T-Bots Photo Story

One of the local elementary schools came to put on a "pep rally" for the T-Bots, since they're going to competition in a few weeks.  First, the kids put on the pep rally. They did chants and dances and made signs to cheer on the T-Bots. Then the T-Bots went up to put on a presentation for the kids, showing them the robot and what went into making it.

I had a few problems with this, mainly being that the theatre was dark, and the stage light wasn't that bright that day. I used a few different lenses, being the 17-50mm, the 50mm, and the 70-200mm, which I switched every five minutes or so, depending on what I needed to do. I tried to use the 50mm as much as possible, to get as much light as I could since it was so dark.

It was great documenting this, and it was by far one of my favorite things to shoot all year because everyone cooperated so well. The T-Bots let me go wherever I wanted to go, and they were so grateful that someone got photos for them. They probably thanked me fifty different times. It was so exciting! I also got complimenting on being "a freaking ninja" because I was everywhere and got everything, but nobody even noticed I was around. I was proud of that fact. It made me feel like a proper photojournalist. :)

Psychology Observation Illustration

ISO: 1250  SS: 1/80  f/4.5

I couldn't get the processed image to show up, but I had brought up the exposure just a bit.
The assignment was to get a photo illustrating the observation project that psychology was doing. Each student had to observe another student for six weeks, and then write a report on what they observed at the end of the six weeks.

I didn't really know how else to illustrate that, honestly. Just get a student obviously "observing" another one.
I didn't really have a problem with this, other than I couldn't get the students to put their phones away... which was frustrating, so I just ended up getting a picture of the kid with the phone. Sorry, mister!

Girls Basketball, Freshman

ISO: 1600  SS: 1/200  f/4.5

This was the first basketball game I had to set up for myself, which I did a horrible job of.
I had a lot of problems here, mainly being that I couldn't aim the lights correctly.
Then, I had apparently set them up wrong.
I didn't do the settings correctly.
And just basically that I did everything wrong. Yeah.

But I made due, and did manage to get a few usable images.  I stayed the rest of the night, through all three games, just to learn how to properly set them up. So it was worth it. I'll tell you about it in the next blog!

Girls Basketball, JV

ISO: 800  f/5.6  SS: 1/100

This game, the lights were still pretty bad. Caroline was there to help me try to change the lighting, but we still couldn't get it. She was thrown off by the fact that we were on the opposite end of the court! I only got a few usable images out of this one. We probably changed the lights a hundred times just to try to get a shot, and then our cameras were being funky and when one would take a good shot, the other wouldn't. So it was a difficult game to shoot. :/

Girls Basketball, Varsity

ISO: 800  f/5.0  SS: 1/250

Fortunately, my photos got a little better during the Varsity game.  We finally got the lights in a workable situation, so we had some properly lit photos. I worked mostly on getting defense photos, if I could. I enjoyed this game because it had taken me three whole games to get to a half decent set up.

One of the problems with this game was that we had to move the lights back, after finally getting them right, because the girls kept getting too close and the refs didn't want them to knock the lights over.  So we had to move them back a few feet and readjust everything, and manage to get it working again. It was just a hard night to shoot. :( BUT, I KNOW THE BASKETBALL SET UP NOW! Which is too good, but I don't even need it anymore. ):

An AH-HA moment!

An ah-ha moment for me was learning how to use flash.  It finally clicked, and it has definitely improved my photography already. I've been intimidated by flash because I didn't understand which functions did what, or how, or why.  All I knew was that 1/1 was really bright, and I had no clue how it related to the camera at all.

I decided that my subject was a bag.  I set my camera to ISO 100, f/5.6, and SS 1/250.  I adjusted the light until it was exposed properly.  Then I changed my aperture by one stop, and adjusted the flash by one stop. Still exposed, but I saw the different in the background. It was getting darker.  I changed them by one stop for a few tries, until I got the hang of it. Then I started changing it by two and three stops.  I changed my ISO and changed the flash to suit the difference.  Then I turned the flash on an umbrella to see the difference.  From where I was standing, the difference between the flash and the light off the umbrella was three stops.  I had to adjust my camera by three stops to get the same amount of light on the bag.

I also figured out how to use the zoom function. I now know the difference between the difference zooms, what they do to the photo. The higher the number, the more focused it is.  I thought that was cool. This was really helpful when I got the theatre the next day and had to shoot in the pitch black room with a flash. I finally get it!

And still, the theatre stays dark.

ISO: 1000  f/4.0  SS: 1/200

ISO: 1600  f/5.6  SS: 1/250

This was the next challenge in the theatre, which was just as hard as shooting Milky White.  I was trying to tell the story of setting up for the play Into the Woods! And I was successful, after they finally turned on the lights.  The first photo was my attempt with flash.  It worked! I got them... well, visible, if not a bit underexposed.  I did what I could, but it's a black hole of doom and darkness in there.  The flash was straight on them. I'm just glad I didn't blow them out entirely. Or make them disappear from being so dark.

