CAS Diary

Term 1

Creative: Photography

Lesson time: 2h

Lesson 1

In our first CAS lesson we met our supervisors which were, Mr. Foley and Jeremy (an after school activity teacher). Mr. Foley is the head of art and photography and he gave us a talk on the subject.

Cameras were given out to us to look at, and we were shown how to use them. This was necessary, due to it been the first time coming in contact with this type of camera. (name type of camera). We were also handed a sheet that told us all the different parts of the camera, such as the lens, and how they work.

We were then shown the dark room, and the developing process was explained and shown to us. This was very interesting.

At the end of the lesson I was quite excited, because the lesson had been very interesting, and the things that we were going to through out the term sounded a lot of fun.

Lesson 2

In this lesson we went around the school grounds with a partner, taking pictures in different areas, such as different light areas, and so on. This was a task to practice our photography techniques and to get familiar with the cameras. We had five goes each, and I took pictures, inside a room, outside on the football pitch, under some trees, a picture of the sky and a picture of somebody running. My partner also took pictures in the same surroundings.

After taking the pictures, we went to the dark room to develop our photos. Due to technical  reasons, we can only take black and white photos. (describe process).

In this lesson I conversed  a lot with my partner and I got to know him a lot better. Lots of thoughts on taking the pictures were shared, which helped a great deal.

Lesson 3

It was now time for us to go into the nature and do the real thing, except we were short on films, due to school budget problems. We were taken to a nearby lake which is surrounded by trees and bushes. The lake was not very clean, but was still a nice view. A few families of ducks lived on the lake.

The group enjoyed itself a great deal as a whole. I think it was more the fact that we were in a lake taking pictures and not in school writing, which, made everybody happy.

I got to know a lot better my group and my group got to know me better as well. A lot of interacting was present between us, because we used each other to take pictures, i.e. group pictures.

After all the fun it was time to go back to school. What I did know is that everybody had had a good CAS lesson, and it was enjoyed immensely by the group.

Lesson 4

In this lesson it was our second time in the dark room, but this time things had to be done extra carefully because we had to make sure the pictures were developed properly. This lesson was spent developing. Although it was not very active, we learnt that in order to develop well you have to be concentrated, precise with timing and sensible. If these factors are not taken seriously, then chaos can arise, and this is very bad because the equipment is very expensive and they are not toys.

We learnt how to cooperate with each other, and this was a difficult task, because we are all different, meaning we have different ways of doing things. In this lesson all our different ways of doing things had to become one. This took a lot of patience from us all, and we still managed to enjoy ourselves.

The end products were okay, some excellent photos, some bad ones, but mainly okay.

Lesson 5

In this lesson we went to El Angel, which is, urbanization, where the local natives accommodate themselves. In this urbanization there is a very nice communal recreation area, containing flower beds, ponds sitting areas, trees, lots of natural sites, very good for photography. We took pictures of people sitting in the trees, pictures of flower beds and of the ponds because they were very beautiful.

Again a lot of thoughts and ideas were brought up when taking the pictures. This was very good because the ideas that were mentioned help people decide how and of what to take their pictures.

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Lesson 6

This lesson we developed the pictures we took at El Angel, but we did not develop them as we did before. This time we had to make test strips for the photographic paper, this enables us to see how much light should be exposed to the paper. The more light exposed the darker the picture. It is just a more professional way of developing pictures, to get a better quality picture.

The lesson was not as exciting because we did not really learn anything new, and we were not left alone, to develop our pictures, ...

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