Finding the Pictures...

Though I must admit that since I am the photographer of all the images I used, the actual hunt for images was quite easy. When I was actually documenting all of these objects, the process was a good bit harder. While the British Museum encourages photography, working with crowds, limited hours, and the nuisance of reflective glass cases proved a daunting task. In addition, my digital camera experienced an early demise on the second day so I fully understand the pain of the dollars-to-pounds conversion rate. Though lucky to already have these images, the actual process was much worse than searching government websites.

On the digital side, cropping these images was tedious and searching my picture folder for the appropriate piece to best convey my theme was more difficult than I expected. I wanted the image to be “just right” and when I have ten images of the same object, the task isn’t always simple. When posting my images to my blog, I found it difficult to determine if the post preview would accurately translate to the finished blog post. Even after my actual posting of the assignment, the piece still required several additional edits. Finally, to properly document the objects, I spent significant time digging through a stack of handwritten notes while crosschecking catalogue numbers on the British Museum website.

Upon completion however, I realize this assignment reinforced the power of images, an aspect often ignored in history (most history books left the pictures behind back in middle school) while introducing the importance of choosing the “right” visual representation.