Thinking between the lines: photo student gets creative

   B&W 1 student Jessica shows off her work for the group portrait assignment. Not only did this photo garner her an A, but the band members in the pic want to make it their CD cover! I've rarely seen a student so excited!
   Nice job, Jessica!

Winning Pic of the Week helps heals my damaged ego

   I didn't earn an award in the 2012 Ohio News Photographer Association this past weekend, but I did win Picture of the Week today!
   Every week a photo is chosen to hang at the entrance of the Toledo Blade. Though this photo of the Mud Hens catcher missing a tag never made it into the paper, it was published online in a photo gallery. Although not every story allows for multiple photos, it's nice to have a venue to showcase our work when there's plenty of it.
   News photographers used to shoot LOTS of photos, only to see one or two make the paper. Now we can submit up to 15 or more for the online gallery. This is also beneficial because a few contests only allow published work.
   Anyway, I just wanted to share that this Pic of the Week ends my long awardless drought.
   

Black and White I students earn a collective A

Portraits from the Black and White 1 class.

   Critiquing my student's compositional and portrait photos today was a pleasure because their improvement over the past few months was obvious.
   Their black and white tones were rich, compositional elements were strong and they filled the frame. Their enthusiasm for learning the craft is definitely infectious!
   They are currently working on their final photo story project, due at the end of the semester the first week of May. I won't be pleasantly surprised by good work because I expect it.
 
     

Vintage journalism tools bring back fond memories

Recognize any of these tools?  SMILE if you remember film, whiz wheels and pica poles.

Student experiments with pinhole cameras

Parker's pinhole cans and the photos he printed.

   Parker, an Owens B&W 1 student,  poses with his experimental pinhole cans and the prints he made.

Ice Art - a view of my garage

Ice covered my back door this morning, creating this visually interesting scene of my garage and back yard.

Lesson on camera lenses on a white board

PHO121 Black & White class learn about lenses yesterday. As fellow instructer John Walz quipped before I erased this instruction, "You look smart." Not very smart...just experienced.