Documentary Photography

After finishing an exciting lesson on shadows, we preceded to discover documentary photography. When I first found out that we were doing documentary photography, I was not excited at all. I figured we would sit in class and talk about the history of all these old people who took really important pictures 50 years ago. However, the actual lesson, and the assignment that followed, turned out to be really captivating and enjoyable.

We learned about all different types of documentary photographers, from World War I photographers to Teen Vogue photographers. A documentary photographer is someone who goes out and records an event that occurred at that exact moment. They then become the primary source of that event. We were taught about the brave photographers and filmmakers that went into the warzone and battlefields to film or take pictures of what was really going on. Without these people, there would be no visual evidence of these events ever occurring.

So our assignment was simple- document. Document anything, or anyone; anywhere at anytime! We could partner up with someone in the class and by the end of the week have prepared en entire documentary presentation to show to the class. Me and my partner Miriam decided to document the work of our food crew at Oxbridge Academy. The chefs were really nice and welcoming, and by doing this project, I realized how hard they work to ensure that our students get meals and snacks every day, all day! When we finished our projects, our work was framed and hung up at the Exhibition Center at Oxbridge, and we were really proud.

Dark Shadows

Our next lesson in photography was all about shadows. We learned that shadows are a vital aspect of any picture, and depending on how you want your photograph to be interpreted, you can control the effect of the picture using shadows. We first were given numerous photographers to research about, so we could learn more about how to use shadows and develop some good influential ideas. The photographer that I was assigned to was named Ricky Montalbano. His photographs were so cool and really nice. Most of his pictures revolved around a guy or two riding on skateboards, and somehow Montalbano coordinated his pictures so that he would have the shadows of his riders appear in the picture.

When we finally had the chance to go out and take a photo shoot around school with our class, we had some difficulty. It was hard to find an area where the sun perfectly gave us an opportunity to form a shadow, and we needed creative ideas to portray our images in an interesting way. It took us about two days to take good pictures around the school, and later we downloaded them onto our computers and picked the best ones. I have to admit though, even though the challenge was difficult, the photographs turned out great.

Photography for the Cure

Another service that my photography club did was that we went to Susan G. Komen's "Race for the Cure". We were assigned to bring our cameras to the event and record what happened there. It was my first time going to a walk like that and I went with all of my friends  and we had a great time meeting new people and snapping shots of other people and the all of the nice activities going on.

I was never truly aware of the breast cancer awareness foundations and how they organize activities and fundraisers to help support the research to find the cure for breast cancer. I mainly decided to post this photography assignment of mine because it is October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and it is crazy to think that a whole entire year has gone by since I was last at this event.

Photography for the Soul

After being almost a full semester in my photography class, I decided to join a photography club at Oxbridge. Our first field trip was really fun! We went to a food shelter at a church near CityPlace and volunteered three hours to go and serve food to homeless people around 4:30. It was such a great experience because I met so many new people and had a really great time knowing that I am doing a good deed. The way that we integrated photography into this field trip was that we brought our cameras (provided by Oxbridge) and took pictures of families and children that showed up at the shelter. We planned on editing these pictures and coming back the next week to deliver them to the families.

This was a great idea because we knew that these poor families couldn't afford food, much less family portraits or pictures of their kids. We decided that we would convert all the pictures that we took into black and white, to give it a more professional and intimate look. The pictures turned out really well and the families' faces were absolutely priceless. I would do it again any time.

Moving Lights

My teacher assigned us a project that we would have to complete over the weekend. Her assignment was that we could pick anything to photograph, as long as it was creative and presented in a special way. The theme that I decided to go for was "Moving Lights". My idea was that I would take pictures from the inside of a car while it was driving, and since the aperture on the camera would be very slow because it would be dark, it looked like the camera automatically "dragged" my photographs and gave it a really cool and unexpected effect.

I had a nice idea on how to present my project in a fun, relative way. I first printed all of my photographs on photo paper, then I created a small black book that was binded with loose string on the ends. The book flipped pages like a normal book, except every single page contained a tiny window that I cut out with an exacto-blade, that gave away a small feature of each picture that was about to come up next. The project was really fun and was fairly easy to do because it was assigned to us around Christmas time, and Palm Beach was filled up with lights.