Final Project Switch with a touch of Mentorship Update

For my final project I have decided to create podcasts. Initially, I had planned to create video tutorials for Sheri Edward's class in Washington, but finding both the time and resources has been very difficult. My plan now is to find videos (NOT created by me, but that stay true to what I would like to teach these students) and then use them as a resource. Amber created some great videos on basic photography techniques and terminology, which she has agreed to let me use.

These students have already completed their first assignment, which I called: "Flickr Photo Picks." To narrow down their search I uploaded some of my own photos for them to comment on and evaluate. By showing them my own work, they could in turn scope out my strengths and weaknesses as a photographer and begin to respond to photography. In my EAES 201 class, with Denise Morstad, we reviewed a basic seven stage process to respond to works of art (I used this as a basis for creating my first exercise for them):

1. Preparation
2. First Impressions
3. Description
4. Analysis
5. Interpretation
6. Background Information
7. Informed Judgement

These are the top three photos that got the warmest reaction from the students:
Holding the Sun, Light Over the Water, and Fireworks
This photo got the cold shoulder:
Rotting Wood




I like to take pictures of details; small, fine, insignificant details are most attractive to me. I think because when I paint I only see the "big picture," I need some way of capturing and remembering even the most grotesque details of the everyday; photography is a perfect outlet for this. I am attracted to simplicity and abstractness, which is what you achieve when examining objects so closely. Many of the students didn't like the grotesque feel of the photo but I think it has an ugly beauty to it. Although contradictory, I believe its ugliness has given it a heighten aesthetic appeal. It is not longer boring and static, it is rotting, both changing and transforming. I think that is beautiful.

To sum up, podcasting is my new final project and my mentoring has been going slow but has been semi-successful thus far.