All Assignments due Friday June 5

Students, if you are having trouble getting your work in on time, please email me to discuss.
The following assignments are due:
1. Dialogue: 10 marks
2. Photo walk: 10 photos , 20 marks
3. Photo poem: 1 poem overlayed on top of photo, 20 marks
4 Final collection of best taken 30 photos: 30 marks
Photo: Catrina Kretji

Below this post, scroll down for criteria and examples of what to do for the Photo poem.

Check out these Flickr Groups for Inspiration

Click on this link to check out some Flickr groups where you can get ideas for taking photos.
Flickr Groups

Term 4: Final Deadline All Assignments are DUE FRI JUNE 5

Here is all of the work that needs to be done for term 4

Here is a list of all of the term 4 work which is due Friday June 5. Please note I have moved the deadline up for the final photo assignment to June 5 from June 15.

CRITERIA for all Photos: Make sure the photo has a focal point, is in focus, and you are trying to implement the Elements of Composition we have learned. Things like: fill the frame, rule of thirds, framing, rule of odds, tell a story in your photo, use of triangles, leading lines etc.

1. Photowalk: 10 photos taken on a walk in nature. Please DO NOT recycle old photos you have taken, I will not mark old photos. All photos should be taken by you recently. Put in an album on Flickr. (20 marks)

2. Dialogue: 16 lines of back and forth dialogue between 2 characters. The idea is to reveal information about the characters or develop the storyline through the dialogue. Send by email or post in TEAMS. (10 marks)

3. Final Collection of Best Work: This should include your best photos from the class. 10 of these photos can be from before this class, or old assignment photos from the class, but the other 20 need to be recently taken photos by you. Try to include a variety of different shots. I do not want to see 30 dog shots, or 30 flower shots. Try to include: macros, landscape, portrait, pets, creative shots. Please refer to the Inspiration post on the blog for ideas. There is a lot you can shoot in your home. All photos should be posted in an album on Flickr.
NEW DEADLINE JUNE 5 ( changed from June 15) (Marks 30)

4. NEW and FINAL ASSIGNMENT:  
Photo Poem: Plan to take a photo that has some space around it, (or use one you already have) focus on a subject that you think you can write a short poem on. The poem should be a least 4 lines long. Focus your poem on meaning not rhyme. I really do not like poems that have no meaning and meaningless rhyme. Your poem needs to be about something.

Think about the concept of simplicity with regard to the poem and the photo. Make sure your text is large enough to read. Below are 3 poems I wrote from some of your photos to show you as an example. Thank you to the photographers! Please post in an album on Flickr call it Photo Poem. If you have trouble putting onto Flickr send in a word document on teams.
(Marks 20)

All poems by L.Chase

Check out some Great Photography by all of You!

Virtual Photo Course Opportunity

Photo: Avarie Dennis

The Magenta Photo Program offers up a Great Opportunity

If you, or someone you know aged 14-18, would like to understand the techniques used in professional photography or simply use the camera on your smartphone in more effective ways, please join us for Capture Photography Festival’s online photography course, Learning to Capture: The Fundamentals of Photography. This course, taught by Rachel Topham, is a free, virtual, four-week photography course, designed for individuals aged 14-18

For a detailed course description, please visit our website by clicking this link.

If you would like to register for the course, please email engagement@capturephotofest.com

TERM 4 PHOTO/WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

TERM 4 PHOTO

Photo: Eli Jones











If you are really interested in stretching your photography & writing skills, please see the post on enrichment photography and writing. There you will find links to different ideas, videos etc which will be useful for enhancing the craft of photography and writing.

Photo Walk/Spring shots: Go for a walk, stroll or roll in your neighbourhood or to a special isolated location with your camera phone or camera and really look at what is around you. Take photos focusing on different angles and focusing on lighting. Spring is all around us and we have been waiting for the outer world to wake up, find some signs of spring. Try taking photos of the same subject from different perspectives. Take lots of photos, more than you need. Edit and post your best 10 photos to Flickr in an album called Photo Walk.

