Happy Fall Break Everyone!
TOC
- Street Photography
- Points Update
- Leaderboard
- Couchsurfing Fall Break
- Fall Break Movie Suggestions
- Scantron Midterm Results
- EC: Time Travel
- Happy Fall Break!
1. Street Photography
Speaking of photography – were we speaking of photography? Well, I guess we are now.
There are many styles of photography: Sports, Fashion, Portraiture (including our beloved “Environmental Portraits”), Art, Documentary, Journalism, Macro, Astro, Weddings, Products, and more.
One form that I haven’t really tried before, but have been enjoying for about a year now is Street Photography. There are different styles and approaches to Street Photo: some are more about composition and lighting, some are more about moments. Some people might use telephoto lenses to zoom in on people, but I think a lot of Street Photographers prefer slightly wide angle lenses like a 35mm (full-frame equivalent, so 20 or 23mm for an APS-C camera, etc). You have to be close to people to work with this focal length which can be challenging, but a focal length like this has a very present feeling, versus the remove of a long lens’ compressed space.
If you’re looking for something to do wherever you are over break, you could take an hour, or half a day, wander around, and shoot pix of places with interesting light as people pass through, or of human moments that you happen to encounter. You could also take pix of the people you are with, but instead of smiling for Instagram, see if you can capture candid, authentic moments. Oh yeah, back in the “A” part of the class I wanted to have a discussion of Authenticity and, or versus, Performance. We ran out of time. Maybe we can do that in “C”. Anyway, see if you can capture authentic moments. They don’t have to be huge moments, they can be simple and small. They can be quite beautiful. If you have a few minutes over break, you might give it a try.
I’ve included a few of my Street Photo images in this post. Since I tend to make a lot of websites, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that I have a website of Street Photography:
Oh, I’ve also been riding LA Metro rail and walking around LA a lot, things I’ve never done before. I’ve lived in LA most of my life and been to many places, but it’s always been by car, just sort of leaving one place and dropping into another. I’m really enjoying the publicness of Metro and the cadence of The Street. Places like Hollywood Blvd or the Venice Beach Boardwalk are overflowing with characters and activity. They’re rich in color and relatively easy places to shoot street photo. Other places can be a bit less easy, but every place so far has been interesting.
Our friend Vivian Maier is a great example of a Street Photographer. There are many others.
2. Points Update
All points through B8 are now up on BeachBoard. So far we’ve had 536 points possible. Here’s how many points you should have to be on track for each grade level, and how many peeps are currently on track for that grade:
- 482 points = 90% = on track for final grade of “A” – 78 peeps
- 429 points = 80% = on track for final grade of “B” – 15 peeps
- 375 points = 70% = on track for final grade of “C” – 11 peeps
- 322 points = 60% = on track for final grade of “D” – 5 peeps
- 321 points & below = on track for final grade of “F” – 15 peeps
Class GPA this week = 3.10 (it was 3.18 two weeks ago)
A few people did slip this week from each grade level to the one below. I know you’re excited for Fall Break, but I hope you’ll finish strong and try to move up a letter instead of down one.
3. Leaderboard
- Erica Lander, 692
- Audrey Resella, 683
- Hope Kindred, 631
- Brian Freeman, 614
- Totyana Tottress, 601
- Hailey Hairrell, 601
- Sienna Sanchez, 596
- Brayden Rios, 551
- Allison Sanchez, 582
- Anthony Hokenson, 580
4. Couchsurfing Fall Break & Beyond…
I encouraged you to not only Do Homework, Sleep, and Work over Fall Break. To try to do something special. Small special is plenty. But try to create a moment for yourself. Something to mark this time in your life and to share experiences with a roommate or friend.
Get on a bus, or in a car, and go someplace!
As a starving student hungry for interaction and authentic experience, one great way to travel cheap and also meet people you otherwise might not meet is to try Couchsurfing. It’s a website that lets you ask for a place to sleep, or offer one, or both. Kind of like Airbnb, but with no money involved. Instead, the exchange is purely for social interaction. There aren’t any requirements, but if you stayed at someone’s place, maybe you’d cook a meal there.
Since most of you are probably living in dorms, or apartments, or at home, you might not be able to host people right now. I have, and it’s pretty cool. Maybe you’ll host one day. But for now, it’s a great place to find locals in different cities in California, America, and the World, that you can stay with.
Even if you won’t be using it for Fall Break, you might make a profile now, so you’ll have it ready for your big Winter Break adventure. Or for when you’re studying abroad next year! 😀
5. Fall Break Movie Suggestions
Looking for something to watch over Fall Break? I’ll suggest Hal Hartley‘s trilogy, The Grim Family Saga.
- Henry Fool, 1997
- Fay Grim, 2006
- Ned Rifle, 2014
6. Scantron Midterm Results
I had a chance to go over to AS-120 and run all of your Scantron 882-E forms through the scanner. Everyone did great! Full results info, and a bunch of cool samples are here:
7. EC: Time Travel
This is an optional EC you might like to do over Fall Break. But, of course, I’m not so cruel as to make something due over break! So if you’d like to do this one, it’ll be due the Sunday night after we come back from break – Sunday, 2 December 2018 @ 11:59 pm. Up to +35 points of EC.
Our Time Travel EC is inspired by Kip Fulbeck’s exhibition Hapa.me at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles earlier this year:
The word “hapa” is the Hawaiian transliteration of the English word “half.” Much of its current usage derives from the phrase hapa haole, meaning “half white.” The phrase was originally coined by native Hawaiians to describe the mixed offspring resulting from encounters between islanders and White settlers. In subsequent years, hapa (or Hapa) has come into popular usage away from the islands, most frequently embraced by Asian/Pacific Islander Americans of mixed descent.
Artist Kip Fulbeck created The Hapa Project in 2001, traveling the country to photograph over 1,200 volunteers who identified as Hapa. The Hapa Project’s goal was to promote awareness and recognition of the millions of Hapas in the United States; to give voice to multiracial people and other previously ignored ethnic groups; to dispel myths around exoticism, hybrid superiority, and racial homogeneity; and to foster positive identity formation in multiracial children.
Since then, America’s mixed-race population has grown exponentially, with awareness of mixed-race issues dramatically increasing alongside. Fulbeck addresses this progress with his highly anticipated follow-up project, hapa.me. In the new exhibition, the original photographs and statements from the 2006 exhibition are paired with contemporary portraits of the same individuals and newly written statements, showing not only their physical changes over 15 years, but also their changes in perspective and outlook on the world.
In Fulbek’s case, he’s photographed portraits of the same person 15 years apart, and also had them write something of their life in each time.
Your Time Travel challenge is to find an old photo of yourself, and then take a new photo of yourself today in as close a pose and setting to the original as possible. Unlike Fulbek’s project, you won’t be able to get writing from your earlier self, but you can make your best effort to look at the old photo and try to place yourself in the body and life of your earlier self and see if you can remember something of that reality to write about. And then you can write something about your life today.
I thought Fall Break might be a nice time for this activity since some of you will be going home and might be able to dig up old photos there. If you’re not going home, you might email peeps for pix, search through your phone or Facebook, etc.
Make a diptych (2-panel artwork) of the 2 photos and 2 texts and post them as a new blog post on your WordPress.
Happy Time Traveling!
8. Happy Fall Break!
Have a great Fall Break everyone!
Be safe.
Have fun.
Do something special.
Be thankful for being alive.
~ Glenn
