Sep 08 2009
Greetings and welcome to Photo 1. Let’s take a moment and hear from you. What do you hope to get out of Photo 1? Practice leaving appropriate comments here and lets see how we can move forward on you learning about photography.
Feb 09 2009
This week we will be finishing up our responses to the podcast (already late), talking about the Sontag reading, writing a response about the Sontag (homework Mon & Tues), and posting both responses to Youth Voices by Wed or Thurs. However, our IN class focus will be on learning how the 35mm manual FILM cameras work. Because they are ALL MANUAL, you will have to know how to set the F-stop and Shutter speed to control EXPOSURE, and to determine certain qualities of the picture. You will also have to FOCUS these cameras, so we’ll be practicing that as well.
Below are some resources that will take you through how the camera works, how the optics work, and include some interactive tools for exploring F-stop, shutter speed, depth of field and stopping or blurring the action of your subject.
How Stuff Works : Intro to the Camera, Focus, Lenses, Recording Light, the Right Light, SLR vs Point and shoot.
Photonhead : Shutter & Aperture
SIM CAM : Shutter Speed & Aperture Film Speed Camera Shake
Explanation of F-Stop (text)
HomePhotog.com Aperture/F-stop Depth of Field Shutter Speed
About.com What is Depth of Field (and other information – click through the pages)
Aperture demonstrations : examples
Photo terms explained – just in case you want the resource
Feb 07 2009
Friday we took pictures with the intent of illustrating the basic ideas of composition, the elements of art and the principles of design. While we have gone over the terms, looked at images that illustrate the ideas, the definitions and explanations are accessible in voicethread format online, and you were given a list of the terms to work with, I thought you might also like to have the definitions from the Maine State Standards (also in the voicethread) here in the blog so you can reference them easily. Remember, the goal is to post a sentence or two that demonstrates your understanding of HOW or WHY the picture you took demonstrates the term you were illustrating when you upload your picture to the YouthVoices.net site.
Color depends on light because it is made of light. Color has three properties; hue, intensity, and value.
Form describes the volume and mass or three dimensional aspects of objects that take up space.
Line is a mark made by a pointed tool, brush, pencil, stick, pen, etc. and is often defined as a moving dot. It has length and width but its width is very tiny compared to its length.
Shape is an area that is contained within an implied line, or is seen and identified because of color or value changes. Shapes have two dimensions, length and width and can be geometric and free form.
Space is a three dimensional volume that can be empty or filled with objects. It has width,height and depth. Space that appears three dimensional in a painting is an illusion that creates a feeling of actual depth.
Texture refers to the surface quality, both simulated and actual, of artwork.
Value refers to dark and light. Value help us to create the illusion of depth on a two dimensional surface.
Balance refers to the distribution of visual weight in a work of art.
Contrast refers to differences in values, colors, textures, shapes, and other elements.
Emphasis refers to the dominance and focus an artist creates in their work.
Movement refers to the effect created by the artist to direct viewers through their work, often to focal areas.
Pattern refers to the art elements presented in planned or random repetition to enhance surfaces of works of art.
Rhythm refers to the repetition of visual movement-colors, shapes, or lines.
Unity refers to the cohesive quality that makes an artwork feels complete and finished. When all the elements in a work of art look as though they belong together, the artist has achieved unity.
Feb 05 2009
Choose one of the following podcasts to respond to in a thoughtful couple of paragraphs (2-3) which will (next week) become a blog post. Listen to all of them before you decide which one to respond to: they are about 3 minutes long each. You may use your earbuds to listen to the podcasts, or borrow one of my headsets to use in class. Type up your response in Google docs – and share the podcast response with me (my gmail is on the bulletin board). Please put your first name and the title of the podcast in the title of the Google Doc. We’ll be sharing these on Youth Voices later – the kids in NY are listening to the podcasts and responding to them as well.
We’ll tackle the blogs, more contact sheets and (finally!) making prints next week.
Podcast selection from Lenswork magazine – podcasts by Editor Brooks Jensen
I’m looking forward to your thoughts on the podcast of your choice.
Then to to this book by Susan Sontag, and read pages 8 (start where the break is on that page) through the bottom of page 11 (next to last paragraph). You’ll also be expected to write a response to what you read there, although we’ll discuss it in class before you respond in writing.
Feb 02 2009
Feb 01 2009
We’ve reached the end of the quarter, and now to reflect. Please go to this survey and fill it out. Take time and care with your answers, it counts as a Final Exam. When you are done, we’ll spend some time putting the benchmark cover sheets together with printed work, to put in your portfolio. Then it’s time to clean up the darkroom! Thanks for a great quarter, and I hope you will come back for Photo 2 or Digital Imaging or another art class before you graduate. Remember you can come get a pass to print from your negatives during block 3 learning lab if you want to at any point during the rest of the school year. I hope you will also visit Youth Voices on your own and see what the NY students and the next round of photo students come up with for photographs and the newly revised historical project.
