Tag Archives: photography

A Closer Look at the Ordinary

Sometimes we take things for granted. Especially those ordinary things that we are so accustomed to that we almost don’t even notice their usefulness or necessity. I’ve been reminded to pay attention to the ordinary in a couple of ways lately.

A blogger I follow (who takes some spectacular photos!) mentioned in a post recently that she was participating in a macro photo challenge…and was reminded that macro is not all about flowers and bugs. That prompted me to put the macro lens on my phone/camera this morning and to snap some macro shots of ordinary things around my house.

The zipper on my sweatshirt immediately attracted my attention, I like seeing how the teeth interconnect.

I noticed the banana…and focused my lens on the dark end. It is definitely more interesting than I originally thought!

And then since I wrote about being more playful about ordinary things like brushing my teeth in my Summer Manifesto yesterday, I couldn’t resist a quick shot of the bristles…and the toothpaste tube!

Later today while I was outside on a long walk–of the exercise persuasion–I found myself thinking about the NWP radio show I taped today. The show focused on formative assessment and a resource, an e-book, that NWP colleagues, Beth Rimer from Ohio and Terri McAvoy from Missouri, have put together to help their writing project colleagues and other educators understand and use formative assessment effectively…in classrooms and in professional development. (The e-book will be available on the NWP website on June 26th…and you can hear the radio show that same evening!)

I realized in my work with Terri and Beth (I acted as their coach and editor…and cheerleader!) that formative assessment is one of the taken for granted, ordinary practices that becomes nearly invisible–even to those who use it well–and totally unacknowledged and often dismissed by those who aren’t familiar with its powerful outcomes. What I love most about the new e-book, Formative Assessment as a Compass: Looking at Student Work as an Intentional Part of Ongoing Professional Development, is that it shines a light on all the reasons this is an essential practice for educators–in classrooms and in professional development. Like my zipper and my toothbrush, it’s easy to overlook formative assessment. It’s not flashy and doesn’t get much press, but effective educators understand that paying attention to learners–what they “get” and what they don’t–is essential to planning for effective teaching and requires a willingness to abandon the carefully created lesson plans and attend to the learners in the moment.

Since working with Beth and Terri, I have been more aware of the use of formative assessment in my classroom and I can’t wait to use this resource in my work with my SDAWP colleagues. Like a macro lens, this e-book will help people look more closely, examining the details that are often overlooked and considering intentional and systematic practices that support learners (and teachers too!).

What of the ordinary are you overlooking or taking for granted? How will you take a closer look and consider the consequences of doing without this thing? I’m glad for reminders to pay attention in different ways…to make the familiar new, allowing me to appreciate what I might otherwise dismiss as ordinary.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Doing

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Do you speak in images? Enjoy taking photos to document your experiences or just to express what you notice in the world? Love to share them with others? Welcome to the weekly photo challenge! I post a new challenge each week…check in regularly and join the fun!

Tomorrow is my last day of school with my students, so they’ve been thinking a lot about summer and what they will be doing. And we’ve been doing a lot in the classroom this last week, taking advantage of our mild sunny weather and the incredible independence the students have developed over the course of the school year. Monday was a field trip to the NAT–the San Diego Natural History Museum–where students were busy doing a lot of inquiring and thinking about all the science learning they have done this year.

Here’s one of my students using his hands to pedal to create the energy to cause water to run in a sink. And then I couldn’t resist snapping this picture of a group of students busily writing in the pirate ship at the NAT.

Yesterday we had our second annual rock climbing event with third graders. It’s bittersweet to get to June when you’ve taught students for three years and know that they will be leaving and moving on to 4th grade and a new school too. So we spent yesterday afternoon rock climbing at a climbing gym. I got many shots of kids doing climbing. I love watching them gain confidence as they try again and again. This little girl had no fear…she climbed to the very top again and again!

This one isn’t my student, but I love when students take the initiative to make a difference in the world. I found these informational signs around our school, attached to fences with pipe cleaners. I did manage to track down the authors so I could congratulate them for their earnest efforts to improve the world.

