5 Questions for Interview #2

Questions for interview #2

1. How were you introduced into the field of photography?
2. What made you realise you wanted to do photography for a living?
3. What sort of education did you have to achieve to be in this field?
4. What were some of your personal achievements that led you into knowing photography was the path you should take?
5. Who were your mentors or heros in photography that inspired you to pursue photography?

Response to 5min Presentation

• I would say my visual probably stood out the most because I referred to it alot, and because it was the main support to the points I was making in my presentation.
• The most challenging thing for me to do was to pick what I was going to talk about because I didnt want to pick something that might be really crucial later since we can't use the information we presented on this time agian.

Discussion Questions to Consider

• The literal was the facts I presented on like why the aperture creates depth of field, but the interpretive was what photographers used the depth of field for. Like say you wanted to shoot a picture but all you wanted was the subject in focus that would mean you as the photographer wanted a shallow depth of field. So for varying things that you took pictures on you would decide what effect you wanted just by changing the aperture.
• I will definitly try to calm myself better next time, and try not to sound so nervous. Also next time I'm going to try not only to say facts, but explain better on how they apply to photgraphy and why these facts are important.

Career

Exit Interviews

I-Search

Independent Study 1

I, Blair Paez, affirm that I have completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

The first four was from an a-z project we did in ROP where we had to take a photograph of an object from a-z such as airplane for A and bat for B. Once we got all the shots that we needed, we went back to the computer and edited them on photoshop. The last step for the project was to make it like an a-z strip you would see in a kid's classroom. How me and my partner did ours was we put the picture on a blank sheet, and then placed the letter over the picture. Then on photoshop you can make it so the picture shows through the photograph by making it transparent. This project took about 3 classes to finish.

This is one of the first photographs I took in ROP. We were working on getting textures, so I took this one and cropped it alittle on photoshop.

This is another project we did in ROP where we had to compile four photographs that told a story. My story was that this kid was sad, but then he found an ipod. Once he started listening to the music he was filled with joy and started dancing. The background is a texture I took at the beginning of the year, and I changed the original color from yellow to black. Then off course had to put the photos on top of the background in a creative way. The arrows in the middle point to which way the story is going.  This assignment took about a week to do.

This photograph I took because are assignment was to look for good scenes that would look good in black and white. On photoshop I converted it to black and white, and then I used the marquee tool to create a vignette around the rock and paper. This was my favorite photo of the day.

This is another photograph I took for the same assignment, and i did the exact same thing on photoshop.

This was the photograph I turned in for the abstract photo assignment. It took about a week to complete it because most of the work was done on photoshop. First I had to go out and shoot, and then pick the picture I wanted to use. Then on photoshop it took about a whole class to get this photo to look exactly how I wanted it too by messing with things on photoshop like curves and sharpness. then once it was done we all in the class had to present how we got our photos to look like they did.

This was one of the first assignments I did in ROP, and we got about a week to complete it. We had to take photographs of leading lines, and then turn in our best one. I picked this one because I thought it had a nice curving line that led straight to Edmond.

This is one of the photographs that I took in ROP for what we are currently working on which is landscape. On photoshop I changed the curves to auto, and messed with the hue and saturation to make it pop.

This was another photograph that i took for abstract that I really liked as well. Its a picture of water, but I messed with it on photoshop a little to make it look like a piece of art. I almost turned this one in for the assignment, but decided on the rose.

Here is another photo that I took while we were working on black and white conversions, and the marquee tool. I think this one looks the best with the marquee tool because it kind of makes it look like there is a horizon. 

This is one of the photos I took for our still life assignment. Like each assignment we have about a week to take photos, edit them on photoshop, and turn in our best 1. I picked this one because I love the lighting and I love hoe the bus has the side door open.

This is just a random photo I took because I wanted to try out the technique of blurring the background, but having the main subject in focus.

All these photographs I took of mardiella was for a the personality panel assignment. It took about 3 to 4 classes to complete because you had to get 9 different expressions from the model, and then place them all together on a document. These were the ones I ended up choosing to use because I thought the contrast in color was beautiful and overall just the best ones I took.

These are the individual photographs that I used for the story panel. Out of all the ones I took I thought these were the best.

This is just a flower I took while working on the rule of thirds. I used the curves on photoshop to add some light to it.

Interpretive: Starting off with the A-Z project that took about 3 classes of ROP to fully complete and turn in. That means that it took a couple classes to get all 26 shots, and then another day to edit all of them on photoshop. So that project represents 9 hours of work. The next photgraph of the flower was taken on day in class when we were shooting textures so it represents 3 hours. The next photograph which is the story panel took a week to complete. This means going out taking photos, picking the ones I liked the best, and then editing them on photoshop. All in all that photograph represents about 6 hours of work. The next two photographs were taken on a day we were working on black and white so they represent 6 hours of work. The next photo which was for the abstract photograph assignment took a whole week to complete which was 6 hours. That meant in the week I went out and took photos. Once I felt I got enough shots I went back in, picked the best one, and then edited it on photoshop. The next photo was the leading lines assignment which took 6 hours to complete. It was the same process as before. You go out and shot. Then you come in, and pick the best photograph to use. The waterfall  photograph represents 3 hours of work. That day we started on landscapes, and were practicing it before starting the actual assignment. The next photograph represents 3 hours of work. That was the day we were learning how to take abstract photos in ROP. The photograph with the bug is the photograph I took for my still life assignment, and it represents 6 hours of work. Its the same process as all the other assignments shot, pick the best one, and then edit. The next photograph is just one I really liked, and wanted to post. The next 8 were photographs I took for the personality panel project which took about 3 classes to finish. So those 8 photos represent 9 hours of work. Then the last ones I posted so you can see the individual photos for the story panel assignment.

