Thursday, August 20, 2009
Today
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Capture & Create
I was inspired by a comment made by a fellow teacher today in response to the advanced Photoshop workshop today I attended through my SFU Graduate Program. It eluded to the fact that Photoshop artwork involves an immense amount of work. The time and creative process that is required to produce a piece that is pleasing to the eye undergoes several detailed steps. My perspective has change and I have suddenly become aware of the visual artwork around me and have been taking that second look wondering if Photoshop was involved. For example the wallpaper in Starbucks, the graphic design on labels, and advertisement all caught my attention today after school. My eyes have been opened to the details around me. As of today I am guilty of taking random pictures of sewer grates, graffiti walls, peeling paint, veins of leaves, the texture of cork, and sculpted cast iron imagining the possibilities of using them as layers in Photoshop.
Photoshop and the Process: import self portrait and images of textures, resize canvas, add new layers, manipulate layers, use tools for blending, masking, and brushing different features.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
I am feeling enthusiastic
I love it when people are passionate about something and how their joy and excitement is evident when they are sharing. Not only does it engage the entire audience but it gets the creative gears in my brain turning just a little bit faster. I move closer to the edge of my seat, not wanting to miss a beat. I am torn between letting my creative mind wonder with all the possibilities that have surfaced and paying close attention being sure not to miss a second. Today’s workshop on Narrative Inquiry can be summed up my the above mention of feelings. Julia Leong lead a great workshop on telling stories using digital images. I was inspired by key concepts such as Point of View, art/o/graphy, creative expression, what’s it ‘good’ for, place, time, self and other.
The process: Take your camera off the automatic setting and play with the different modes. Put it into AV mode and increase or decrease the depth of field. Make things close up in focus and the background blurry or vice versa. Put it into S mode and increase the shutter speed. Have the camera snap a picture in tenths of a second or leave it longer for 15 seconds.
The process:
The final product:
There are so many places to go from hear. Air Graffiti, story starters, picture boards, still motion sequences, images for school newspaper, picture books, Brown Bear Brown bear what do you see…, Where’s waldo, geometry/shapes all around us, leaving your digital footprint…
POV-Point of View…from my students…what do they see, hear, feel? I would love to explore this concept with my class in September. Perhaps give them a camera for a day and capture what is happening around them that has meaning. Possible Title: School wouldn’t be the same without…
Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Wonders of Wonders
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Bring on SUMMER
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Paer deux of the Grand Transit Photo Adventure
Monday, June 8, 2009
A statement that deserves to be shared to a wider audience
My job share partner and I had just finished our meeting. We walked towards our parked cars where she made a statement and sparked a conversation between the two of that lead to flurry thoughts worthy of being shared. It started with her asking about my plans for the evening. I proceeded to inform her that I had Young Adults at my church every Monday evening and was planning on attending tonight, the last one before the summer season. She replied with a bold statement that I was not expecting to her, “Providing an opportunity for the youth to be connect on a regular basis is something that I really admire about the Christian faith, your faith.” She was speaking on behalf of her Indo-Canadian culture and thought that drawing the Youth was a key component to strengthening and building a community. She expressed he wish to have something similar for her daughter to attend when she reaches that age. Our conversation continued and eventually headed into the reasons perhaps why the Christian faith has many opportunities for the Youth to be involved and what allows for it to continue on with the same intensity over the generations. It was discussed how, in order for a community to grow there has to be an interest led by passion both from the participants and leaders. There has to be a willingness to continue spreading the desires and passions onto the next generation by being involved, giving the church a chance widen its horizons.
This got me thinking about how blessed we are as a church community to have faithful and wonderful leaders who make sacrifices in order to be commented to the Youth and to Gods people. It made me appreciate that community that I have been apart of for the past few years. We have all made contributions, some very small and almost unnoticeable, that have allowed us to grow stronger. It also made me realize that people see and recognize what is happening with the youth and it is something to be desired. We are apart of something so much bigger and that is the GOOD NEWS.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
The First ever, Grand Transit-Photo adventure
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Spring Break Goodness
I am not ready to return to the grind of daily routines, where I have to focus my attention on course work, marking, and unit planning. These short breaks spread throughout the school year keep my spirits moving forward even when they sometimes seem to never come soon enough.