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...)