Semester Exam

As my semester exam in photography we were asked to create a pro folio of our best or worst shots throughout the years. These are my best photos. In some of these the " blind monkey finds a banana" as Smith would say but for the most part I really worked at getting these. They could all be better and I think thats what drove me to do better. I really enjoy photography even though I don't plan on pursuing a career in it. I have really learned a lot since I got in this class, I can tell I've really grown. I have gained confidence since I got in because your forced to break out of your shell and get out there. I think these pictures are good, but they're not great. Honestly, I think even your best photos could be your worst/ improving photos. My first year was the year I really wanted to have a career in photography, but since my senior year a lot has changed and my plans have changed. I haven't put in near the effort or passion that I did last year because of these plan changes and because of my schedule this semester. After the new year I really want to get back to the way I used to be and really go out with a bang. As Smith would say I want to "shoot every assignment like its [my] last." 

Band Competition Meeting

ISO: 800

APP: 3.5

SS: 200

I volunteered to take pictures of the Drum Line during their winter band practice. This was one the assignments that really put me out of my comfort zone even though the pictures themselves weren't hard to do. I had never been in the band hallways and didn't really know any of their rules or teachers so for me it was kind of weird. I still got close and personal with my photos but it wasn't as easy for me as it usually is because i didn't know anything about my environment or who they wanted pictures of so this took a lot of confidence. I think it defiantly helped prepare me though, for more photo assignments and for real world situations. I didn't get many photos because there was only a few people practicing and most of them didn't want their picture taken so i covered what i could and even went james bond for a little bit and sniped some shots of the kids who wouldn't let me. Overall it was a learning experience.

Helping First Year Recreation

ISO

APP

SS

I volunteered to help assist some of the juniors with recreating some photos they picked from magazines. They used an umbrella and a white piece of cardboard to recreate an ad in a magazine for make up. This was a learning experience for me as well because i had never shot inside the class room with an umbrella and white board. I learned who to set it up and how manage your settings in the case of shooting indoors with a light stand. 

Big Bang Theory Lab

ISO: 800

APP: 2.8

SS: 1/200

I volunteered to take pictures of the Big Bang Lab in Mr. Harris's class. The lab was really cool and I got some pretty good shots of people making stuff blow up. I got diversity and I think I told the story pretty well. I practiced some depth of field with shots of people and their beakers and other materials. The assignment overall was easy and turned out good. 

Mu Alpha Theta

ISO: 1600

SS: 1/200

APP: 4.0

I volunteered to take pictures of the Mu Alpha Theta Induction... This assignment I did run into problems. Me and Israel took the assignment and I had some gear but he met me there with the bigma and a 70-200 lens. He already had the 70-200 which is what I had planned on using, but I got the bigma anyways. When I got it I remembered that you had to have a monopod and so I asked if he had packed one and he said he thought I did so eventually we ended up switching and making it work. I think I got pretty good photos for the circumstances. The Induction was pretty short, but I covered most of it. I haven't shot in the theatre a lot so it take me some time to adjust my settings. 

Robotics Meeting

ISO: 2000

APP: 2.8

SS: 160

I volunteered to take pictures of the High School T-Bot members hosting a competition for the middle school program. This assignment wasn't really what I was expecting because there were only four members that actually participated in the events with the younger kids. They had a rope set up around the floor where they were competing so I really only had three different sides I could take pictures from. At fist I had some trouble with my settings because the competition floor was the only place that was lit and the other members I wanted to take pictures of were back there. I think I got pretty good pictures for the small amount of people I could get. They are usable, and I feel like I told the story pretty well. 

Senior Bon Fire

ISO: 1600

APP: 2.5

SS: 1/200

I volunteered to shoot the senior bonfire. I wasn't really happy with my photos because the coloring on most of them is really off. I think I could have done a lot better. I could have adjusted the APP a little and I think it would have turned out better. I wanted to try and get a really cool sillouette of the fire like I did last year but they had people guarding the fire for people getting to close so that was lame. 

Stairs to Nowhere

ISO: 1000

SS: 500

APP: 4.0

I volunteered to take pictures of the "stairs to no where" which was probably the most stupid assignment made, but yearbook still needed it. It was a pretty easy assignment, i didn't use a flash or off camera flash, because the stairs are so dark the pictures would end up backlit. I used a 10-24 and a 28-75 so i could get a variety of angles. There wasn't much i could do to make this photo cool so i did what i could. I took horizontal and vertical even though they only asked for a horizontal just in case. 

First Highkey

ISO: 200

APP: 16

SS: 200
Lauren and Alyssa were going to take a high key in the studio Wednesday and i had never done one so I went with them to learn. They told me the lights on the white paper need to be at 1/2 and the big light with the umbrella needs to be at 1/3 and the camera settings are always ISO at 200 and SS at 200 and then you can adjust your APP to whatever you need to make sure the white is exposed right and theres no hard shadows on the face. It was super simple and I'm glad i finally learned how to do it. 

