Assignments

As I mentioned before, I am a little behind in my photography class assignments. Actually, I think I would like to do more on just about every lesson, but, there are some that I haven't even touched yet. I just finished some work on the Portrait Lesson- but I didn't take as many shots as I should have and I didn't vary lighting or the poses. In the next assignment I am supposed to look at some of the suggested websites and in magazines/newspapers to find poses of people, families, groups, and pets. If there is a pose idea that I like, I am supposed to  print it/tear it out and put it in a separate binder to keep as a reference. That's a pretty neat and practical idea.


The lesson after Portraits and Group Portraits is on Travel Photography.  For our assignment we are supposed to travel to a place we don't usually go for at least 1/2 of a day and complete several specific tasks in our picture taking.  I am toying with the idea of driving up to Knight's Ferry by myself one day and trying to get some nice shots of the covered bridge. However, she wants us to take a photo that shows the "culture." I'm not sure how to do that at Knight's Ferry! :) Another barrier to this assignment is time. I have looked at the calendar and the next 2 weeks seem pretty full, not to mention the difficulty in finding childcare for my jaunt.


After Travel, we learned about PhotoJournalism. Wow, this chapter was so exciting and intimidating, too! One cool thought that was addressed is that many local papers accept freelance work and pay per picture. If you happen to catch the action on your camera before the paper is there, you really might have something to bargain with.  Additionally, there are magazines and other events covered by the paper that accept freelance work or photos from the community. It would take courage-- but it would be fun to try submitting something sometime. For this assignment we are to photograph a current event of some sort- a parade, a breaking news story, a community event, etc. We are encouraged to complete a number of tasks from a checklist in our assignment, but overall, to tell the story with pictures rather than words.  A teaching point in this lesson was to be "out, move in, move out." In other words, take some photos from a wide, distant perspective. Then, find some detailed shots that continue to tell the story and then quickly move the perspective out again and take more photos.  With at least 36 photos we are supposed to be answering, "Who, What, When, Where, Why."


The last assignment that has been released to the class so far is on Close-Up Work. I picked up a couple of library books on this subject last week but haven't read through it yet. I have learned that there are special lenses for Macro Photography and/or some adaptive equipment to use with a regular lens. No wonder I couldn't capture an image the way I saw them in books and magazines! For the assignment there are several categories from which to choose. Macro work, Still Life-like a postcard, a historic painting, picture from a book, Architecture-finding at least a 2 story building to photography with some shots of detail and some to give a sense of the structure, or finally, Moon Photography. At this point, I am not sure which one has more appeal!