Reflections Contest

This year's theme is "My Favorite Place". Many of you have taken photos that would excellent entries! Pick up an entry packet from the front office, and get your prints in by December 15th!

Art Show

I will be selecting six photos to be matted and displayed in an upcoming Art Show on Thursday, Novmeber 30th. If you have work you would like considered please drop a copy in the appropriate folder before then.

Book Fair

Just in time for Christmas, all my classes will be visiting the Book Fair on Thursday, November 30th. Bring some money if you want to buy something!

Next picture-taking assignment...

...STUDENT CHOICE!!! It can be a collage or a single photo, abstract or realistic, beautiful or weird, colorful or black and white, any subject matter....but it has to be something really special! You can use any of the techniques we've learned and apply any combination of filters and special effects. I'm going to give you plenty of time to work on this in class, so I'm expecting a very high degree of effort and imagination! I'm going to grade it likewise. Remember there will be 60 students turning in this project, so make yours stand out! If you want a higher than average grade, you have to do better than average work! You will submit a contact sheet of 12 NEW photos on Monday, December 4th. However, you should start taking these photos now so that you can work on them this week. Keep in mind all the elements of good composition that we have just studied! This should be an "ART PIECE" worthy of framing! This will be due at the beginning of class on Wednesday, December 6th.

Family/Relationships Project

You will make a collage with the photos you took over the holidays. You must use at least six photos. They should have something in common as the collage should tell a story. Try to capture EMOTION! Use good composition techniques and special effects such as altering opacity, applying filters, making vignettes, etc. The deadline for the final collage will be Tuesday, November 28th. (Contact sheet of 12 was due November 17th.)

'NHI'

As you know, I will accept late work only one week past the due date with a letter grade deduction. I am giving you a free day today, November 21st to work on anything you are missing. Over the holiday I will zero out anything that has not been turned in except the current assignments. Monday, November 27th will be the last day to turn in late Backlit Landscapes. You will also have your Family/Relationships photos due that day. Anything else you are missing will be marked 'NHI'. Use your time wisely today!

Over the holiday....

I'd like you to take a group of photos that tells a story about family and relationships. Try to capture emotion! Try to take photos that have something in common. When we come back on the 27th, we'll make a collage.

This week's classwork

You will define a list of vocabulary words on Composition. Turn in to the completed assignments folder when finished. These will be counted like a test. Then you'll start working on your research paper. This will be due at the beginning of class on Friday, November 17th. It will be counted like a project. Please save in the Completed Assignments folder, and print out a hard copy.

Composition Paper

This week you will plan and write a report on Photographic Composition. Use the books in the classroom and/or photography sites on the Internet for your research. Include each of the following topics:
Lens choice
Rule of thirds
Background choices
Depth of field
Perspective
Framing
Point of View
Use of lines, shapes, form, pattern, textures, etc.
Explain each topic and include photos which are examples of each. You may use your own work, or get them off the Internet. If you get photographs from the Internet, remember that you must give credit to your sources. Give photo credit under each picture in your report. If you use your own pictures, be sure to give yourself credit! Write your paper in essay form, in your own words. Be sure spelling and grammar are correct, your examples look good, and it is well organized. List “Works Cited” at the end (bibliography).

Grading will be as follows:
Opening---What is composition? (10 points)
Lens choice, explanation and examples (10 points)
Perspective, explanation and examples (10 points)
Subject/Rule of thirds, explanation and examples (10 points)
Background choices, explanation and examples (10 points)
Depth of Field, explanation and examples (10 points)
Framing, explanation and examples (10 points)
Point of View, explanation and examples (10 points)
Use of lines, shape, form, pattern, texture, etc., explanation and examples (10 points)
Closing---Summary
Layout and General Appearance (10 points)

This paper will be due at the beginning of class Friday, November 17th.

Next photo shoot

Our next picture-taking assignment will continue with the theme of backlit photography. I'd like you to take 35-40 pictures that could be classified as backlit landscapes. These will be long-distance pictures. Any people or structures should be incidental, not the main focus of the photo. We have done landscapes before, and I think you all know what kind of shot to take. This time focus on the backlighting. Sunrise or sunset photos should turn out particularly well. On Monday, November 20th, you'll turn in your contact sheet of 12, and your best photo as a 5x7, cropped, color-corrected, and brightness/contrast corrected. This time we are going for BEAUTY! We will also use one landscape to make a card to go to the troops.

Christmas project for Afghanistan

Coach Cummings has asked us to help with a 'care package' his classes are putting together for 12 men stationed overseas. These men have been away from home for a very long time and would love to see anything from home. Some of you have great local landscape photos that you could make into cards. If you have local newspapers to contribute, that would be great. Also, anything like hard candy that can be shipped overseas would be appreciated. This package must be ready to go out on December 4th. Please bring in anything you are interested in contributing.

Refund from field trip

It turns out they did not charge us for the use of the bus after all. I will be refunding $3 to each of you who paid $7 for the Elizabethan Gardens trip. The admission to the park was $4.

Backlighting Project

Your backlighting project will be due on Monday, November 13th. Remember to take two shots of each subject---one with flash, and one without. You will submit two identical 5x7's (one with, one without) side-by-side. You also need to submit a contact sheet of 12, and the word document with six backlit photos from the Internet and an explanation of why you chose each one. So there are three pieces to this project, all to be turned in to the completed assignment folder. Please consult the project specifications sheet I handed out if there are any questions.

Web Sites

Some interesting sites:
dphotojournal.com
picturecorrect.com
apogeephoto.com
photo.net
photoastronomique.net (click on the American Flag)
shutterpoint.com

Lighting

Our next project will involve creative lighting--in particular, backlighting. You can be reading up on the subject in our text books as well as on the Internet! A one-page, hand-written paper on the subject will be required. Once you have turned in the paper, I'll give you the next assignment!

Weekend picture-taking assignment

Over the weekend please take action photos. Use your imagination and come up with something creative! As always, take the equivalent of a roll of film---about 35 shots. By varying your shutter speed, take photos both freezing the action and blurring the action. On Monday you will make a contact sheet of the best 12. You will enhance them with PhotoShop. Your project will be to turn in two final shots---one stop-action and one blurred-action. These will be due Wednesday, November 8th.

Elizabethan Gardens project

As of this afternoon, we will have all taken our field trip, and should have lots of great photos to use in our projects. There will be three projects to turn in as a package from the field trip photos. First we'll do a photo montage which will consist of a background photo with five smaller photos pasted atop. The five photos should have some special treatment such as beveled edge, drop shadow, etc. These will be found under Layer Styles (or use the cursive 'f' at the bottom of the Layers palatte). Play around with the positioning of these photos, as this can easily make or break your project! Think about the design elements we've studied. The second project will be a collage which will use elements of several different photos, with varying opacity. It will be done in the form of an advertisement poster for the Elizabethan Gardens, and should include the name. This one should be very creative and can use special effects. The third item you need in your project package is a final 5x7 of your best photo, cropped, color corrected, enhanced as you see fit. If you did not take the trip to the gardens, you are still responsible for the project. You should take garden photos to use. I don't want to see old photos you've used many times. Take some new ones! First period's three-part project will be due Friday, November 3rd. Third period's project will be due at the end of class Monday. Fourth period's will be due at the end of class Tuesday.