Friday, December 4, 2009

Jessica, 8th Grade, RYSS


I took a picture of the sky because it looked bright and pretty. When I was taking the picture, I accidentally put my finger over the lens, and it came out in the picture. I was going to delete the picture because of the finger, but I liked it so I kept it. The sky is light blue with some white fluffy clouds, and in the left top corner, you can see my finger. It looks interesting because it looks like a shadow. This picture makes me feel happy and creative.

Jessica, 8th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Areli, 6th Grade, RYSS


This picture is really interesting. The grass is long, and it is really green. There are also five mushrooms that are white. Some of them have circles and dots that are light brown. The one in the middle is the biggest. And the two in front of it are small. In the back, there is a black line. I think this is a really weird and one of the best pictures I have taken.

Areli, 6th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Jackie, 7th Grade, RYSS


I like this picture because you can see as the sun sets, the small building's shadow makes an angle. If you look on the left side, you can see our teacher, Mr.Chambers. It looks like he is pointing at the shadow, and also see how one building's shadow is on the side of the other building. If you look at the top of the second building, you can see some plants sticking out. Look on both sides and you can see what is on either side of the building. You can see the clear glass on the right and cars on the left. The picture seems to look side ways, but that is the shadow and how the sun is facing the clear building. It makes me feel like Mr. Chambers is part of this shadow. I picked this picture because its not just a building, it's a building, shadow, and Mr. Chambers.

Jackie, 7th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Ana, 6th Grade, RYSS


I think this picture is interesting because the cone in front looks bigger than the others, and the lines that are yellow look bigger too. The sky has a lot of shapes because of the clouds.

Ana, 6th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Maritza, 8th Grade, RYSS


When I look at this picture, I feel like everything is dead. We don't have a good life, and Earth does not have color ... only black and white. I think, ''What would it be like if our planet was just black and white? People would not have a better life. They would be sad and angry with each other." In real life, there is color. That's why God brings us all the beautiful flowers we see. We love Earth and we will until God gets tired of us.

Maritza, 8th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Maria, 7th Grade, RYSS


The reason I like this picture is because you can actually see our 7th and 8th grade girls playing volleyball. You can see how they are concentrating on the game. I guess the volleyball is up in the air because you can't see it in the picture. Everyone is looking at the ball except for Rosario who's biting her nails. So, it's a cool picture and at the same time, I think it's funny because some girls' positions are different. And you can actually see their faces.

Maria, 7th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Cynthia, 8th Grade, RYSS


I like this picture because, I love nature, and the way this picture was taken makes it look very cool. I think this picture shows Mother Nature and what it can express. I also like the colors, and the angle it was taken. I like how the trees look tilted with the broken pieces of wood. it looks so realistic.

Cynthia, 8th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Aide, 6th Grade, RYSS


I like this picture because of all the texture it has, the clouds, the person running, the cones, all the cars, the big arrows, the sun that's not shown there, but makes the clouds so bright. I also love this picture because the person running looks like if he's floating, which makes the picture really funny. When I see this picture, it makes me feel happy and bright because of all the light there is and the color like the yellow stripes on the ground. And the trees don't look green, they look black or dark green. You'll notice someone by a white car is opening the car door, which shows movement.

Aide, 6th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Taylor, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS


This is my project the Autumn Tree; I used photo shop elements to edit my photo. I named my project the autumn tree because it shows how the leaves on trees change different colors and how beautiful the colors are and how the change before falling off the trees before the cold snowy winter starts. I used the contrast and made the picture darker and clearer to see. I thought this photo was really cool and interesting to do.

Dionna, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS

I chose this photo, because I thought the picture was pretty and had good lighting. I thought it was a good one, because It showed a nature side, and it wasn’t in the building. I Like how the leaves are on the bench and on the around the bench. It shows how we are in November, and leafs are falling off the trees. I also like the lighting, because it was a sunny day, so it had sunlight in it.

Liam Grade 7 Eisenhower MS


Liam Grade 7 Eisenhower M.S
I chose this picture of one of my fellow students. We were taking random pictures and I laid on the ground and told him to sit on the bench and to pretend to take a picture of me. I had to crop out a school bus. This picture is interesting to me because the angle of the camera.