And I’ve been doing some doing too. Just recently we put on an Advanced Institute at our writing project (SDAWP) focused on paper circuitry. It’s such fun to play around with writing and science and all the connections between the two. Here’s a fairly rudimentary parallel circuit I made playing with conductive thread instead of the copper tape I’ve used before.

And over the weekend I was exploring our local botanical gardens when I came face to face with this little guy. A lot of my doing is related to photography…and it takes me to interesting places and seeing (and photographing( interesting things.

And all this thinking about doing has me thinking about the CLMOOC (which begins tomorrow) and the making and doing I will be involved in there. I hope all of you will join in the fun as well!

So this week’s challenge is to focus on doing…your own or the doing you see around you. You can be watching doing in action, capture things you are doing, or any combination that works for you. As always, you are the one who gets to decide what counts as doing…so have fun, and start doing, especially if you are having fun!

You can post your photo alone or along with some words: commentary, a story, a poem…maybe even a song! I love to study the photographs that others’ take and think about how I can use a technique, an angle, or their inspiration to try something new in my own photography. (I love a great mentor text…or mentor photo, in this case!)

I share my photography and writing on social media. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter using @kd0602. If you share your photos and writing on social media too, please let me know so I can follow and see what you are doing. To help our Weekly Photo community find each other, use the hashtag #doing for this week and include @nwpianthology in your post.

So get going and get doing! Can’t wait to see what you are doing this week.

Appreciating Difference

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I love my macro lens! What I like best about it is that it makes me slow down, breathe deeply, and pay attention to the smallest of details…things that I didn’t even realize I couldn’t see.

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to spend some time at our local botanic gardens, offering a wide variety of plants in different ecosystems from deserts to rain forests to native plants of our area. They also had a section of the gardens that was all fruit trees…a variety of citrus, figs, persimmons, guava, and more.

When I saw this delicate guava blossom, I had to stop and take out my macro. I just knew that it would take a close look to really see and appreciate the beauty of this ethereal bloom.

And once I got started, I couldn’t stop myself. Each variety offered its own unique beauty. Here’s one variety of fig.

This is a different variety of fig…and perhaps at a different stage of development.

I was surprised by the center of this lime blossom. I knew it was a white flower, but I hadn’t noticed the center before taking this photo.

And this lemonade lemon tree had the prettiest pink blossoms getting ready to open.

I’m not sure which fruit tree this blossom came from, but I love its crazy red fringe!

As I looked closely at these fruit blossoms I found myself thinking about how much diversity there is among them. Even varieties that are closely related are different from one another. Which got me thinking about my students…and students in general. As teachers (and parents too), we need to slow down, look and listen closely, and pay attention to the diversity among our students. Even when students are all the same age, they have vastly different personalities, learning strengths, and interests. I often have the privilege of teaching siblings…sometimes even twins and triplets…and what I know is, despite having the same parents and living in the same environment, each child in the family is different from the other(s), highlighting the complexities of DNA, personality, behavior, and more.

And in spite of these differences, we all have so much in common: the need to be loved and valued, to be nurtured and supported, to have others assume the best and help us learn from the inevitable mistakes we will make.

That macro lens offers insight as I look closely at the world of plants, noticing features and details I might have missed without it. I don’t have a macro lens to use with my students, instead I have to use the lens of mindfulness to keep myself attuned to the individuality of my students and take the time to notice and learn from them and about them. I don’t just teach a group of children, I teach a classroom full of diverse individuals and to teach them well it’s important for me to know that and take their differences into account. And for me, that’s the beauty of the classroom, it’s a room full of teaching and learning opportunities as we all bring who we are into the mix. Our differences are the best part of our learning community as we help each other slow down and see the world in new and different ways.

Playing with Cyanotype

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Early this year I decided on play for my one little word. And I have been making time for play on a pretty regular basis. A lot of my play is related to photography and making time to take photos has me seeking out opportunities to explore that I might not have done otherwise. I’ve explored places in my community that I have never been before…and I am definitely spending lots of time outdoors, especially on the weekend, rather than doing housework or even reading!

