In-Depth Blog Post #2

Progress:

So far, in the last two weeks, I have had two meetings with my mentor. In the first meeting, I let that one be more of an intro meeting. This is where I showed him my prior knowledge, talked about what I want to accomplish in the time we have, and talked about my and his equipment. He first taught me about the photography triangle, which includes the aperture, ISO, and shutter speed. In that first meeting, I learned about aperture and got to test it out with a lens he let me borrow and an activity he had planned. Then he showed me the photography room in the school and what it offers for me.

This is also the time where I learned a lot about my camera because I had not really used it properly and with different settings.

In the second meeting, I was on the second part of the photography triangle, shutter speed. It started with me showing him my pictures from the last week using aperture, then he explained the best ways to use shutter speed. My task for this week is to practice three types of shutter photography. One is suspended motion, one is motion blur, and finally, visual blur.


Here is a link to a website with some examples of the types of motion:

3 types of movement in photography


How to agree:

When speaking with my mentor I always made sure to have an open mind and to listen to what he had to say. He showed me how to use equipment properly and made sure I was following along. An example would be when we were practicing taking shots with the right aperture. We went outside where there were canoes and a bus behind them. this was the perfect opportunity to explore different aperture settings. When taking the photos, I was not getting the right amount of focus so we problem solved and agreed on a solution to fix this problem. In the end, I ended up getting a good shot of the canoe and the bus.

How to disagree:

As I said earlier, I have always tried to keep an open mind with my mentor. So, far there hasn’t been really any disagreeing, because in these beginning stages I am still learning. I don’t know a ton about this area of photography and I’m excited to be learning it. However, an example of this would probably be about my camera. Since I am not using the same camera as Mr. Ross, that means the settings are different. In the first meeting, we did not know how to change it between ISO, aperture, and shutter speed quickly while on manual. We had some different opinions on how it works, and we were able to problem solve a bit to figure it out, but in the end, we thought it was best to just ask my dad since he was familiar with the camera.

How to differ:

In the past two weeks, we were able to go out and practice aperture. As I mentioned earlier, we did an activity with a canoe and a bus. I found that when doing this exercise, I liked being a specific angle and he liked to be at a different one. So, what I did was I took a few two shots at my angle, one with high aperture and one with low. Then I did the same, but at his angle. After looking at both sets of photos, I realized that they both looked good but in their own way. Later he told me some good advice that really is good to remember. He said, “You could take 50 photos, and only one will be good” So by taking photos at different angles or in different ways you can find out which way is the best for you.


Working with Mr. Ross has really helped me with my photography, and it has only been 2 weeks! I like how in our meetings I am first getting taught a specific skill/element and then getting to ask questions one on one. I don’t just like how easy it is to learn, but now I get to be hands-on with this project as well. In the past, I have done a variety of different passion projects, but I have found this specific way of learning to be very beneficial. So, I just want to say a big thank you to Mr. Ross for being so kind to guide me through this journey. I’m really excited to see what comes next! 🙂

(All photos were taken by me)