The word “photography” was created from the Greek roots φωτός (phōtós), genitive of φῶς (phōs), “light” and γραφή (graphé) “representation by means of lines” or “drawing”, together meaning “drawing with light”.

I go to Chile, take a wide shot of the beach, look at the result, and see a vivid yet lifeless image. It’s just frozen and imbuing colors and light. Only my eyes and brain find it appealing, but my heart is beating the same rhythm and pace – unaffected.

Everywhere I go, I’m “drawing with light”. Only capturing the things that appeals to me. That old-fashioned saying of how photography is about capturing the moment in time when in reality, you’re just freezing the image and given the gift of creative release and manipulation. There’s no life to an image after freezing the frame. It’s just still and no breath. So easy to manipulate and translate it in any language one may prefer. It’s a powerful tool that can be easily taken for granted depending on whose eyes are capturing the moment and wants to freeze it.

Thoughts

Briefly describe what you learned from class that surprised you.  What challenged you and how did you meet the challenge? The thing that surprised me the most was that the whole semester, we had to use Adobe Illustrator (AI) for map-making. I didn’t understand at first how the application relates to map-making but after having few experiences, I could understand why it’s useful in cartography. The challenge for me during the whole semester was using AI. I have never used it for graphic designs and the first time I worked with the application, I got adjusted to it for a while. I’m really thankful that my professor provided a beginner’s guide on how to use it and always gives us instructions which made my experience better.

How did this learning (mapping skills/map design) relate to the things you are learning in your other courses? Most of my courses didn’t require or get involved with mapping skills or map design. However, for my Climotology class, I was assigned to make infographics. The skills with AI that I acquired from GEOG 323 helped me to make neat and detailed infographics.

What is the most important criteria to you in designing a good map?  Explain why. I believe that hierarchical organization is an important criteria in designing a good map. Some types of features will be seen as more important than other kinds of features, and some features will seem more important than other features of the same type. Some page elements (e.g., the map) will seem more important than others (e.g., the title or legend). This visual layering of information within the map and on the page helps readers focus on what is important and lets them identify patterns.

“The purpose of this lab is to “use absolute scaling, using ArcMap’s terminology, is the proportional symbol map . . . [and learn how to] adjust the minimum symbol size for symbol scaling, specify the number of symbols to display in the legend, and create a 3-D or pictorial proportional symbol map.”

With the data set you chose, what challenged you the most when mapping proportional symbols and how did you meet the challenge? Scaling the proportional symbols based on the data from Eurostat. If I choose a scaling factor that is too small, it would be more difficult for the map reader to see patterns in the data, while if the scaling factor is too large, the map reader would be be presented with many overlapping symbols, which will also make it difficult to see patterns in the data.

When comparing the symbolization shown on the map with the raw data (Excel
spreadsheet) obtained from the Eurostat, did your map effectively and accurately convey the underlying message to the audience? Why or why not? No, because with countries that has a value of 1,000, the size of the symbol is too small and weak for the map reader to see. However, map readers can see that Germany, France and the UK are the leading European countries with the most transported goods by air and from this information, they can assume it’s due to their advanced technologies and resources.

“The main purpose of dot density mapping is to communicate variation in spatial density. [We] will explore dot density mapping using the same data set (2014 population data) obtained from the previous lab.”

What dot size and units per dot did you use?  Look at the map you created and explain whether your map effectively conveys an underlying message (population density) to the audience.  If not, what would you change and how could you correct it? I used 1 dot which represent 11,000 persons at random placement using county-level data. By looking at the map, using this dot size allows the data to look evenly spread out across the state. According the map, there are more people living near the coast where it’s touching Lake Michigan.

Explain the pattern you see on the dot density map.  Is the pattern shown on the dot density map similar to any of those created by the choropleth technique? Further south, there are dots appearing which means larger population and if we go farther north, most counties have at least three dots, which means a small population. The pattern on the map is similar to those created by chloropleth technique because chloropleth mapping displays divided geographical areas or regions that are colored, shaded or patterned in relation to a data variable

What problems did you encounter while assigning a dot value for phenomenon with a very large data range? It was difficult to find a good dot value that could give the map a good balance between the values in each county. If I had used a small dot value less than 10,000 persons, the most populated county would’ve blended together and hard to distinguish. If I had used a larger dot value greater 15,000 persons, the dots would appear to be spaced far part in dense areas and even more so in sparse areas. To fix this, I had to find a good value between 10,000 and 15,000 that could give that balance.

Does the political unit control the dot placement?  Once the county lines are removed, does the “boundary effect” still appear on your map? Yes. These boundaries may have been devised only for enumeration purposes, thus they should not be used to dictate the location of the dots.  For example, population settlements occur irrespective of political boundaries, and under these circumstances, dots should be placed on or very near the boundary line.  Doing otherwise would result in a map with areas that are clearly separated by white lines.

The objective of this exercise is “to create a visually striking and engaging infographic, to illustrate different (color) palette types and explain the commonly used strategies for combining colors.”

The objective of this lab is to “reinforce the ideas of typography.” I was set to correctly letter a map of the northwestern United States, “place the following names on the
map . . . [and] arrange the various map elements so they present the data in a cohesive, well-organized map that emphasizes good map design and organization.”

Challenges:  The texts were all angled at 343 degrees and looked normal as I zoomed in. But when I zoomed out to get the full view of the image, the letters of each text seemed unaligned. Scaling the texts in a readable state and making sure it part of it is not completely overlapped by other elements.

Advantages: Clean layout. Text orientation.

Certain things I could’ve done to improve the design:

• Establish visual hierarchy for the layout, e.g., use different font (size) for capital city to emphasize its importance; use gray (instead of black) lines for graticules to push it to the background.
• Use all caps for county names and keep the same size as possible (e.g., Clallam and Jefferson). 
• Keep the spacing between dot and city name consistent (e.g., Kent, Yamhill). 
• Reposition the text (Washington) or reduce font size; there was too much overlapping with other element on the map. 
• Font could have been smaller. 
• Place river’s name above the river; use italic font.

Overall, this lab was interesting for me because it I was more focused on the composition and organization of each element on the map. I’ve finally got to understand the use of white background that is aligned behind texts that are overlapped with other elements. This method creates a balance in the composition of the map. This lab allowed me to use my abilities to be creative and strategic on how to keep the harmony & balance between the texts and the map elements.