Week 6

    I'm very excited and happy to announce that I finally had a truly successful week! Last week I mentioned that I didn't think I was going to complete my project. Everything I had done had to do with fixing my camera and I was worried that I wasn't going to get any pictures taken. This week, I proved to myself that I could take some awesome photos and that I can work a camera.
    I am currently in the process of editing photos. Thanks to my good friend Sydney Anderson, I had the opportunity to shoot some portraits. Taking pictures of people is a lot different than taking pictures of landscape. I was very excited and discovered that I enjoy taking pictures of people a lot more than I like taking pictures of landscape.
    The most successful part of my week was figuring out the issues with my camera. All of the pictures I took were in focus and are fairly easy to edit. All I had to do was brighten them a bit using my Adobe Photoshop 11 app on my computer. It was the first time that I didn't have to enhance the focus which is a great improvement.
    With only a few photos to finish, I have to start thinking strongly about in which order I will present them to the class. My initial thought is to present my landscape photos first and then my portrait photos. I can't wait to show off my hard work and progress!

Week 5

    With the last week of genius hour right around the corner, I'm getting worried that I won't finish with the quality of work I had hoped for. I have learned quite a bit about photography and will continue to work on getting better after the project is due. I'm disappointing that I couldn't find time to take the pictures that I had hoped to take. Hopefully I can squeeze in a photo session before my week 6 post.
    Although I didn't get to take a lot of pictures, I did find an app to download on my phone that is easy to use. I made the decision to switch to this app because I don't think I have the time to learn the editing process on the Adobe Photoshop. The editing app I downloaded is called Photo Editor. With it I can brighten or darken photos, eliminate red eye and blemishes, whiten eyes and teeth, enhance photos, sharpen or blur, add effects, and much more. It includes all the qualities of Adobe Photoshop that I would be using but much easier to use and learn.

This shows how I enhanced the photo and brightened it to enhance the quality. As you can see, the photo on the left is much darker and of less quality than the photo on the right.

Week 4

    I didn't make a lot of progress this week. My original plan was to change the shutter speed and try take some photos. I truly believe with the research I have done that the shutter speed is the cause of the blurry pictures. Shutter speed is how much light is allowed in when you take a photo. A slower shutter speed  is generally used for those who take photos without a tripod. My shutter speed was set very low, so I changed it to 1/500 of a second in hopes it would capture the scenery clearly.
    Like I said, my agenda did not go as planned. With the sun going down long before I get off work, it's very difficult for me to find the time to take the pictures. I plan to use the time off over Christmas break to take good quality photos at the right time of day.

Week 3

    Hello everyone! Originally I was going to retake the blurry pictures I took last week, but The snow put a slight hold on that. I'm also trying to figure out the issues I am having with my camera. I'm trying to figure it out myself but I think I'm going to do some research online to solve the problems. I think it has something to do with the shutter speed, so that will be the first thing that I will research. If that doesn't work, then I will resort back to the general setup of the entire camera and restart.
    I have taken some photos on my iPhone that are unedited. They seem to be a lot easier than using my digital camera. With the limited settings, it makes taking photos simple and fun. Although I enjoy the simplicity and how good of pictures my iPhone takes, I think it is important for me to learn to use my digital camera; therefore, I will do whatever steps it takes to better myself and learn how to deal with the issues I am having now.

    By next week, I plan to have the issues fixed with my camera and have a few well-taken pictures to show you. I'm trying my best to overcome the challenges that this project is throwing at me. I feel that if I keep trying, I will eventually figure it all out.

Week 2

     Hello everyone! My second week of genius hour didn't go exactly as planned. Originally I was going to take multiple different pictures of landscapes and portraits, but I ran into some problems with my camera. the pictures that I took turned out blurry and not in the quality that I would have liked them. Although it didn't turn out the way I wanted to, I learned a lot about how my camera needs to be set.
     In my opinion, trial and error is one of the best ways to learn. Almost everything I have learned so far is a direct result of trial and error. I have been testing my camera and trying to find settings that best work for me before moving on to edit them. Although it hasn't been easy, I am accomplishing a couple of goals that I set before starting my genius hour. My first goal was to learn something. So far, I have learned that photography is not easy and that a camera has a lot more to it than I thought. My second goal was to have fun, and that has been easily obtained throughout the first two weeks.
     Next week I plan to retake the pictures that were blurry and start learning to edit. I downloaded Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 to my computer this week so I'm prepared to take the next steps in the following weeks.  I also plan to upload a couple pictures in my Week 3 blog to show you my progress and what I am working on.

Week 1

Hello everyone!

My first week of genius hour has been fairly simple and easy. I began by doing research on what I want my final project to be. I was originally going to create small photo albums with my favorite pictures after they have been edited to my liking. But after a small amount of research, I decided to present it in a much more formal way by creating a portfolio of before and after photos to show you how I have progressed through the trials and errors of photo taking and editing.

After I made the final decision on what to shoot for at the end of this 6 week learning experience, I started on the actual photography process. The logical first step to learning photography is getting a camera and learning how to use it. With my mother owning a very nice Nikon camera, I was set and ready to learn how to use it!

I quickly found out that a camera has A LOT of different formats and steps to taking a good quality picture. After messing with it for a few minutes, I reverted back to research. YouTube videos seemed to be the most helpful because they clearly showed how the buttons and formats worked. I followed along and quickly became more familiar with my camera and its functions.

Even after all of the videos and research, I still have more to learn about my camera. My next step will to go out and use it. I believe that trial and error is going to be the best way to learn more about it. I will continue to update my weekly progress and struggles of learning photography. Stay tuned...