MEDIA ARTS TWO! Blogging Topic

Today is August 17, MORNING

The Students of Media Arts II, namely 

• CARLO NIÑO
• CRISTINE MAY
• MIKKO
• HARRAH
• CATHRENE MAE
• FRED CONSOR JOEL
• LOUISE ALBERT
• NOVEM ADRIAN
• NIÑA JAYNE
• GAY CHARLOTTE

have created the following blogsites. Click on them to view

The Video Presentation of the 1st Batch of Media Student

The above video link was the presentation of the best pictures my students offered for the year 2008-2009 Media Arts. They are now Fourth year and are candidates for graduation for this year 2012. My first year of journey in my first year of teaching was complete. The pictures aren't all complete but this summarizes the student's best output, from the zero that everyone started from and that includes me to the great output (I believe) that you'll see.

Fourth Grading Collage

It has been months since I posted here so now I post.

When I started teaching the Photography class, especially when the students started pouring their outputs, I started to realize the beauty and simplicity of the subject, so much so I three months before the subject and the school year ends, I started poring over books and internet just to have more things to lesson. So I decided that their their third part of the lesson (after PLACES, PEOPLE) was EVENTS. So I gave the students a Photojournalism field lessons. One thing I learned about Photojournalism lesson was, all the composition must be done BEFORE the actual shooting. In Photojournalism, one has to anticipate - lighting, aperture, shutter speeds before hand. If you have a plain old vanilla DSLR, then you do it. Chances are, the AUTOMATIC must be the best way to do photojournalism. BELOW is not their best photojournalism shots but their FOURTH GRADING OUTPUTS, none of their Photojournalism shot entered in this collage.

Events As They Happen

Since my Photography class is basically generic (basic photography), therefore we covered lots of topic and therefor exhausting. Before they went on a Christmas vacation (2008 going to 2009), I gave them assignments and that is to document Christmas and New Year. Already tucked in their "portfolio" are the topics on Product Photography, Photojournalism and Portrait photography before the 3rd grading ended. The 2nd grading ended with Nature and Macro Photography along with several effects shots. Unlike other subjects, taking pictures is never a chore to students but taking Artistic Pictures or Action Pictures is a chore. Below are some of the pictures taken by my students while spending their two week Christmas break. 

I don't know why I liked this photo (maybe the red colors in it) submitted to me by Jandrey Abejo, Its a cellphone shot with a resolution of 450 x 600.

The flash of the camera sparkled the more glittering part of the table (bottles and drinking glasses). Some may dismiss this photo as plain nochebuena feast but in my lessons, a characteristic of a good picture is that it can evoke good memories. This one does. Taken by John Carl Biera using Canon Powershot A400 with a resolution of  1024x768. 

Students find it hard to take good pictures of fireworks, in fact several shots were given to me. Only this one passed my scrutiny. Taken by Meshaq Dangel using Pentax Optio E30 with a resolution of 3072 x 2304. 

In Film Based shots which I have to scan, this is one that I liked. Again, it appeals, not to professional photographers but more to me. I like the presence of a single kid passing by Christmas decors. This is a scanned film-shot of Geraldine Lumacad print.

Lines, Lines, Lines! Its All Lines!

That's A Line! 
In photography, a technique of photography is to use lines to draw attention to the subject. Lines technique is a variation of the framing technique. This technique is commonly seen in many photography books. Again, people tend to find unnatural things in nature. If nature seems random (because it is), finding human-made arrangements would make it unusual. And unusual things are always good photography subjects. Sometimes, finding ordered things in human architecture always seem to catch one's attention. Again, my students took days looking for patterns and lines in nature and in surroundings. It appears that some got the clue, but some couldn't. 

This is an example of a classic line to nowhere (a road). Not a good shot but its a good example anyway. Taken by Krista Mae Villamor using Pentax Optio E10, with 1600 by 1200 pixel dimension.


The next photo is a tube and the wall going towards a classmate. A sepia enhanced picture (to enhance the mood). A better example of lines technique. Taken by Meshaq Dangel using my Cellphone camera! (320 x 240 pixel Samsung SGH-M610).


Below is a picture using a film-based Pentax Z-10 which is an SLR Camera. A really old camera but the mood made by the picture really affected me. At the height of a typhoon, a man, carrying half-sack of rice, braved the swaying bridge under which the water is rampaging just to bring his rice to his family. Its a great photojournalistic shot. Taken by Krista Mae Villamor and scanned using an HP-G1020 scanner. Lines direct the eyes to where the man is going

The Teacher's New "Camera"

So my students managed to give me really decent pictures while their teacher struggles to have a camera of his own uses his own laptop webcam that can take pictures. I used the camera to take pictures of them for my own class documentations. My students don't seem to ask me why I don't bring my own camera. If they do, I will tell them that its an expensive proposition (TRUE... because my brother lent/gave me his own SLR film-based camera which I am quite shy to bring to the school. Mind you, even newspaper photographers still use film-based SLR cameras). Somebody sold me a 3800 Php Samsung SGH-M610. A tiny slide-cellphone with a resolution of 320x240. Its so bad but I can use it anytime and anywhere. 



