Photo Assignment 7- Black and White

This week, I decied to try Black and White pictture taking. It was a challenge to find objects/things that contrasted well and appeared better in black and white. After a few attempts I started to get the hang of things. To the left, like always, is my best photo. This week I was torn between two pictures, the one to the left and the other flower picture that appears in my slide show below.

Shutter Speed: 1/250
Aperture: F 4.5
ISO: 80

For the rest of my pictures in this weeks shoot, I once again decided to spice things up and create a slide show in Animoto. I feeling I am a much better photographer and am continuing to become better!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Visual Puns

For this weeks Gimp assignment we created Visual Puns . See if you can figure mine out :) (ps. they are pretty easy) I also decided to create a slide show on "Animoto" instead of my usual manual slide show, spice things up a bit :)

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Visual Dictionary

This weeks gimp assignment was creating visual dictionary. As you can see, I collages several pictures together that described the word. Time was the big issue for me this week as we had to do 5 of them. Overall I really like my dictionary for "Affection" and "Supernatural".

Photo Assignment 6

For this week's photo assignment I shot for the catigory animals. My best photo is to the left. For this photo shoot, my biggest issue was getting a non-blury pictures of my pets. In the end it all worked out. :)

Shutter Speed: 1/500
Aperture: 5.6
ISO:200





The rest of the photos in set, all had the same issue of moving animals and not being able to tell them what to do. Overall, I feel I am becoming a better photographer!



Photo Assignment 5 - People

This week's assignment, I decided to shoot for people, although, I only shot photos of one person, my sister. My sister was a great model, she was easy to work with, and would do just about anything I told her to do weither it was lying in the grass or hanging upside down from a tree. To the left is my best photo. I liked the perspective from which I took it, along with her serene facial expression, which really shows off her personality.

Shutter Speed: 1/500
Aperture: F 5.6
ISO: 200

For the rest of the pictures in my photo shoot, I tried to keep the poses fresh. I tried many different ideas on unique shots and found that there is a lot of cool way to take pictures of people. I definitely think my sister should consider modeling as she proved to me she is photogenic. :) I really enjoyed this weeks shoot.

Gimp Assignment 5- Portraits

This week we focused on portraits. We learned about the Three Point Light set up (the picture on the right) which is a more professional photo, and the Window Portrait Light Set up (picture on the left) which tends to be a less expensive set up. During this photo shoot,   I learned that talking to your model makes for a better picture because it helps break the tension. For portraits you want to strive to get the models personality to show. Overall I had fun with this assignment and learned proper ways to take a portrait.

Photo Assignment 4- Macro

For this week's assignment I decided to try Macro. Macro is basically a setting on the camera that allow one to take very detailed pictures of objects. I chose to shoot flowers, just like everyone else :) For my best picture however, I picked the one to the left because it seemed different than all your other typical flower pictures. I really liked the way the rain left beads of water opposed to drops. What I mean by this is the water appears to be in ball like forms and more three- dimensional. I also like the contrast of the white petals and the dark green leaves.

ISO: 200

Aperture: F 3.2

Shutter Speed: 1/200

For the rest of the photos, I only struggled with one thing: wind. The wind made it hard to get a decent photo of the flowers with out being blurry. Even with a fast shutter speed, the pictures were not to my appeal. I did however get a good handful.



Gimp Assignment 4- Change the Context of SHS

For this week's Gimp assignment we went around school, took  some pictures, and then added in things that you wouldn't expect to see. For my assignment, I thought it would be cool to have the "Narnia" entrance be a locker. The picture to the left shows some of the characters from the movies/books and the famous lamp post that is in the middle of Narnia. My inspiration for this idea comes from an inside joke between a couple friends, with one of our lockers being the "Narnia entrance". At first, like always, this assignment was a challenge for me, but once I got the hang of creating new levels, creating shadows, etc. it was a lot easier to make it appear some what real.

Motion Demo- Panning

Today in class we learned about panning. Panning is a form of motion blur that gives off the feeling of movement even though the subject is in focus while the background is blurred. Mr. Bush brought his bike to school and we all went outside and shot photos of him riding it to gin practice with panning. I was having some issues with timing for this lesson, but after a few bad shots I started to get the feel for panning. I have always wondered how these photos were taken, now I know. :)

Photo Assignment 3- Still Life

This week I worked on shooting still life pictures. The picture to the left is my best picture. I really love how this one turned out; I find it a unique picture. I was having issues with lighting this week, and ended up using a desk lap to help.

