Now I'm the kind of person who is a total hands on learner. I can't have someone say to me "you need to set the camera to this and then do this this and this". I have to have them show me the photo and then tell me how to get it that way. As in, to get this shot like this, you have to set the shutter speed as slow as possible and then change the f/stop to something like "a".
Needless to say I spent the entire semester feeling like a total loser because I felt like I was lost the entire time. In the end, I know what I'm doing, have grasped the concepts and did a good job. I had been stressed about our final critique for weeks. I thought I wasn't doing things right, hadn't taken the right photos and was just going to fail the class (I'm an overachiever, did I mention that?) But it was all good. The teacher brought in her friend who shoots mostly digital to help with the critique. Not that I want to brag or anything, but I'm glad I took a different array of shots. Everyone else had either shots from the field trips they went on, flowers, or shots from the zoo. I tried to touch upon all aspects of the course. So here are my photos, what I was thinking, what was said etc.
This is actually a rose. I wanted to take a cool macro shot but didn't have a lens that could do it. The developer thought it was a flame on the screen and it took both my teacher and her assistant a double check and a close up view just to figure it out. She loved the veins in it, he loved the aspect of the shadow across it. I loved that they had to look twice to figure it out.
This one was fun. My coworker is engaged to a firefighter and I wanted a neat mirror shot. I figured they would have a convex mirror in the bay but they didn't. So we played with the mirror on the truck a bit. In the end, my teacher and her assistant couldn't figure it out. He thought it was a school bus and when I said it was a fire truck AND had a firefighter in it, they both had to stand there and study it a bit. Kind of like a "Where's Waldo" thing. Again, score Lesley!
This one I knew what I did wrong. And now that I know how to take sparkler photos, I'm actually kind of excited. It was all in the setting of the light etc.
I LOVE this shot. If it wasn't so cold, I would have stayed out there and taken more. But it was too cold and I didn't have a tripod so I just rested my camera on a hydro box on the corner. I would also go somewhere much darker (down by the river) and take a photo that way. Really cool technique and I'm so impressed I know how to do it. They both loved it.
This was the assistants favourite shot. He said it was great because it drew the viewer in, the rule of thirds was in it, and it was cut perfectly to include the crane and the hydro poles in the background etc. But the reason he loved it was because he said it was like a Flinstone's cartoon, the crane looked like it would drop the metal girder at any point on the heads of the people in the shot.
This was my teacher's favourite shot. I loved it as well. The angel looks so real. But the funniest part about this photo is the story behind it. I took my oldest neice out with me to take photos thinking she could be my "model" if I needed. I didn't realize she hadn't been to a graveyard before. This was at Mount Pleasant in London, a really old and historical graveyard with neat stuff. The questions she asked me were hilarious. Does Jesus have any relatives. Are they still alive. Do you have to be dead to have a headstone. How do they decide what box to put you in. Do they just put you in a box and then put you in the ground. Why do some people have big houses (mausoleum) for their bodies. There's more than one body in there. Are kids allowed in the cemetery. The questions went on and on. I've probably scarred her for life now.
All in all, I'm glad it's over. I had a fun time and I liked my classmates but it was really tedious going in every Thursday night for four hours. Added to that, the stress of the photo taking, it was not pleasant. I forgot how nerve wracking school can be. Tonight was my final cake class. That was a burn that I am glad is over. I'll post those photos another night.
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