NFS Digital Diaries: 2012

Friday, October 26, 2012

Portfolio Prep

We are nearing the end of the quarter! For your portfolios,please select at least 5 pieces of work. At least 2 should be photos and at least 3 should be Photoshop projects. Of course you can have more than this if you like.

All of your selections need to saved as JPEG files. Put them together in TWO places:

1. Your desktop (to make it easier to pull into iMovie)
2. Your network documents. Make a folder - if you haven't already - called Digital Photography Portfolio. Put the JPEGs in that folder too.

Rather than writing a formal reflection, I'd like you to do a reflection in iMovie. For each of your portfolio choices, you should record a voiceover that describes why you chose that piece. Your voiceovers should be about a paragraph's worth of reflection. You can't just say, "This is my pop art project. It's cool." Questions to help you with your voiceover:

what do I like about this image
how does this image show my growth as a photographer and/or Photoshop user
what was hard about this project for me
what am I most proud of about this image
what does this image illustrate about me and my life right now

Once you have all of your pieces and reflections in your iMovie project, be sure to design a cover slide. You should design a special cover in Photoshop. It should say "Joey's Digital Photography Portfolio" or something like that. Please show your use of special text effects. It is AWESOME if you include images too. Make it unique!

Then add your cover slide to your iMovie project. Add transitions, music, and anything else to make your portfolio video the best it can be.When you're ALL done, export it as a MEDIUM sized video and save it in YOUR documents subfolder called Digital Photography Portfolio. Make sure you save it there; if I can't find it, I can't give you credit :)

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Learning More About Filters and Achieving an Impressionist Look

Some of you are still finishing up your pop art projects, and that's definitely okay! After you've saved your pop art project as a JPEG in student common AND printed a copy for me, you are free to start our next project.

The Impressionist art movement is one of my favorites! I was lucky enough to visit the home of Claude Monet when I visited France in high school and took an art history class on Impressionists during my study abroad in London.

Before you begin, I want you to do a little research on Impressionism. When you can answer these questions, call me over and I'll give you the thumbs up to start. You can take notes if you like.

Where did Impressionism start?
When did it start?
Name at least three famous Impressionist painters.
What made it different? Be able to explain at least three qualities that make a painting Impressionist in style.

Rather than walk you through achieving this effect in Photoshop, I'd like you to use the online tutorial posted at Graphics.com titled Creating an Impressionist Watercolor Look with Photoshop Filters. I'm doing it this way because:

Some of you are ready to start now and others aren't
It is good for you to learn how to follow an online tutorial to learn more about Photoshop <-- this is how I've learned!

The Graphics.com tutorial is great. It gives you step by step directions with helpful screenshots along the way. If you get stuck, naturally I'm happy to help you.

Requirements:

choose a photo that you (or someone in this class) took - no borrowing pictures from the web for this one
can be still life, landscape, or portrait...Impressionist painters did all of these!
if you want to shoot something special for this, go ahead, especially if you're one of those people who finished your pop art early!
sign your name in a script font in the bottom right hand corner
make your "painting" look like it's hanging in a museum! download a Photoshop frame OR dump your photo into Pixie and frame it (there are a bunch in a stickers folder called frames)
save your project as a JPEG in the student common folder and print a copy for me

Here are some examples from last year:

Katharine W.

Marie-Louise

Harrison Y.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

equality picture

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Equality Quote

This quote spoke to me because no matter what school we went to, in front of God we are all equal.

Equality Quote

I chose this quote because when I read it I think of the people who are being discriminated against.

Equality Quote On Chalkboard

Equality is an important part of life. Respect it, and
learn to use it. You will go far in life if you do.

"I want for myself what I want for other woman, absolute equality." -Agnes Mocphail
Every woman in all countries should have equality!

Quote by Albert Einstein

I chose this quote because Albert Einstein is saying that we all are responsible for the worlds advancements and the worlds's problems. Albert Einstein is also saying that we all can be incredibly smart and foolish. Everyone makes mistakes and everyone is smart.

I picked this quote because it shows that you can't just wait for things to happen, that you have to do something.

Equality Picture

"All men are born equal, but are also born different." This quote speaks to me because it shows that we should embrace each others differences and coexist. Every person is equal, but it is their unique differences that make them who they are .

"No man is above the law and no man is below it." T Roosevelt. This quote is important to me because it says that even the richest man in the world is not more important than the poorest. We are all born equal and that should never change.

Equality

Equality quote, "No man is above the law, and no man is below it." - Theodore Roosevelt

equality picture

I choose this quote because it is pretty much saying that even though equality may be a right, some people will never always treat it like one. It is also there will always be discrimination in our life no matter what.

Lexi Equality Picture

I picked this quote because it has the word equal in it, which is the single word that best describes equality. I think when Fields says he hates everyone equally he might not hate anyone, thus meaning he has the same feeling about everyone. He also might say this because he has thew same feeling about everyone.

Equality Chalkboard

I chose this quote because it was really meaningful and that if we fight for equality no one can stop us

Equality

This quote stood out from all the others because the Italian Proverb took an everyday activity, such as chess, and turned it into a life lesson on equality. Even though in the game (chess) the King is the most valued player on the board, therefore the pawn being the 'soldiers' of the game all of the pieces, no matter their importance, always end up in the same place.

Quotation by Alanis Morissette.

I am my own person, I am Me.I am not apart of anyone, I am one.

Equality Photo

This quote really stood out to me because even though the world has trouble now and is not perfect, past generations will learn from our mistakes. From poverty Kahlil says they will learn equality. From grief, (woes) they will learn love.

Equality

I chose this because it shows every person in this world is the same, and that means that know one is different, so it really shows that we have to be equal to each other.

Chalkboard Picture

I chose this quote because it shows equality between men and women. It's saying that men and women are on the same planet at the same time so you should just let it be.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

First Project!

Check out this picture from President Barack Obama's flickr photostream. I like this simple yet powerful way to share your message.

This year's "SPICE" at NFS is equality. Find a quote that relates to equality and speaks to you in some way. Write that quote *neatly* so that others may read it on a chalkboard. Working with a small group, go outside (if it's raining go upstairs to the Library) and take pictures of each other holding up your chalkboards. Make sure that the text is readable. Try to take the photo so that the upper half of the person's body is in the frame (see the Obama example). If you have a very long quote, excerpt it, or write it in two or three parts and take two or three pictures.

When you are done, transfer the pictures from your SD card to the student common folder. Then each person should logon to this blog and post her/his picture. Write a few sentences explaining why you chose that quote (why you like it, what it means to you, what it reminds you of...)

REMINDER: Make sure your blogger user ID does not include too much revealing information. No full names, no addresses, no obvious birthdays. Protect yourself online!

The goals of this activity are:

stage and take a photo
move a photo file to the student common folder
upload a photo to the blog
write a caption on the blog

If you don't finish today, you can finish tomorrow.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Welcome to Digital Photography Class!

"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera."
- Dorothea Lange

What do Dorothea Lange's words mean to you?

Photography is a powerful thing. Today we are going to explore some images by photographer James Mollison. The idea behind the photos is simple: children's bedrooms around the world. You will quickly see, however, that the images are pretty complicated.

You need a piece of scrap paper and a pencil or pen. Spend the next 10 minutes or so looking carefully at the photos. Look at a bunch and then choose one to respond to more thoroughly. Jot down what's in your head when you look at this photo. What do you see? What do you wonder? What do you wish? If you prefer to sketch, you can do that too. Don't worry about capitalization, spelling, complete sentences, etc. This won't be collected.

When I give the signal, you will share your reflection with a classmate. Then we will regroup and talk about the power of photography.