Criteria: Photos should be clearly focused, have clean backgrounds, be well composed and have a distinct focal point. Marks: 20 Due Friday May 15 posted in an album on Flickr.

Final Photo Showcase: Check out the inspiration post (on the page before this one) for lots of creative ideas of things you can take photos of at home. There are photo opportunities all around you, just decide to get busy and experiment. This assignment is due on Flickr at the end of the term. It was going to be our final slideshow, but your final photos can just be put on to Flickr in an album for me to view and mark. I have reduced this assignment to 30 photos, 10 of which can be from before this class started or from previous assignments in this class. But that means I will be looking for 20 newly shot photos. You have tons of choice on this assignment, you just need to get out and take photos.

Criteria: This is a collection of your best photos. Photos should be clearly focused, well composed, creative, and have a distinct focal point. I do not want to see all flowers or all nature shots. Marks will be given for a good mixture of different types of shots. Some portraits, macros, dog shots, friend shots, food shots etc. All photos should be taken by YOU recently, please do not recycle old photos, do not take photos of art or photos of other photos. Marks: 30 Due Friday June 5 posted in an album on Flickr. **********NOTE: DEADLINE HAS CHANGED

TERM 4 WRITING

Dialogue: I already introduced this assignment in class, here is the info you need to do the assignment properly. Dialogue is a conversation between two people. In writing a story or novel, good dialogue will do one of two things; move plot or develop character. Your task is to create a dialogue between two characters that does this. The minimum lines of dialogue are 8 lines per character.   Marks:10 Due: Friday May 15

Here are 10 tips for how to write dialogue:

• Say the dialogue out loud.
• Cut small talk when writing dialogue.
• Keep your dialogue brief and impactful.
• Give each character a unique voice.
• Add world-appropriate slang.
• Be consistent with the characters' voices.
• Remember who they're speaking to.
• Avoid long dialogue paragraphs.

LINK TO: How to write good dialogue
Tips for writing good dialogue

This is it for now...more to come at a later date.

Writing Enrichment

WRITING LINKS FOR STUDENTS TO CHECK OUT

Check out this link to top places to connect
with other young writers: Great writing sites for teens
Check out TEEN INK, a place to read others poetry and comment on it. Teen Ink

Journal prompts: 119 Journal Prompts
Boredom Busters: Things to Do at Home:  Daring to Live Fully
Check out this same website's archives: Many ideas for Thinking and Writing

MORE to COME........

Photo Inspiration and Enrichment

Tulips: By Ella Black














One of my favourite places to seek help is Digital Photo School. You can read short articles and look at sample photos and they are a well established site with valuable information to offer all levels of photographers. The link to this site is here: DIGITAL PHOTO SCHOOL

Check out photographing food colour and milk:
Creative Abstract Food Colouring & Milk
Tips on how to shoot your pet: Pet Photography
Candlelight Photography: Taking Candlelight Photos
Flower Photography and a good review of Composition: Flower Photography
More tips on shooting Flowers
Still Life Photography: Still Life Photography
Video on a photographer's passion : Photographing Bubbles
Black and White linen how to get better shots:Video on shooting in Black and White

The following are links to some 2 minute videos showing you what creative photographers are up to.
Flickr Moments: World's Best Father
Flickr Moments: photographing Jimmy the Dog
Flickr Moments: The Adventures of Mr. Fly
Flickr Moments: Extreme Sports Photography
Flickr Moments: Teen Photographer uses mirror to create an Illusion
Flickr Moments: Setting the scene at Home
Flickr Moments: Photographer Lands Job at Coca Cola
Check out You Tube for more quick 2 minute Flickr Moments

You might want to subscribe to 2 of my favourite Photographer's You Tube Channels, Von Wong's Video's are spectacular and Peter McKinnon is way cooler than me!:
Canadian Photographer: VON WONG
Peter McKinnon

Here are a few sites for Photography tips and tricks.
Check out: Some cool ideas to try out. Make sure you are being safe...a lot of these photos have been edited, but experimenting is worth a try and can be a lot of fun.
A couple of Hacks to try at Home

Photo: Lisa Chase

Some of last semester's photo students were involved with the Magenta Mentor Photo program and their photos are showcased in this online gallery...check it out.

