Thursday, November 12, 2015
9:15 - 10:00; 45 min.
Photography:
Petting the dog -
We examined the photographs Will took of his mother petting his dog. We examined each photo and determined which were ‘keepers’ and others that should be thrown out. We talked about the five criteria: focus, frame, light, shadow, and composition. Will chose five images to keep, making a case to keep some that did not meet the five criteria, but were interesting for other reasons. I am pleased with his progress in critique and evaluation of his photos.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
1:45 - 2:45; 60 min.-
Photography:
Humans of New York -
Will and I examined a book called Humans of New York. I explained that the writer was a person who liked to take photos of people. He spent his spare time walking around New York City and taking pictures of people he met. He asked each person to describe themselves and included the photo and quote in a blog. The blog has become very popular and resulted in this book. We talked about some other ways to use photos in a blog, and how they might be interesting. We also looked at some places people go to learn more about photography as a career.
Monday, November 09, 2015
1:30-2:30; 60 min
Photography:
Birthday photos -
Will and I reviewed the photos he had taken during my absence. He had captured photos of Gracyn Holliday on her birthday, and the Morris children with their dog. He impressed me with how he took the initiative to capture these events for the school record. His photos were well composed and structured. We found a few photos, for which he believed they would be improved by some cropping. He used Photoshop to crop and exclude some background that distracted from the images as well. Homework: Will should take photos of someone petting his dog.
Assignment
Homework: Will should take photos of someone petting his dog.
Monday, November 02, 2015
1:30-2:30; 60 min
Photography:
Halloween photo review-
Will reviewed his photos from the Halloween photo shoot. We also reviewed his photos homework from last week. We discussed the concepts of frame, focus, light, shadow and composition. Will spoke easily about the job of a photographer to capture the people and environment during an event. He is embracing the position of school photographer.
Friday, October 23, 2015
1:30-2:30; 60 min.
Photography -
The Star Trooper project -
Will continued with the star trooper Photoshop exercise. Will successfully placed his head over the star trooper in the original photo. He excised the area that was still exposed, and filled in sky and clouds. He also erased any evidence of the page split from the magazine scan. He used the magic wand, erase, copy stamp, and cut and copy tools.
When Bob Morris brought his puppy to school, I suggested to Will that he take pictures. He took pictures of Gwen with her dog, Gracyn, the birthday girl, and Samantha, the new girl. We plugged the camera into the computer and critiqued the photos and discussed what he might have done differently and what he can change using Photoshop. We talked about taking pictures of ordinary things to make them look extraordinary. I used my phone camera to take close up pictures of a purple glow stick and a red LED light. With the latter, I was able to shift the angle and create a halo effect around the light that made it look like a red giant star.
Friday, October 30, 2015
1:30-2:30; 60 min.
Photography:
Pumpkin patch photo shoot -
Will collected photos from the pumpkin patch field adventure. He was tasked with getting photos of each child with a pumpkin, and the group shot of all students. For the group shot, Will was introduced to the wide-angle lens. We reviewed his photos in the lab and discussed what was done well, and what to consider to make the next photo shoot even better.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
9:15 - 10:00; 45 min.
Photography:
Photo shoot list -
Will prepared for his photo assignments for tomorrow: the pumpkin patch, and the costume party. We discussed the position of the sun, when we expect to be at the pumpkin patch, and where a photographer would ideally like to be under these circumstances. A list of photos that must be collected during the day was compiled, with suggestions such as: try to photograph every child at the patch, and every costume at the party, in addition to group shots. To help Will prepare, we imagined scenarios that may occur, and discussed the kinds of opportunities that may be afforded a photographer on assignment.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
1:45 - 2:45; 60 min.-
Photography -
X-wing project -
Will did a final analysis of what I was calling the star trooper project. Will told me that it was rather an X-wing project (and he is the resistance flyer). I showed Will the text tool in Photoshop and he added a caption to his photo. After making all the final small fixes to his image, we made sure the image was not too large for our paper. Will re-sized the image and we decided it was complete. I then showed him some photo paper. He thought it was very cool. We did a test to determine which side of the paper, the printer printed. We then printed a finished product.