Anyway, the term camera, originated from the concept of camara oscura (Italian), literally a dark-box, in Latin its camera obscura, in French its called chambre obscure. Its no different from the pinhole camera that Physics teachers use to demonstrate light in Optics. This camara oscura is used by Visual Artists (Painters) to make accurate drawings of objects and people. So this SAMSUNG camera can take pictures too. I tried. So here are the results. These were the best shots I have taken so far.


The coconut silhouette was unexpected but the shadow shot was carefully composed. Others were composed too. They are not professional looking but they look good enough for me to post them.

I was framed!

A technique in taking pictures is called framing. In framing a shot, one has to frame (surround) the subject by something that would draw the viewer's eyes to the subject of the photograph. Some frames can be 

1. literally around the subject
2. partially around the subject
3. points to the subject by a certain pattern
4. causes the isolation the subject

In any way, this framing technique is unconsciously made by some but a conscious framing of the subject is better because framing is a way of composing the picture. 

Question: If you ask me, does a picture frame of a framed picture enhances the subject? Not necessarily. It only enhances unframed shots. Below are examples of pictures that used "framing" technique.

This picture, taken by Meshaq Dangel, using Pentax Option E30 Digicam, with a resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixel surrounds the subject:colored sky by the leaves of trees. This is partial framing.

Norhossin Masilum, took this shot of a framed sunset using Kodak Easyshare C315 Digicam with a resolution of 2304 x 1728 pixels. Both shots by any standard are substandard in Professional Photography (minimum is 3000 x 4000) but are good enough for my class.

The obvious subject here is the shadow of a tree. The frame? The ground itself which serves to partially isolate the subject. Taken by J Christian Ventic using Canon Powershot A400 Digicam at 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution.

More Coming

Crediting the Photographers

After posting several pages of blogs, I have never shown the names of the students who have their photos shown in here. Here they are:
Norhossin Masilum, Mariele Dara Tanco, Krista MaeVillamor, Meshaq Dangel, Floritel Alave, Medelyn Castre, John Carl Biera, Jandrey Abejo,

More names will be added as I continue my hourney . . .

Speed!

In Photography, a technique of taking shot is panning. This requires that you follow your object as it moves with your camera. This makes the subject clear and the background a bit blurred. But the blur implies action. It implies speed. Most Photography books however emphasize motion by freezing a moving object. Or deliberately blurring the moving subject on a static background. Whatever technique you apply, the viewer of the photograph gets the idea of motion.


However, some motion shots do not show blurring. The reason is high-speed shutter (both in Digital and Film-based). A high speed shutter somehow causes all moving objects to stop. This is called freezing time. Shutter speeds from (1/125) or lower (1/350) can freeze all actions. Unless the action is really high speed, an even lower (1/1000) can do the trick. Be aware though that using high speed shutter limits the light exposure too. So you really need a strong amount of lighting to successfully make a freeze time shot. I can only show a few shots of my students frozen in mid-air. Its the best they can do with their digital camera. My students tried their best to take pictures of vehicles and running people to no avail. So they decided to take the matter into their own hands.

The chair thrown upward was taken with Kodak Easyshot Digital Camera. The above picture used Pentax Optio Digital camera. In this exercise, only two students managed to give me outputs. The rest weren't as imaginative yet. On both shots, its midday, where strong light is available.

Film-based cameras

From the 20 students that I train in Photography, less than half of the students have a camera of their own, Even if they do have a camera, its an MP3 player. About 5 students however have good quality cameras though they're' digital. The rest have a theoretical knowledge of the lesson, These students are a bit of a problem on my part because it is harder to train them. They almost always have zero output. On their side, some exerted efforts in borrowing a camera. I decided to allow them to use film-based old cameras, their output then become the scanned image. Here are examples of them.

The print looks a lot better than its digital counterpart. A scanned image from an SLR camera.

Another Photocontest

I encourage my students in joining a photo-contest. This is a most recent one although I suppose they couldn't join anymore here since its so close to school year ending with them very busy in their requirements.

This is the third contest held by Hulagway Photographic Society and Clique-the MSU-IIT Photography Club. This contest is also sponsored by Kodak Express of Iligan, which is found in Gaisano Mall of Iligan.

If you are from Iligan and want to show your wares in Photography, you can join here too. Its my service for those who want to learn Photography in a bargain way, but with not a bargain knowledge.

Now, lets continue with my adventures...

Up Close and Personal

Close Up Photography

Macro Photography is a rather unknown term to many people. Its just a term for a type of lens that does well in making Close-Up pictures. Close-up are good in making small things look big. It literally focuses on a subject. Now a subject is the object you want the viewer of the picture to look at. In this exercise, I wanted the students to take close-up shots of anything they find interesting around the school. Now our school, Iligan City East High School-Sta. Filomena, the name itself conjures rural images. Although our school is in a city, its far from the center of the city and is more rural than urban. To find anything interesting in such a place is not hard to do. But students do very well in surprising their teacher.