For Mother’s Day this year a manilla envelope arrived in the mail from my son and daughter-in-law. As I opened it I found a typewritten note and a smaller manilla envelope. I love the note, knowing that it was typed on a typewriter that my son found left next to the dumpster near his home…and that he typed it. The note explained that I would find specially treated cyanotype paper that he had prepared for me. It gave me step by step instructions for using the paper…and included a few “negatives” that I could try if I wanted.

I played around a bit…and then got busy so it has stayed in the envelope until last weekend. I started thinking about that cyanotype paper and what I wanted to play around with. As I headed out for my beach walk on Saturday, I purposely looked for shell pieces that would work with this positive/negative kind of exposure (a rudimentary kind of photography). As we walked I noticed so many different kinds of shells and rocks…and sea glass! I seldom find sea glass on our beaches, but for some reason pieces of sea glass kept presenting themselves. We also found quite a few shell structures with holes and openings.

When I got home, I pulled out the paper treated with the cyanotype chemicals and laid the shells out. I took them out for about five minutes of sun exposure, brought the paper back in to rinse to stop the exposure…and here is the resulting cyanotype shell study.

I love the dimension of this print. The way the shadows create an almost three dimensional effect.

This attempt excited me, so I gathered some plant pieces and created an arrangement on another piece of treated paper.

: Before

: Cyanotype

This created an interesting result, but I found that the lightweight plants blow when I put them outside…there were pieces of lavender on the lower left…and they left a faint impression when they blew away.

Then I grabbed a leaf branch from a tree in my backyard and created an arrangement with the beach glass as the grounding.

: Before

: Cyanotype

I like the way the beach glass produced an interesting effect when placed in the sun. I tried another one today…and won’t subject you to the results. Playing around with this printing technique is tricky. Objects that are too dense or too thick create big light splotches that are less interesting and pleasing than those that have opacity or cast interesting shadows that create dimension.

I have only a few pieces of treated paper left…but my son tells me it is easy and relatively cheap to create my own. I’ve had fun playing with this technique and created some interesting pieces. I think the shell study is my current favorite…although I do like this early piece I did with some dandelions and other weeds from the yard.

I like that I have been playing enough that others are giving me encouragement and opportunity to play more. And I know that taking time to play is good for me, good for my family, and good for my students. I’ve noticed that lots of my play is about making…making photos, circuits, art, movies. And I’m looking forward to some more play and making when the CLMOOC begins again on Friday. So maybe this post is a preview of another summer of making…and playing with others through social media and connected learning. Will you join us and do some of your own connecting, making and playing?

Garden Magic

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This is the time of the school year when schedules become unscheduled, students start to feel like summer has arrived (and act accordingly), and it’s also the time when the most amazing displays of learning happen.

We’re lucky to have a school garden…and even luckier to have a gardening teacher who takes our students out to the garden to plant, learn, and harvest each week. And yet unexpectedly this week our gardening teacher resigned. So we (my teaching partner and I) decided this would be an excellent time to have our students get their iPads and head out to the garden to take some photos.

It was just a week ago that I had taken the first and second graders out around the school grounds to take photos while the third graders were otherwise occupied. And as we walked the campus they framed shots of whatever caught their eyes…and many of the photos are stunning! (When they get them posted on their blogs, I’ll link you to a few!)

So with iPads in hand, our students were eager to explore the garden. They photographed strawberries and cucumbers, sunflowers and squash, bees and caterpillars. They delighted over each new find and worked to capture their discoveries in photographs. (And I couldn’t resist a few either!)

But taking pictures just wasn’t enough. So after recess (and putting the iPads safely away), we headed back to the garden with our writer’s notebooks. And that is when the true magic happened. Our students settled with their notebooks to capture their images of the garden in words…words of their choice, format of their choice, style of their choice. They sat on the ground, on the stumps, on the benches, and even on the edges of the garden beds. Some sat alone, others gathered in small clusters. And all wrote. A magical hush settled on the garden. We could hear the shush and whoosh of cars passing by and the songs of the birds that would swoop into the beds for a nibble here and there. Butterflies flitted from blossom to blossom and bees went about the business of pollinating too.

