So before I found photography I wanted to be a Herpetologist.

Color is one of the best ways to tell if a reptile/amphibian is venomous. Growing up I was always taught the phrase "If red touches yellow, you're a dead fellow. If red touches black, you're ok Jack." This was used to tell the difference between a venomous coral snake and others that look similar.


(Picture from http://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/Coral_snake_mimics.gif)

These differences in color is what helps hundreds of people (including me) in America determine if a snake can kill them. But color is not only helpful in identifying snakes, it also identifies poisonous frogs. Not all colorful frogs are poisonous, but it's a safe bet. The poison dart frog is the most common, and is found in South America. The bright colors are warning signs to predators.

Colors are used not only to send signals to humans (like my red DANGER blog) but it also works in the animal kingdom. Except unlike our society, they are naturally prone to it. All species automatically recognize "bright colors are bad."


Want some proof?
http://www.surviveoutdoors.com/reference/snakes/coral_snake.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison_dart_frog

And How Does That Make You Feel?

Blue is used mostly for a calm, mellow color. In class when we all did the mood/temps blue was always used for calm/gloomy/bored/cold etc. I found some other common associations here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_symbolism_and_psychology) and wanted to put it to the test. Is the majority of people’s associations with blue calm/cold/trusting/sky/ocean etc?

So I went around asking a bunch of people, “what comes to mind when you think of the color blue?” to try to get an idea of where their emotion comes from. Then I asked, “what kind of mood/emotion do you get from the color blue?” to see if the general consensus matched my research.


Me: What comes to mind when you think of the color blue?
Chris: Sapphires, or better yet your eyes.
Me: My eyes are green smartass. What kind of feelings do you get from blue?
Chris: Oh. Calm.

1st question/2nd question

Mom: The Ocean/Warm and happy.

Matthew: Cold/Sad

Logan: Sky or Ocean/Calm.

Frank: Boy,Sky/Hopeful.

Emilia: Cloth. Pretty blue cloth/Calm, but almost a fake calm. A medicinal calm.

Sarah: Picasso blue period/Depression, cold.

Drajan: Sky. Your mom’s car. Water/Chill.

Harrison: Ocean/Calm.

Monty: A blue Mustang for some reason/Cool… like relaxed.

Christina: The sky and my friend’s mustang/Calm.

Vicki: Cold/Calm.

Answers I’m not going to count:

Tony: Death/Funderful.

Andrew: My eyes.
Me: You would. What mood/emotions do you get from blue?
Andrew: I’m a guy, I don’t associate emotions with colors.
Me: You’re a human being, therefore you do. What is blue to you?
Andrew: A color.

Matt: My hair.

Conclusion: A lot of people think about the ocean and/or the sky when they think of blue. But all of the results were found in the common associations with the color. The majority (2/3) did associate calm (chill, relaxed, etc) with blue which is not surprising to me since I always assumed it was the most common association. Or maybe because that’s what I associate blue with? Also, I need better, more cooperating, less stupid, less mustang-obsessive friends.

Color Wheel

I have never worked with paint. I think the only thing I’ve ever used a paintbrush for was gel medium and fooling around with the chemicals in the darkroom. When I was buying the supplies I was kind of shocked at the different paints. I mean I assumed there were a lot of different kinds and colors, but to actually sorting through the odd names and ‘soft body’ or ‘liquid’ or whatever other kinds they had was crazy.
The biggest surprise to me was that the acrylic colors don’t mix perfectly. The green turned out fine, but I had always assumed if you mixed blue and red it would be the right shade of purple. Also, it dried so quickly I wonder how anyone is really able to paint with just acrylic. After class I talked with my Aunt (who is a fine artist) and she described to me how acrylics don’t mix well and how it’s usually best to use oils. She also told me how it’s easier with oils since you can always come back to the painting. I had never really thought down and thought about how frustrating it must be to paint with acrylics. I’m just glad I’m photojournalism and not a fine artist. I make too many mistakes, I’d rather waste photo paper than have to restart an entire painting because something didn’t blend or it dried too quickly.