Tiger Troupe theatre practice

ISO:1600

APP: 4.0

SS:200

I volunteered to shoot the people in theatre at their Tiger Troupe Theatre practice. I thought that the practice would be on the stage but it wasn't so the pictures don't look as cool as i wanted. This was my first time to shoot in theatre so i didn't really know how my settings should be. i had to play with them for a while before i got them to be exposed properly. I like some of them because i did get to get a few reaction photos and good scene exercises they were working on but most of their time was spent talking and standing around. I think they are usable for yearbook or newspaper and I'm glad i shot this because now i have some background in shooting in the theatre.

Trends Assignment

ISO: 200

APP: 200

SS: 3.5

I volunteered to take pictures of one of my friends in her converse because year book is doing a spread over things that are trending at Texas High. This assignment was fairly easy and it didn't take long. I did it in the grass because i thought it would be a lot less boring looking that doing it on cement or the road. I think the images are usable and I'm pleased with them for such an easy assignment. 

Chandler Family pets

ISO: 200

APP:200

SS: 3.2

I volunteered to take the assignment of the Chandlers and their pets. This assignment was pretty difficult. I really wanted to get artsy with this and take pictures through the pets cage and on the kids or like a shot from an upward angle with them laying in the grass or something that looked really nature like but when I actually go to their house everything was messy. The cage was completely brown and the house was super messy so I couldn't shoot anything inside, and the outside was either concrete or the little grass it has there was always trash in the back ground so I got the best that I could. I disappointed in the assignment because I did want to get really creative. I think they are useable as far as exposure and settings but they aren't good photos. If I had to retake them I would have them meet me at a park or if you knew someone that had a clear cage you could use. 

Freshmen Studying

ISO: 500

APP: 3.2

SS: 200

I volunteered to take a picture for News paper of freshman studying hard. I used my brother again because he's a Freshman and all of his friends live close to me. This was another fairly easy assignment so it didn't take long and my settings were easy to adjust. I used a flash because my house is kinda dark so i had to take the whites down on the histogram but other than that i didn't do much adjusting. I think these images could be used for the assignment and I'm pleased with them. 

Gym photo

ISO: 800

APP: 2.8

SS: 160

I volunteered to take pictures of a person working out for Newspaper print. My brother is a freshman at our school and he's really athletic so I used him as my subject. We go to modern day gym, so we woke up early and went and got pictures of him working out. This assignment was fairly easy assignment. The gym was pretty bright but i was told to still use a flash, so the pictures were kinda overexposed. But overall it was easy and ii think that theses pictures are useable for the assignment. 

Kaleb Smith Headshot

ISO: 100

APP: 1.8

SS: 250

I volunteered to take a head shot of caleb smith for the Newspaper. This was a pretty basic assignment, it wasn't difficult and it didn't take long at all. I think the pictures are usable and I think they are good head shots. I used a 50 mm so I could get nice background and I made sure I did horizontals and verticals.

Homecoming Peprally

ISO 1200

SS 200

APP 2.8

I shot the Homecoming pep-rally and it was a little different from the others. We were told specifically to shoot student/ crowd reactions because yearbook didn't have any and at this pep rally students were actually more spirited so i was able to get more than the typical crowd shot of blank faces. My photos didn't really turn out the way i wanted because my flash batteries went out half way through the pep rally and i didn't notice so i had a lot of images that were underexposed. It was a minor mistake but it made a big difference because i could have used some of the images I had to delete. Also after the pep rally the band played the tuba song while walking back to class with the foot ball players and it really built them up. It was difficult adjusting my settings from being in the gym to being outside where it was super bright but i did get a few images that weren't too overexposed. Overall, the pep rally really tested my skills and opened my eyes.

Spiderman Project With First Years

ISO: 100

APP: 5.6

SS: 250

I volunteered to help the First years with their spiderman project which is really cool and works on timing. They each got a flash set it up and and a camera. They learned how to adjust the shadowing by raising or lowering the flash stand. Me and paige taught them techniques with timing and even taught them how to do the spiderman after we finally got the hang of it again. We taught them how to set up the flashes so that one is on slave and the other is on master and each pocket wizard is on the right channel. This was a really cool experience for me because it reminded me so much of how fun this assignment was with our seniors and how it really bonded us as a team. It feels good to be able to help the first years build skills and techniques that they can pass down to each class. I took a few shots myself just so they could get to experience it too.  

Heavenly Snow

ISO: 100

APP: 2.8

SS: 2000

I volunteered to take pictures of the new shaved ice place that just opened over on Richmond called Heavenly Snow. Although, the assignment was easy when I got there taking pictures was really difficult. This is not really in a good location so a bunch of hood rats started yelling at me and it was super weird. One of them started taking about the camera and I was kinda scared they were gonna like mug me or something so I just took like 10 pictures and left. The cameras settings were all messed up so I rushed in trying to fix them and the pictures weren't exposed like I wanted. I went around sun set so everything is super bright and over exposed, but I think the pictures are still usable for Yearbook, so no worries.

Homecoming Mums

ISO: 800

APP: 3.8

SS: 200

I volunteered to shoot Horticulture making mums for homecoming. They have a really small class so I didn't really have a variety of students, but I did shoot a lot of diversity. I got some pretty good shots, but the class room they were working in had poor lighting so when I first started shooting everything looked orange but i adjusted my ISO and APP and fixed it. This was a relatively easy assignment but there were some difficulties with getting creative shots because all the students were doing the same thing.