After some time writing, I got up to peek at the students writing and captured a few images of the writers in action.

After a time, we gathered back together to share a few lines from their writing and experienced the richness and variety of what it means to write under the influence of the garden. I can’t wait to see how they transform this writing into blog posts that also include their photos.

So, I’m reminded that the unscheduling of schedules can result in wonderful serendipity…and the most incredible writing! Gardens are amazing places…and our school garden is truly spectacular, filled with life and science and learning and offering students so many opportunities to interact with the natural world and get close to the foods they eat. There is really nothing like a bit of garden magic.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Get Close

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Just yesterday I noticed some unusual mushrooms growing in the garden box outside my classroom door. I snapped a quick picture (you can see it on my instagram feed) and went into the classroom to prepare for the day. Later in the day when I looked into the box, the mushrooms were no longer there. Did someone pluck them out? This morning I looked in the box and noticed just a couple of these same mushrooms growing. I decided to take the time to attach my macro lens and get close to these mushrooms. And I’m glad I did…once again, they seemed to vanish as the day began to warm.

And sometimes I like to get close even without the aid of the macro lens. The pines I met while I was in Ohio were different from the varieties I am used to. I got close to this one as I looked through at the green beyond…and green like this is very unusual where I live!

Sometimes there is an unexpected invitation to get close. I couldn’t resist this sign asking museum visitors to lean in and pick up the items in the box…to really examine them closely. It’s such a different message than the “look only with your eyes” message that is so common.

I’m not sure about this fence. I got close to the fence…but is the message of the fence to stay back, don’t get too close?

And sometimes I use cropping as a way of getting even closer than I’m able to with my ordinary camera lens. In this case I took a photo of my oatmeal and coffee in the carry tray…and then cropped to make it fill the frame. The other photos above all are unedited…but this one has been cropped (but no filters applied).

So this week’s challenge is to get close. You might pull our your macro lens and try your hand at magnifying something small…or you might lean in and see how close you can get. You might even think about getting close more metaphorically…how else might a photo “read’ close? You can also consider using an editing tool to create the feeling of getting close from a photo that wasn’t all that close.

I share my photography and writing on social media. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter using @kd0602. If you share your photos and writing on social media too, please let me know so I can follow and see what you are doing. To help our Weekly Photo community find each other, use the hashtag #close for this week and include @nwpianthology in your post.

So snuggle up and get close! I can’t wait to see what you find when you get close with your lens.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Up

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Have you ever found yourself with your head in the clouds, looking up, noticing what is above you rather than what is beneath your feet? It’s been that kind of week for me, maybe residue from last week’s fires and the sky watching that goes with it. As our weather cooled and returned to May-like temperatures, puffy white clouds began to appear. I found myself taking pictures of the sky, trying to capture the lightness and depth and roundness. I noticed on Instagram that others were also noticing the sky and the clouds.

I stopped on my way to school yesterday because i was mesmerized by the blueness of the sky and the way the clouds were sitting low and near the ocean. There’s this spot with a row of tall palm trees that begs me to stop and take a picture or two. Yesterday’s was of these tall trees with the clouds sitting low, beneath them. If you look closely, you can see the sliver of the moon up above.

But I know that I’m not always looking at the clouds with I am looking up. I couldn’t resist the “up” shot of this tall church in downtown Nashville. I love the way it seems you can look up forever as the building narrows the closer it gets to the sky.

I’ve discovered amazing ceilings by looking up. I noticed some interesting ceiling tiles in a restaurant last weekend…and shot this picture of the gray on white structure looking up inside the atrium of the San Diego Natural History Museum.

