Advanced Students Assignment #14

Blog about the gallery night. Tell your readers how many of your photos will be showing and give them the address, time and date. Talk about the Silent Auction and how we are going to donate the proceeds to the American Cancer Society. If you have a personal experience with Cancer...tell it. Tell why this cause is important to you.

Invite people to become fans of The Summit High School Giving Gallery facebook page. (you may have to do that at home)

Make a folder of all your best photos from the year for me to make into the slideshow that will play at gallery night. I need a folder from each of you with the photos you are showing as well as at least 5 others. All cropped, toned, and saved named yournamegallery1.jpg, yournamegallery2.jpg, etc.

Beginning Students Assignment #12

Post your retouching project before Friday morning March 26 at 7 am. I will be grading your projects from your blog for the progress reports on Friday.

I want to see both the before and the after. If you post the map I will give you extra credit.

Write about what you learned from the project. Can you make changes in photoshop that look real? It is easier to make the changes in photoshop or is it easer to take the photo correctly in the first place? What about the background was it easy or hard to change the color. Describe your experience.

Advanced Students Assignment #13

This week you are working on your photos for the gallery night so I want you to do two things.

1. Create a slideshow of your best work from the year so far using the website slide and post it on your blog. You will have to copy the embed code and paste it into the HTML portion of your post box. If you need help just ask.
2. Use this slideshow to invire your readers to come see your work at the gallery night at Marty Seybold Gallery on April 21st. Don't tell your readers exactly which photos you plan to show but give them a taste of your photography style to entice them to come to the show and bid on you photos to hang in their home or office. Remeber we will donate the proceeds to charity to maybe ask people what charity they would like to see the money go to.

Beginning Students Assignment #11

Photojournalism is about telling stories. I would like for you to post a self portrait telling me that you are a photographer. Tell your story.

Be sure you are checking your dashborad for comments andpublishing them. Don;t forget to comment on other peoples photos as well.

I'm noticing a lot of you are way behind on your posts. This blog is a grade and if you don;t get finished at school it is homework. I'll be grading them again later this week so this is your chance to get all the past postes published before I grade at the end of the week :)

Extra Credit Update

So the second extra credit blog has not been found. Only 9 people have found one of the extra credit blogs and commented on it. there are still 11 extra credit opportunities out there! I'll post more extra credit after this one has been exhausted.

Beginning Students Assignment #10

Post your Photo Montage and tell your readers why you chose the subject you did. Why is this a subject you are interested in sharing with your viewers?

I will be grading your photo montages off your blog so make sure it is posted by the end of the day to make sure it is counted as being turned in on time :)

Comment on the photo montages of three people not in your class.

Advanced Students Assignment #12

On Monday post the first photo from your transformation series.

On Wednesday post the last photo from your transformation series.

On Friday you post the entire series.

Don't forget to keep commenting!

Blog of the week

This weeks impressive post is by Jacky. Not only did she take the Hockney Style photo montage assignment and run with it...she finished it and posted it early. Her photo is outstanding because not only did she leave the school to shoot her photos but she took photos of something that has personal meaning to her. When you look at the photo you can see she was sharing her feelings. I think this photo is moving and personal, and I love that Jacky didn't just take a photo for class. She took a photo that she will cherish for years. It's beautiful Jacky. Thank you for sharing it with us.

Beginning Assignment #10

How can you find what you are looking for on someone's blog? Labels. Labels are like a mini search for the most often posted things on your blog. If you notice in the right sidebar on this blog there is a place where you can click and only see the beginning class assignments, the advanced class assignments, the extra credit assignments, etc. This makes it easier for your readers to find what they are looking for. Today we are going to set that up on your blog.

Go back to your posts and add labels. You can have as many labels as you want but I would use general labels like: photos, portraits, scenics, sports and stuff like that. Click on the pencil underneath a post and will open your post back up in the edit window and at the bottom of your post there is a box to add labels. Add them, if there are labels you use over and over again you can click on the "show all labels" text and then you can click on each label to add it.