Jan 30 2009
Ceramics Final for first semester: Go to this survey and fill it out for me. Please take your time and respond thoughtfully and completely – this counts as your final and will balance out your quiz grades (same category in grades). After you finish the survey, we’ll put the benchmarks together for your portfolio. Then we’ll spend at least 30 minutes cleaning up the room!
I’ll try to fire tonight, and again next week (Tues or Wed) for any last minute work. You can stay this afternoon and/or Monday afternoon to finish glazing (preferably today!). Thanks for a great semester!
Jan 17 2009
We’re getting to the end of the semester and everyone is working with energy and enthusiasm – keep it up! Use your class time wisely for processing film, printing, or making pots. Written work should be done at home or during learning lab to maximize your artmaking during classtime.
Please remember that the draft/outline of your history/culture report is due on Tuesday Jan 20, and the resulting paper (after feedback) due on Monday Jan 26. NEXT WEEK is all the time you have for making pots – there will be no wet clay work after Friday Jan 23. Mon, Tues and Wed are set aside for glazing and putting together benchmarks. All written work is due by Wednesday, including BLOG POSTS, COMMENTS, and any late work. Thursday 1/29 is our Final Exam time, where we will be participating in a final review (bring your laptops!) and cleaning the studio. Attendance is mandatory!
Hopefully you are shooting all your remaining film this weekend so you can process TUESDAY 1/20. The darkroom will be closed after Friday 1/23. Matting can be done Monday 1/26, and then we have Tuesday and Wednesday for final critique, benchmarks and review for the exam on Friday 1/30. ALL CAMERAS are due back by Wednesday 1/21. ALL WRITTEN WORK is due by Wednesday 1/28, including the comments in Youth Voices, posting of your work to Youth Voices, and the self reflections turned in to me. The final exam and darkroom cleanup on Friday morning is mandatory.
Jan 04 2009
I trust you are all well rested and ready to tackle the remaining time we have in class with enthusiasm and creativity. Perhaps you took some great pictures over break, or dreamed up some new ideas for your ceramic projects – in any case, let’s use the time we have left effectively.
First - Remember that Tuesday we’re having a Vocab quiz re-do on vocab #3. If you don’t turn in your questions (rephrased from the vocab sheet, not just repeated), your words will go on in the What does the word X mean? Where you and your peers will have to actually write out a definition instead of a multiple choice option.
Second – You have a couple of writing projects due before the end of the quarter (in addition to your blogs!). The first one is actually a response that will go in your blog, but will be handed in written (via the drop box in workspaces) first. I’ll hand out a guideline in class, but the gist of it is that you need to go to the Ceramics Monthly website, to the page listing the articles on Ceramic Artists, and select one of the articles / videos (yes, some of them have videos) to read and then respond to in detail. (Don’t pick one of the “this month in clay” articles, as those are just gallery listings) You’ll be expected to link back to the article and provide specific references to it (artist name, type of ceramic work, type of clay, etc.) so be sure you keep track of the link to your specific article.
Remember we are going to connect with the students at Eleanor Roosevelt High School this week on Thursday and next week on Monday. I’ll give you a schedule on Tuesday as to who is presenting their project on which day. We’ll spend class time on Monday and Tuesday finishing the projects as needed, although it may be a good use of your time to work on the written/presentation work on your own at home as well. Wednesday in class we’ll do “draft” presentations, where you will present to your peers and will get feedback on how to make your presentation better.
All of you should be continuing to write reflections and post them to your blog, and leaving comments for your peers. Remember, your blog is a key benchmark for this course!
Dec 14 2008
Ok art students – please update your blogs! I know many have lost power for part if not all of the weekend, but in the worst case scenario you should write the blog posts by hand (you know, pencil and paper?) and bring them to school Monday so you can post during learning lab or during class. This is also a REMINDER that these blogs are your e-portfolio for your arts credit. You need to be sure to have ALL your work on the blogs, even if the grade deadline has passed. Be sure to go back and add pictures if you did a “work in progress” post, and to update the reflections when the piece is finished. Blog posts do need to be 250 to 300 words each as a minimum.
Your peers are also looking for your comments – please comment on at least three other posts per project for full credit. Also, go into the comments on your own blog and approve those that people have left for you.
We’ll spend some time on Monday updating blogs, so be sure to have drafts with you and bring your laptop to class. See you Monday!
