This semester was really fun and educational. I learned a lot about techniques and how to take better photos. We did various projects over this semester including 7 days, Getting Close, Set in the Street, and many more. My thoughts about photography have definitely changed. Before I came to this class, I didn’t realize how important photography is in society. When we visited the Newseum, my friends and I spent a lot of time looking at the amazing Pulitzer prize pictures. I haven’t really changed the way I take photos, but now I know about the rule of thirds and I use it in taking pictures. My favorite project was the Getting Close project. I loved learning how to use VSCO to take pictures. I also enjoyed going outside and finding small/tiny things to take a picture of. Photography definitely interests me and I will continue to do it in high school. I love taking good quality pictures and learning different techniques for how to take better pictures.
Getting Close
For this task, we had to take pictures of small or macro things ( living and non-living) like leaves and earrings. For this project, I used the app VSCO to take my pictures. There was a focal point element on VSCO that allowed you to focus on the certain subject you where trying to take a picture of. VSCO is also really good for editing, and it has really good filters. During this project, it was easy to brainstorm ideas of what to take pictures of. I could easily see something macro or small and take a picture of it. However, it was really hard to focus when zooming in on my camera or getting close. If I had the time to take a really close up picture, I would probably take it of a cell or something really tiny. For this, I would also need a microscope and a high quality camera. To see the rest of my pictures, click here, here
Set in the Street
For this assignment, we had to brainstorm ideas of emotions we could express in pictures using the kitchen table set, set up in our school. The kitchen table set was made out of a yellow background, a hanging light, and a table with table cloth and chairs. The photographers used for this assignment are Justin Bettman and Carrie Mae Weems. Justin Bettman is a fashion editorial and Carrie Mae Weems is an artists who uses texts, fabrics, audio, and digital images in her work. To edit my work, I used Photoshop. In Photoshop, I used the elliptical marquee tool to make an oval on my picture. Then, I went to select, modify to find the feather tool, to make the marquee inside the picture. After that, I went to select, inverse, so the marquee can be at the top of the photo. Then, I messed with the curves of the photo so that the top of the photo can look darker. If I had to choose a place to tell my families story it would probably be on an airplane. When we go on vacations or trips we are always together. On airplane rides, each of us does a different thing in our family that convey our personalities. To see the rest of my photos click here, here.
Catch the Action
For this project, we had to take photos of people/objects in motion. When taking my pictures, I made sure the live settings was on my camera. This helped me capture my photo because I could edit my photos to exact movement I wanted to use. I also took a lot of pictures in order to capture the movement of certain people/objects. My suggestions for taking action photos are to take them from different angles so you can get different effects, and to take numerous pictures of each person’s or objects movement in order to catch the right shot. If I could photograph a certain sport, it would probably be either tennis or ping pong. I really want to capture the balls movement as it hits the racket or paddle. Click her to see the rest of my photos, here.
7 Days
I’m thankful for many things in my life. First of all, I am thankful for my amazing, wonderful parents. My mom and dad have always been so supportive in everything I do. They always give me useful advice when I need it and I always know that they are always going to be there for me. They care about my education and they always push to do my best.
Next, I am thankful for not only my best friend, but my sister. She makes me laugh like crazy and she is so kind. Even though sometimes she can be a brat, she always finds a way to cheer me up. I can trust her with anything and I can literally tell her anything.
I beyond thankful for my Jewish faith. Being Jewish and becoming a bot mitzvah is such a big deal to me and my family. Over this summer, my grandma took me to Israel where I connected and learned a lot about Jewish history and Jewish culture. I am so thankful for that trip and I will always remember it.
Even though I am faraway from my camp friends, I am so thankful for them. I’m so thankful that I can go to sleep away camp. There, I met my life long best friends. We all are so close and we can tell each other anything! I’m so happy I met them,without them my summer wouldn’t be same.
My grandparents have made such a big impact on my life. I’m so thankful for all the hard work they have done for my bot miztvah and I’m so thankful that I can visit them almost every holiday. They are so kind, generous, and they always check-in to see how my life is going. I am truly thankful for them.
Makeup is a big deal in my life. Makeup makes me happy and I love experimenting with different colors. I am very passionate about makeup and I want it to be my career. I love making tutorials and videos on makeup. I am so fortunate that I can afford makeup and have the opportunity to experiment with it.
The beach has big influence on my life. Our family loves going to the beach and we even make it a tradition to go. The beach to me is so calming and makes me forget about all my worries. Our bot miztvah was even beach themed. I’m beyond thankful that I have the opportunity to go to the beach.
Click here to see the rest of my photos, here.
Then I Asked Them to Smile
For this project it was difficult for me to be brave enough to ask someone to get a photo of them. I was implicit bias and made assumptions of people I didn’t know. This can affect my job as a photographer because just like in the story, ”Then I Asked Them to Smile,” you can miss your opportunity to take amazing photos with people you don’t know. The people I took pictures of turned out to be really nice and I really enjoyed to talking to them. The changes I saw in myself was that after this assignment, I became less shy. I was able to go up to anybody with confidence and ask for a picture. The changes I saw in the people were major. Some of them didn’t even smile when I saw them at first. All of these people’s smiles lit up the whole room and they seemed so much nicer. When I asked my client/subject to take a photo of them, I asked nicely and with respect. If they said no and didn’t feel comfortable I thanked them anyway. Click here to see my project, here
Light Graffiti
For this project we had to change the camera settings so that the camera could focus on the light of our flashlights in the dark. We had to change the shutter speed to 10 seconds and change the ISO to 100 so that we could draw with our flashlights for 10 seconds. This was the most stressful part of the project. We had to draw everything we wanted to draw in 10 seconds! We also had to make sure that the flashlight was directly pointed to the camera. In this project taking photos of one person worked. When we had multiple people, it didn’t really work. For example, in the tree photo we took, Lauren and Mr. Fitz had to connect the lines of their flashlights so that the leaves of the tree would connect to the stump of the tree. If we did this project in the future, I would want to use more color lights so that we can create more ideas that we had. Click here to see the rest of my photos, here
Rule of Thirds
When taking my photos for the rule of thirds, it was easy to set up the shot. On settings on my phone I turned on the grid for my camera. Using the grid on my camera, I lined up my person and/or my objects on one third of the grid on my phone. Your eye automatically focuses on the rule of thirds. In this project, it was hard to edit the photos so that the object or person is exactly on the rule of thirds. Before this project, I had no clue what the rule of thirds was, but now, I can use it with any pictures I take. Click here to see all of my photos, here.
Portraits with an Infinite Background
The process for taking these photos consisted of taking pictures in front of a black background using multiple camera settings to portray an infinite background. After we took the pictures, we edited them in Photoshop so that the background was completely black. Then, I added my, “dark logo,” so that you can see my logo. In this project, the tripod worked well. The tripod allowed us to take better photos because the camera didn’t move. The lighting didn’t work for us because it was hard to figure out where the placing of the light should go. If we didn’t get the lighting right, there was a shadow. Click here to see the rest of our photos, here.
Portraits with an Infinite Background
The process of taking these photos consist of taking a portrait using different camera settings in front of a white background. After we took our photos, we went to photo shop to edit them. In photo shop, we could change the colors of the photos, and we can change the lighting of the photos. Then, after I had the edited photos, I went to fireworks to add my logo. The lighting worked for this assignment. We found out that natural lighting coming from outside, was the best lighting to use for this project. However, sometimes the settings wouldn’t work. We had to learn to adjust the camera settings everyday so that you could get the effect of having an infinite background. Click here to see the rest of our group photos, here.