And sometimes up means catching a glimpse at the sun reflecting off a bubble. This one happened to be a big bubble that a guy was making at the beach…not by blowing but by using a big rope-like wand to throw out giant bubbles. He stood up high and the bubbles floated just above the heads of children who couldn’t wait to poke a finger at them.

So this week’s challenge is to figure out how to capture “up” with your photos. You might be up high looking down or be on the ground noticing something up above. Maybe it’s an image that makes you feel up…or like me, you might just have your head in the clouds. You can post your photo alone or along with some words: commentary, a story, a poem…maybe even a song! I love to study the photographs that others’ take and think about how I can use a technique, an angle, or their inspiration to try something new in my own photography. (I love a great mentor text…or mentor photo, in this case!)

I share my photography and writing on social media. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter using @kd0602. If you share your photos and writing on social media too, please let me know so I can follow and see what you are doing. To help our Weekly Photo community find each other, use the hashtag #up for this week and include @nwpianthology in your post.

Have fun with up this week. I can’t wait to see what’s “up” through your lens!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Going Places

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Enjoy taking photos? Love to share them with others? Welcome to this week’s photo challenge! (I post a new challenge every week…check in each week and join the fun!)

As I think about a photo challenge for this week, my mind is also on the horrendous fires burning in my community. (If you are interested you can read more about it in yesterday’s blog post.) Schools were closed today and most, including mine, are also closed tomorrow. The firefighters are amazing and the flames are fierce. At one point yesterday we had at least 9 separate fires burning in San Diego county. And while there is still danger and fear around…it’s time to think about a photo challenge for the week. I had one all ready to go…and then changed my mind and decided to go in a different direction–literally and figuratively.

Seeing the sky fill with smoke creates an urge to move…to check on your home and neighborhood, to see what is going on, to make sure children and animals are safe. This photo was my “going” photo yesterday…as fires moved into my area.

But earlier in the week, I had done some other versions of “going places” as I headed up to the Bay Area to attend a conference and visit my son…and took advantage of the opportunity to ride the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit).

Sometimes going places is as simple as taking the dog out for a walk around the neighborhood. (You can see I fell a bit behind as I stopped along the way to take photos of other interesting things in the neighborhood!)

And then there’s this little guy who is genetically programmed (I think) to determine his travels based on eating his way through all available milkweed. I love how the butterflies who lay the eggs seem to be always going places and somehow know how to find milkweed…this particular box of milkweed is outside my classroom.

So this week’s photo challenge is to capture an image or images that show someone or something going places. As always, you are welcome to interpret “going places” in ways that suit you best! Post either the photo alone or along with writing inspired by the photo. I also invite you to use others’ photos as inspiration for your own writing and photography. I often use another photographer’s image as “mentor text” for my own photography, trying to capture some element in my own way.

I like to share my images and writing on social media…and I invite you to share yours widely too. (You might consider Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+) Use the hashtag #goingplaces and include @nwpianthology to make it easy for us to find and enjoy. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @kd0602. I’d love to follow you if you share your handle.

You can also share your photos and writing by linking to this blog post or sharing in the comment section below. How will you show going places through your lens? I can’t wait to find out!

Fire!

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Palm trees, the Pacific ocean, mild temperatures, sea breezes…paradise in so many ways. But this week we are reminded that even in beautiful southern California, there are risks and dangers that make us all feel powerless and frightened.

High temperatures, low humidity, Santa Ana winds…and extreme drought conditions… combine to make the scariest of conditions for us this week. This is fire weather.

And yesterday…with temperatures into the 90s on the coast, the worst happened, a fire erupted. In these conditions, the smallest of sparks is fanned into a raging inferno. With a single fire yesterday, all fire resources were focused on battling that fire. My husband watched air drops from his office window. Schools were evacuated, residents were evacuated…no buildings burned and that fire is at 50% containment.

Today it was already more than 80 degrees when I woke up…and was warming quickly. Before the end of our minimum day, as I spent time observing reading groups, I noticed what appeared to be clouds in the sky. As I walked out to take a closer look, and take a photo, I noticed the dark smoke in the distance and headed to the office to find out if there was more information about nearby fires. I had heard earlier that there were fires on Camp Pendleton (a nearby military base), but this new smoke was much closer…a few miles from home.

