Worth a 1,000 Words - Art & Photography

This week is spirit week at my school. Unlike most schools we wear uniforms during the overall school year so spirit week is usually a great time to dress down and have fun, but not this year. So far this week it’s seemed like very few people have dressed according to the days or even had fun with the idea. I always try to make at least a small effort to plan out what I’m going to wear and follow through with it on the specified day. I do have to admit that the themes this year were lacking some spirit themselves, but that’s not really what it’s about. The themes for our spirit week are as follows

Monday-Spirit Day (dress in our school colors)
Tuesday- Favorite Teacher Day (dress like your favorite teacher)
Wednesday- Homeroom Theme Day (each homeroom chooses a theme and everyone from the room dresses in that theme)
Thursday- Walk-A-Thon (dress comfy for our annual walk-a-thon to raise money)
Friday-Dress Down for Charity (dress down for 2$ all proceeds go to a charity)

Granted the themes aren’t that terrible, but with the restrictions the administration puts on dress code the level of creativity almost plummets to zero. Some people think of it as a challenge to fit the theme while still obeying rules, some totally disregard the rules and wear whatever they want, but most see the challenge and decide to just wear their uniforms. When I walk through school during a spirit week I want to see class colors EVERYWHERE and almost everybody participating, but at my school that’s just not how it is. As much as people blame the Student Council for not coming up with creative themes it’s really the student’s activity and motivation that makes a spirit week truly shine.

I remember my 9th grade spirit week particularly for one reason. Walking down the halls I saw the simple words “The Spirit is Dead” written on a piece of lined paper in pencil and taped to the wall. The effort that it took to write and hang up that sign could have went to help the student council plan better ideas for spirit week. Being a Catholic school I do realize that our rules are much stricter than most schools, but students should see that as a challenge and not an impediment. We have another spirit week during February, and I hope that more people will take advantage of it. The only people who are to blame for the loss of spirit are the people who walk around without any.

Challenge of the Week: ROCK SPIRIT WEEK

Happy Photographing!
Cate

This Friday at my school we had our annual under the lights soccer game. The girls varsity played at 5:30 and then the boys varsity game started at 7:30. I’m a huge fan of making shirts so when my friend, who plays on the boys varsity team, asked if I would make him a shirt I was happy to say yes. When I make a shirt I want to make sure that it looks the best out of everyone who is making shirts. The first thing I do is come up with a shirt design. My friend’s last name is Ford and his number is 21, so I decided to make the back of the shirt look like a Jersey. I have a lot of word stencils and paint, but I wanted to make this shirt really cool because I knew a lot of people were going to be making shirts. My friend Kelsey and I started brainstorming on ideas for the shirts and the main thing we wanted was glitter, lots and lots of glitter! I went to a craft store and got glitter in my school’s colors, shirts, and glitter fabric glue. We knew that we wanted the back to look like a jersey, but we weren’t really sure what we were going to do with the front. As we were making the shirts we made up an imaginary shirt contest, which was really funny. Once we finished the back we decided to just put our school abbreviation and a soccer ball on the front. Below is a picture of us watching the game, and I also made a list of tips on how to make an awesome sparkly shirt for yourself. Oh and p.s. everyone loved these shirts and they really weren’t too much work once we got the hang of what we were doing, so if you have a shirt to make I suggest going this route.

TIPS
-Use glitter that is really fine, huge sparkles don’t stick well
-Get a glue that is meant for fabric
-Allow a whole day for drying in between sides
-Don’t bother painting where the sparkles are going, just use the glue as paint with the stencils
-Don’t be afraid to make your own stencils, I made the numbers on the computer and then printed them and cut them out with a razor
-Have Fun!

Challenge of the Week: Show everyone up at school by making a totally amazing sparkly shirt.

Happy Photographing!
Cate

So last week I gave a brief overview of what lomography is. Hopefully everyone took some time to look at the lomography website and peek at all the awesome things they have to offer.  I’ve taken some of my favorite items that they have in the shop and given a brief rundown on what they do and what I think of them. Hopefully after reading you’ll be able to jump right into lomography. So without further ado I’d like to introduce…

Holga
The Holga is probably one of the most well known of all the plastic cameras. It comes in a few different colors (red, black, green, and multicolor). My friend has the multicolor and it’s really really cool. All the Holgas come with colored flashes, which is really neat. The Holga uses 120 film, but you can buy adapters so that you can use 35mm film. Holga’s are known for their dreamy colors and spontaneous light leaks. Because the camera is made out of plastic something there are holes that allow light to leak in. Some cameras work fine, but others have all sorts of crazy problems. The beauty of Holga’s and lomography is that any kind of abnormality only adds to the authenticity of picture. Try experimenting with expired film and see what kind of crazy images you can come up with.

Diana
I personally own a Diana and love it with my whole heart. Like the Holga the Diana takes 120 film, but it can’t also use 35mm film. Dressed in a dreamy blue color, Diana’s don’t come with a color flash, but you can buy the DianaF+, which comes with a flash that has colored filters to go with it. My personal favorite thing about the Diana is that it has a pinhole setting. I can easily switch between shooting regular pictures and pinhole pictures. Diana’s can also remove their lenses and get different ones. I have a fish eye, wide angle, macro, and regular 55mm. All of the lenses play up the Diana’s most well known feature of vignetting. Vignetting is when the edges of a photo fade to black almost creating a fuzzy black border around the whole image. This feature allows you to take very soft fairytale like images with ease.

SuperSampler
Funnest camera I’ve ever owned. Forget about creating a composition, there isn’t even a view finder! You basically have to guess where you’re taking the picture and cross your fingers as to the results. The camera shoots on 35mm film that ends up being broken up into 4 sections. The camera has four lenses that take four pictures in concession. Once the shutter is released the camera will capture whatever action is going on in front of it by taking four pictures. This camera has no flash so it can only be used outside on a sunny day, but it’s a great way to forget about rules and just have fun.

Colored Ring Flash
One of my favorite lomography accessories is the colored ring flash. If you’ve never seen a ring flash is latches on to the front of the camera and has 4 flashes positioned in a circle around the lens. The position of the flashes allows the whole subject to be covered by the flash. The colored ring flash comes with a bunch of great colors gels that go over the flashes to create amazing colors in your photos. Another cool thing about this flash is that with some crafting it can work on most regular DSRL/SLR cameras.

Books and Other Paraphernalia
My favorite thing about ordering from Lomography.com is getting the books that come with most of the packages. The books are loaded with all sorts of fun facts and pictures from people all over the world. My favorite book is the one that comes with the DianaF+. The stories and photos that it has are amazing and it even has interviews with some well known photographers who use the Diana on a regular basis. Also from the website you can order film, bags, and photo albums. Although orders can take up to a week to come in I’ve never gotten in a order that didn’t bring a smile to my face.

Challenge of the Week: Buy a cheap lomography camera. If ordering online isn’t an option most lomography products are being sold at Urban Outfitters. Check your local store to see if they have any cameras that interest you.

Happy Photographing!
Cate