Proud

May 23rd was a fun and exciting class.  The kids got to see all of the photographs they took for the first time.  I seperated each kids set of photos, tied cute ribbon around it and put a little nametag on each stack of photos.  The kids were so excited to look through their finished work and were equally proud of the work they had done.  I think they were shocked at how many pictures they took...almost 300!  All of the kids worked so hard that night glueing their pictures in their album, writing creative captions and putting cute little stickers in their handmade album. I loved how excited the kids were to discuss their photos. They talked about why they liked their photos and shared their experiences with the other kids. I was very impressed by how awesome their pictures came out and also their handmade album. The kids really expressed their feelings through photography and writing. Here are the memories of that night...

Through Their Eyes

When my dear friend Bonnie Newman asked me a few months ago if I would be interested in teaching photography to a few homeless kids, I was instantly hooked on the idea.  I bought some books and read a lot about teaching photography to kids. My ipad was my best friend as I carefully planned each detail. My first class was Monday May 9th.  I brought along some of the photos I had taken in my first semester at Daytona and talked about ways to take an interesting photograph.  I also brought some of my vintage film camera collection. They loved playing with the old cameras because they are so different looking than the modern digital camera. I talked to them about the difference between film and digital cameras. At the end of class, I gave each of them a disposable film camera that they were able to take with them.  The next Monday we started on their handmade photo album.  They could decorate it any way they wanted to. The photo album would eventually contain all of the photographs they had taken during class. That Friday we took the kids on a field trip through downtown Orlando.  Each kid was armed with a digital camera. The kids had so much fun exploring and I was quite surprised how quickly and easily each kid learned to see the world through their camera.  Here are some photos I took of the kids in action!

The simple white cup

This was my last assignment this semester for my Studio class.  We had to take simple white cups and make creative photos out of them. These were taken in the studio at school. It turned out to be more about the shadows than the cups themselves. The idea behind this assignment should hold true for our everyday lives. If you find your life boring and redundant...just going through life barely hanging on, then start looking at things in a different and interesting way. Everything in life may seem generic at some point, but everything can be made interesting if we try hard enough...even a simple white cup.