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.