Tag Archives: photography

Reflections on Yellow

I love focusing on a single theme all week long with my photography. Instead of feeling limited, I find myself not only looking for ways to capture my “word,” I also find myself searching for new ways to frame my shots to create interesting and different photos.

One of my favorites this week is this picture of the variegated hibiscus (orange with yellow at the center) with the flamingos slightly out of focus in the background. I was intentional at including the flamingos and was working for a crisp focus on the flower. I’m pretty happy about the result.

I worked hard to avoid yellow as road signs and street markings (once I got past the fire hydrant) this week. Yellow was more challenging as a photographic topic than red. Here’s a snippet of the entire week:

It is so much fun to see what other people participating in this photo-a-day challenge come up with! There are some gorgeous yellow pictures out there this week. I love that Janis’s (@janisselbyjones) yellow “abandoned bucket” was featured on the Litterati Facebook page this week!

Looking forward to orange! We’d love you to join us, check out the challenge here.

Being Intentional

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Barb’s blog post about her yellow walk on Wear the Cape Tuesday takes me back to a week or so ago when I first heard of something called streetview that seems to be some version of something we are tagging in the Connected Learning MOOC as a #learning walk. The streetview/learning walk is not really something new, it involves that ever important skill of noticing that I wrote about the other day and adds another intentional element: documenting the noticing. The documenting described in the sreetview make was photography—convenient for me!

I tried my own version of a learning walk last week focused on the parking garage at UCSD. I took some pictures, found an app that would let me put them in a collage (many collage apps seem to have a six photo limit—but I needed more), and then thought about what that composition said to me about my experience.

I love that this composition takes away a lot of the cold, institutional feel of the garage and highlights the icons, textures, and angularity. It would be interesting to capture the smells and sounds of the garage as well as the things to see–capturing more layers of the garage experience. Mostly what occurs to me by doing this exercise is that I was more aware of interesting details, noticing things I hadn’t noticed before. (I hadn’t been aware of the electric cart parking space–is that for the all the golf cart-like vehicles? I’ve never seen one parked in the parking garage!)

In addition to my streetview and Barb’s yellow walk, on Wednesday Linda @hirshmiller, who is also participating in SDAWP Photo Voices photo-a-day, read a piece of writing about her increased noticing as a result of her search for yellow this week. We were all incredulous as she described her amazement at noticing that her cat, Flounder, had yellow eyes. And how that discovery sent her on a mission to wake the sleeping pets and peer into their eyes to see what color they are. (For me, that would have been a small job…for her with her husband’s animal rescue mission and her kids’ aspirations toward animal-focused careers, that meant checking the eyes of 55 animals!)

These experiences are reminding me how important it is to be intentional as we move through our lives, to be open to noticing new details, and to uncovering interesting connections. Writing does that too…when I write regularly (like I am doing now with this new blogging adventure) I pay close attention to the world around me and make connections in unexpected ways. What have you noticed lately?

On Noticing

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One of the reasons I love taking pictures is that it helps me notice. Instead of going full-speed-ahead about my life–checking this thing or the other off my ever growing to-do list and worrying about whether I will ever get caught up–noticing helps me slow down, appreciate interesting things around me, and then I find myself asking questions. When I watched this caterpillar wiggle its way into a chrysalis, my curiosity about everything related to monarch butterflies became insatiable. (This incredible process happened in the planter box right outside my classroom. I was also experimenting with using a macro lens on my phone–as seen in the top two photos–helping me to really look closely and focus carefully. More on focus to come!)

As a result of what I had noticed and photographed, I wanted to know more. I researched on the web, found and read non-fiction books, watched some incredible videos, talked to people around me, and enjoyed reading some fiction as well (Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver came out at the just the right time for me!). I think that everyone around me also learned–whether they were interested or not–about monarchs and their life cycle! But most importantly, this event heightened my noticing behavior. Everywhere I went, indoors and out of doors, I was noticing: paying attention to patterns, colors, numbers, textures…subtleties in the world around me.

This article a friend of mine who works at the San Diego Natural History Museum referred me to reminded me of the importance of noticing–not just for me, but also for my students. My favorite question to my students is always, “What do you notice?” I ask that about text, about songs, about pictures, about math and science and social studies…about just about everything!

And even though we do a lot of noticing, I wonder if there is enough time in schools for noticing, for curiosity, for inquiring into things that are interesting. As I photograph and write my way through the summer, I will also be thinking about that question–and the actions that I will take to make sure my students have ample opportunity to notice as part of their learning experience. What do you do to help yourself (and the young people around you) notice?

Milkweed is not a Weed it is Important Monarch Butterfly Food (earthelixir.ca)

SDAWP Photo Voices: Red

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At SDAWP Photo Voices this month we are doing something different: a single prompt (they happen to be colors) for an entire week. This week was red. Rather than picking a single picture to highlight (although there is one that is the header for this blog!), I decided to create a collage (using collageit) or map of my week (a nod to my experience with the Connected Learning MOOC). I did throw in a couple of extra red photos that I didn’t post as part of our photo-a-day challenge.

I was surprised just how easy it was to find red…everywhere. Because of the 4th of the July holiday, I was at the beach several days this week–and I found red without a challenge! My favorite is the red shoes picture (edited with the app colorsplash), but I also love the unexpected red apple in my own backyard and the odd assortment of three red chairs. I’m looking forward to seeing others’ red favorites today and tomorrow as they get them posted on our SDAWP Voices “red” page!

Up next…yellow. Hmmm…

frames

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With each photo I take with my cell phone, I spend more and more time thinking about how to frame the picture I see. I’ve learned that using the zoom feature on my phone helps me see the object clearly in the moment, but degrades the quality of the photograph when I go to edit. I can reframe in the editing process, pulling the image in closer, eliminating some of the background noise. If I shoot too “big” I often find myself with a nondescript landscape. Finding some kind of focal point makes the photo more interesting–and often evokes the curiosity of viewers.

This article in the New York Times on July 2, 2013 also has me thinking about frames and framing. The author plans an outing for his 6 year old nephew based on both his budget and his nephew’s interests and personality. A focus on Grady’s interest in art and low-key, meandering pace in life creates a day filled with drawing and art museums punctuated with opportunities for Grady to interact with working artists, study a variety of art forms, and enjoy a leisurely day with his uncle. Framed in another way, Grady could have been disenfranchised, alienated by having to hurry here and there without the time to study and try out what he found interesting along the way. Uncle Seth’s focus created spaces for Grady’s curiosity to blossom.

This has me thinking about ways I can use this idea of framing in my classroom and in my work with teachers, foregrounding student interests while keeping the skills and processes needed for learning success in mind. I’m wanting each of my students to feel like Grady did on his outing with his uncle: like learning is what you do when you’re enjoying what interests you. That’s what happening with my photography. I’m learning as I play around–and through connections with others with a wide variety of interests and skills that relate to what I am doing. My photography (and the photos themselves) are not framed in a permanent shape with a single focus, I am continually exploring frames and how they work with the images and ideas for each shot.

School curriculum often feels like it exists in the noun “frame” rather than used flexibly with the verb “frame”–ignoring students’ strengths, challenges, and existing interests and knowledge. Does the frame/framing metaphor work for teaching and learning? I’d love to know what you think!

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