Falling into Work

We are well into fall and school now.  All the classes are just finishing up their first projects.  In the digital classes, students have finished all of their organization tasks and are now shooting images in a variety of framing and composition techniques.  They are also starting to work in Adobe Lightroom.  In the 3-4 classes, everyone is finishing up their early processes pieces.  There is some fantastic work being done.  Students have been making anthotypes, printing cyanotypes on cloth and paper, shooting lots of pinhole images and making some really great photograms.  We will start working with our cameras in the next week or so. The 5-6 students just finished making two different works using fiber based papers, working with toners and hand painting.  Some beautiful photographs have been created.  They will soon start a unit on food.  I can't wait to see what they produce!
Speaking of early process photography, here are a couple works by two local photographers, Zeb Andrews and Ray Bidegain.

Lensless Photography by Zeb Andrews

Platinum Print by Ray Bidegain

Lastly, I have put a link on the sidebar for the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.  I am encouraging all my students to enter.  Click on the link and follow the instructions for creating an account.

Welcome to Photography

Welcome to the Photography website.  This is where all students and parents can find the assignments, see the calendar of due dates and activities, see some great student work and inspirational work, and access synergy.  I try to keep this updated monthly.  There are some changes to let you know about.  The biggest is that I had to combine my 5/6 students with the 3/4 class.  I am still figuring out how to combine curriculums so all students get what they need.  I am excited to think about my projects and assessments in a new way.  More about that during the first classes.  We are so crowded here this year and have so many new students!  I am sharing my classrooms with 3 other teachers.  Students have always had full access to my classroom to work on their photographs during their free periods.  This will not be able to happen this year.  The classroom is full every period.  So, this will be an adjustment in how the work gets done.  I am sure everyone will be able to adjust and produce the high quality work that is expected.
I am really looking forward to meeting many new students in the Photo 1-2 Digital Photography classes and seeing former students in the 3-4 and 5-6 classes.

I went to Yellowstone National Park this summer.  Such an awesome place!  Here are some Iphone photos from there.

Senior Art Show, Thursday, May 28

Please join the arts department for the opening of the senior show.  5-6:30 in the Linc Gallery and the main hallway.  See some awesome artworks and celebrate student accomplishment!!

Great Claymation Film by Joan Gratz

Nearing the End

Only a month of school to go and lots of work to be done still.  The senior show is coming together and will open on May 27 and run until June 4, the day of the senior assembly.  The digital photo class has been making portraits, both commercial and fine art.  The commercial work is being turned into magazine covers.  They will then make a magazine mock up with a cover, photo spread, and ads.  This is always a favorite project.  The 3-4 class is working on urban landscape and soon will be starting natural landscape.  Some very good work is being turned out.  The Photo 5-6 classes are working on independent projects.  Some are doing books, some working on series of prints, and some are doing alternative process pieces.  Here are some of the digital photo class work.  You can see other work on the sidebar.

Alice Harbeson

Maya Friedman

Kate Auchterlonie

Madeline Dortignacq

John Langford

Ryan Patridge

Final Semester

We are now into the final semester of the year.  I am always kind of amazed as to how fast the year goes by.  There will be a couple of big happenings coming up.  First one is the IB Art Show on April 3rd.  Then in May we will have the Senior Art Show.  You will be able to see some fabulous pieces of art at both of these events.
In the photo classes students are both finishing up projects and starting new ones.  Photo 1-2 students just finished a project on surrealism.  You can see some of their fantastical imagery on the blog.  Photo 3-4 students are in the midst of a large portrait project.  They will then be moving on to a photo essay project.  Photo 5-6 students are starting to work on a project based on a sense of place.  They are also going to start fine tuning an artist statement and critically evaluating their work for inclusion in the senior art show.
I love the last semester.  Everyone is in a groove-the seniors especially are more relaxed and become more reflective.
Here are some of the Photo 1-2 surreal pieces:

Elliot Nuss

Aubrey Moore

Abby Carton

Sophie Orban

Ruby Belle Booth

Laura Tuazon

Spring is Here

Second semester arrived along with lovely spring weather.  Spring fever is hitting us all, I think.  Some exciting work coming from the photo classes though.  The Photo 5-6 classes teamed up with the Advanced Graphics class to work on jazz album covers for the Portland Jazz Festival.  A really great collaboration and project.  The winning designs are hanging in the City Target window.  All of the others works are scattered on the floor of the window display.  Some really terrific work was made.  Here are the winning posters.

Missy Gerlach and Carlos Ray

Maddie Peveto and Victoria Sanchez

Sara Stember

Maggie Kresl and Gunnar Rosenberg

Jazz Covers Feedback

Here is the folder containing the rough drafts of the jazz covers.

After taking a close look at the work, please fill out this form to give your designer feedback that will help them finish their design.

There were a few students absent last class period, so if you don't see your design, check again later today and give them feedback.  We will be finalizing all designs on Monday.

Thank you.

January 2015

Happy New Year!  There are lots of happenings coming up in the photo classes.  First off, the scholastic awards need all entries uploaded by JANUARY 15.  I need all those entries by JANUARY 10!!  The Scholastic Awards are the biggest and most prestigious competition for high school artworks.  I am hoping for lots of entries this year.  The links to the guidelines and registration forms are on the side bar.  Secondly, the Portland Jazz Festival is doing a project with my Photography 5-6 classes.  Students will be making images in response to jazz music and then turning these into "album covers".  A panel of judges will look at the work and choose a few of them for display around the city as a promo for the festival.
We just finished up the fabulous food photography unit with some incredible photographs.  There will soon be a cookbook produced.
In the Photography 1-2 classes, students are starting to work with Photoshop.  In the 3-4 classes, we will be starting on my favorite assignment around light, shadows and reflections.  Everything usually comes together for students after this assignment.  I am looking forward to seeing some stellar semester portfolios and slideshows from all my classes at the end of first semester. Here are a few recipes and food photos from my 5-6 class.

Abigail Bidegain

Eliza Yank

Hana Kimmelman

Davis Leach