After they finally turned on the stage lights, it was easy from there.  I was able to turn off my flash and enjoy the show.  I'm particularly fond of this photo, though, because they weren't acting. They were genuinely getting frustrated because they had a fellow actor who didn't know his lines two weeks before opening night.  Right after this photo, the whole crew got a nice butt chewing for their "unpreparedness."  It was a mess in there, and this photo was definitely the photo that caught the mood in there that night.

Milky White

ISO: 400  f/3.5  SS: 1/200

Flash Settings: 1/32 power, 50mm zoom

ISO: 400 f/3.5  S: 1/200

Flash settings: 1/32 power, 50mm zoom

I had way. too. much. trouble. shooting this cow. It was in the theatre, where it is dark, and black, and this cow is WHITE. It was infuriating. There was nothing for me to bounce the light off of, so it had to be straight on it.  After a lot of adjusting, I finally came up with the settings I used, which at least exposed the cow properly. A room movement from the theatre to the prop shop provided the second photo; this is the best I could get. I learned how to manage in a black hole of doom and darkness.

I was able to use the same settings in a different room just as successfully, but slightly brighter.

The cow got shot, at least. Which is kinda what I wanted to do to the person who gave me this assignment, because IT WAS SO FRUSTRATING.

Painting WIth Light, with a teddy bear?

ISO: 1600  SS: 1/30  f/5.0

I own a little teddy bear that glows in the dark, and I wanted to see if I could get a painting with light photo with it by moving the limbs. The idea started out as this:

Which was clearly unsuccessful. So we (Casey, Ndid and I) went a different direction with it.  This photo is just simply the IDEA, because we weren't able to pull it off in the time we needed. We decided to try to paint a "ghost" figure in the back of a photo using the bear. We DID manage getting that done.  However, we couldn't quite get the lighting right on Casey.  We are going to try again hopefully another time, using a rem light so we can actually see Casey's outline, and probably using a different light source. I thought it was interesting to learn how to expose for the bear, though. It was pretty hard, because clearly a glow in the dark bear isn't exactly the brightest light. It was difficult, but we got it.

We'll see where we go from this. It'll hopefully be way more creepy next time. It was supposed to be a "ghost" after all.

Christmas Break - Kelsoe

ISO: 6400  f/5.6  SS: 1/100

I put a lot of effort into setting this photo up. I had to make due with an insane lack of light, being that there was only one lamp and a window in the corner. There wasn't even an overhead light, which was weird. But I'm actually kind of happy with my improvising skills because the lighting turned out pretty well. :) I did have to compromise the graininess of the image though, since it was so dark and I didn't have a flash with me. That's why my ISO is so high.

Aside from that, I'm trying to learn how to tell stories with my photos. I know this isn't exactly a STORY, but it tells a lot about him. Before I tell you about him, what can you tell from the photo?
...
...
...

Right, okay. That's my point. You CAN ACTUALLY TELL SOMETHING ABOUT HIM. As opposed to my own SELF PORTRAITS that tell nothing about me? Or the pictures I've taken of my other friends where it's just them posing really pretty in the park. But this one actually tells you about the subject. And that's what I hope to continue to do, and build on. :)

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This is Kelsoe. :) We've been friends since 7th grade, and he's probably the funniest person I know. I wanted to try to get an environmental portrait of him because he's really such an interesting person! Well what better place to figure a person out but in there room? So that's where we went! And of all the pictures I've taken all year of anybody, I think I really showed who Kelsoe is here.

He's a quirky guy. He's pretty minimalistic - the lack of ornaments, the plain dresser. What you can't see is that there's nothing on his walls. His bed is just a really tall box spring and a mattress. A simple beige comforter. Another plain dresser with a small TV, and a few storage bins. The only other decoration he has in his room is the large banner he made out of Christmas wrapping paper with a quote from his favorite book. He's a bookworm. This picture doesn't even show a FOURTH of the books he has. Those stacks of books are nearly three feet high, and total more than 300 books. Fact. The boy likes to read. Did I say like? I meant love. I meant spend 24/7 with books. I meant he actually ignored me to read, even though this is the first time I'd seen him in three years. On the right, you see his VHS collection. There's only two stacks of those, but he still owns the VHS tapes, and the VHS player, which he actually PREFERS to watching DVD's.  Oh, and he has a pet mouse he called Button.  He actually isn't the biggest fan of Christmas, which you can tell from his half enthusiastic expression. He's KING of weird facial expression. He's a good kid. Funny. And that's what I hope you saw. :)