Katharine's Baseline

ROBERTS BASELINE

Simplicity Photo Essay

As you know, the theme at NFS this year is Simplicity.  Over the course of the year, we've heard many queries and completed several buddy meeting activities that address simplicity.  A powerful concept, simplicity can be interpreted in countless ways.

Your assignment is to work as a team to shoot, edit, and assemble a photo essay around the theme of simplicity.

Here are your teams:

• Marie-Louise, Katharine, Brandon
• Cleo, Sel, Eesha
• YeonJae, Max, Robert, Harrison
• Holdyn, Sarah, Elikem, Evan
• Leo, Joe, Mike, Sookhee

Here are the requirements:

• take turns using the camera
• shoot at least 100 pictures
• you can shoot anything within reason ~ portrait, still life, landscape, and action shots are all okay
• select and edit 8-10 photos to include in your photo essay
• use iPhoto or a web-based photo editor that you know to edit your shots; please do not use PhotoShop unless you have experience using the program; it is okay to make your photos black and white, sepia, etc. but this is certainly not required
• write a caption for each photo in the photo essay ~ the captions can be one word to one paragraph in length
• develop a creative title for your photo essay
• post your photos with the captions here on this blog by Friday ~ be sure to include your team members' first names

Eighth graders, I'm counting on you to use your experience with Blogger and troubleshoot any technical difficulties together.

Personal Photography Project (PCUBED!)

For *most* of the rest of the quarter, you will be working on a personal photography project around a topic of your choice.  I say *most* because a few days will be spent on other activities such as photographing Pre-K-2nd Grade Grandparents Day and reflecting on choices for your digital portfolios.

Because I want your personal photography projects to be awesomely unique and open-ended, I am not putting too many restrictions on this.  Here are my three non-negotiables:

• You shoot at least 75 pictures (you can shoot at school, home, or anywhere really) and include at least 6 pictures in your final display
• You use photo editing tools (iPhoto, Picnik, Photoshop) to enhance your images
• You put your heart into your project -> We should be able to tell that you care about this 

What can your project be about?  Anything...but it must be organized around a theme that matters or is interesting to you (not just random photos).  You can keep your images separate or combine them in one or more collages.  You can go black and white, sepia, full color, or a combination.  You can add text or not add text.  You can make your photos realistic or fantastical.  You can do all portraits, all landscapes, all still lives, all photojournalism, or a combination.

Here are some ideas for themes that I came up with:

• any of the 6 SPICES (simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, stewardship)
• competition
• confidence
• comfort
• beauty
• attitude
• hello
• goodbye
• music
• dance
• a sport
• creativity/imagination
• childhood
• happiness/joy
• friendship
• love
• knowledge
• challenge
• family
• fashion
• food
• perspective
• faith
• nature
• culture (yours or someone else's)
• loneliness
• fairy tales
• dreams
• adventure
• a day in the life of Upper School
• a body part (eyes? hands?) <- must be appropriate!
• furniture (chairs?  desks?)
• a color (pink?  green?)
• a sound (quiet?  loud?  laughter?)
• home
• tradition
• technology

We will display your photo essays at Elective Night on Friday, November 11th.  You will choose one image (or collage) to be printed 16x20.  You will choose another 5 or more images to be printed 4x6.  Each of you will get about one-third of a bulletin board column in the Auditorium.  We will need to choose the images by November 4th so that I have time to get them printed, on mats, and up on the Auditorium boards.

Today's task:

Brainstorm with a buddy.  Choose your theme.  Write at least one paragraph explaining your theme and why you want to work on it.  Make a list of ideas of shots for the theme.

"Pieces of Me" Collage Mini-Project

One of the coolest tricks in Photoshop is transparency.  Check out this project I spied at a Philadelphia high school last night.  Yes, I took a photo with my phone while we were walking by the bulletin board!

I love the way this piece has various layers "layered" together.  I also like the way some things are tilted or rotated.  The longer you look at it, the more things you can notice.

This gave me an idea for OUR next project.  I want you to create a "pieces of me" collage.  In the collage you must use:

• At least four images (two or more must be pictures you or a classmate has taken; the others can be from other places)
• At least three text "boxes" (can be favorite quote, your name, important words, dates, etc..)
• You must use at least one fancy text effect.  You can find many tutorials for Photoshop text effects online.  I recommend Photoshopessentials.com.

Today I will show you how to change the transparency of a layer and also how to create a beveled bubble look to text. 

Still Life!

Step 1 - Check out my Pinterest board for still life ideas:

Step 2 - Choose an object or group of objects to photograph.  You may use something of your own or something from my collection.

Step 3 - Set up your shot.  Think about background, lighting and composition.  You might want to play with the colored backdrops, you might want to set up your objects outside, you might want to use a location within the school...the choices are endless!  It is okay to shoot your objects in more than one location, but try to shoot at least 10 pictures in each location.  Be sure to shoot from different angles too!

Getting Started With Photoshop - Let's Check out the Toolbox!

Today we're going to play with some of the major tools in the Photoshop toolbox.  Use a portrait please as we will learn how to brush out your zits (yessssssssss!) There is a great blog post called Photoshop's Toolbox that you can refer to outside of class or if you need a reminder in future lessons.