Final Product!

Dream Big Project Introduction

     Over the past few months I have been learning photography for my Honors Humanities Dream Big Project. We were given 20 hours to learn something we wanted to, and be able to show what we learned and how we progressed over those hours. For my Dream Big Project first semester, I learned how to play the ukulele. I had a lot of fun doing that project, but I haven't picked up my ukulele in months. For this project, I wanted to pick something that I thought I could continue with after the project is done.

     I chose photography because its always been something that has interested me. I always see cool pictures on social media and think, "Man, I wish I could do that." So, when I was given an opportunity to learn how to, I took it. Another reason I chose photography, is because of my love for sports. I know that I really love when parents on my team take pictures and share them with us, and I figured now I could give back. At first I thought about printing out the pictures and selling them, but I decided against that idea. It would cost a lot to buy the special paper and the ink, especially on top of the camera itself, plus I don't think very many people would buy them.

     Going into this project, I knew showing my improvement and what I learned would be difficult. After all, most of it came from research, and then trial and error. So, in my video, I showed my starting point, where the pictures were really dark. Then, I showed some that were decent pictures, but they definitely weren't great. Lastly, I had a slideshow of my favorite pictures from the entire project. I'm not sure how well this will show my progression, but I'm hoping my blog can make up for it. 

     Overall, I really like the learning part of the project, but not the video part. I enjoyed learning a skill that I will have for the rest of my life, and I'm hoping I will still keep up with taking some action shots and cool photos. The only things I disliked about the project were blogging, because it became extremely annoying, and putting together my video, because I was stupid and had major problems. I won't go into depth because you can read my last post about the problems I ran into, but it was just a pain in the butt. After doing two projects like this, I would recommend everyone go out and learn something new that they've always wanted to learn. 

Day 16: Major Video Struggles

     To present my project, I decided to make a video showing what I did and some of the pictures I took. I was having a really tough time with the audio, but I finally got it. Overall, I spent nearly 10 hours over a week putting the video together and editing it. I finally finished it last night at about 8:00. It was a bit longer than I wanted it to be, but I was really happy with how it turned out. I was so proud of it, I decided to show my whole family before I put it on YouTube. They all liked it a lot too. After showing it to my family, I tried to upload it from my iPad. I had edited the video on iMovie on my iPad. I got a message that said I didn't have enough storage to upload it. So I thought, "Okay, no problem. I'll just delete some of the videos off of my camera roll." That is probably the worst decision I have ever made in my entire life. After deleting the videos off of my camera roll, I went back to iMovie to try and upload it again. This time I got a message saying some of the videos were missing, so I couldn't upload it. Panicking, I went to see if they were in my recently deleted, but they weren't because I didn't have enough storage for the videos to go there. I have never been more mad at myself in my entire life.
     After spending 3 hours and 300 dollars on recovery software that didn't even work, my dad emailed my teacher. I was a little pissed off that my dad emailed my teacher without asking me, because it probably should have been me that emailed him. Luckily, my teacher was very understanding and is now giving me until the end of spring break to get the video uploaded.

Day 15: Hummingbird Pictures

     One of my goals this whole project was to get a picture of a hummingbird while it was flying. I'd tried doing this a couple times, but I had either lost my patience, or screwed up the pictures. So today, I committed myself to getting some. I was not going to go inside until I had at least one hummingbird picture I was happy with.
     For the first 15 minutes, there were no hummingbirds. I started to lose interest, and went to go take pictures of the bees in the flowers. This was a little bit scary for me, because I don't like bees. Eventually I made my way back to the plants where the hummingbirds usually come. Finally, after about 40 minutes total, a hummingbird appeared. I tried super hard to get some pictures of it, but they just weren't in focus. I was pretty mad at myself, because now I had to wait for another hummingbird. Lucky for me, the next hummingbird came about 10 minutes after that. I was able to get some pretty good pictures of this one. I was about to go inside, but then another hummingbird appeared. I started snapping pictures of it, hoping they'd turn out okay. I actually ended up liking these pictures the best. Even though waiting for the birds wasn't fun, I'm really glad I was able to achieve one of my goals for this project.

pics from today:

Day 14: Butterfly Pictures

     Today I went outside with the intent of taking cute pictures of my dogs. But, after about 10 minutes, a big yellow butterfly caught my eye. As it was fluttering around my backyard, I realized it would be super cool to get some pictures of it. So, I followed it around from a distance, waiting for it to land somewhere. I followed it around for about 3 minutes, but it felt more like 20. Finally, it landed on one of the palm trees in my yard. I crept up to it really slowly, so I wouldn't scare it. Once I was about 2 yards away, I took out my camera to take pictures of it. I took a lot, because I wasn't sure how long it would sit there for. I wanted to get a picture of it flying away, but I unfortunately missed that opportunity. I was really happy with the pictures I got of it, though. I got pictures of it from the side, and from the top. I got some cute pictures of my dogs too, but I personally think the butterfly is way cooler.

pics from today:

Day 13: Action Shots Weekend 2, Day 2

     My sister Sydney had another soccer game today in Irvine. On the drive up, I entertained myself by looking through the window at all the places that I thought would be cool places to do photoshoots. When we got to the field, I noticed they were playing on turf. Because it was cloudy and the light was not great, I was curious to see if this would make a difference in the pictures.
     When I got home and uploaded the pictures to my computer, I was pleased to see that the pictures were better than the ones from yesterday. Not only were they brighter, but more of them were in focus. I've decided that I like shooting on turf better than grass. However, I'm not really sure if the turf actually does make the lighting better, or if I've just been lucky the times I've shot on turf. Anyway, I'm really happy with my pictures from this whole weekend, and I can definitely see a lot of improvement.

pics from today:

Day 12 (part 2): Photoshoot with the Youngest One

     So today after the soccer game, I was finally able to convince my youngest sister to do a photoshoot with me. I was a little bit nervous about how she would be in front of the camera. I quickly discovered I was right to be nervous. She always looked awkward when she looked at the camera. I tried everything I could think of to make her look more natural, but nothing worked. I ended up having to take all the pictures of her not looking at the camera so she wouldn't look constipated. I actually really like the way my pictures turned out, but I wish I had been able to get some good ones of her looking at the camera.
     Another thing I discovered, is that when you work with younger kids, you have to make it fun for them. To do this I would take pictures of my sister balancing on the curb, or doing funny poses. I actually like these pictures a lot, maybe even more than the ones where I told her how to pose.

Pics from today: