Family and Life:
My daughter and I spent the week at Stanford University attending Digital Media Academy courses. She took acting and film making and had a wonderful time creating a commercial, a music video and learning Final Cut Pro. I had a wonderful week torturing my brain while I learned how to use the manual setting on my digital DSLR (setting aperture, ISO and shutter speed) and trying to master manual focus on top of it all. As if that wasn't enough we learned about creating good photos through composition and then how to enhance them through Photoshop.
My teacher was an excellent photographer, Scott Davis, who was patient, knowledgable, funny, and a great teacher. His assistant, Evan, is a college student who was equally helpful. We spent about 3 hours a day shooting outside and the other 4 hours getting tips and then working in Photoshop with our images. Here are a few examples of what I did...
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| We spent one day at the Elizabeth Gamble Botanic Gardens |
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| Day One covered interesting lines, of which Stanford has tons with all their walkways and arches |
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| Thursday we learned about sports photography |
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| I love this one of a fountain on the Stanford campus |
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| Again from the Botanic Gardens. I like the light through the water drop |
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| We also learned how to combine multiple photos into one panoramic (this was originally five photos) |
Work:
I received an email this week telling me that my name will be submitted to the Board Tuesday, June 28 with the suggestion that I be returned to 100% for this coming school year. I assume that means the Board will say yes, but I won't feel completely relieved until they do, but there is hope!
Books and Reading:
I am doing well with the Shantaram read-a-long and have read 2 other books that are for TLC Book Tours. This means that I haven't posted a single book review this week (very strange feeling), but will have quite a few this coming week.
4 comments
You took some fabulous pictures, Helen! This course sounds so useful, I could use a few tips to improve my photo-taking abilities. Ha!
I love that diving photo - especially how the focus is on that person alone.
And yay! Glad that the Board is at the verge of saying yes! Glad it's happening this early in the summer vacation.
Aths--It feels really good to have the Board be about to reinstate a whole bunch of teachers. I am about to check out the Board agenda and attachments to see who is on the list!
I took a photography course to learn how to use my SLR and it made a world of difference. However, I also learned that my Nikon shoots a bit dark, so I have to always compensate for that. With kids, it's hard to get it all set-up before snapping the shot, so I often resort to my point and shoot, or even my phone.
I would love a high end point and shoot now, but I feel greedy since I spent so much on the Nikon and all the lenses, etc.
I hope the reinstatement to full time goes smoothly!
Ti--I am a bit worried about missing the shots that you can't repeat, especially kid shots. I figure I might cheat and put it on auto in those situations.
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