Aly, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS


My picture is called An Autumn Day. I named it this because the way the leaves on the tree stood out and made me think of the leaves changing colors. This picture is outside in the courtyard. I picked this tree because it was the biggest one and it has the prettiest leaves. On photo shop elements I brightened the picture so it will so all the colors. I liked this picture because I like how the leaves are different colors and it stood out on the brown tree bark. Also it stood out because it looks like a bright fall day.

Dylan, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS


I chose this picture because I thought it was a cool perspective of the stairway in my school. I like how you can see the upstairs and downstairs, and the rust on the corner of the handrail. Also, I like how the angle of the camera makes the picture look unusual, in an artistic way. Lastly, I like how you can look at this picture in various ways.

Sara, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS


My photo is called The Shadowy Staircase. I chose this photo because I liked the dark staircase leading up to the window then how the window had light coming from it. The light coming out of the window made a nice shadow on the wall. I also chose this photo because the image was very sharp. On photoshop elements I brightened the photo so the stairs were more visible then resized and named it. The point of this picture is how a space can be lit up by just a little light.

Matt, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS


I chose this photo because I thought that the angle of this picture was very interesting. When I looked at this picture I felt like I was forced to look again that’s what made me chose this photo. The way the photo captured the library was in this angle was breathe taking.

Daniel, grade 7, Eisenhower MS


I chose this photo, because it was very abstract and I could crop it in a very unique way. This photo seemed very interesting to me, because of its texture, and interesting paint style. I could do many different, and unique things with the picture. This is why I chose it.

David, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS


I chose this photo because it was very sharp and abstract. In my opinion, this was my most clear photo. I also like this because it shows the texture of the grass. It also shows how some of the grass is dead and the rest isn’t. I like how the light is because it makes one side dark and the other side brighter. I called this photo “The Evil Grass” because part of it seemed to be dead but the rest was still alive. The composition was so good that I didn’t need to crop this photo. This is why I chose this photo.

Danielle, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS


The photo I took was of a picture of my friend hanging on a tree. I took this picture in the courtyard. I like it because it looks like his hand is reaching into the light. The colors in the picture are yellow, brown, orange, blue and green. The leaves on the ground make the picture look really pretty and the leaves on the trees brighten the image up. I used the auto contrast and the red eye tool.

Andrew, Grade 7, Eisenhower Middle School


I chose this photo for a few reasons. First of all I thought it was cool to look at as you saw a camera screen in a camera screen. Also I thought it was an innovative way to take a picture. It was a new idea that I thought of on the spot and it is the only one I have seen. I know photographers have created “endless” scenes with mirrors but I came up with a new and “updated” way.

Erika, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS


I choose this picture of a tree with only one leaf. I choose this one because the lighting was good and also the texture. The background wasn’t really a distraction so that was another reason why I choose it. I thought it was really cool because on this tree all of the other leafs fell off besides this one.

Ashley, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS


The photo I took was a picture of fallen leaves in the courtyard. I choose this picture because I liked how you could see the texture in each leaf. Also, I liked how you notice that one dried berry and how it ties up the rest of the picture. In the picture it was a little to dark so I did enhance auto fix to make it look a little bit better. After I was able to fix it the lighting came out very good. This picture is very crisp and clear, you can almost feel the leaves.

David, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS

The reason I chose the Truthful Tree picture was because it isn’t blurry. It shows a tree from a different point of view and the sunlight works with it. In the background you can see a part of the sky and a cloud through the branches. There are a lot of yellow leaves and a couple that haven’t changed colors and are still green. This is an original picture because of the point of view and the background.

John, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS


I chose my picture of the stairwell because I thought it would be cool. This picture has a little bit of a pattern. When I took this picture I zoomed in on the stairwell I left a little bit of the sky and trees. I bent down when I took this picture to make it look like its going up. In iphoto I cropped out some of the wall. I titled my photo stairwell. This is what I did to my photo.

Sam, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS


Out of many choices I finally came to a conclusion on which picture to work with for my project. I chose a picture about nature that I found in the courtyard. My picture contains rocks with leaves surrounding the rocks. I chose this picture because I liked the quality of it. This picture had great color and texture to it; it looked so real and vibrant. The lightning was good and so was the angle that the picture was taken.

