Quiz - Digital Photography

Participation Grade and Performance Grade. You receive two different grades for this quiz.

Each group will choose a photo for the quiz. Each person will edit and submit a photo for this quiz. However, group members are encouraged to work together. Students will be graded on their ability to work together and to export photos using Aperture. Students are not assessed on whether the photo is "good or bad."

Choose a photo taken by a group member in the last month with a width or height at least 1024 wide or tall. The photo should also be at least 72 dpi.

1. Share the photo to the group by email and cc me.

2. Using the metadata tab in Aperture, include the information about f-stop, shutter speed, ISO and date the photo was taken. Send this information along with your edited photo.

3. Edit the photo in Aperture. If you are in Period 2, edit your photo so that it is 500 pixels wide by 400 pixels tall. If you are in Period 3, edit your photo so that it becomes 600 pixels wide by 400 pixels tall. (You will probably need to crop the photo.)

4. When you export, export the version at 500 (or 600) pixels wide by 400 pixels tall/high with a dpi of 100. Set the image quality at 12.

5. Name the photo, Period 2 or 3 - your name.

6. Send the photo to my work email, cc my bryanfarley2020 at gmail address, along with the other metadata. Please title the subject, "Period 2 or 3 Quiz - Your Name"

If you have questions, please ask your group members first and then ask me. You are encouraged to participate with your group.

What a Difference a Day Makes

Yesterday will become an important day in sports history. Finally, the Los Angeles Clippers were national news! I do not know if there were any important images from yesterday, but there have been important sports photographs in history.

Here is Sports Illustrated list of the 100 Greatest Sports Photographs of All Time.

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Cindy Sherman Inspired Portraits

So you think that your generation invented the selfie? Well, maybe you invented the word "selfie," but your generation is not the first to take photos of yourself. Your generation is not even the first generation to experience rapid technological advancements. Somehow, my generation blames your generation for our technological creations. Sorta funny.

My generation forgets that the photo booth was invented in the 1800's and popularized in the 1920's. We forget that photography transformed when the world changed between 1935-1945. My generation resembles older generations. We forget things.

I often hear old people like myself talk about the internet as if a new scary world has been created. All of a sudden, people can be fooled. Well, meet the new boss. It's the same as the old boss. (Oh, that's from an old person's song. Bing that.) Before the internet, people wore disguises. Some people lied. Few people told the truth all of the time.

... And then there was Cindy Sherman. She is still alive and possibly active. If you search Cindy Sherman in Google Images, you might think that you made a mistake. You will find about 40 different photos and they all look different. This means that you probably found her.

You will post 5 Cindy Sherman inspired self-portraits and 5 portraits of people in your group. You can borrow the hat in our room so that the photo looks like Penn's photo of Picasso (or see a photo I took of my daughter a few years ago). This project is due before Spring Break so check the calendar.

A few quick notes about how this fits with the previous projects. We just studied surrealists and abstract artists after taking portraits. For the last photo assignment, "Abstract Portraits," you photographed objects that represented people or yourself. This time you are photographing people who are intentionally not genuine. Are they characters? Perhaps. Push as far as you feel comfortable... maybe just a little farther, but be safe.

Participation Grade - April Fools Week

I am not fooling this week. It is really easy to score 100 out of 100 for your weekly participation grade.

You will receive a perfect score if you show up on time every day this week. That's just four days!

You only lose points for a few activities -- unexcused absences, tardies, cell phone, inappropriate computer use and outside work without permission from me.

If you have questions, use the comment section below.

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Abstract Portraits

Abstract Portraits

The Bauhaus - from the Metropolitan Museum

Portrait of the Beloved - Peter

1.8 Advanced Students will be able to create an abstract portrait or self-portrait.
(Analyze the works of a well-known artist as to the art media selected and the effect of that selection on the artist's style.)

Your Portrait - A Picture of You

Is this my photograph? Is this my portrait? If one of my students had not given me permission to post this photograph, would I have been allowed to use it? 

When is it OK to plagiarize? Was Robin Hood a thief? Are pirates thieves? Are teachers pirates? Are pirates good or bad?

How similar are these three images? Does it matter? If I take one person's photo and I edit the image slightly, does the image become my image? Who owns the pirate image in the background?

Cartier-Bresson encouraged photographers to have their subject forget about the camera. Unfortunately, there is a disadvantage to his success. People believe that taking portraits is easy. Writers believe that taking pictures is easy. So what to writers do with pictures?

Writers will take your pictures and they will accuse you of plagiarism if you take their words. (Farleyism)

The Photo 1 students are taking their first portraits at the same time that the Advanced Photo students are photographing students from other groups. All my photo students are exploring Cartier-Bresson's apparently simple advice to portrait photographers. I helped the Photo 1 students. The Advanced Photo students chose location and subjects.

You will post five of your favorite photos. Share the blog link with the people you photograph. Comment on their post about your experience being photographed. DISCUSS HOW IT FELT BEING PHOTOGRAPHED AND PHOTOGRAPHING.

If you have completed your assignment, begin studying Walter Peterhans Portrait of the Beloved. Your next assignment will be similar.

4.5 Employ the conventions of art criticism in writing and speaking about works of art. 
5.2 Create a work of art that communicates a cross-cultural or universal theme taken from literature or history.

Post Script

After we took these photographs, I went to Washington, D.C. for the National Epilepsy Walk. While in D.C., I visited the National Portrait Gallery. Yesterday, Lens published a story about the new exhibit "American Cool." 

Sharing and Commenting

Sharing your work is an important part of being an artist.

Engaging in discourse with other artists is an important part of being an artist.

You will use the blogger comment section, to comment and ask questions of artists in other groups as well as the artists in your group.

For the first assignment, ask question about The Beatles/Eppridge project. Find one group in this class and ask questions. When you receive a question, reply.

For the second assignment, discuss with the other groups, The Unity Project.

For the third, find two groups in the other Advanced photo glass, and discuss The Beatles/Eppridge project.

For the fourth assignment, ask the remaining groups in the other Advanced Photo class and discuss The Unity project.

Group leaders, please share your link in the comment section so that other groups can contact you. Are you period 2 or 3?

I will also provide a bonus blog post from my personal blog so that students can create extra work for me and learn about my process. Here is the post. (Note: the post was created on March 11, 2014. This blog post was edited on March 12, 2014.)

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