TEST DAY!!!

Today I'm the mean teacher, and am giving my students at Yellowstone a TEST!  My sixth graders in the after-school program that are learning photography with me will need to pass this test and show me they can use their cameras before they can take their camera home and begin the projects.  We are going to start working on projects next semester!  I'm not entirely sure they are fully prepared for this test...they are a hard bunch to control sometimes and to gain their attention.  But we've had a couple of really great class periods the last couple Wednesdays, so I think they'll do pretty well.

See below for the test, and see how you do!  I've tried to make the wording such that an elementary/middle schooler can understand, but please let me know if you have any suggestions!

 

Name:____________ Date:________ 

Photography Test 01

 

1.) A picture is made by ____________ entering the camera and exposing the film.

 

a.) paint

b.) light

c.) your subject

 

2.)  What is the “Aperture” in your camera?

 

a.) the hole in the lens of the camera that controls HOW MUCH light hits the film.

b.) the part of the camera that you put your eye to to see your subject

c.) the part of the camera that opens and and shuts really quickly!

 

3.)  What does the “Aperture” control?

 

a.) Whether my subject smiles or frowns.

b.) The length of time light enters the camera.

c.) HOW MUCH light hits the film during an exposure

 

3.) How do you change the “Aperture” on your camera?

 

a.) Look to the right inside your viewfinder.

b.) Turn the ring on your lens closest to your camera body.

c.)  Turn the knob on-top of your camera body with numbers on it

 

4.) What is the “Shutter” in your camera?

 

a.) the hole in the lens of the camera that controls HOW MUCH light hits the film.

b.) the part of the camera that you put your eye to to see your subject

c.) the part of the camera that opens and and shuts really quickly, and controls 

HOW LONG light hits the film!

 

*HINT:  Remember “one one-thousandth!”

 

5.) What does the “Shutter” control?

 

a.) Whether my subject smiles or frowns.

b.) THE LENGTH OF TIME (HOW LONG) light enters the camera.

c.) HOW MUCH light hits the film during an exposure

 

6.) How do you change the “Shutter” on your camera?

 

a.) Look to the right inside your viewfinder.

b.) Turn the ring on your lens closest to your camera body.

c.)  Turn the knob on-top of your camera body with numbers on it.

 

 

7.)  What makes up an Exposure?

 

a.) Subject + Camera = Exposure

b.) Aperture + Shutter Speed = Exposure

c.) Lens + Focus = Exposure

 

8.) Where do you look to see if you have a “Correct Exposure” in your camera before you take a photo?

 

a.) The front of the lens.

b.) Underneath the camera.

c.) When your eye is looking through the camera, you look to the right side, where there is a needle and a “+” and “-” sign

 

9.) How do you know when you have a correct exposure for the picture you are about to take?

a.) When the needle is at the top, near the “+” sign, like below.

 pastedGraphic.pdf 

 

b.) When the needle is in the middle, in the open space directly between the “+” and “-” signs, like below.

pastedGraphic.pdf

c.) When the needle is at the bottom, near the “-” sign, like below.

pastedGraphic_2.pdf

 

 10.) What word should you think of before taking every photo, and what does it stand for?

 

a.) How pretty your subject is, and nothing else.

b.) LCA (stands for “Lights, Camera, Action!”)

c.) SAFE (stands for “Shutter, Aperture, Focus, EXPOSE!”--the things you should always think about before taking a photo).

 

 Bonus Questions: (Please circle either “Yes” or “No” or “True” or “False”)

1.) Should you ever open the back of your camera before rewinding your film?

Yes No

 

2.)  Choosing a slower shutter speed (smaller number) will make a moving subject blurry, while choosing a higher shutter speed with freeze a subject in action.

True False

 

3.) You should not take photos with a shutter speed of “15” or below on your shutter speed dial, otherwise your photos might turn out blurry.  “30” is the slowest shutter speed you should use.

 

True False

 

4.)  An appropriate shutter speed for inside is probably going to be around “30” or “60” on your shutter speed dial.

 

True False

 

 

5.)  An appropriate shutter speed for outside is probably going to be above “250” on your shutter speed dial.

 

True False

 

 PART TWO:

 

WHEN YOU ARE FINISHED, PLEASE BRING THIS TEST AND YOUR CAMERA TO ME TO BEGIN THE SECOND PART OF YOUR TEST.