Shutter Speed: 1/40
Aperture: F 3.2
ISO:  250





Here are some of my other pictures taken in this week's photo shoot. I really enjoyed and had fun with it :) I basically found interesting objects around my room and took pictures of them. The only issue i was having this week was with lighting. I couldn't seem to get a good lighting and ended up using a desk lap and or the flash setting to help out with this issue.

Gimp Assignment 3- Panoramic Photo

Taking a first glance at this picture, you may think its a single photograph. Actually it's three. This week we took on the challenge of shooting and editing a panoramic picture. A panoramic picture is a picture that is basically multiple images strung together to form one image.  While editing, I found

it hard at first but started to finally get the hang of the idea of "blending". I'm sure if you look hard enough you can find some flaws where I may not have lined something up perfectly or there are duplicates, but I am proud of my final product. After I finished my editing I started playing around

with filters and having a little fun with my work. The second and third pictures were just for grins :) Overall I really learned a lot from this assignment.

Photo Assignment 2- Event

For this second assignment I decided to shot pictures for an event. It happened to work out perfectly that I went to a Varsity Track meet on Friday night and was able to get some shots. To the left is my best picture. As you can see it is of a pole vaulter. It was darker outside so I had issues with adjusting everything to get a decent balance of everything to produce a good picture. I ended up using the flash to help balance out the light, in order to maintain a decent balance. Over all I enjoyed this photo shoot.



Shutter Speed: 1/50
Aperture: F2.6
ISO:200




I took several photos for this shooting and edited 10 of them. I had a hard time (as I stated above) with getting the balance between the ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture. I ended up having a fairly high ISO (with the exception of the one above), because I had to have a fast shutter speed in order to catch the action, but I was dark outside; this meant a high ISO in order to get enough light to be able to actually see the picture and not have a black square. Unfortunately this meant lots of digital noise. For the future, I will try to get more shots during the day and try to avoid late night photos until I become more skilled in general.

Car Retouch- Gimp Assignment #2

For this Gimp assignment we were working/learning how to retouch/modify things we want to change about a picture. The first picture is the original and the second one is the picture that I edited. At first it was confusing but I started to get the hang of it. Hopefully with time I will become a lot more skilled at editing photos. 

Photography Assignment One - Architecture

Architecture was the first photo assignment I decided to tackle. On the left is my best picture, I felt this was my strongest picture because it has a unique display of the houses, which all look the same. I also liked the way the hills and horizon were shot.


Technical Data
Shutter Speed: 1/400
Aperture: F4.3
ISO: 80



I ended up taking several pictures, after sorting and editing them I was able to pick out my best 10 (below in slide show). Architecture was my main focus for this assignment. I was able to practice what we have learned in class for this assignment (ISO, shutter speed, aperture and composition). For most of these pictured I used the "Manual" setting on the camera to gain more experience and practice with it. I really liked the freedom and expression I was allowed to put into this first assignment.

Pop Art

For this assignment we learned how to create Pop Art with Gimp. Gimp is a free version of Photoshop. Andy Warhol was the first artist to start creating Pop Art. Personally, I found Gimp very confusing at first because it was a new program for me. As I got further into the assignment I started to get the hang of it. Hopefully as this class goes on I will become a photo editing pro (well at least a semi-pro).

Composition Assignment

For this assignment, composition, or the makeup, of a photo was the key idea. I learned several different "rules"/"techniques" for it. The assignment called for 11 different photos, each with a different rule, which are listed below. I came into this class not knowing much about photography, I wanted to take this class to learn how to shoot decent photos. Within only TWO weeks, whoa have I learned a lot! It’s amazing to me that something so simple as following a few guide lines can make your pictures amazing. For example, like most people, when I would go to take a picture, I always thought it was best to center the subject. Little did I know that following the rule of thirds, (placing the object on one of the “Tic Tac Toe” like lines would make my pictures turn out so much better.

Symmetry-“Hall Way”

Pattern-“Bench”

Rule of Thirds-“Swans”

Texture-“Pine Needles”

Lines-“Structure Beams”

Frame-“Skeleton”

Space-“Flag”

Field of Depth-“Drain”

Balance-“Tree and Pond”

Perspective-“Looking up at a Tree”

Color-“Guard Rail”