Anna, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS


I chose a picture of my friend Adam and only half is face, is because usually in most picture people take pictures of the whole face. I thought it looked interesting how in the picture Adam showed only half his face and with his eyes looking the other way it looked as though he was searching for the other half of his face, when it really looks like he’s looking at the wall and its white texture.

Lauren, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS

For my first picture I chose a picture of my friends Gabby and Emma. I like this portrait because the lighting is good. I like how cropped the photo so the idea was on them not the background. I also like the angle the photo was taken at. Over all I think this photo is great!

Ben, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS

I chose lonely memories because it shows a bird house which probably used to be very busy but now is lonely. Another reason I like this picture is because it is very simple. A normal background (no distractions) the birdhouse, and the edge of the tree. It was a bright day when I took this picture so it was too happy and joyful to be a sad moment. So, I brought the contrast u ,brightness down, and Dark shadow up. The printer ran out of ink so it may be a little bit green at the top.

josh, grade 7, eisenhower middle


My photo, Falling Water, was taken at a water fountain by the library. I like this photo because it shows the water from the nozzle and hitting the metal and traveling in a smooth flow to the grate. You can see the ripples as the water travels in all directions. The lighting in this picture is good because it shines on the grate where the water is ending up. Also, as the water falls from the nozzle, you can see where the light hits it. Under the water, the metal has small indentations that make it seem as though the water isn't there.

Adam, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS

I chose this picture because it is a relaxing one. Although it is not unusual, there are many different things about it. I like how the camera is focused on the leaves and most of the background is blurred. I also like the colors and the variety of leave colors. This is one of my favorite pictures because it is at an angle of which I do not see things every day because I am short. To see things from a downward angle is a treat to me. These are the reasons I picked this picture, and why I like it.

Paul, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS

My picture was of my shoes in the courtyard. I chose this photo because it was different than my others. It shows the texture of the sneakers and how the laces go in and out of the holes. You can see the indent the stripes make on the shoe. You can also see the texture of the ground around the shoes. The pine needles on the ground show the surroundings of the shoes and where they are. I like the light in this photo because it looks like one side is dark and the other side is light. The sun is shining from the left so the shadow is cast on the right. The composition shows the shoes as the whole picture and that is the real reason I liked it. I didn’t even have to crop it.

Matt, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS


I took a picture of the statue of Dwight D. Eisenhower out in the courtyard. I like this picture because it is from a different perspective. Instead of just a regular photo of the statue the view is looking from the bottom up. I like this perspective because it gets good light and it makes the statue look like it is up in the trees. I like how the light really captures the statue’s face and how there is a shadow under his chin. It was a beautiful day so the light was really on target in the background. I like the composition because it showed the beautiful background of the trees.

Mary Grade 7 Eisenhower MS


My photograph is a reflection and portrait photograph. I love the way that the viewer sees the trees through her head and somewhat around her. I see my photo actually as four separate pictures. One if those would be the photograph of Lauren. Another would e the courtyard reflecting through the window. The third is the picture of the inside of our school. The fourth photograph is of the glass wall separating the in and outdoors.
My photograph reminds me of the filter we did when we colorized Ansel Adams photos. This is because when we did the filters, we used a couple different ones and had to put the opacity down so that they all showed through.
I like the way that each layer of my photograph has a separate color scheme, grays, greens, browns, and blues.
I did not even have to crop my photograph because everything is well proportioned. My photograph could also be a perspective photo because the trees are off in the distance and Lauren is close. I believe that my picture really captured the moment and I am really happy with the way it came out.

Kelly Rae-Eisenhower Middle School-Grade 7



I liked this picture because I took it in a different angle. I was trying to get pictures of natural things in the courtyard one day. I decided to take a picture of a tree because the light was hitting it and casting a great shadow on it. I started talking pictures of the tree, but they just weren’t good enough. I started to take pictures from different angles, but they still weren’t good enough. Then I saw people talking pictures upside down. I decided to try it, and it looked really good. That is why this is one of my favorite pictures.

Kevin, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS

I chose this picture because it can make people think about why he’s in the locker or what he’s thinking. I also chose this picture because the lighting in it. It is really good. The lighting isn’t to dark or to bright. Also you can only see lockers on the side. In this picture Jason is coming out of the locker.