LINK TO VIRTUAL GALLERY:  Magenta Online Photo Gallery for : It is a Plastic World

All term 3 work needs to be completed by Friday April 10

For all grade 9's. Please complete any and all photo assignments that were assigned and are due for term 3. Post them to Flickr in an album so that I can grade them. If you still need to hand in writing assignments please send to me at: lisa.chase@sd71.bc.ca Make sure they are in a word document not a goole doc. If you can only send as a google doc make sure the document is not locked.

This is what is due for term 3 by the end of the day on Friday April 10
1. Writing Bio: good copy 10 marks

2. Writing Setting: good copy 10 marks

3. Writing: Bucket List 10 marks

4. Photoshop: Head swap 10 marks

5. Photo: Flickr set-up, all photos in albums, Make Ms. Chase a contact 10 marks

6. Photo: 3 Head shots in album on Flickr  5 marks

7. Photo: 2 shots Rule of Thirds in album on Flickr 5 marks

8. Photo: 10 First Shoot( 10 Composition photos from the list I posted. Check the assignment further down on this blog) in an album on Flickr 20 marks
9. 5 macros in album on Flickr 10 marks
Please complete the 5 macro shots and post them to Flickr.( these are close up shots of objects)

THE DIALOGUE ASSIGNMENT IS NOT DUE FOR THIS TERM.
Keep checking this blog, I will be in touch soon regarding what will happen in term 4.
Stay calm, take lots of photos out on your physical distancing walks and stay healthy!
Ms Chase

Check out these Photo Editors:
https://pixlr.com/x/

Other fee photo editing programs
(Gimp is free editing program and very close to Photoshop)

These photos are examples of macros.
CLICK ON THIS LINK TO READ ABOUT SHOOTING MACROS
tips for shooting macros on a phone

What should be done by next Friday before the March Break

1. Writing Bio: good copy 10 marks

2. Writing Setting: good copy 10 marks

3. Writing: Bucket List 10 marks

4. Photoshop: Head swap 10 marks

5. Photo: Flickr set-up, all photos in albums, Make Ms. Chase a contact 10 marks

6. Photo: 3 Head shots in album on Flickr  5 marks

7. Photo: 2 shots Rule of Thirds in album on Flickr 5 marks

8. Photo: 10 First Shoot shots in album on Flickr 20 marks

Macros: These are close-up shots with a focus on an interesting object. Make sure the photos are clear, in focus. have a clean background and are edited before putting onto Flickr.

5 photos Marks 10. 

Writing Assignment #3

Bucket List : You are to create a point form list of 20 things you would like to see, do, or accomplish before you turn 25. Hand in to Ms Chase, no editing is needed.

For Anyone wanting to try manual functions: a reference chart

Photoshop Editing Assignment

Editing Assignment NEW
HEADSWAP IN PHOTOSHOP INSTRUCTIONS  (10 marks)

1. Find/or take photo of a person. If using google to find the image, get the largest size photo possible. ( ie superman, famous model or celebrity) no animals or cartoons.

2. Bring in both photos to Photoshop. Go to IMAGE, ADJUSTMENTS, IMAGE SIZE and change the photos to both be close to the same size. If one is way bigger than the other it will be difficult to do the assignment. While under ADJUSTMENTS, you can also change both photos to BLACK and WHITE.
3. Next go to the SELECTION TOOL, and using the tool, move the tool around the head of one of your photos, then click on EDIT CUT and go to your next photo.

Note: It is probably more interesting to put the student head on the celebrity body, but it does not matter which head goes where. Also if you do not have a head shot that works for the swap, simply go out and take a shot of someone in a similar pose and distance away from the camera.

4.When on the next photo, click on EDIT, PASTE. This will put the head on the page. Then to resize the head, click EDIT, TRANSFORM, SCALE. This will put a box around the photo and allow you to change the size of the head, you can also slightly rotate the head if you go to ROTATE under TRANSFORM tool.
5. Then you want to tweak the image by moving into place with the pick tool, or use the eraser tool to clean up the edges.

