Graphic Novel: Taking Photography to a New Level

Graphics Novels continue to intrigue and excite a great many people, not only because of the story content, (and the coinciding cinematic presence that has been the trend for the last several years), but the art work continues to stretch the boundaries of what has been traditionally considered “comic art.” One project in our Digital Photography course aims to bring the element of story into a photographic series, combining the skills of photo-manipulation and editing in Photoshop with graphic novel concepts and design.

Snow White: A Tale of Sorrow on PhotoPeach



This project took the course of about a month, with students starting their story-board/photo summary process, capturing their images, editing them in Photoshop and ending with their graphic novel page layouts being designed in simple PowerPoint slides. Students were required to edit their images to the point of rendering them unrecognizable photographic images, with students enhancing the illustrative look through the use of various filters and processes in Photoshop. Students were reminded to pay attention to the use of the various elements of design that we’ve explored so far and to think about color emotion and story concepts being visibly recognizable as “graphic novel esque.” The end results turned out beautifully, and I hope you enjoy the posted work! Please comment on elements of the project that stand out to you, either in general or specific to student work! My students will love to hear from you, and I’d love to hear your feedback!

Break-Dancers Perform for Digital Photography Class!

The Digital Photography Class had an extraordinary opportunity to have two professional break-dancers from the Boston area come perform for a class period in a professional photography shoot atmosphere.

-Photgraphs by student Bentley Miller

 Students gathered in the small gymnasium space at the high school surrounded by light kits while the dancers performed some incredible break-dance and popping moves for the students to capture in an exploration of movement in photography, an element of design that students had just touched upon a few weeks back.

The gymnasium soon filled with other students who had the period free along with a couple classes whose teachers brought them by to watch some of the incredible displays of physical feats. We even had a few South Burlington High School students perform right along with the dancers!

Students were able to get right up close to the dancers and capture some incredible imagery, testing out shutter speed, lighting, focus and just how hard it can be to photography someone in motion. In the last few minutes of class, students were eagerly uploading their images, and sharing their “photographic gems” with the dancers who offered praise and excitement of their collaborative artistic endeavor.

Many thanks to both Ivan and Johnathan, amazing break-dancers who drove up at 3am to be in our digital photography class and to Sue Teske, our contact who helped organize and get them to Vermont to begin with! Stay tuned for some more student work from this photo shoot!

Texture Time

Texture Time on PhotoPeach




Like line in photography, students learned about the various ways in which texture can be used successfully in digital photography. Students found themselves often getting 'down and dirty,' to capture texture in places inside and in the great outdoors.

Elements of Design: The Use of Line

Elements of Design: The Use of Line on PhotoPeach



During our couple week period of learning about, investigating and using the various elements of design, students looked at the use of Line in their digital photography. What I loved about this particular project was the flexibility for students to either create their image, (set up the lines they were photographing), or find naturally occurring lines. There was a great mixture of both in the end results.

Macro Imagery: Student Investigations

What would a digital photography course be without allowing students to investigate macro images? This assignment was fairly straight forward: learn the various camera settings that can allow you the best possible picture as close up to an object as physically possible, while staying in focus. We looked at the comparisons between the effects of macro photography and landscape photography. We explored the phenomenon of getting so close to an object to the point of distorting our brain’s recognition of it can often remind us or conjure likenesses of landscapes. Hope you enjoy exploring some student gems from this assignment, and again, feedback or questions are highly welcomed!

Color in Imagery: Students Investigate Color Emotion in Photo Design

This is an interactive slide show! Feel free to click on the images to enlarge them, move them around, etc. (It's actually pretty cool).

As part of the explorations into the elements of design, students in my digital photography class investigated color in photography and the emotional and design impact behind the different uses of color within imagery. Here are some of the photographs from this project, and you'll notice a few of them have been touched up in Photoshop. Like many of my photography assignments, there were two parts to this project. First, my students were required to investigate each standard color of the rainbow in a photograph, (6 photographs), with special attention given to the emotional impact of each color and the use of that color within the composition of the image. Then, students used one photograph in which they manipulated the color, altered it completely in Photoshop, so that the emotional reaction from a viewer would be different  in the edited photograph than the original image. It was a difficult assignment to be sure, and my students made some incredible process in terms of self-evaluating, (in the end results) and planning, (to capture each color appropriately). I'd love to hear feedback, or perhaps other similar assignments people have worked on that involve the use of exploring color. I would like to change this assignment to include more of a "story" or defined theme aside from just color and emotion, so ideas are certainly welcome!

Moving In: Why I Created the MediaHood

As a media and technology educator, I spend a lot of time online. We all do. I spend a lot of time online checking the myriad of emails I get each day, updating my online Moodle courses, updating my class websites, searching for solutions to technical issues, (to name a few reasons), but most importantly, I am often online to find inspiration for bettering my current projects and curriculum or to find inspiration in creating new ones.

I decided that this last reason for being online, this quest in seeking out other projects, educators and people in the digital technology arena, is often difficult. In turn, I have often had conversations with other educators, parents, or local technology people who have had the same issue, that of connecting with others, and it's not because there aren't resources, chat rooms, other blogs, online educational centers, etc. There are plenty out there. It's all about finding the right one that fosters creativity and new ideas and that can pertain to not only the local educational community but to the global educational community as well.

My vision is simply to create a "mediahood." And like a neighborhood, connections can be fostered within.

I will be outputting some of the successes I've had, and would like to start

 a dialogue with my more local community around some of the digital media projects my students have worked on. I would like to see the opportunity to allow not only parents, other educators and media organizations to follow some of the fantastic displays of true 21st century skills and innovations, but to allow students to join in in celebrating their accomplishments and to share those accomplishments with their peers.

So I welcome you to join the Mediahood. I welcome your feedback, as will my students and those who begin to follow. Please share your own successes or insights in the digital media world as we celebrate together those who will be designing the world around us in years to come.