Now you have to add a way for your readers to search for the labels. Add a gadgets. Gadgets are widgets. Little programs that run on your blog to add features. These can be in your sidebar or at the top or bottom of your blog. You should have already added a Text Gadget to put a copyright notice on your blog. Today I would like you to make sure you have a Labels gadget so your readers can easily search for what they want to read on your blog.

Don't forget to approve your comments from your readers. You can comment back it you like and your comments will show up under your readers comments.

Advanced Assignment #11

More comments. Comment on the blogs of three people not in your class. Say something positive about a photo and tell them something you would have done differently if it were your photo.

Beginning Assignment #9

Post your finished word photo. Write your word and quote below it. Tell your readers how your photo/word combination makes you feel.

Advanced Assignment #10

This week you need to be working on your transformation photo so we are going to spend the week doing that. On your blogs I need you to comment, comment, comment.

1. Comment on the blog of the person who sits to your right.

2. Comment on the blog of the person who sits to your left.

3. Comment on the blog of someone who is not in your class.

Your comments need to be positive comments of constructive criticism about photos or the posts that accompany them. Remember you become a better photographer by looking at other photographs and analyzing them to see what you can do in your protography to make it better. The purpose of the blog is not only to get you to post your photos but you you to look at the photos taken by your peers so you can see what others are doing. :)

Ready, Set...Comment!

Extra Credit for Commenting!

Want a little extra credit? It's time for a scavenger hunt!

I want you to look at the photos posted by other students so I have posted comments two different student blogs for you to find. The first 10 kids to give those kids a compliment on the photo my comment is on and then comment on this post will get extra credit. The key is that your compliment must be different from what the other kids have said and it must be something positive about that photo, you can't just say I found your photo and now I get extra credit. The purpose of this blog is to make you a better photographer and you will become a better photographer by looking at other people's photography to see what you should and should not do when taking your own photos. Don't forget...you have to comment in 2 places...on the student blog and on this one.

Ready, Set...GO!

Beginning Students Assignment #8

Comment. Comment. Comment.

Go to the blog of the person who sits to your right and post a comment constructively on one of their photos.

Go to the blog of the person who sits to your left and post a comment constructively on one of their photos.

Go to the blog of someone who sits in the other computer room and comment constructively on one of their photos.

By the end of the day everyone should have at least two comments on their blog. Publish your comments.

Advanced Students Assignment #9

Post your digital Image and tell your readers about it.

Go to your analytics and see how many visitors you have had. Post the number of Total visitors you have had and thank them for stopping by. Ask what type of photos they would like to see you post.

Beginning Students Assignment #7

You should have posted two photos of the Jaguar statue. Now you need to follow the instructions from the end of Assignment #6 to create a new photo with both of these photos. You cannot change the basic makeup of your photo. This means that if you made it black and white you have to leave it black and white. If you used some crazy filters on it...you can't take them off. You can change the size and use the eraser to get rid of backgrounds if you want, but color photos must stay in color. You can change the blending modes and opacity though.

After you have finished with this task I want you to save it and post it. Then I want you to open up the texture photo you took and add the texture as a layer on top of the finished photo. Go to Image - Adjustments - Hue/Saturation and move the saturation slider all the way to the left. Then change your blending mode to Multiply or Overlay. Save it as a new name and post it. Tell you readers what you photographed as a texture and if you like the finished effect.

Blogs of the week

So I went through all the blogs and I found a photo from each of the two beginning photo assignments that I love.

First: The snow. Check out Thuy Hua's blog. Her snow photo is taken through the window with the condensation dripping down. It's really nice and different from every other "cold" and "snow" photo I saw. Great job Thuy! You are Blog of the week.

Second: The Jaguar. I saw a lot of photos of the jaguar that look pretty much the same. There were a few different angles but for the most part. All the same. Briana, last weeks' blog of the week, had a great tight cropped photo of just the eyes and Crystal went a step farther and included a friend's hands in the shape of a heart to symbolize the "Summit Love" Nice thinking Crystal. That makes you blog of the week.

Beginning Students Assignment #6

Go to your e-mail and accept all the invitations you have gotten from your classmates. You need to be able to see their blogs to make comments. I've noticed a lot of you haven't done this yet.

