Community Library Fifth and Sixth Grade Photography Class

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1 Community Library Fifth and Sixth Grade Photography Class Photo by Jarad Lenny Lepola and friends: Cab, Taylor, Jarad, Kaelynn, Jose, Weston, and Brittany With special assistance from Mariel Neja

2 Community Library Fifth and Sixth Grade Photography Class Lenny Lepola and friends: Cab, Taylor, Jarad, Kaelynn, Jose, Weston, and Brittany, with special assistance from Mariel Neja July 2009 Community Library, 44 Burrer Dr. Sunbury, Ohio Lenny C. Lepola POB 328 Delaware, OH

Pictures are everywhere. You do not need to travel far away from home to find interesting things to photograph.

would like to take. Now you just have to figure out how to make your camera do what you have already seen in your mind.

In fact, you can take photographs of almost anything.

Classes are fun, and you will learn many things in a photography class.

3 Pictures are everywhere. You do not need to travel far away from home to find interesting things to photograph. When you look at something and think: I would like to take a photograph of that, in your mind you already have seen a picture you would like to take. Now you just have to figure out how to make your camera do what you have already seen in your mind. Photographs can be of things like a classic car, or landscapes, or your pet, or of people. In fact, you can take photographs of almost anything. But to learn to take good photographs, ones you will be happy with, takes practice. Classes are fun, and you will learn many things in a photography class. But the most important thing you can do to become a good photographer is to take pictures in your spare time. You do not need expensive equipment to take good photographs. Taking a good photograph is simply learning to see and then taking whatever camera that you have and using it to capture the images in your mind. The picture of a corn field and clouds below was made with a cell phone camera. 1

4 These girls are Big Walnut High School students who qualified to perform at the Ohio State Track Meet in Columbus in May. The group photograph, taken at a track team practice session, was created for a newspaper article about the girls. Our first take-home exercise will be to try to produce a similar photograph. Using family members or friends, bring in one picture next week with three to five people in it. The rules are: 1. Shoot the photo from below the eye level of your shortest subject; 2. Have your subjects put their arms around each others waist or shoulders; 3. Have them lean their heads toward the center person in the picture; 4. And shoot the photo so there is only sky showing behind your subjects. When you are photographing people, talk to them. Ask them to say Cheese. Make them laugh. When they are relaxed and smiling, starting snapping your photographs. Do not stop with one photo. While you have your group together, take several photos. Then look at your photographs on a computer screen and pick the one you like best, put it on your class jump drive, and bring it to next week s class. 2

5 It s easy to take a good photograph. Good photographs are not complex. But every photograph that you take says something about you. It says: These are my friends and family, these are the things that I notice, and this is how I see the world around me. One good exercise that you can start doing now and continue to do in the years to come is to pick something familiar to you and photograph it every day. You can photograph a family member, a pet, or your house. Almost every day I take a photograph of this tree that I pass when I leave my house. Each day is different, each day I see things differently, so each picture of the tree is different. 3

When we practice noticing those small changes it helps us become more

6 Some days the sun is shining, some days it is raining. Every day every thing changes just a little bit. When we practice noticing those small changes it helps us become more aware of the world around us. That awareness will help us become better at everything we do, including taking photographs. 4

There are many ways to take a picture of anything. Your pet is a good example.

7 Sometimes it is good practice to just pick a word, like Fence, and then look for pictures that describe that word. There are many ways to take a picture of anything. Your pet is a good example. It is always around your house, and it is always doing something different. So your pet makes a good photographic subject for practice. 5

A subject to practice taking better pictures can be as simple as a rock in your garden.

It s the same as when you are in school and your teacher tells you that every sentence that you write has a subject.