Note: SAVING the file: If you need to continue working on the head swap, save as a Photoshop file so you can come back and work on the image. It is always a good idea, to save your edited photos as Photoshop files as a backup in case you need to go back and make changes. However, if you think you are done you can save as a JPEG and then print out the assignment, put your name on it and hand it in.

Criteria for this assignment: Looking for a clean transition, not warped but looking accurate, limited blurring to make the face/hair work. If I cannot tell it has been photoshopped it is a 10/10. Good Luck.

More on Composition

Link to more information on composition
Composition

Please make sure all of your work is posted in albums on Flickr.

New Photography Assignment: Focus on Composition

This is your first official shoot. You are focusing on composing good shots and experimenting with angles.  Each shot is worth 2 marks and should be titled and put into an album called First Shoot.

1. Texture
2. High Angle
3. Low angle
4. Eye shot
5. Ground Level
6. Shadow shot
7. Pattern
8. Focal point
9. Grafitti
10 Fill the Frame
Bonus: Round

Criteria: In focus, well composed shots trying to utilize composition elements. Marks 20

10 Questions

Digital Photo School

New Writing Assignment

New Writing Assignment: Setting

• You are going to write about a favourite place using the 5 senses. As you describe the place, I want to you to use words that create visuals, sounds, tastes, and a sense of touch. The idea here is to write to create an atmosphere or feeling. Make the reader be able to visualize your scene in their mind.

• You may need to build a fictional story around this place or simply begin describing it. In this assignment students are to focus on the elements of setting ( time, place, description)  using the senses and the concept of show not tell.  (10)

What is SHOW not TELL?

Show, don't tell is a writing technique in which story and characters are related through sensory details and actions rather than exposition. It fosters a style of writing that's more immersive for the reader, allowing them to “be in the room/connect with” with the characters.

Link for further info on this technique.

Show don't Tell

CRITERIA

• 1 paragraph or slightly longer, typed, edited, and then good copy handed in
• show not tell
• be specific in your writing
• use the senses when you write
• make the reader feel they can be right there with you in the setting

Example:

from "The Old House at Home" (1940)

by Joseph Mitchell (1908-1996)

McSorley's bar is short, accommodating approximately ten elbows, and is shored up with iron pipes. It is to the right as you enter. To the left is a row of armchairs with their stiff backs against the wainscoting. The chairs are rickety; when a fat man is sitting in one, it squeaks like new shoes every time he takes a breath. The customers believe in sitting down; if there are vacant chairs, no one ever stands at the bar. Down the middle of the room is a row of battered tables. Their tops are always sticky with spilled ale. 

Another Example: What makes Tolkien’s Mordor so real in his Lord of the Rings cycle is its gloomy, dark detail:

‘The gasping pools were choked with ash and crawling muds, sickly white and grey, as if the mountains had vomitted the filth of their entrails upon the lands about. High mounds of crushed and powdered rock, great cones of earth fire-blasted and poison-stained, stood like an obscene graveyard in endless rows, slowly revealed in the reluctant light.’

In this passage from The Two Towers, Tolkien creates a visceral sense of Mordor as a place. Tolkien shows us Mordor using sound (the ‘gasping’ pools), colour (‘sickly white’, ‘poison-stained’) and motion (‘crawling muds’). The atmosphere of death and decay permeates everything, even in how the rock structures resemble a graveyard.

This showing makes Mordor a visceral place of foreboding and ominous danger. The actions associated with the surrounds are violent and negative, from the mountains ‘vomitting’ their entrails onto the lands to the light’s ‘reluctance’.

This passage wouldn’t be nearly as effective merely told. Tolkien could have written:

‘Frodo was horrified by the landscape – every rock formation reminded him of gravestones and there were foul smells and eerie sights at every turn.’

In this case, we lose the specificity, the detail and the power of Tolkien’s clearly visualized setting. The description is too general and vague. To show settings clearly, like Tolkien:

• Use the senses – sound, smell, sight. How do the senses combine to give a setting its atmosphere?
• Use comparison and metaphor: Tolkien personifies the light as reluctant and unwilling. This is an effective example of showing using metaphorical language

Update of work: week ending Feb 15

In order of priority, make sure you have the following done by the end of this week.