Go to your dashboard and approve any comments you have. Social networking and blogging doesn't work if you don't comment on other peoples work and enter into conversations with your reader's through your comment steam. If you have any comments, go to the blog of the person who commented on your post and comment on one of their posts today.

Now for todays photo assignment. Post the new photo you took of the jaguar photo and tell me why it is so much better than your first one.

Next class we will be using both photos to create a new image using both jaguar photos. Here is an example I created with some photos I took last week at the cemetery. Both photos are the same size and one is of the angel and one is of the trees. The angel photo is the bottom layer and the trees are on top. I then changes the blending mode to multiply and erased the parts of the trees that were on top of the angel. You can have as many layers as you want but we are going to start with two.

If you want to go ahead and get started here's what you need to do:

• In photoshop go to File - New - and create a new document 8x10 @ 300 DPI.
• Open both of your jaguar photos.
• Copy and paste each one separately into the new 8x10 you have created.
• In your layers panel select one of the photos and go to edit transform and make it fill your new page making sure to lock your proportions. When you have done this then drag that layer below your other layer.
• Click on the top layer. Use edit - transform and make this photo a size that looks good on top of your first photo. When you are done you can use the eraser tool to selectively delete the background from the top layer.
• Play with the blending modes to see what different effects you can achieve.
• When you are finished save it as a .psd file in case you want to go back and edit it later.
• Finally flatten your image and save it as a .jpg

Next class we will post it so...get creative!

Beginning Students Assignment #5

Post your really creative and unique photo of the Jaguar Statue on your blog. Tell your readers why you took the photo the way you did and why your's is better than everyone else's.

Go to your classmates blogs and look at their jaguar photos. Leave a comment on the blog that you think has the most unique jaguar photo telling them what you like about their photo.

Go back to your blog post and edit it. Click on the little pencil icon and it will bring up your blog post in the edit window. Add a sentence that says you looked at some of the other Jaguar photos taken by your classmates and this is your favorite. Link to that blog. To link you highlight the words you want your reader to be able to click on and you click on the "Link" button at the top of the edit window. Then you copy and paste the URL of the blog page you want them to be able to see.

If you want to actually put that person's photo on your blog then drag their photo out of their blog onto your desktop. Upload it as an image into your edit window and GIVE THEM CREDIT. Always, always, always give credit to the photograper and link back to their blog. When you use their name, highlight it, click the link button, copy and paste the URL of their blog. This is common courtesty in blog-land.

Advanced Students Assignment #8

Today post one of the photos you are using in this weeks digital compilation image. Tease you readers...give them a little tase of what is to come next week when you post your finished project.

Tuesday you will post another of the photos you are using and Thursday you will post the third photo being used. Eash day build up the suspense to keep your readers coming back and on Monday of the following week you should unveil your masterpiece.

Blog of the week.

If you are sitting there wondering how it should be done, go check out Briana's blog. She posts her photos...more than I ask for and she writes a nice personal explanation of how each photo makes her feel. Then she adds a famous quote at the end that ties her photo to our society in a personal way. I love it. Great job Briana! If Briana hasn't added you as a reader...post a note on the board in the classroom that says, "Add me Briana!" and leave your e-mail address.

Here's an example of what she does that is so great.

Thanks for all the great photos you are sharing with the class Briana. I love it!

Comment Contest Winner!

And the winner is Martin! He was the first to reply and say that there was no watermark on the photo. Good job Martin and thanks for playing! I'll post more little contests soon so keep reading...even at home, you never know when I might pop in and offer some extra credit :)

Advanced Students Seventh Assignment

Add all the e-mail addresses on the board as readers on your blog. Go to settings, permissions and click on add readers.

Add a gadget to your sidebar that will allow you to show the links to all your classmates blogs. Than add all the blogs you have been invited to follow.

If you haven't already added your snow photo, do it now.

Comment on at least three snow photos on blogs you haven't commented on before.

Photo Assignment for Everyone

So I have asked you you to post a photo that says "cold" and I'll play along. It snowed today and one of my students made a ting snowman outside my classroom door. As soon as I saw it I was inspired. The kids that were in my class at the time knew I was inspired...ask them they will tell you :)

I ran into my office and found this tiny camera that Michelle Showers gave me earlier this year and I added it to the snowman. I call this frozen photographer! I like it, it reminds me of how I fell when I go outside to take photos in the cold.

