Best Water Bottle Ever - Digital Imaging

 Assignment 1:  Take 20 pictures of a handheld object using various angles, backgrounds, perspectives and settings.

 What I have learned or relearned about taking pictures - 

I own a Panasonic DMZ TZ4 that I purchased several years ago.  I stopped using it because I was unhappy with the pictures that I was getting from it.  What I learned is that it wasn't the camera, it was the operator.  The first thing I did was re-read the manual.  My camera has a multitude of options that I still don't understand.  The three most important settings are Intelligent auto, normal picture, and scene mode.  The intelligent auto does all the work for me.  It reads the scene and makes all the optimum settings automatically.  The normal picture setting allows me to take pictures with my own settings.  There are all kinds of things I can change.  For scene settings, the exposure, coloring, light, etc are set for certain scene types.  I don't know what I was doing before but with all these options I know I can get some great photos again.

Here are some composition tips that I have picked up:

1.  In general, don't center the picture.  Use the rule of thirds.  Your primary points of interest should sit along third lines.

2.  Pay attention to the background!  Plain backgrounds are best.

3.  Pay attention to the light.  Where is it coming from?  Sometimes shadows add interest and sometimes they are distracting.

4.  Only use flash if you have to.

5.  Shooting with the sun directly behind you makes for a flat photo.  Have the sun come from the side or better yet shoot in the shade.

6.  Limit the palette to one or two colors that are predominately featured.

7.  Try interesting angles.

8.  Frame the subject with something in the foreground to show depth.

9.  Move in close to fill the frame.

The most important tip I found was to STOP chimping (checking the photo on the back of the screen) and take lots and lots of photos!

Assignment 2:  Editing

For this assignment I had to take 5 pictures and change them from their original.  I made an album but couldn't figure out how to post them as a slide show so I have posted each original photo and how I changed it.  I used Picasa for the editing and although they have a lot of fun features for manipulating photos, I kept losing what I had done.  Clearly, I have a lot more to learn.

 

 

 

 

Assignment 3:  Turn 2 photos into Art

Original photo for  Art photo

For larger version:  Water Bottle Art

To see art version of original photo:   Water Bottle Art 2

The Legends of Archimedes

The first podcast assignment was to research a person that was famous for something; create a script and then a podcast with at least 3 sound effects (I hope that you can hear the crackling fire).   I had fun with this assignment and I hope you will enjoy hearing these stories that I discovered about Archimedes.


                          

I think I will try podcasting again...

A Conversation About Division

For this week's assignment, I tackled podcasting.  I now have great respect for sound men because this was harder than it seems.  The following podcast is a conversation with my friend Sue Harding.  She and I often have math ed conversations but this one is much shorter - about 6 minutes - and slightly scripted.  The questions we discussed are:

                   1.  What is division?
                   2.  What does the Montana Common Core say about division?
                   3.  Is it important to teach long division?
I admit that I don't have all the answers but I hope you enjoy our conversation.

What is division?

                                    

 Here are two pencasts that will give you more information about what was discussed in the podcast.

Division Models                                                                                Partial Quotients Strategy

 

5th Grade Division Strategies

If you are interested in better quality Math podcasts, the MathGrad is highly entertaining.  I'll post the link in Awesome Links.

 

Google Earth

Google Earth is a virtual globe and map.   It uses images from satellites, aerial photography and geographic information systems.  It is a free program that lets you fly anywhere on earth.  It has many uses.  Here are just a few.

This week we used Google Earth in several assignments.

1.  National Parks powerpoint.  I tried to narrate some of this but the audio did not come through so instead I just added music.  Hope you enjoy learning about some of my favorite National Parks.

2.  Google Earth Tour - In Anticipation of Summer 2014.
Again I tried to add audio but again it eluded me.  You will have to download this and view it on Google Earth. 

  

 3.  From Birth to Kalispell.  This picture is suppose to show my birthplace to my current home.  I wasn't actually born in Sacramento, CA but my family moved there shortly after my birth.  The red lines show the few side trips I made.  I lived near San Jose and then in Hawthorne, Nevada.  I also lived in a few towns in Oregon - all along Interstate 5 and then finally made it to Kalispell where I have lived for the past 25 years.

4.  Pythagorean Triples and Google Earth Activity

Pythagorean triples are whole numbers which satisfy the Pythagorean Theorem.  In this activity, students use Google Earth to find three places that appear to form a right triangle.  For the complete instructions see "Awesome Links" on the right.