Shortly after students left, we had an announcement that our staff meeting was canceled and we were free to go to our homes–with many teachers living close to areas threatened by the fire. The thing about fires is that they are unpredictable. They aren’t easily controlled and they turn in an instant. Winds whip them this way and that and they create their own weather systems within the fire itself, fanning the flames and generating tremendous energy that seems to spin the destruction in all directions. 100 degree temperatures didn’t help the firefighters, but water drops and the expertise and courage of these people manage to keep devastation to a minimum.

At one point this afternoon there were at least 7 active fires in the county…most in north county. Some houses have been lost, but human life at this point has not. School has been cancelled for tomorrow and uncertainty prevails. I’m fortunate, my family and home are safe…for now, but we are watchful and vigilant because this is not yet over.

Here are a few photos of the fires…courtesy of some of my friends who shared them on social media.

Bernardo fire, Tuesday (photo credit: Abby)

Oceanside fire, today. Photo credit: Janis

Carlsbad fire from Encinitas, Photo credit: Laura

Like tornados and earthquakes and floods and storms, wildfires are scary. They make you feel helpless and vulnerable…and they reveal all the weaknesses of our urban systems. Traffic jams up, electricity capacity is compromised, and we often realize we do not have the plans in place that will serve us best in an emergency. My bags are packed…just in case…and the cat carriers are ready if things change and we have to leave our home.

In the meantime, thank you firefighters for your amazing service, expertise, and dedication. I hate fire weather, but I love this place. I understand that wildfires are a natural part of our ecosystem, made more difficult because of urban development, but it doesn’t make me like them. It does make me more wary about fire, and more vigilant about paying attention to fire safety advisements and preparation.

So, stay safe San Diego, take care of yourself and each other. It’s supposed to be hot again tomorrow…and then cool off. I hope tomorrow brings good news and containment!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Chasing Shadows

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Enjoy taking photos? Love to share them with others? Welcome to this week’s photo challenge! (I post a new challenge every week…check in each week and join the fun!)

Inspired by the Daily Create (and a little nudge from Kevin), I’ve been chasing shadows today. Actually, when I first saw the daily create prompt for today, shadow guessing, my thoughts immediately went to a photo I took over the weekend.

I’m sure you know by now that I love to walk on the beach. Something you might not know is that my husband (who often accompanies me on my walks) loves to walk with a trash bag in hand to pick up trash from the beach. About a year or so ago I discovered the #litterati movement–people taking and posting photos of trash they come across, especially in nature, and then throw away. By posting these photos on social media using the #litterati hashtag, they hope to bring more attention to the importance of taking care of our world. This shadow is my husband as #litterati.

And then I remembered this photo of a sign in Ocean Beach that projected a wonderful shadow of itself…perfectly positioned for a picture!

But I wanted to find photos to take today…hence, the shadow chasing rather than shadow guessing prompt. Luckily we had some sun this afternoon, and as I headed to my car after work I came across some interesting shadows.

And I love that the light stays out longer these days. The sun was still present even when I got home this evening. I captured this interesting shadow playing with the railing on the stairs in my house.

So this week’s photo challenge is to chase some shadows…or create some shadows. You can play shadow guessing or chase some interesting shadows that you just can’t resist snapping up with your lens. Post either the photo alone or along with writing inspired by the photo. I also invite you to use others’ photos as inspiration for your own writing and photography. I often use another photographer’s image as “mentor text” for my own photography, trying to capture some element in my own way.

I like to share my images and writing on social media…and I invite you to share yours widely too. (You might consider Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+) Use the hashtag #shadow and include @nwpianthology to make it easy for us to find and enjoy. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @kd0602. I’d love to follow you if you share your handle.

You can also share your photos and writing by linking to this blog post or sharing in the comment section below. Go out and chase some shadows…who knows what interesting images the shadows will help you create!