News from the Photography Classes

School is off and running. The beginning classes are working on photograms. They are learning how to use the darkroom and print using objects, magazine images, transparencies and enlargements of tiny objects. We will be making and shooting with pinhole cameras in the next couple of weeks. Students will need their film cameras by October 7.


In Advanced Photography, students are working on a body of work around the idea of multiple perspectives and repetition. I read an interesting book this summer called Photography and The Art of Seeing by Freeman Patterson. It had some great exercises to stretch our creativity. I used his Thinking Sideways exercise for a beginning assignment. Students used both digital cameras and cell phones to take photos of the first things they see in the morning from a position of laying in their beds, sitting on the sides, and then walking to wherever they first go when they wake up. They also shot 15 photos in the span of 20 minutes from their bathroom. Some very interesting pieces came out of this. My hope was that everybody realizes they don't have to travel far to get interesting shots. It really is all about how you see what is in front of you. Here are some of the images that came out of that assignment.

Start of a New Year

Welcome back! The beginning of school is always mixed emotionally for me. I am excited to meet new students and to reconnect with the ones I know. I do miss the easy pace of summer, however. Once school begins, it seems that life just moves at a rapid pace. Mr. Schmidt and I are teaching a new class this year, Intro to Digital Design and Photography that is being offered 0 period-a tough time for all concerned. There are 40 intrepid students signed up for this new adventure. I have made a separate blog for that class that can be found on this page. All information for that class will be on that page. As for my beginning and advanced classes, you will still find all the information you need here. We will spend the first week getting all the forms filled out, setting up the rooms, nuts and bolts kind of things. Then in beginning photo, we will head to the darkroom for making photograms. If it stays sunny, we will be doing cyanotypes and lumen prints. In advanced photo, we will start out getting back in the darkroom by printing what you shot over the summer and working on an assignment about breaking all the rules. That one should be interesting.
On a personal note-My book, Considering Nature and a Little Radiohead, has been entered in the Photography Books Now competition on blurb.com. You can check it out below. I also just found out that I am one of 15 excellence award winners in the COLOR magazine portfolio contest. My work will be published in their special issue coming out in September.

Considering Nature and a Little Radiohead by Nancy Abens | Make Your Own Book