I began taking many pictures when we began this project; Pictures of everything from my everyday life to the little stuff that we often oversee but there wasn’t a whole lot that stood out to me. Being that my project is about my family and my friends I decided to Skype with them to share what I was doing and get my mom’s approval to use some of the pictures she had taken. As we were talking I looked out the window and saw a beautiful sunset just past the horizon. I showed them through Skype and they showed me the sunset on their end. It helped me realize that although we are over 300 miles apart and a six hour car ride that we are still here together. I waited the next night for a shot at that same sunset and thought about them the whole time. They have always been here for me and they have done so much for me yet they have never once said you owe me one. I believe that this is the true definition of what it means to be family and real friends. As much as you fight or get upset with each other you will always have them there when your world goes dark. They will always be right there to light it back up and carry you out of that darkness. I stumbled across this quote as I was reading over the course of the week and I couldn’t keep it out of the project. The “author” named Hafez was born in the 1300’s in Iran and this passage has been passed down since he first said it. The meaning behind it gets greater and greater each time I read it. Even after it have finished my collage I read it and the meaning still changes to me but the people in the sky will be there forever. No matter what life throws at you the love that they share through our relationships is eternal. It will never go out even when the sun goes down. No matter how far away they are, they are still just a phone call away and will still be able to light any darkness in my life. This collage will have a different meaning for everyone who looks at it but I hope when you see it that you will be reminded of those people in your life. Stop what you are doing, take five minutes and call them. They will be able to put that smile on your face like no one else can. I hope you enjoy.
My world through words 
Hi Jacob,
Good job in putting a lot of thought and emotion into your draft!
I believe that the concept of your family and friends being an ever-present source of “light” for you in various times and places in life is a solid foundation to build your image upon. To more efficiently and effectively direct the viewer’s interpretation of your collage, you might try a few different types of light to represent your support group. Meaning, maybe a sunrise would be a stronger metaphor for hope and inspiration than a sunset, which often suggests an impending conclusion to something. Also, the scenario that the sunrise overtakes might be better if it was more impersonal and intimidating than the calm countryside, such as a zoomed-in silhouette of a crowded space within a hectic city, whether it is a group of buildings, cars or people. Lastly, I have seen text used powerfully in collages before, but I think that you might try to challenge yourself to complete this project without the quote.
Keep up the good work!
Jonathan
After looking through collages of friend and peers, I realize some more of the strengths and weaknesses of my collage. I really enjoyed putting this together and I took a lot of time doing it. I enjoyed the coloring of my photo and I take pride in my topic which helps me focus and become attached to it. I am very glad that I chose to use friends and family in my collage and although it was very difficult working with people using the lasso tool and a lot of blur to make them blend into the clouds it turned out looking great.
Two suggestions that I will change: First I want to add a border. As I looked through other collages the ones with borders really stood out as artistic images and when there isn’t a border in an image, such as my image, it kind of runs off the page.
Secondly, I want to create focus on the lighting. I am going to mess around with the background to really create the effect to show that family and friends are the light. Right now I feel like they are in the light but if I could change their brightness to maybe make them the light in the darkness it could really show the meaning in a better way.
I enjoyed the focus of my design and I love the meaning behind it and I think I did a good job displaying the meaning. I had fun doing this and it really didn’t feel like I was doing work.
Go Cougs,
Jake
Hi Jacob,
I genuinely enjoyed looking at your graphic collage. It seems like those people really mean a lot to you and you really care about them. That’s awesome man. I really got a good sense of your life. The picture you used, was it of a Pullman sunset? Regardless, it serves as a perfect background. It is a breathtaking view, yet it doesn’t grasp too much attention away from the important pictures. One suggestion I have is it increase the opacity of the pictures. They are sort of unclear and blurry and I’m sure they serve as the most important part of the collage. I wouldn’t worry so much bout covering up the background. It might also be helpful if you can edit the pictures to increase brightness and bring out some of the colors so the photos pop out more.
Other than that I loved seeing your work, and I can’t wait to see more!
-Kim