Day Three and Four

Day three we discussed all sorts of ‘point of views’ one can use to take photographs, including bird’s eye view, worm’s eye view, near, far, side, etc.  We looked at a gazillion photographs from old Photo District News (PDN) magazines I have.  I feel the best way (well, in addition to pure practice) to learn photography is simply by seeing tons of different photos and learn what works and what doesn’t.  After looking at the photos we went outside (under the awning though only….it was pouring rain) to practice shooting portraits of their classmates using these different angles.  We discussed portraiture and ways to capture the personality of a person.  The week after next we will be exploring self-portraits along with poetry to pair with the photos.

Today, day four, was merely an editing day.  Besides one kid forgetting an important rule of coming to class prepared with all the materials (he forgot the most important – the camera full of images he took the day before!), things went fairly well.  Although, I learned many of the kids are very disinterested in the editing part and only want to be outside snapping the shutter.  I tried to explain to them that editing your photos is an as important part of the process as taking the actual photo.

Also, during the editing process, when I would ask them if they liked a certain photo and what they liked or disliked about it, they would often only comment on photos of their classmates…teasing them that it was a bad photo because so-and-so was in it.  This proved frustrating, and I tried to explain that we have to look at these from the eyes of photographers, noting elements of design, not from the eyes of their friends.

The group dynamics are very much taking shape.  The girl/boy divide is incredibly apparent.  There are exactly four boy and four girls.  They stay very separate and disliked when I pair them together.  The boys are very, very expressive, where the girls are more quiet.  When the girls have something to say and I make the boys be quiet so they can talk, they get very shy and don’t want to talk when everyone is listening.  This is something I will work on…integrating them more and allowing everyone to have a voice.

All in all, it went well.  Many of the kids are really beginning to understand the elements of design and are learning how to talk about photos and why or why they don’t like a particular photo.  This makes me very happy when I hear a kid say, “…I like it because it has lots of repetition, an interesting bird’s eye point of view,” etc.

When I was learning photography, I began to see the world differently.  I began to see images in everything (and I still do).  It changed my perspective.  I hope if anything, I can teach these children to look at their world with new eyes, and to be able to capture their world through their own, unique perspective.

Some of the children’s (and my) favorites are below:

Photos by Carlos:

Self-portrait, Carlos:

Photo by Adrían (what was a ‘mistake,’ we all thought ended up being a pretty cool photo:

Photo by Andrey (portrait of Sebastian):

Photo by Bianka:

Photo by Doris:

Photo by Katherin:

Photo by Kimberli (portrait of Katherin):

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