As the weeks of classes progress, so do the skills of the students. We’ve talked to them about aperture, shutter speed, concepts in photos, composition, landscapes, portraits. Practice makes perfect and as you can see from this collection of images, the students continue to make progress and the photos just keep getting better.
Fresh Eyes Project has been offering classes to New Mexico “at risk” youth for close to 9 years now. Because we have had amazing success and overwhelming response from the students who participate, the community we serve and the staff at the individual facilities that we work in, Fresh Eyes is putting our best efforts behind expanding our program in order to add more semesters to the year. We will be bumping up our fundraising efforts and looking for grants and other donor supporters in order to move this project forward. If you, or anyone you know has a particular passion for changing the world on the local level, let them know about The Fresh Eyes Photography Project and tell them to get involved.
On a business note, at our last board meeting, the Fresh Eyes Board approved two new board members bringing our total board member count up to 8. Rick Scibelli, a New Mexico photographer and publisher of Edible San Juan Mountains brings a wealth of photographic expertise, business support and community connections to the project. Ian Klink, MBA,PhD, our new business adviser will keep us informed of rules and regulations we need to follow as well as advising us in best business practices. Ian currently lives in Oakland, California and works for Algert Coldiron Investors but has family ties to New Mexico. We welcome Rick and Ian.
Fresh Eyes winter semester is off to a rolling start with some pretty awesome images by the students from both Camino Nuevo and YDDC (Youth Diagnostic & Development Center) With the addition of two new instructors, Bob Ayres and Paul Littman and the return of Kimberly Higgins and Executive Director, Karen McCullough the groups seem more inspired than ever. I mean, when you look at their work from the first three weeks, you wonder where they have to go with it. Stay tuned! You will be surprised and amazed at how much these young people progress over the 10 weeks they are taking the class. Here is some of their most recent work. As you can see, they all did a little meditating on their subjects, which created focus which ended up in a strengthened vision. Wow! I’m impressed.
We are all looking forward to starting the new semester of Fresh Eyes on January 7, 2012. We’ll be adding two new volunteers, Bob Ayre and Paul Littman, both members of the Enchanted Lens Camera Club. Adding new perspectives to the program will enrich our program even more. Until then, we wish you all a Happy Holiday Season!
Saturday marked the end of the fall semester for the Fresh Eyes Photography groups from YDDC and Camino Nuevo. The students were presented with their portfolio’s that included a CD of the photos they had taken during the semester, a DVD compilation of the entire groups work as well as a prints of their chosen work and a certificate of accomplishment. The Camino class brought parents along as their guests. Another successful semester for the Fresh Eyes Photography Project. Below are some of the pictures they deemed important enough to be included in their final portfolios.
Today the students learned about elements that make up a good composition in photographs as well as how to convey meaning when you take a picture. Here are some samples of today’s work.
To see, really see, you have to use your senses and along with that your intellect and emotions. Sometimes you must look beyond the thing itself to discover what is going on around you. You must open your eyes and release your imagination in order to see and capture those feelings with your camera.
Our lesson this week was on aperture. This lesson combined with last weeks class on shutter speed began stretching the boundaries of what the students “see” and how they “see” it. Learning how to adjust the cameras in manual mode takes a lot of practice. We spent our day shooting photos while adjusting both the shutter speed and aperture to achieve the desired effect. Today’s class took the students beyond simple point and shoot to achieve results that surprised even them..
Today we really saw the beginning of how to control our cameras to take better pictures.
Photography is the art of writing with light. No light, basically no photo. In this weeks class we learned about how shutter speed controls the amount of light that enters the camera. The kids always enjoy this class because we get to work with flashlights and glow sticks. They come up with some pretty creative solutions to writing with light. Below are some of the samples of this weeks work. While many of these photos never make it to their final portfolios, they are always of source of inspiration for me as the students begin to see the relationship between light, the shutter and sparking their creativity.
Welcome to the Fresh Eyes Photography. New classes have started at YDDC and Camino Nuevo that will be in session for the next 9 weeks. The introductory class was held last Saturday, July 30. In the class we talked about the history of photography and watched videos of the previous classes. We discussed class expectations and took a look at how to use the cameras. In order to simply get the feel for how the cameras operated, we spent about an hour taking photos. Here are some of the first photos from these two groups. Next week we’ll be working on how to use the shutter speed for creative control and we’ll be experimenting with light writing. Check in next week for more.
