Friday, April 23, 2010

Day 8- Macro Part 2

Not sure why I was surprised with the result of the first guys class. One person did the full assignment, random object and animals. Everyone else did one half of the assignment, not sure which half though, they chose either themselves/partner as the random object or possibly as the animal. Guess I didn't specify. Oh well, they did the assignment, a decent amount of photos from lots of different angles. Not quite full participation, but, baby steps.

I also tried to make it clear with this class that when I said no one should be giving their camera to other people to take pictures of themselves, I meant for the assignments specifically. It's ok if they want to let their friends and family learn to use the cameras, and to have pictures of themselves and friends and families. What I want is for them to take more pictures themselves, and for their assignment pictures to be taken by them, not of them. But other photos and playing with the camera is fine, especially if it gets other people interested and learning.

As far as the photos go, not quite as happy as I was with the girls class. I wasn't given as large of a selection to choose from, some of the students just took pictures of anything and didn't do the assignment, and still some of them didn't share the cameras and are just trading them off every class. Now they all have their own memory cards, and understand that at least while completing the assignments and practicing, they should each take pictures on their own memory card, so sorting pictures will be a lot easier and now everyone will participate in each assignment, inshallah.

Samir

Samir

Maiwand

Kihan

Maiwand

This weeks assignment was the exact same as the girls. Four photos, 2 regular (food and flower) and 2 macro (food and flower). I'm fairly positive that there will be no way possible to have any of the assignment pictures be of people, but I've been surprised before. This class, just like the girls class, is taking small baby steps towards becoming better and better. Maybe a little smaller of steps, but they're definitely progressing, which is exactly what I like to see.

The second male class, oh boy. Four people showed for class this time. Two students haven't been back at all since the first class, and have one of my cameras, and Hameed (who recruited them as they're his classmates) has been assured that if I don't have my camera back to give to some other students who are split in 3's/4's, he will not have a head much longer. I went through this last class, and Hameed went to talk to them, and they promised him they'd be coming, so he didn't get the camera back, and... nishta. I'm not letting any kids steal my cameras. One of the missing people has his own camera, so I'm not stressing about him. If he wants to keep missing class, it's up to him, there's no big test or anything at the end, he'll just keep falling behind, and since he isn't occupying one of my cameras, it's whatever. The other 3 missing did it gracefully. They knew they weren't going to be able to make it, still completed their assignment, and made sure their partners who would be their had the cameras for the class.

After spending the first half hour calling people and figuring out what was going on and yelling death threats to a deaf crowd, we got on with the class. I was really happy with the results of this class. Not as large of a selection as I wanted, and still not quite full participation (clearly as hardly anyone came...) but the quality of the pictures for the most part was really good. They seemed to understand the assignment better than the other two classes. So for the students who are actually showing up to class, they're doing extremely well. I'm happy.

Hameed

Hameed

Hameed

Hameed

Samsoor

Samsoor

Zarif

One of the things that made me happiest with this class, was one of the better low angle pictures that was taken, the student said he took on complete accident. I've told all of my classes that the reason it's a good idea to take so many photos, is that the chances of you getting a good one is greatly increased. So I've finally gotten a student who has figured that at on his own. This is wonderful.

Again, same assignment as my other classes. I can't wait to see all of my new macro photos.

All Rights Reserved by photographers, 2010, for all photos. Please contact info@fablab.af for individual rights.

3 comments:

  1. Your students are doing a great job!
    Sorry about the missing cameras and the male students. I hope they all keep their heads straight and turn them in.
    Tell them Samsoor and Samir their photos of the animals are on my blog, The Kitchen Dispatch.
    They can even comment.
    Would you like to see if I can get you some books on photography ...landscape photographers like Ansel Adams, Galen Rowell?
    Let me know.
    Aloha!

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you could get some books on photography that would be absolutely wonderful. The chances of them coming before this set of classes is over is slim, but these classes will be running for a long time inshallah, and to have them in the FabLab library for future students to reference and learn from would be much appreciated.
    I'll let my students know, thanks so much, your post was great.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Okay. I'll look around at used book stores. They're often a great resource. -Kanani

    ReplyDelete