8 A subject to practice taking better pictures can be as simple as a rock in your garden. The important thing to remember when practicing is to try to focus on your subject. In this example the subject is a rock. So I tried to take a photograph that would make the rock the biggest thing in the picture, and also at the front (the foreground) of the picture. That way the rock dominates the picture and becomes the place your attention goes to when you look at the picture. It s the same as when you are in school and your teacher tells you that every sentence that you write has a subject. Good photographs are the same. A good picture has a subject, and the photographer has made that subject the focus of the picture. In the background of the rock picture is a flower, but the flower is not the subject of the picture so we hardly notice it. But we can change our position and make the flower the subject of our photograph. 6

9 When I take pictures of my favorite tree by my house, that s what I am doing. I am making the tree the subject of my photograph. As you can see from the picture here, there are other trees near my tree, but when I take photographs of my tree I keep the other trees in the background. In every picture that I take of the tree, I make certain that the tree is the biggest thing in the picture. That way there is no confusion about what is the subject of the photograph. Even when the tree is far away in the photograph, I still make certain it is the biggest thing you see so you know what is the subject of the picture. 7

10 Pick something this week and try to take pictures of it in different ways. But in every picture, show that what you are photographing is the subject of your picture. It can be a pet dog or a cat or a car or a rock or tree or family member. 8

11 Remember the portrait exercise? Everybody get together, lean in toward the center, say Cheese? And get below the eye level of the people you are photographing? It is a simple trick for taking a group photograph that works almost every time. It makes everyone smile, there are no spaces between the people in the picture, and it concentrates the energy of the group, making the whole group (not just one person) the subject of your photograph. But sometimes rules can change to make an interesting photograph. 9

12 This photograph had to be taken from above in order to get everyone in the picture. And the people in the picture are not standing together. But the photograph does something all good pictures do. It captures a moment in time. In this instance, the moment in time was Week Two of our photo class. Capturing a moment in time with a photograph is a way to save a memory. And when you take a photograph today and you and your friends and family look at that photograph many years from now, you have brought those memories back. It s a way to say Hi today that people will see (and hear) in the future. 10

13 Remember, good photographs are everywhere. This picture of the Souders Sidesteppers focuses on the performer s hands. Is the subject of the picture the performers? Or the performer s hands? When you look at things, ask yourself what made you notice them. That is usually what will make a good subject for your photograph. This photograph was taken at an event at JR Smith Park in Sunbury. What made me notice the people was how they had lined up their shoes. So I took the picture with the shoes in front of them. Is the subject of the picture the people? Or their shoes? Or is the subject: Six people with only five pairs of shoes? 11

Remember to position yourself so your subject stands

subject, look at it from different angles.

14 Remember to position yourself so your subject stands out. I had to lie on my stomach to take this photograph of Tulips. Before you take any photograph, move around your subject, look at it from different angles. Never be afraid to experiment when you see something that catches your attention. It just might be an interesting photograph waiting to happen. I took the picture of the cactus below through a frosty store window in the winter time. 12

15 Sometimes close-ups of patterns and textures can make good photographs, like this storm drain grate in a parking lot. When you get in the habit of noticing patterns it becomes easier to use them to make all of your photographs more interesting. The car show picture below has two sets of patterns: The floor tiles and the lights. 13

16 Going to places like car shows gives you a chance to take a variety of photographs. You can take candid pictures of people looking at cars, and pictures of unusual and expensive cars that you normally would not see in your neighborhood. 14

17 Fair season is here, providing an opportunity to take many interesting photographs. Take your camera to the fair and look for interesting people, patterns and reflections. Your local fair is an excellent place to take interesting action photographs of people enjoying themselves. 15

There are a lot of rules you can use to take good

Decide what the subject of your photograph is before you

Make your subject the biggest thing in the picture.

Because each one of us is a unique individual, we each

18 There are a lot of rules you can use to take good photographs. But the best rules are simple rules. Decide what the subject of your photograph is before you take the picture. Make your subject the biggest thing in the picture. Try to take your picture so there is nothing distracting in the background. Try taking your pictures from different angles. Because each one of us is a unique individual, we each are interested in different things so we notice different things. Explore the world around you by taking photographs of the things you notice. And along the way, do not forget to take plenty of photographs of your friends and family. Because the best photographs of all are the ones that capture life s happy moments and become pictures we can share as memories as we grow older. 16

ACTIVITY SHEET #3. Create a record of your journey together

ACTIVITY SHEET #3. Create a record of your journey together ACTIVITY SHEET #3 Create a record of your journey together As you start new activities with your horse and your bond grows, now is a good time to start collecting pictures and mementos of your journey