My week as a photo teacher

[AdamW]

The school I teach at is very small and so we can only offer a limited choice of electives. So, every spring we have what is called Interim Week, where each teacher designs and teaches a week-long class. Kids sign up for their choice, and we all get an interesting and educational change from our regular curriculum. Over the years, we've had film analysis, trips to Europe and Japan, camping in Yosemite, marine biology, theater, artist's studio, white water rafting, visiting colleges, and many many more.

This year, another teacher and I teamed up to teach Photographing San Francisco. With 40 teenagers, each day we went to a different part of the city, gave them a short lesson on composition, and sent them out to take pictures. They had some specific assignments, and they'll have to turn in a portfolio of their best work next week. (I plan to put the best of the best on the school web site, and I'll post a link here if any of you are interested.)

Here's what I took:

Day 1 -- Golden Gate Park

This little guy was puffing himself up to try to intimidate the large duck who was interested in the bit of ice cream cone he was eating.
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A blackberry bush.

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[AdamW]

Day 2 -- Fisherman's Wharf and Hyde Street Pier


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[AdamW]

Day 3 -- Mission District & Chinatown


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[AdamW]

Day 4 -- Embarcadero Center, Ferry Building, & Financial District


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[AdamW]

Day 5 -- Golden Gate Bridge


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[faisal]

WOW!!!!!! :cool:
Some amazing pictures there Adam. I think I like the Day 3 Fence picture the most....
The puffing little guy is a cute picture...IMO :)

[AdamW]

WOW!!!!!! :cool:
Some amazing pictures there Adam. I think I like the Day 3 Fence picture the most....
The puffing little guy is a cute picture...IMO :)

Thanks, Faisal! That fence is around the escalator going down to to the BART (subway) station. I did a little cropping and a quick B&W conversion.

The tough little bird took a lot of PP 'cause it was really wasn't exposed very well, but it all happened so quickly I didn't have time to adjust the camera. By the way, it worked--the duck left him alone!

[TheWengler]

This is a cool idea Adam. My favorites are the fence and the last one from day 3. The peeling paint adds good texture to the images.

[AtlPikMan]

Wow Adam! Amazing Pics, all of them...Were they taken with your 400D?

[AdamW]

Thanks, Lukas.

And thanks, too, AtlPikMan. Yep, those were all with the 400D/XTi. The shot of the Bay Bridge and all the shots of and from the Golden Gate Bridge were with the Sigma 18-50. All the others were with the Canon 100 mm Macro.

[tim11]

Great shots.
This one reminds me of the 80s TV series THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
http://www.dcresource.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=34978&d=1208143095

[AdamW]

Great shots.
This one reminds me of the 80s TV series THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
http://www.dcresource.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=34978&d=1208143095

Thanks, Tim. I think that one was one of my favorites. I'm really pleased with the way the processing came out--exactly what I was hoping for when I took the shot. My daughter liked it so much she made me print a copy for her!

[nism]

very impressive adam!
nice variety of shots that have been very well done

[AdamW]

Thanks, Nism!

[soileauj]

Great Shots Adam and you have a very good eye. Were those shot in jpeg or raw? From what you've shown here, the kids had a very good teacher..

[AdamW]

Great Shots Adam and you have a very good eye. Were those shot in jpeg or raw? From what you've shown here, the kids had a very good teacher..

Thanks. I only shoot in RAW because I like the control it gives me. As for the students, well, their portfolios are due this Friday. We'll see then how good of a teacher I am!

[Benjamin2007]

Adam

Excellent shots! :)
I particularly liked the staircase shot, but they're all good compositions! :D:cool:

I look forward to seeing some of the students' work if you have a chance to post it!

cheers,

PS: I also really liked your Seder shot from last year (17APR07), I've been browsing the Forum Photo Gallery's archives, since the beginning in 2005, and appreciating all the early work of the old-hands around here. Great photos regardless of the cameras used, even the "ancient" 1.4MP models of the early days...:p;)

[AdamW]

Thanks, Benjamin. The building one is a favorite of my sister's. I'm gonna make a nice print of it for her. My students had to turn in their portfolios on Friday, which means that only half did so. The rest begged for an extension until Monday. I'll post some galleries on our school web site this week and put the links up here for you folks.

Wow, so I'm an "old hand," huh? I still feel like a newbie....

[Prospero]

Great collections of shots, Adam.
The macros are phenomanol (as usual). The shot of the bridge and those of the staircase are also very nice.
I'm curious to see what your students came up with.

[AdamW]

Okay folks, here they are. Bear in mind that these kids all had little point-n-shoots and only about 10 minutes of instruction each morning for the week-long course. Also, I went through all their photos and picked the ones I liked best--your opinions may vary. I was pretty impressed by their work, and the week was a whole lot of fun.

Click here for the student gallery (http://ohs.juhsd.net/photo_interim_2008/index.html)

[Dawoofo]

Man, I haven't looked here in a while but your pictures are awesome, Adam.

As for your students, I think it's safe to say you must've played a large part in unlocking some creative talent in a lot of them—many of those pictures are ones I'd expect to see on this forum. Excellent job, both you and them! :thumbsup:

[AdamW]

Thanks, Dawoofo! I'm looking forward to doing it again next year. It was really enjoyable: go with them to some lovely part of San Francisco, give 'em 10 minutes of basic instruction, and set 'em loose! Next day, repeat!

[TheWengler]

Thanks, Dawoofo! I'm looking forward to doing it again next year. It was really enjoyable: go with them to some lovely part of San Francisco, give 'em 10 minutes of basic instruction, and set 'em loose! Next day, repeat!

Where do I sign up? The pictures were much better than I expected. Some nice shots in there. Do they submit the pictures they like best or do you just get everything they shot? Do they get to do any PP?

[AdamW]

Where do I sign up? The pictures were much better than I expected. Some nice shots in there. Do they submit the pictures they like best or do you just get everything they shot? Do they get to do any PP?

I expect there was very little pp, if any.

Each day they had to take at least one picture for the daily assignment (perspective, color, etc.), one picture that could be on a postcard, and one of the theme for the week that they chose themselves (e.g. signs, lines, people, etc.) Some kids turned in the 15 required shots and clearly chose their best work. Some turned in everything they shot that week! We had 38 kids in the class (with two teachers) and 34 turned in a portfolio, and 5 of those were 4x6 prints in albums. The rest were turned in electronically. I waded through a few hundred shots this afternoon and chose the ones I liked best for what I posted online.