A Soft Look Through U.S. History

Through one of the visitors to my blog, I found a website with a daily photograph assignment. I liked some of the stuff she was doing with this, so I decided to hop on that website and I think I will follow the assignments because it seems like they will push me as a photographer.

Today's assignment was "Make a photograph with a soft look today". I racked my head a little bit and I was about to take a picture of either my cat or a pillow. Then I got to thinking about it a little more and remembered some of my messing around shots from last year where I was using a cut up Moutain Dew bottle to get a soft focus look. So I sort of resurrected that idea.

Most of the time, when we see pictures with soft focus, it is supposed to be one of those Memory Lane things. So I decided to take a stroll through memory lane with my action figures. Well they are not necessarily my memories but our collective memories.

For my first shot, I figured I would go to the beginning and take a picture of an action figure that depicts a US soldier from the Revolutionary War. I forget what particular unit this figure represents but he seems to be a fairly typical soldier from that period.

For my next shot, I decided to use the sepia mode on my camera and depict a soldier from the Civil War. This particular soldier is a representation of Colonel Joshua Chamberlain. He was in charge of the 20th Maine which was at the extreme flank of the Union Lines during Gettysburg. He managed to hold off the Confederate attacks on the second day of the battle of Gettysburg. For his efforts, he was awarded the Medal of Honor and at the of the war, he commanded the troops at the surrender ceremony for Robert E. Lee's troops. Later, he became governor of Maine.

I chose sepia because it seems that many of the pictures from the Civil War are in that shade.

For my next shot, I continued with sepia. This depicts a soldier from World War I. This soldier in particular represents a soldier from the Polar Bear Regiment which fought in Russia during the Russian Revolution. Most of the men of this unit came from Michigan.

For my next picture, I went back to black and white. This particular soldier depicts a soldier from the 101st Airborne. A unit of the 101st was depicted in the series and book "Band of Brothers". The fought with distinction from the Normandy Invasion until the end of the war.

My next soldier is from the Vietnam War. This particular soldier represents a member of a Long Range Reconaissance Unit. These units would go behind enemy lines.

This next soldier depicts a Delta Force soldier in Somalia. Delta Force represents one of our elite units.

My last picture was shot in color and depicts a fairly modern US soldier.