I started off joining photography joining up for the communications class. My brother had taken it the year before, and had recommended me to take it. Then, due to a change in staff, I joined Mr. Fitz’s photography class with no idea what we would be doing. And, it was a pleasant surprise. At first I thought photography was rather stupid, but Mr. Fitz showed the beauty in it — that you could capture things in-front of you, and preserve it forever. At the start of the class, I used to just snap the camera, and walk onto the next thing. Now, I obseve the light around me, adjust aperture, and shutter speed. My favorite project was seven things. I liked the fact that we had to take a photo each day, and remember things we were thankful for. Though I do not think I will ever become a photographer, this class has inspired me to take photography in highschool.
In Motion
In this project, we had to take photos of objects, or in my case people — in motion. I took my photos at a swim-meet last Sunday, where I took photos of people swimming butterfly, pushing off turns, swimming freestyle, breathing, and more. I took a number of shots of one person, but from different angles. A tip I would give is to get a good shutter speed for how fast the action is going – to decrease that of blur and too much light over saturating the shot.
My photos are; https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MDv7xWIlVjEXhT7x6lFKk-lYiRkmhAVQZvizlNt9t94/edit?usp=sharing
Seven Days
In this project, I took photos each day for what I was thankful for. I used my family, food, friends, etc. The link below has paragraphs about them and the photos themselves.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NfwfPBDgFN7yZNGTkZ0SVWYZjnF5Dw_uaUQlqYdCE18/edit?usp=sharing
App Review
The two sites I reviewed are VSCO and google photos. Google photos is a site that google whas uploaded for use and is free! You can upload any photos that you have taken on any device to google photos, and they give you an option to edit them, crop them, and create full albums online! I enjoy google photos because it is easy to use and accessible, and something that we always use in this class. Below are two photos I edited in google photos.
Link to google photos; https://photos.google.com/
I also like to use VSCO, an online app where you can take photos and edit them directly after. VSCO is free to download and allows you to take photos and change filters with a click of a button. It is incredibly easy to upload these photos from VSCO with a quick click on the website. You can also browse your friends profiles with VSCO, and images or videos that they have uploaded. Here is a link to the VSCO website. These are my photos I edited on VSCO; 
http://shop.vsco.co/store/vsco/en_US/pd/productID.5168103900
Super Macro
In this project, I used Mr. Fitz’s camera to take multiple photos of ordinary, and in most cases small objects up close, which increased their size and the point of view at looking at them. For some, I shifted the angle of the camera, and sometimes had to keep the camera away from the object, so that the shot would not go out of focus, or focus on something that I didn’t want to get. In order to get such up close shots, in some I had to take a new approach, such as zooming in the camera a bit. Since I was walking around in a small group, and we found such amazing things to take photos of, it was hard for us to not take the same images. I suppose if I had the materials to do so, I’d like to take an up close image of a waterfall, or maybe a drop of water sliding down a leaf.
Here are two images I took;
Here is my album; https://photos.app.goo.gl/Yvw8GvYMSfOiwbww1
Smile Vs No Smile
In this project, I went out to the field and throughout the school building in order to take photos of a person both smiling and not smiling. It was a little difficult to get people to smile, as some decided to be silly instead. There was definitely a noticeable change between a smiling and frowning person. It gives off a very different impression to the person who looks at the photo, shifting from happiness to seriousness. If I were a photographer, and perhaps took a photo of someone frowning instead of smiling, it could give off a worse impression of the man; Either being too serious or grumpy. I suppose if I was hired I would first ask the person how they were feeling at the moment, so that my photo would capture their true feelings at the moment.
Here is the link to my photos;
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1AA0dvC_x82cvVvyhEa51wm_7br9iOzsoKiqrHhxmv4k/edit?usp=sharing
Light Graffiti
In this project, we went into the main gym with a camera, atop a tripod. We turned off all the lights, and, changed the camera’s settings to bulb. When you switch a camera to bulb, you can start the photo, and it will capture all the light it sees until you press the button again. In the darkness, there was no light to capture, so, we used camera phones and flashlights (Facing towards the camera) and drew patterns in the light. We’d either simply create patterns or put ourselves in the photo, painting ourselves in light so that we’d also show up. We had to keep still, so the camera didn’t sense our movement.
We tried to make stars by turning the lights on and off, but that only turned into spots all along us. Afterwards, we simply drew the stars, and it worked much better.
I was frustrated with having to keep still for so long, as some positions are hard to keep. If we were to take this project to the next level, i think it would be cool to add stronger lights and maybe use some props.
Here is the link to my album; https://photos.app.goo.gl/x9DcgQiB2UWPPTmw1
Below are two examples of my work;
Rule of Thirds
In this project, I used the rule of thirds in all of our photos. The rule of thirds is three imaginary lines, and you want to put the subject of the photo on one of these lines- this is to bring the eyes to this image. Then, the eyes glaze over the rest of the background, and along the next imaginary lines. The following two pictures are both photos that I took with the Rule of Thirds, and both are resting on the first line. 
Here is also the link to my album; https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipMYiIDbHxBFll7D5y3YU-op73HqFUK29C73IG3Y
Pulitzer Prize
In this project, we visited the Newseum and looked at Pulitzer prize winning photographs. The following photos are Pulitzer Prize photos that connected with me.
This photo is incredbly sad to me. Seeing the African child starving and the vulture waiting for it to die strikes a cord with me. It makes me think about how fortunate I am to be able to eat regularly and when I wish, while there are others who starve. After the photographer took this photo, they committed suicide, depressed that their fame was caused by such awful conditions.
In this photo, Kosovo citizens are passing over their child to the refugees on the other side of the fence, in an attempt to give the child a better life. This photo connects with me because it shows the difference in like, even though both places have a similar landscape, can be so different do to a thin barbed fence. It also connects with me because my mom was a war correspondent in Kosovo.
If I were the photographer, I think I would have a hard time trying to seperate my job from being a human. I don’t think I could be a photojournalist, because I don’t think I could live with myself if I sat by instead of helping others. I suppose some might go into the field for fame, but as the photographer of the first photo knew, fame based on other’s suffering is not great fame.
Another great part of the exhibit is the 9/11 museum. They even have a peice of the Twin Towers in the middle, and all the newspapers the day after. The exhibit is certainly a very well researched one, and it stirs a lot of emotion for those who lived through 9/11. They have a full documentry playing on a loop in a small theater room, and even have the remnants of the camera of the journalist who died in the collapse. It is truly an amazing exhibit.
White Background
In this project, we went up the the TV Studio room. Using the rolled down white paper as a background, we took photos of one another. keeping the cameras in manual mode, we had to adjust shutter speed in order to not capture too much light. Below are photos of both me and the person I took the photos of.
Link to the album; https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipNe7KhpFvCv9U1Q3S92dPjhOX0kwG4e0yGvC5BQ
