Photography for Creative Explorers

Saturday, September 30, 2006

How to Blog

I have created a weblink with directions for blogging for visitors that are new to blogging. How to Blog if you are not a Blogger
In surveying my teachers and students, I found that most just did not understand what to do in the blog, though they enjoyed reading it. So I returned to my desk and created poster-sized directions for them to hang above their classroom computers. I am hoping more will now begin to post. After further thought, I decided to make the directions available via our school website. That way anyone who is cruising through our school's website and wants to post a response, but is new to blogging can click on the links for directions. Then, after further thought, I decided to add the link of directions to the links on the blogger sites. So now it is permanently a part of the blogs themselves. I knew that one day my html coursework would come in handy. Up until now, I've only used it occasionally. Anyway, I am pleased to announce that you can now learn some directions for blogging from our school website. NOTE however that these directions are specific to "blogspot" sponsored blogging sites. Other blogging programs will behave similarly, but there will be slight nuances to how they work. Good luck.

Monday, September 25, 2006

What did we learn today?

Last week welearned to:
  • Turn on the camera
  • Load batteries and memory cards
  • Frame a pictures
  • Adjust the camera for flash and for various kinds of pictures (portrait, landscape, close-ups, etc.)
  • Take pictures
  • Review Pictures on the camera
  • Delete unwanted photos

Today we reviewed the following:

  • Framing a shot by hand and by camera LCD panel
  • Using the shutter half way down (for focus, balance, and speed)
  • Things to avoid (including cluttered pictures, distracting backgrounds--remember the pole coming out of the top of the head?--red eyes, off kilter pictures, pictures out of focus, bad composition --remember the empty space over the heads of the group shot?--poor lighting, using or NOT using flash, the law of thirds....
  • Downloading pictures using the USB cord and the Windows Camera Wizard
  • Organizing pictures in a folder
  • Using the computer to play a "slide-show" to family and friends

Next week (Monday, October 2) we will cover repairing salvagable pictures. We will be using Picasa, a free photo editor from Google, to rotate, adjust colors, crop, and resize images. Students in the Creative Explorers will be invited to "check-out" one of our digital cameras to take home and use in taking personalized pictures (and not just school photos). Return them the next day to download your pictures. We will also play with the "self-timer" feature to take our own picture of ourselves. If time permits, we will explore Flickr, Bubbleshare, and other online phote sites.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Greetings Creative Explorers

I have made this blog so we can share what we are learning about digital photography. REMEMBER!! Your teacher is as much a "beginner" as some of you. I hope to teach you a lot, and I hope I learn a lot from you. We are using a set of ten Olympus 4.0 mp cameras from a grant I received last year. You can also bring your digital camera from home, but remember to bring the USB cord too. We have already taken some pictures last week. Today, we'll learn about downloading pictures, organizing them, and then a lot of do's and dont's about taking pictures. I will have MANY pictures to share, and some of them are my own personal mistakes! Here is one of them we'll talk about. Who can tell me what went wrong in this picture??