercise. Instead of doing something that interests you, you have to do something where you have to think. I try not to think about what I'm photographing, I do enough of that at my real work. For photography I just go out and shoot.

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Franglais,,,that is exactly the point,,,the teacher is making the class think!!

Jurgen

We are doing this same thing in the class I am taking and I think it is a great idea and a lot of fun just to see how creative each of the students can be, Ours are due the Monday after Thanksgiving and I am anxious to see what everyone has come up with, Jeff