Applied: Taking these photographs helped me see that the best ones had the best lighting in them, and that the colors were vivid. Also the best ones had more direction in that they weren't just a snap shot, but had careful thought behind them such as rule of thirds and composition.

Independent Study 2

1. For my second independent task I am going to use the photographs that I take over the course of this second semenster in my digital photography ROP class.
2. I will verify the time I did by showing the log of how many hours I do in my ROP class, and have my ROP teacher sign off on it.
3. Taking this photography class is helping me answer my EQ because in this class I take my own  photographs. As the class goes on were learn more techniques to make your photos look better, and we get more and more practice at taking pictures. Doing this is helping me learn the things that go into making a photograph beautiful, and what you have to pay attention to to achieve a well composed photograph.

Interview check in

• I am going to interview my mother's uncle Jerry Pogue. I would love to interview him because in 2008 he was the grand prize winner of the Oregon Outdoors Wild Bird Photo Contest with his photo of Sandhill Cranes. In addition he's also won other awards for his photography on birds, and has newspaper articles written about his specific technique in photographing birds.
• Other Questions: What techniques do you use in photographing birds? What about photography interested you? What would you say is the most important aspect to photography? In your opinion what skills do you need to become an accomplished photographer such as yourself?
• Why: I would like to know different techniques because maybe when I become more advanced in photography I could try to apply the techniques he uses. I'm interested in what photography means to him, and if maybe his reasons for being drawn to photography could be the same as mine. I think if I learned what he thought was the most important aspect of photography it could give me great insight into what to focus on when I'm photographing my subjects, and perhaps better my photos. The last question I want to ask because I want to personally know what skills I need to acquire to get better at photography.

Math

Blair Paez
Photography
EQ: What is the best way to take a photograph that is beautiful, and has a lasting impact?
Idea: My idea is to take a photograph, and have it framed. I want to take a photograph of something that is generally know to be ugly, like trash, but make it look beautiful by using techniques in photography.
How this connects to my EQ because the whole point of me doing my senior project is to learn how to take a beautiful photograph, and if I can do that with something we generally see as ugly I would count that as an accomplishment.

5 min. Presentation Rough Draft

• Objective: Students will learn about the aperature on a camera, and how it affects the amount of light let in, the shutter speed, and the depth of field.

• Procedure: 

1. Introduction: Introduce my topic, which is photography. Ask the class what they know about photography, specifically the aperature.
2. First I'm going to explain what the aperature is, a diagram  of the different sizes, and why the small numbers are the large opening and vice versa.
3. Next, I'm going to explain the f-stops such as how the number relates to the focal length and shutter speed. Also, I'll explain how the different aperature opening sizes (f-stops) let in different amounts of light.
4. Lastly, I'm going to talk about how the aperature affects the depth of field by using photographs to show the class what narrow depth of field is, and what great depth of field is. Then, I'm go show the class a diagram of why a large aperature creates a narrow depth of field, and a small one creates a great depth of field.

• Check For Understanding: Some of the concepts are hard to grasp at first so I'm going to use pictures and diagrams to give students a visual to better understand. Also, throughout my presentation I'll ask to see if everyone understands or needs me to explain it again.

• Resourse/Materials: flashcards (maybe), pictures, diagrams, and maybe draw something on the white board.

              

Product

Research Semester 1

•  My topic that I have choosen is photography. I'm not quite sure yet what field I'm going to be focusing on, but I'm thinking maybe landscape or nature.
• Every time I see a beautiful photograph I always think wow I wish I could do that. I have a photograph in my bedroom of a path or row of sorts with trees going on continuously. The picture is in black and white, and the trees are leafless. When ever I look at it I see such beauty in something so simplistic that I wish I can capture things like that. Sometimes I walk outside and am amazed at the way the day looks that I wish I could capture that moment or feeling.
• I hope to complish the ability to take breathless photos, and capture the feeling I get when I look at nature. Hopefully someone can feel the moment with my photos like I did with the picture in my room.

Research Semester 2

Science Fair

Service Learning

• Name of Place: I am  doing my service learning at the digital photography ROP class at Ipoly with Jack Bolka as the instructor.
• Summary of what you are doing: In the ROP class we just finished learning about abstract photography, and how to make a picture look abstract on photoshop. We also learned how to take portaits, still life, and leading lines. 
• The most important thing I have learned in the ROP class is the use of good lighting, and how to work on photoshop.