Happy Easter to our families who celebrate Easter today!
This week in our classroom, we had an egg-citing time with our eggsperiments. We took on the egg drop challenge and I’m thrilled to share that 4 eggs survived without cracking. Our eggs are getting closer to hatching 🐣 and by the end of next week, we may have chicks in our classroom!
In addition to our eggs, we welcomed new friends into our room – 5 caterpillars! We observed them eat and grow throughout the week and reviewed the fascinating life cycle of a butterfly.
On Thursday, we had a special visit from Ms. Cheryl from the Des Plaines library for story time. The children enjoyed the stories and even got to listen to her play the ukulele 😊
I hope you had a wonderful weekend and are looking forward to another exciting week ahead. Thank you for your continued support and involvement in our classroom activities.
In the afternoon class, we finished learning the three kings and are now focusing on composition and perspective. We’re also putting the finishing touches on the images for the final project. I’m excited to see what the kids come up with.
In order to get a good picture we need to expose correctly, capture the right amount of light on the camera sensor. Exposure has 3 components (3 kings) Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO.
Aperture
Aperture and F-stops. They are essentially the same thing. Aperture is the opening in the lens and the F-stop is the setting on the camera for Aperture.
Aperture on a camera is like the pupil in our eyes. It opens and closes. The bigger the opening the more light, the smaller the opening less light goes in the eye or the camera sensor.Aperture also creates the blurry backdrop that in photography we call Bokeh.Low F-stop big opening in the lens. More light goes in, the backdrop is very blurry.High F-stop, small opening in the lens. Less light goes in, backdrop is in focus.
Shutter Speed
The speed at which the shutter of the camera closes. A fast shutter speed creates a shorter exposure — the amount of light the camera takes in — and a slow shutter speed gives the photographer a longer exposure.
We use a fast shutter when we taking pictures of a person or an object in motion (for sports, dancing, etc and we can hold the camera ). We use a slow shutter when we want to create an artistic image or at night when we want to let more light in (when using a long exposure we always use a tripod)
ISO
ISO is the value regarding the camera’s light sensor. A high ISO means a bigger sensitivity to light. ISO values are usually 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200 and 6400. In your picture, this will be often present in the form of ‘noise’ (the photo will look grainy). This is more obvious in low light conditions.
Outside Practice
The kids have been practicing their exposures outside and they are doing an amazing job.
We’ve been working hard on Halloween backdrops, fall and Halloween sets, and all fall things:) Every class, the kids are making their own sets out of various fall objects. I enjoy seeing the students get creative with their sets; some put a lot of effort into each project. The middle school students have also been working on lighting. So far, we’ve talked about flat, loop, butterfly, and Rembrandt lighting. We’ll finish up all of our fall projects in the next week or two, and then we’ll have a few holiday surprises. Please send any small ornaments or decorations, you no longer need (for any upcoming holiday – Hanukkah, St. Nicholas, Christmas, etc.) to school with your child.
Hello, everyone! I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m Ms. Ela, the photography teacher.
I’ve been a wedding and portrait photographer since 2011, but I’ve had a camera since I was about 8 or 9 years old.
My grandfather gave me an old smena, and I learned film photography and the magic of a darkroom, and I’ve been obsessed with photography ever since.
I’m a little behind on the photography blog. I will try to update this once a month so you know what we’re up to.
For our first class, students examined old cameras and equipment and learned about camera obscura (the very first camera). Camera Obscura is Latin for Dark Room. It’s a dark room with a small opening. Because light travels in straight lines, it forms an upside down image on the opposite wall of the opening. We can turn any box, toilet paper roll, or even a room into a camera obscura. I think the kids had a good time making it and testing it out.
We went over our special project, a Halloween backdrop, last week, and each class chose a theme. We began working on the backdrops on Thursday. We had a lot of fun painting and making the decorations we needed. Some classes are finished, while others will continue working on the backdrops in the next class (they are very elaborate).
The goal is for each student to have their photo taken in front of the backdrop and learn about light and how it affects a photograph. A good photograph (regardless of the camera) has good lighting, composition, and posing. Throughout the year, we will work on various projects to help students understand light, composition, and posing while having fun.
I was fortunate to have a few point and shoot cameras donated by friends, and I brought over my daughter’s small collection of cameras so for each class the students can work in pairs and use a camera.
I’ll post the final images around Halloween.
This Thursday’s afternoon class went on a scavenger hunt outside. We’re happy to report that the majority of students found everything on our list. Including a good group selfie 🙂