Andrew, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS


I like this photo because the lighting was good and how the water hits the fountain. It is so beautiful. It has a good angle of the water. the quality of th water hitting the ground is so awesome.

Ryan, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS


My picture is a picture of when I sitting down in the courtyard and I took a picture. This picture is about the life under a table. Also, in the background there is really nice tree that is shadowing off the school. There is also a reflection off the benches from the sun. I named it The Underworld because it is life under a table.

Nolan grade 7 Eisenhower MS


My picture is of a vent, but it is up close and it makes it look abstract. It shows two different kinds of light one from the hall and one shining from the sun. The light shines from one end of the bar to another. The texture of the wall is very vibrant behind the bars.

Lauren, grade 7, Eisenhower MS



The reason I picked this picture is because it was an original idea I had thought of at first. My idea was to colorize my picture to neon colors bringing out the shades in the apples reflection. I called this piece Apples Reflection because the picture is basically showing me in the reflection of the apple computers. Also this was such a good picture because I didn’t have to crop it like we were most likely to. There for this is a very well token picture and to me was so good I couldn’t really improve it.

Jason, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS

This photo is unusual because brings your eye to a new point of view. You look at the wall like the floor and you look at the floor like the wall in my photo. The light reflections on the floor look as if they are torches perched on the wall. The bricks on the wall look like smooth, cold tiles sat on the floor. It looks like the corridor of a magnificent castle, but it’s just a boring school hallway.

Kiely Grade 7 Eisenhower MS

Flower in Bloom

I chose this picture of this flower because it had my favorite colors on it. The flower has pink, yellow and some black in it. The flower really stood out to me and so I cropped it and made the flower a little darker. I think I made the flower look better and now I made the flower even better.

Kelly Grade 7 Eisenhower MS


My photo is definitely a good photo. I think this because you can see the crinkle on the leaves as they lay on the pine bush. You can feel the texture and see the wrinkles that each leaf has. The colors are very rich and you can see the green for the background. You can see that each separate prickle looks different than each other. The lighting is good in this because it looks a little bit lighter at the top of the photo and it gives it a little bit of difference from a photo that all the light is the same. This is why my photo is a good photo.

Jessica, Grade 7, Eisenhower MS


My Picture is called the rogue leaf. The reason I called it this is because it is a picture of a leaf on top of a rock when there is a pile of leafs near by. Basically it’s out of place. I like this picture because the light is really good and there is a lot of other stuff going on in the back round. I also like the texture of the rock that the leaf is sitting upon. The rock also has a nice color to it. It’s red and gray and black in some places. The leaf is a nice color and has good texture as well.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Jessica, 8th Grade, RYSS


At first, I was just trying to take a picture of the construction area, but it was surrounded by a fence, so I tried to take it through it, and this came out. I got interested in the picture because you see a fence in the foreground, and in the background, there are different things. At the right, there is a shadow which makes that side of the picture mysterious. Next to the shadow there is sand and part of the construction of the building. The sand makes it look kind of lonely, but then you see the building and behind the building you see the sky and it makes me feel very comfortable.

Jessica, 8th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Jessica, 8th Grade, RYSS


I like this picture because there are different things there. In the lower left you see the roof and it seems like it is very long and never ends. In the right you see wood and a man walking (my teacher, Mr. Chambers). At the very top, you see a pretty blue sky with a couple of fluffy clouds. This is a very peaceful picture and it gives me a good, positive feeling.

Jessica, 8thth Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Maria, 7th Grade, RYSS


This picture looks really interesting, like you wonder what's going on. You can actually see a man doing something and in the background, you can actually see the clouds and the beautiful blue sky. It also shows that the workers are working really hard to build our new school building. The building is actually half way done so in the future, I'll be able to compare before and after.

Maria, 7th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Oscar, 7th Grade, RYSS


As you can see, there is a huge ladder in this picture. What I felt while taking this picture was how high it was. The reason I took this picture is because I like to see high things, and feel the adrenaline.

Oscar, 7th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Areli, 6th Grade, RYSS


I took this picture when I was walking. The cone was already like that. I thought that it was weird for the cone to be like that. There is a line in the back that it is wide and light blue. There are more lines in the front, and they are yellow. The street is cracked with grass growing in the middle. The cone is dirty, and there are black lines on it. There is also a lot of dirt on the ground. I think that it is not normal for the cone to be like that.