Now this all supposed to be about learning so I'm going to offer extra credit to the first student who comments on this blog post telling me what I have not done that I have been asking you to do with your photos on your blog. What is it?

Now for the assignment. Everyone needs to post another "cold" photo. The second one should be better than the first one you posted, right? Compare your first photo to your second and tell me which is better and why. What did you learn about shooting in the cold?

Advanced Students Sixth Assignment

No post today as we have a class evaluation of your action photos and a guest speaker. You are more than welcome to post a photo if you like but there is no specific posting assignment for today.

What I would like for you to do over the weekend is take a photo that makes me think "Cold". This will be to post on Tuesday. Be creative and make me say "Brrrr!" when I look at your photograph. What is cold? How can yo show it to me in a picture? I can think of lots of fun ways! Can you?

Beginning Students Third Assignment

Today post your photo that makes me feel "Cold".

Comment constructively on the posts of three classmates.

Go to your dashboard and moderate your comments.

Advanced Students Fifth Assignment

Last little set-up. I want you to add analytics. This will tell you who is reading your blog, what pages they are going to and how long they stay. It tells you where your readers come from and it will help you get more traffic to your blog. Right now that might just be interesting but say you wanted to sell your photos. You can use your analytics to figure out which of your photos are getting the most views and what sort of photos your readers like to see, The longer people stay, the more interested they are :)

Google Analytics and set up an account. You already have a google account if you have a blogger account so the setting should be the same and be very easy. Put in your blogger URL address and follow the instructions on how to add the tracking code to your blog.

Today I want you to make sure you have added everyone who is an advanced student as a reader of your blog and got to at least three blogs and comment on their self portrait photos constructively. Make sure you are moderating your coments so your classmates get credit for commenting :) If you choose to ignore a comment becuse you do not wnat to post it, you need to tell me so I can give that person credit for their comment even though it is not on the web.

Finally, Post a photo you took over the weekend and tell me about it.

Beginning Class Second Assignment

You have four things to do today.

1. Follow this blog. I need to be able to see you in the list of followers by the end of the day today.
2. Set up your profile. Add a photo from your self portrait project so that your followers will know who you are and write something about your self and your photography.
3. Arrange your page. Move your profile to the top of your sidebar so your visitors can see who's blog they are reading and add a text gadget to the bottom that says "all images copyright your name 2010".
4. Write your second post. I would like for you to post a photo you have taken in the last week. To post: change the resolution of your photos to 72 dpi and add a watermark to deter people from taking your photos off your blog and reposting them on theirs. Then when you write your post just add the image and tell me about it. What was your inspiration or what do you like about the finished image? Did you do anything special in photoshop? You don't have to answer all the questions, but you do need to write something about you images to keep your readers interested in your blog.

I will be grading your blogs during my conference period today and here is what I will be looking for:

• you have a blog
• it is easy to read
• your profile is at the top of the sidebar column and has a photo
• you have copyrighted your photos at the bottom of the page
• you have two posts. One welcoming your readers and the other with photos from the last week
• you have a watermark on your photos
• you are following this blog

Advanced Students Fourth Assignment

It looks like we are all getting going on our blogs and it's time to do a few more advanced set-up steps.

1. Labels: Go back to your first three posts and add labels. Labels help your blog readers search for what they want to read so you want to have a few general categories that help organize your blog. You can have as many labels as you want but I would use general labels like: photos, portraits, scenics, sports and stuff like that.
2. Gadgets: Gadgets are widgets. Little programs that run on your blog to add features. These can be in your sidebar or at the top or bottom of your blog. You should have already added a Text Gadget to put a copyright notice on your blog. Today I would like you to make sure you have a Labels gadget so your readers can easily search for what they want to read on your blog and I would like to to add a Slideshow Gadget to your sidebar. The slideshow gadget in Blogger allows you to show about 5 of you favorite photos so give it a title like my favorite photos or my portfolio and put in five photos to share.
3. Comments: Approve your comments from your readers. You can comment back it you like and your comments will show up under your readers comments.

