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.

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.

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.