Areli, 6th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Anyssa, 7th Grade, RYSS


I think this is a perfect picture because this building you see will one day be finished. It’s always nice to see something from the beginning until the end. It’s also fun when you look at it during construction and to see how much work they’ve done over time, and how fast they work. For me, taking pictures like this one is really cool for the same reason. In the picture, you can see all of the construction. You can also see the tractor picking up the pieces to construct the building and the road as you come inside the school with the cones making sure that no one gets hurt. At the bottom left corner of the picture, you can see the primary school. It’s really nice to go back and see how it once looked.

Anyssa, 7th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Maritza, 8th Grade, RYSS


The thing about this picture is why did I take it? It is so weird. I just thought fast, and wondered how it would look to see through a square. When I took this picture, I was looking inside the little square, and there were a lot of things going on, and I thought to myself, "If I take this picture, it will be so interesting because it's just the same thing I feel. I always feel like a little square that doesn't fit into a big world. I feel like a tiny ant."

Maritza, 8th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Janet, 6th Grade, RYSS


In this picture, the shape looks so cool because in the middle, it's not right. It's all wrong. It has only one color with lines. This picture makes me feel like I am a shape master, and this makes me laugh. It's expressive through its shape, color, and brightness. The shape does not talk or move, and it's strong. If the wind tries to take it, the shape will use its powers to not let it take it away. The picture is not that bright because the sun was not giving the table much light. When it was taken, the table was not in the center. It was more to the right because there were more things beside it.

Janet, 6th Grade, Junior Academy, Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [RYSS], Houston, Texas.

Blog Archive

Instructors and LTP

Instructors:

Harold Olejarz is Art and Technology teacher at Eisenhower Middle School, Wyckoff, New Jersey, U.S.A. He began his career as a sculptor and exhibited in Soho, NYC, in the early 1980s. His work evolved into Performance Art and his living sculptures installed themselves in museums and public spaces in the US and Europe from 1985 to the early 1990s. He has been exploring digital media as both an artist and an educator since 1997. “Capturing the Moving Present,” an essay by Harold Olejarz, is included in Video Art for the Classroom, a National Art Education Association publication. Olejarz has made presentations on the use of digital media at state and national educational conferences.

Tom Chambers is Technology Applications teacher at Raul Yzaguirre School For Success [Junior Academy], Houston, Texas, U.S.A. He was Visiting Lecturer in Digital/New Media Art for the Fine Arts Department at Zhaoqing University, Zhaoqing, China, 2005-2007. He was Executive Committee Member and Juror (2003 - 2005) for the International Digital Art Awards (IDAA), and was instrumental in expanding the content of the IDAA to include New Media Art, and served as on-line New Media Director (2004 - 2005). Chambers has been a documentary photographer and visual artist for over thirty years, and he is currently working with the pixel as Minimal Art (Pixelscapes) which begins to approach a true, abstract, visual language in Digital Art.

Tanya Heard is Art/Photo teacher at T. H. Rogers School, Houston, Texas.

2007 - 2008 school year participant:

Dorian Gillespie is Art teacher at Southmore Intermediate School in Pasadena Texas. Prior to coming to Southmore, he taught at Bailey Elementary. He decided to teach and mentor students in the arts in order to give them an opportunity to learn and advise them of the many career choices an artist has. Although he did not teach art at Bailey, he was able to incorporate many art lessons into the curriculum. He has taught after school art classes for the University of Houston Clear Lake as well. Rather than become a professional artist, he decided to mentor as a teacher.

This blog was a part of the FotoFest LTP process:

2007 - 2008
2008 - 2009
2009 - 2010

Literacy Through Photography (LTP), the educational component of FotoFest International (Houston, Texas), is a writing program designed to help classroom students achieve better communication skills through the use of digital or film-based photography.

FotoFest has combined with the instructors and schools to pursue a pilot program ... blog approach ... for LTP.

Students increase visual and verbal literacy while building cognitive thinking skills, self-esteem, and awareness of each other. The LTP curriculum provides students with meaningful subject matter to help them write about their own photographs, their own lives, with confidence.

This blog, founded by Harold Olejarz and Tom R. Chambers continues to be a significant tool to help students with their written expression.