Now for today's post. I would like for you to post two self portraits your have taken. Be sure to write smething about your self portraits, what the photo says about you or why your like it. Ehat inspired to to take it or some of hte special things you might have done in photoshop to make the photo more interesting.

Over the weekend I would like you to take a photo of something to post on your blog. It can be a photo of anything school appropriate. Obviously you want it to be something you want to share with others that you think they will be interested in looking at. Have fun!

Advanced Students Third Assignment

After spot checking the blogs I noticed a few things. You guys are not set up as followers of each others blogs. Today you need to log into each of your classmates blogs and become a public follower so that you get their news feed. I want to see your profile photo show up in the followers box on their blogs.

Now for the assignment.

1. Write a new post with your silhouette photos from the last project. Be sure to write some of your thoughts down about your photos. What you were imagining when you were shooting or what you think about the finished photo. Blog readers love opinion and they want to know how you created what you did. Give your readers what they want and they will keep coming back.
2. Go to your classmates blogs and read what they had to say about their White on White photos. Coment on at least 3 of you classmates blogs in a constructive way.
3. Publish your classmates comments on you blog by going to your dashboard. There you can review your comments and publish or ignore. If you want to ignore a classmates comment you need to talk to me first...you don't have to publish it on your blog but they need credit for writing it so I need to read it before you make is disappear forever.

Keep up with you blog. They are being graded.

Advanced Students Second Assignment

You have three things to do today.

1. Follow this blog. I need to be able to see you in the list of followers by the end of the day today.
2. Set up your profile. Add a photo from your self portrait project so that your followers will know who you are and write something about your self and your photography.
3. Arrange your page. Move your profile to the top of your sidebar so your visitors can see who's blog they are reading and add a text gadget to the bottom that says "all images copyright your name 2010".
4. Write your second post. I would like for you to post your white on white photos from last week's project. To post: change the resolution of your photos to 72 dpi and add a watermark to deter people from taking your photos off your blog and reposting them on theirs. Then when you write your post just add the image and tell me about it. What was your inspiration or what do you like about the finished image? Did you do anything special in photoshop? You don't have to answer all the questions, but you do need to write something about you images to keep your readers interested in your blog.

I will be grading your blogs during my conference period today and here is what I will be looking for:

• you have a blog
• it is easy to read
• your profile is at the top of the sidebar column and has a photo
• you have copyrighted your photos at the bottom of the page
• you have two posts. One welcoming your readers and the other with photos from the last project
• you have a watermark on your photos
• you are following this blog

Everyone's First Assignment

Your first assignment is to set up your blog. You have some freedom but there are a few requirements.

1. The title of your blog must be based on your name so that your classmates, parents and I can find it. I recommend that you first check the availability of your first and last name. If that is not available, first initial and last name, first name and last initial, etc. If you have a question - ask me.
2. You may choose any template you like but I ask that you make it easy to read. Try light writing on a dark background or dark writing on a light background. Do not put a pattern under your text. You want people to read your blog, make it easy for them.
3. Set up your comments with word verification ON. This will reduce spam.
4. Set up your blog to invited readers only and invite your classmates, your parents and me.
5. Write your first post welcoming your readers to your blog. 

Easy enough. You are almost done for today. Go check your e-mail and accept the invitations of your classmates and then go to each of their blogs and "follow" them you also need to "follow" this blog so that you can get your assignments and examples. You are also more than welcome to "follow" your photographers friends who are in my other classes. The more photos you look at, the more you will learn.

The Summit Photo Blog

Welcome! Last year I wrote a Mansfield Education Foundation Grant called Blog at the Bell and I won. The purpose of the grant is for my photography students to learn how to safely use blogs on the internet to share their photographs and to reduce the use of paper in my classroom. All my students will be posting the photos they take for class on their photo blogs and they will all be commenting on the photos taken by other students. This will help them grow as photographers by analyzing the work of other artists and comparing it to their own. We would love for you to join us on our journey to learn more and become better photographers by offering constructive criticism, thoughtful comments and most especially praise when you like a photograph. You can even join us on our journey and become a better photographer yourself as the assignments will be posted here and you can follow along. We would love for you to come along for the ride!

The first assignments will be coming soon.