It's a WORK Day!

Today was a work day in Photography Class! We were busy cutting out our new badges, taking down bulletin boards, writing thank you cards to those who let us take pictures and post them for everyone to OOOHHH and AHHH over. We were working!

The boys and girls also uploaded photos that they took over the holidays and over the last few days. This morning was a perfect day for pictures. The was a little big of low laying fog, mists in the air, and pretty droplets on everything. Students were dying to show each other their photos!

As always, a few photos from our incredibly talented photography staff.

Depth of Field, People. DEPTH OF FIELD

It has been a busy few weeks! I have not had a chance to update the blog much as we have been pasting our pictures elsewhere! Our bulletin board in the hallway makes me smile each time I walk by it! It is so exciting to see such fantabulous photos so early in the year!

The Spotlight on Learning wall has been VERY well reviewed by staff members, parents and students! I am continuously impressed with the natural talent, effort and enthusiasm our young photographers bring forth each Tuesday morning.

The past few weeks we have worked on several aspects of photography. Some of the highlights include:

Perspective-Who KNEW that kids would find it incredibly funny to pinch someone's head in a photo! HA!

Depth of Field- This has been a big hit. I was afraid students wouldn't understand the concept that the depth of field is the amount of distance between the nearest and farthest objects that appear in acceptably sharp focus in a photograph. BUT they did.

Framing- We discussed natural framing. Using windows, trees, leaves, people, you name it to frame in the photo.

Rule of Thirds- This refers to an imaginary grid drawn across a photo area that breaks the image into nine equal squares. The best focal point for subjects is at the intersection of these lines with secondary emphasis being seen along the lines themselves. This was another worry that the students would not understand the concept that things do NOT have to be centered. BUT THEY DID!

Here are some fun photos from the last few weeks....

2011-2012 Photographers~

Welcome Photographers!

We are thrilled for this group of photographers to CLICK CLICK CLICK with us this zero hour year! We meet on Tuesday mornings and over the next several months will learn about zoom, focus, exposure, depth of field, framing and so much more!

We have been tasked with several items for this year. We have the great opportunity to spotlight teachers in action! YES! A job! AND we haven't even picked up a camera yet! We will also spotlight ourselves and our artwork through other means over the course of the next several months. We hope you will stop by our blog often (it is updated almost each week) and comment on our hard work!~

We have been very happy with the energy the students bring to photography. Both of us LOVE to take pictures and to share our passion of the art with our students--I am always thrilled with how talented they are!

Again-we are thrilled with this opportunity and hope you stop by often! Thank you for your continued support of your child and for the enrichment you allow them by supplying them with your time, camera, and established dedication to our class!

Happy Clicking!
Ms. McD and Mrs. Cassady

Perspective

This week we learned about how to use the lens of our camera and proximity to the focal point to make things larger than life or miniscule in nature. I think this might be one of our favorite lessons to teach. Student's "get it" and come back with some pretty awesome photos. The concept of really using precision and intention with the lens is what happens through this. We have used flash, zoom, and the basic functions of "how" the camera works and "how" to utilize the basics of the camera. And--sometimes we get lucky.

This lesson really focuses on the "art" of photography.

I think the results were pretty phenomenal.

Brody's photo.

Kaitlyn's photo.

Austin's photo.

WELCOME New Phototographers 2011

Hello! Hello! Hello!

We have started a new session and are VERY excited about this group of photographers. Effort is HUGE as we only have one hour per week to talk, learn, photograph, and implement the techniques in our class.

So far this session we have started with perspective, lighting, and FLASH! We know that lighting is very important part of our photo process. Direct light, diffused light, natural light, side lighting, back lighting ALL of these we have talked about and try to implement this new technique into our picture taking processes! We also utilize flash to help us with MOTION and ACTION shots as well as capturing photos in low light.

Mrs. Cassady and I are very excited to work with this group of young photographers and look forward to many awesome photos over the next few weeks. See below our first few attempts at taking pictures with INTENTION!

Our Favorites

We have been very busy! Too busy to post! We continue to take LOTS of pictures and work on perspective, black and white, light contrast, depth of field and just LOTS of practice! Below is a selection of student selected favorites.
Mrs. Cassady and I continue to be impressed with the quality of photographs that the students produce!

A Little Bit of Contrast

Today was a great day in photography class --especially for a bright foggy morning! We learned about contrast with light and how soft focus can create a soft contrast while bright light can create a hard contrast against edges; especially if you are taking pictures in black and white.

After much debate about whether or cameras had the function to take black and white photos --we set out to find contrasts both in color and hopefully in black and white!. I am mighty impressed with the results. Take a peek.