1. Flickr: make an account, make Ms Chase a contact, make a few contacts in the class, put your photo on the buddy icon, change the background photo to make it one of yours, put all of your assignment photos into albums, and join the Mark Isfeld Photo group. ( 10 marks)

2. Bio: Complete your rough copy of your bio in writing, hand in to Ms Chase for editing, fix up, and then hand back in your good copy for marking. ( 10 marks)

3. Head shots: Take 2 good quality head shots of 2 DIFFERENT people, and put into an album on Flickr. Make sure you also include a head shot of yourself. ( 10 marks)

4. Rule of thirds:You were to look up the rule of thirds on the internet and then go out and take two photos focusing on this concept. Edit these photos. Put into an album on Flickr. (5 marks)

5. If finished all of this, see Ms Chase for the new writing assignment.


Grading for Photography: What I am looking for in a good photograph:

• photo is in focus and sharp
• photo has strong compositional elements
• photo has some thought put into it/fits the assignment criteria
• photo is sometimes taken from a unique angle/evidence of experimentation
• photo has been edited if necessary, but not over-edited

Resources:

What is composition?

Elements of composition are: patterns, texture, symmetry, asymmetry, depth of field, lines, curves, frames, contrast, color, viewpoint, depth, negative space, filled space, foreground, background, visual tension, shapes. Use one or more of these elements to create a composition that works for your image.

How to improve composition VIDEO

Knowing the camera

 Check out this link on the parts of the Canon camera
Knowing the Camera

Intro to Photo/Writing 9

Welcome to Photo/Writing 9

This course will run a full semester and will combine both writing and photography. Students will complete the course by producing a portfolio of written work and a slideshow of their best photography.

As a result of budget cuts and a number of cameras getting broken last year, it is strongly encouraged that students have their own camera or at the very least access to a family camera at home. Camera phones are OK (  but the quality of photography is not always great, even if you have a good phone camera, I suggest you use the school's digital SLR's to learn about how to utilize camera settings.

ALL STUDENTS MUST HAVE THEIR OWN 16GB or larger sd card. This is your notebook for the class. Cards will only be provided on an emergency basis after the first 2 weeks.Not having a card could interfere with your success in the course. I would suggest an online order, or Bestbuy. I would like students to have this card by the third week of class.

Creation of Writing and Photo folders on Ldrive

Flickr Assignment: create an account, make Ms Chase a contact, insert your buddy icon, change your background photo, join the Mark Isfeld Photo Group. 

MAKE SURE ALL PHOTOS ARE PUBLIC. (10 marks)

Writing Assignment #1: Students are to write a bio telling about themselves including: interests, hobbies, likes/dislikes, favourite foods, fav. books,movies etc. This assignment should be written in third person. Ex. Jane is a shy girl who lives in Comox with her two cats named Goofy and Mittens. Jane enjoys knitting in her free time ……Length 1 paragraph

Sample Bio
GLYNNIS CAMPBELL is a USA Today bestselling author of swashbuckling action-adventure romance. She’s the wife of a rock star, and the mother of two young adults, but she’s also been a ballerina, a typographer, a film composer, a piano player, a singer in an all-girl rock band, and a voice in those violent video games you won’t let your kids play. She does her best writing on cruise ships, in Scottish castles, on her husband’s tour bus, and at home in her sunny southern California garden. Glynnis loves to play medieval matchmaker, transporting readers to a place where the bold heroes have endearing flaws, the women are stronger than they look, the land is lush and untamed, and chivalry is alive and well!

Check out this site for how to write an author bio

Criteria: detailed, specific writing, written in bio format ( 10 marks)
When finished, you are to find a partner in the class to read your paragraph to and get them to help you improve  the piece by offering suggestions. Make sure the assignment is typed and has your name on it.You can put this assignment in the writing folder on the m:drive or print and hand in to Ms Chase.

Check out Stephen King's bio