January

So this month I spent mostly preparing for my 30 minute presentation. What I did to really prepare was read up on the different camera settings and their uses.

[ This is the book I read to learn the different camera settings among other things.]

Overall I didn't do much other than that except take a really nice photo for ROP when we worked on abstract photography, I'll probably have that up after it's been graded. 

Blog 12: Third Interview Questions

Content:
10 open-ended questions:

1. My essential question is " How can a photographer best achieve ideal lighting during a portrait session?", what are your thoughts on getting the best light during a session?
2. One of my answers for my essential question is adjusting the camera settings in accordance with given light; How often would you say that you adjust your settings when taking photos?
3. In lighting conditions like today, if you had to take an outdoor portrait what settings do you think you would use to get the best lit photo possible?
4. In what circumstances would you suggest using an off-camera flash?
5. In contrast to that under what circumstances would you suggest using an on camera flash?
6. When, in your opinion, would it be more appropriate to use a hot light rather than a studio light with an umbrella reflector?
7. Speaking of reflectors, would you suggest a specific type for outdoor portrait sessions?
8. Do you use soft boxes in your photography? If so what effect do they have on your photos? If not, why?
9. Some photographers use reflector floodlights in their work, what's your opinion on them and their effect on a photo?
10. Other photographers have their preferences in lighting styles; short to broad, split to butterfly; what is your preferred lighting style?

Blog 11: Mentorship 10 Hours

1. Where are you doing your mentorship?
I am doing my mentorship at CBC Photography and ROP Digital Photography class.

2. Who is your contact?

My contact is Jack Bohlka.

3. How many total hours have you done?
I have done a total of 54 hours. 

4. Summarize the 10 hours of service you did.

The hours that I completed consist of scaning client orders, observing a portrait session, and participating in ROP class.  

5. Email your house teacher the name of your contact and their phone number confirming who they are should they call to verify it.

Blog 10: Senior Project: The Holiday

Content:

1. It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school. What did you do over the break with your senior project?

Over the break I did some independent research that I think will help me in the 30 minute presentation and my independent component.

2. What was the most important thing you learned from what you did and why? What was the source of what you learned?

In my research I learned about photo exposure and how to get it just right for different situations.

3. If you were going to do a 10 question interview on questions related to answers of your EQ, who would you talk to and why?

If I were to interview someone in a 10 question interview on questions related to answers related to my EQ, I would talk to Jack Hancock because he does really good photography work where the lighting compliments the subject.

Extra Post December

So In ROP this month, Jack had us take still life photos with a given theme: "iPoly Life". So I decided to head over to the office and take a photo of the excused and unexcused tardy/absence slips because really who at iPoly hasn't had to run over to the office or hasn't been sent back to get a tardy slip.

[ This is the photo I took of mostly excused absence/tardy slips towards 

the back where the white slip of paper is an unexcused slip]

That's probably the most interesting thing that I've done this month, hopefully more comes out of the next two weeks.

November Post

This month I started working in the studio again. I didn't do much just putting things together and helping Jack clean up his office area. Here are some photos of that:

[ This is a photo of all the orders that I had to put together for Claremont High's football team.]

[ This is Jack's office.]

[ This is one of the cupboards that I had to clean out, unfortunately I don't have an after photo.]

Overall, this month was pretty uneventful in terms of work and such, hopefully December is less dull.

Blog 9: EQ

Content

1.   Review this.  Confirm by stating "I reviewed the rule of three for writing an EQ."

Essential Question

Once a topic is chosen, the student will develop a working essential question.  The purpose of the working essential question is to help the student build a strong foundation of research which will allow him or her to create an essential question that encourages depth and rigor in the chosen topic.  An essential question must:

• Provide a framework for studies (It calls for breadth and depth of research, Is not a yes/no question)
• Takes a stance (Allows you to argue some point, Cannot be a recitation of facts or a list)
• Format (It is specific, The wording makes sense)

I reviewed the rule of three for writing an EQ.

2.  Review the following EQs and

• Tell us if it meets the rule of 3 criteria.
• Tell why it does or why it doesn't

a.  What is the most important factor in healthy weight loss?

This EQ does because you can argue what the most important factor in healthy weight loss, you can do in depth research on this and the wording makes sense.

b.  What is most important to securing a conviction in a criminal investigation?

I think that this would only lead to one answer.

c.  What is most important in creating a hairstyle that best satisfies a customer?

Honestly this seems more like an interview question, rather than a question that would take a lot of research to answer.

d.  How can an Anesthesiologist best treat chronic pain?

The question is well formatted and there are definitely different points that this can be argued from and there’s a lot of research that can go into this.

3.  Based on your review of the rule of 3 and your experience with assessing four EQs, please write another draft EQ for your senior project.

What is most essential when producing a satisfactory portrait, before and after taking the photo?

October Post

This month I really started doing things in ROP: Digital Photography, one of the assignments that I accomplished this month was the leading lines and having a subject, so below I have a photo of Christine Navarro's feet on a leading line.

[Right here I decided to crop the picture, adjust the brightness, and put the photo into grayscale.]

The next big thing that I worked on with the camera and in Photoshop was the rule of thirds position in photos. Rule of thirds is really just the positioning of the subject in the photo to make it interesting. When working with the rule of thirds it's better to have the main subject off to the side of the photo instead of dead center. I took a photo of a lady bug to to demonstrate that:

[For this photo I had to crop a bit to get the lady bug into the rule of thirds position]

Finally, the most recent thing that I did in ROP was kind of put together the two things and take a photo that is in rule of thirds and has a leading line. For this I decided to take a photo of Lupe Lara:

[I cropped this photo of Lupe into a rule of thirds position and the leading line is the main one that she's standing on]

Overall, ROP is running really smooth right now and I'm getting a lot of practice with the camera and Photoshop. Uhm, that's it for now.

Blog 8: Research and Working EQ

1. What is your working EQ? 

What is the most essential step in producing a well-done, well edited portrait?

2. What is a possible answer to your working EQ? Please write the answer in thesis format.

Making sure that the lighting in a room or outdoor area to fit the needs of the photo being taken; lighting itself can easily be fixed by adding light or adjusting the settings on the camera. 

3. What is the most important source you have used that has helped you come up with an answer to your working EQ?

The most important source that I have used is probably David Busch's Portrait/ Candid/ Street Photography Compact Pocket Field Guide, because in each type of photography he talks about how important it is to check the lighting and adjust the settings on the camera accordingly.

4. Who is your mentor, or where are you volunteering, and how does what you are doing relate to your working EQ? 

My mentor is Jack Bohlka, he is related to my working EQ because he has been doing portrait photography for years and runs his own studio.   

Blog 7: Independent Component 1 Approval

1. Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

 For my 30 hours I plan to continue taking ROP at school, because that actually teaches a lot of fundamentals of photography and photoshop. I also plan to work at my mentor's studio in order to learn lighting techniques such as: broad portrait lighting, short portrait lighting, rembrandt portrait lighting, split portrait lighting, and butterfly portrait lighting.

2. Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

I plan to show 30 hours of evidence through showing my grade in ROP and producing a portfolio consisting of photos of at least two models under each type of lighting that I plan on learning to not only prove that I learned it but also show the effects of different lighting styles on different faces.

3. And explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic more in depth.

This will help me explore my topic more in depth through allowing me to get a hands on experience in the areas of portrait lighting and photo retouching, which are two necessities in portrait photography. 

4. Post a log on the right side of your blog near your mentorship log and call it the independent 1 log.