YOU WILL BE SHOWING ME HOW TO:

 

 

1.) Hold your camera correctly

2.) Focus

3.) Load Film

4.) Control the Aperture of your camera

5.) Control the Shutter speed of your camera

6.) Determine a “Correct” exposure

7.) Take a picture!

 

A Beautiful Day in Chappell Hill- Part I- Kate and Garner's Engagement Portraits

One of the tintypes we took in front of Kate's family's home.  The tintype process is a 19th century photographic process where pictures are exposed onto sheet metal.  Check out my blog for some more information about tintypes.

 

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I headed to Chappell Hill, TX to photograph some engagement and family portraits.  Chappell Hill is a beautiful little town located near Brenham, TX (home of Blue Bell Ice Cream!).  Kate's family lives a short walk from downtown, so we started photographing at their beautiful, historic house, then walked down the street into town.  We had beautiful weather, and even took a couple tintypes!  I thought the historic setting was a perfect reason to bust out all of the tintype gear!  Kate and Garner did a great job staying still and not blinking for the 6-8 second exposures!

We were only able to take a couple quick exposures inside this church before we had to leave.  I wish we could have spent a bit more time taking photos inside, but there was a meeting scheduled to take place while we were there, so we took what we could get!  The church, located downtown, is a historical landmark, and is more or less the original structure, with very few changes since it was built.


The first tintype exposure, a bit over-exposed.  Because the "film speed/ISO" of a tintype is so slow, you can't accurately meter the light of a scene like you would with a normal camera.  Trial and error is the best way to get a correct exposure.


Kate's family's home is absolutely gorgeous.  After purchasing the home they did an incredible job restoring this piece of Texas history.

Queensberry Albums

Queensberry's 12X12" Feature Album (left) with chocolate leather and standard square photo cover motif with text.  Queensberry's 8X8" Parent Album (right), with silk cover and standard square photo cover motif with text.

 

I've now been working with Queensberry albums for about a year, and am continually impressed with the incredibly beautiful albums they make.  Their customer service has been absolutely wonderful, as well.

Started in 1969, Queensberry Albums has set the standard to which all other albums are compared.  Queensberry albums are handmade in New Zealand, and offer the highest quailty, fully customizable albums on the market.

In this post I'll be offering brief descriptions about Queensberry and the albums they offer, and will have some photos of some sample albums that I have created.  If you have any questions, or are interested in an album, please let me know, and we can set up a time for you to come look at the albums in person.  Photos and descriptions don't do justice to these marvelous books! :)

Queensberry offers a ton of cover materials to choose from, including genuine leathers, silks, suedes, buckrams and more.  They also offer both digital/magazine style and matted pages for their albums, as well as a "Duo" album, which allows for a blend of the digital and matted styles.

Album design is done in a great software program developed by Queensberry called Photojunction.  Photojunction makes it easy to create and edit beautiful layouts for your album, and streamlines the ordering process.  It is a wonderful piece of software, even when used to layout albums that will be printed by other album companies.

Page from pagemount matted style album, with vellum title page folded over to the left.  Queensberry offers two styles of matted albums, the overlay and the pagemount.  Overlay style pages do not reveal any of the page backing, white pagemount style pages reveal a sliver of the page backing.  You can choose your page backing color for the pagemount style pages.

 

As you can see, the pagemount style pages reveal the page backing, which in this album was the mist color.  Matte color show is Ivory.

Queensberry allows fully customizable layouts, which means that we can design an album that is perfectly tailored to your wedding story.  No fixed templates that limit creativity!

We can create custom layouts that use as much or as little of the page as you'd like.  This allows us to create layouts that are tailored to your wedding story.

Proof layouts can be easily emailed, or we can set up a session to view the layouts in the studio, on our computer screens, and discuss and apply any changes we see fit.

Queensberry has a full service color lab, and does a beautiful job printing your photos in a fully color-calibrated environment.  Your photos will shine!

 

Being able to fully customize each page allows us to be creative!  Here's one take on the bouquet toss!

 

Standard sizes for my studio are the 12X12" Feature Album and the 8X8" Parent Album.  However, Queensberry offers many other sizes, and does not have to be square.

Queensberry's 8X8" Parent Album.

Title pages are the first page when you open the book, and come standard with any Queensberry album (it is optional, however).  Title pages can either be printed on a transparent vellum, as seen in the second photo from this post, folded over, or can be matted onto the first side of the album, as shown below.  Title pages can include the bride and groom's names, surname initial, and wedding day details.

 

I'll be posting again soon about Queensberry's digital/magazine style albums, and will have some photos of a beautiful album that I recently designed for a client.