This is technically not a close-up but it is close enough so you can appreciate the whiskers of the cat.I like the color contrast, orange on green. And the cat seems comfortable enough to pose for the photographer without running away.Taken with Canon Powershot A400 digicam.

Taken using Pentax Optio E30, this close up is so clear that one appreciates the individual dewdrops.


 

The close-up of the papaya's center stalk does not focus much on the subject but clear enough for one to like the greenness of the picture.



Below are some outstanding shots that blew me away. Remember, these are beginners who just learned how to take pictures.

You are probably wondering that this Sony DSC W110 picture is inside a flute?

From the same camera as the flute, this simple flower appears detailed.

Water about to drop. Again taken with the same wide-angle shot at close-up range. This camera was borrowed from a classmate and submits the shot to me. 


So my voyage seems to have acquired a compass too!

Fiery Passions

The next subject of our output was fire. It was actually too early (I learned much later). After reading that a good subject source is light-source, I thought that fire shots are good. Or so I thought. But some students managed to give me shots of burning things like this one (taken with a Canon Powershot A400 digital camera)


I did not know then that in taking pictures of fire, one needs to know things such as

• speed of shutter
• aperture settings (for SLR or DSLR cameras)
• lens
• ISO settings (or ASA for old ones)

Luckily, digital cameras and cellphones are automatic enough to adjust without the students having to juggle the menus of the camera settings. This is the only shot that passed my eyes and other faculty who thought that most pictures of fire shots were overexposed.

Threshold of Frustration

There is however a saving grace for me and that is, I have an Acer Aspire LAPTOP. So I lectured with it in front of them and read and made examples from books, tirelessly scanning them and posting them in Powerpoint presentations. The digital lectures that I made, plus some students wanting to prove something came up with some results. Some borrowed cameras, some cameras were lent to them. No one seems to bother our class. We move from one classroom to another, finding rooms available for us for TWO hours straight.

However, as the weeks go by, with me asking them to come up with four pictures of a certain subject or photography effects they think they can contribute, their pictures slowly tricked in. Some shots were really well, "ugly", but some gave good shots. In the 2nd grading of our class, still like refugees, we decided to just wait an hour everyday so we can have a 4:00 to 6:00 PM class daily. Our first shot was SUNSHOTS. any shot of the sun, preferably dusk or dawn or overcast with sun peeping in. In the process of several lectures, students learned about many things. Lenses, Cameras, Filters, Lighting, Openings and more.

I decided to use my only serviceable camera and that is, my laptop webcam. The laptop was so helpful that I couldn't have a lesson without it. But here are some pictures from my Sunshots.

 This one was taken nearby. Just outside of the school, near the beach by a student using a Kodak Easyshare Digicam



The Red sunset, taken October was the shot taken by my students when we noticed that while I was lecturing, the sky looked extra red. I dispatched them outside and take pictures. This is the best one taken using a Kodak Easyshare DigiCamera



This yellow beamed purple sky was taken by my student while they travelled to a nearby city very early in the morning. This was when they disembarked for a short rest. This was taken using a Pentax Optio Digicam



This yellow and gold sky was taken also near our school. The student liked the presence of a boat blurred by the golden rays of the sun. This was taken using Pentax Optio Digicam.


After seeing some of their efforts. I started feeling inspired because I couldn't do it myself. Not with a camera of my own. (TO BE CONTINUED...)

Really Crazy Start for Art and Photography

I was chosen as a Media Arts teacher because I was good enough in computers. However, since the SPA (Special Program for the Arts) Media Arts offers a variety of sub-courses that is comparable to computer based (Photography, Broadcasting, Videography, Layouting) courses and all related to Media. I chose Photography since I thought, it is close enough to Physics- with the mechanical (Mechanics) and digital device (Electronics) called Camera, and it uses Lenses, and Light (Optics) - and therefore much easier to teach without studying too much.Since I am a frustrated History teacher, I even delved in its history. So I thought
I started with practically nothing - the school has no SLR or DSLR camera, it has no studio, heck, not even a classroom! It sounds almost crazy. Sure, the school has a video-cam but its "holder" made it a personal So I read and read, surfed the internet, bought really rock-bottomed priced cheap books and couldn't ask help from anybody at all. The books that I bought were all about film-based cameras but have good pictures and the Photography concepts were pretty much unchanging. Later I acquired digital camera books. Still, I need to have a good camera myself! 
the students that the school got were from the regular class, mostly average and poor students who couldn't afford to buy a camera of their own. Talk about photography class whose teacher has no camera, and its students, mostly have no cameras too! Now this one doesn't sound crazy, its already crazy. (TO BE CONTINUED...)

Join me in my Journey

So I decided to use Photography as the main topic of this blog. Its a continuing voyage of learning and discovery. So join me in my travails as I travel a new path in being a teacher of Media Arts. I learn as I teach, but I retain the respect and trust of the students, much like a coach of a football team. I may not be as good as some of players of this field but I try to bring the best of out them. I so doing, I learn too and maybe become better as well.

A picture of clouds at sunset time. Taken by my new digital camera, Nikon Coolpix L20. Its an affordable camera by any standard and generally automatic. But, automatic as it is, I can still take a shot of pictures as I want them.