Also to come, I'll be posting about Kiss Wedding Books, another album supplier that my studio offers.

Leighton Hinton

 

 

A couple of days before Thanksgiving I photographed Leighton's newborn portraits.  She is a sweet girl, and stayed wide awake for almost our entire shoot!  She's a mover and a shaker!  We finally got her to fall asleep for about ten minutes, but that was all.  Before long, she was up and moving again.  I had a wonderful time photographing Leighton...she is a beautiful girl!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A New Look! And a snowy day in Houston!

 

 

Snow in Houston!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Ours was awesome.  Lots of family, ate too much, and watched football.  The norm for us.

Well, I haven't posted in a couple weeks, but I've been busy taking pictures and working on a new look!  I've designed a new logo, come up with a color scheme for my site that I like, and my web designer, Brian Burk, has modified my portfolios site to fit this new design.  It is a work in progress, but I like where it is going.  I hope y'all like it too.  I'll be making some modifications over the coming months, and will be adding some new content to my blog/website.  But, please, give me y'all's feedback, and let me know if you like or don't like something.  My goal is to make my site and blog something that you all can really enjoy looking at, and that is full of good information for my clients, potential clients, and interested photographers!  Send me an email (chrisbailey@cbaileyphotography.com) and let me know what you think of my new look, and if there is anything you'd like to see on my site.

In other news, it is snowing like crazy in Houston!  I mean, all out blizzard...well, at least for us Houstonians!  It is very beautiful...and cold...Regan and I will be having a fire tonight, and decorating our first REAL Christmas Tree together.

I'll be posting later today and early next week with photos that I've taken in the past couple weeks, and with some photos and details on the albums that I offer.  Until then, enjoy the snow everyone!


 
 

 

 

My wonderful assistant, Georgia, is wondering why the heck we aren't out, playing in the snow.  I've assured her we will get out in the snow today.  If Houston snow weren't more like rain, we'd be out there already!

Yellowstone Academy

Well, I promised to post soon about what I am doing at Yellowstone Academy, so I thought I'd go ahead and fill y'all in on the gist of what I am doing.

In the spring of 2008, during my final semester at the University of Texas, I decided I wanted to start a photo program with a school that I used to volunteer with while I was in high school.  The name of the school is Yellowstone Academy, and it is a private, Christian school (pre-K-6th...but will be adding through 8th grades) for underprivileged children of Houston.  It is an awesome place, with an incredible and extremely dedicated staff.  Please check out Yellowstone's website here for more information about their school and students.

Sometime before my spring semester in 2008, I had read an article in National Geographic about a photographer who had taught children in Israel how to take photos.  It was very powerful, watching these young children essentially learn a new language, a new way to speak and tell their story.  Some of the photos were very beautiful, and I remember thinking, how cool would it be for the children at Yellowstone to be able to tell their stories!  How empowering.  How beautiful.  

Therefore, for my final semester's project at UT, my professor graciously allowed me to travel to Houston to spend time with and teach the 4th grade class at Yellowstone about photography.  I would go down to Houston every other week, and meet with the 4th graders in the after school program (at the time, the 4th graders were the oldest children).  We learned about the basics of photograph, composition, light, and tried to discuss photography as a language.  We used Olympus point and shoot cameras.

The following spring 2009, I continued the project, and I had mostly new kids in my class.  Again, we used the Olympus point and shoot cameras, and I did my best to teach them about photography.  I continued to give the children in my class different assignments every couple weeks, and we would meet weekly on Wednesdays.  However, I had trouble getting my students to focus on a project--they just wanted to snap pictures on the playground, and of their friends.  They took some wonderful photos during the semester, and like the year before, I put together a show for them at their school, with their framed and signed work.

However, this year I decided I would like for my students to begin thinking more about the photos that they are taking.  The children are in Middle School now, 6th grade!  And I believe they are certainly capable of learning how to use a true, manual 35mm film SLR (I also learned in middle school).  Therefore, I spent the beginning of the fall buying up used Pentax K1000s off of eBay for the students to learn with this year.  We had our first class in the middle of October, and are again meeting weekly on Wednesdays!

So wish me luck!  I'm trying to find fun ways to teach these kids the concepts of lighting, exposure, and the functions of their new cameras.  I think last week I bored them to tears, teaching about shutter speed.  This week we are just going to try and have fun.  I'm going to make a camera out of their science lab room!  A camera obscura...I'll take some photos of the day and post them online soon.