Self Portrait and Open assignments

Coral was the first to send in his assignments so I will post his now and add to the post as I get everyone's photos. I shot my open assignment today, I will work on it and post it with my self portrait some tomorrow or Saturday. I am very impressed with Coral's self portrait, we were talking about it the other day and he told me something that is really important for everyone to know. He admitted that he got the idea from the internet. I want you guys to know that finding ideas on the internet is a great idea. I frequently turn to other photographers work for inspiration. The chances of your photos or my photos coming out just like the one you saw online is slim. Take and idea and make it your own! The more photos you look at the better photographer you will become. My process usually involves doing an image search for what I am doing, finding a handful of ideas that I like, writing down the ideas and mulling over them for a day or two until I have something solid pictured to go off of.


Photos by Coral A.

photo by Jamie Moore Chapel



photos by Miriam Morales



photos by Amy Herrmann


Photos by Jack Chapel


Photo by Jamie and Jack Chapel (yes we cheated a bit by using an old photos, sorry)



Photos by Anna Cruz

Flower! Flowers! Flowers!

So we only had two of you show up to shoot flowers, bummer! But so great for the two that came. Not only did we have some beautiful light (no rain!), but the boys got all the flowers to themselves and had access to all of the Chapel Canon lenses. I guess you guys missed out! Anyhow, I have the first few flower photo to post and will put up more as I get them.

Photos by Coral A.

Photos by PJ Page

Photos by Amanda Page



Photos by Jamie Moore Chapel

Meeting over Break

I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be meeting with a couple students over break. We will be meeting on Tuesday at noon at Mr.C classroom. We will be photographing flowers with the new cameras. I can take up to four students and two spots are already taken. Please email me jamie@jamiemoorephotography.com to let me know if you are interested in coming.

Assignment #4

We have our first photos for assignment #4 turned in! You guys are more than welcome to turn in as many "open" photos as you like.


Photos by Amanda Page

Assignment #3 and #4

Ok photo geeks, we did not have a lot of time to go over the assignments so I have posted them below. Mr. Chapel will start taking sign ups to reserve cameras in the morning. I encourage all of you to take advantage of this. The more you use the camera the more comfortable you will be with them. Plus you have more variety with what you can do with them as opposed to your point and shoot cameras.

#3 Self-Portrait
So people dread self portraits, but they can be very fun and creative if you think it through. The one thing that I ask that you not turn in is holding your camera out with one hand and taking your photo that way. We have all done it with our friends, but that does not work for this assignment. If you need to set everything up and have someone else take the photo that is fine or you can use a self timer if you are alone.

Be creative here, this does not necessary have to be a photo of your face... you figure that one out!

Here is a link to a site that assigns self portraits to its members, check them out (you might enjoy looking through the entire site).
Self Portrait III
Self Portrait V


#4 Open Assignment
Take a photo of whatever you like. Try and use some of the things we have talked about in class. Look as a bunch of photos before you shoot to help get you in a creative mood. And remember SHOOT A LOT! The more photos you take the better you will become.

SLR Basics

Small f/stops (like f/11, f/16, f/22) yield greater depth of field (more focus).
You might use these apertures if you were shooting landscapes, large groups of people or just shooting on a very bright day.


Large f/stops (like f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8) yield less depth of field (less focus).
You might use these apertures if you have a distracting background that you want to blur out, in a low light situations or to photograph a single subject. Many photographers like to shoot with larger apertures because they like the background effect.


Fast shutter speeds (like 1/500 and above) will freeze action.
Your would use this setting when you are photographing something fast moving or when you are photographing a bright scene.


Slow shutter speeds (like 1/8 and below) will show movement.
Camera shake will be apparent if you hand hold you camera with a slow shutter speed. Most people use tripods when shooting at 1/60 or slower. You would use this setting if you want to show movement, to create drama or when shooting in a low light situation.



The rule of thumb for hand holding your camera:
Don't shoot at a shutter speed less than the focal length of your lens. For example, if I was shooting with a 200mm lens then I would not hand hold any photos with an exposure of 1/250 or less. If I was shooting a 50mm lens I would not hand hold a photo with an exposure of 1/60 or less.

There are a number of settings on the check out cameras to choose from.
M or manual would require the photographer to choose all the settings.
P or Program will choose both the shutter speed and aperture for the scene you are choosing
AV or Aperture Priority allows you to choose your aperture and the camera chooses the shutter speed.
TV or Shutter Priority allows you to choose your shutter speed and the camera chooses the shutter.

All of these modes except Manual will choose the correct exposure for the scene you are shooting. In camera meters are a great thing, but don't always get it right. Your camera will always take the scene you are shooting and assume that the density is middle gray. This works a lot of the time, but if you are shooting something that is mainly white then your camera will still shoot it like it gray making your photo underexposed or too dark. If you are shooting a scene that is mostly black then your camera will overexpose or make your photo too light.

For now all the check out cameras will be set at ISO 500 until we go over the uses for changing your ISO.

30 minutes in a room photos

Ok, so I did not get photos from any students this week. I am hoping you will bring them to our meeting this afternoon. I did the assignment this morning and chose to shoot in the kitchen. Here are mine, if anyone chooses to bring their photos to photo club then I can post them tonight.



Photos by Jamie Moore Chapel



Photos by Miriam Morales

Assignment #2

30 minutes locked in a room

The goal of the next assignment if to teach you guys that it is ok to take lots and lots of photos. Professional photographers shoot A LOT of film, that is one of the ways to get great shots. The other goal of the assignment is to teach you to see everyday things differently. Check out the links in the previous blogs and use some of the techniques described.

So for your assignment lock yourself in a room for 30 minutes and take a least 30 photos (the more you take the better they will be) Email your three best shots to jamie@jamiemoorephotography.com by Sunday at 5pm. Try to think outside of the box and don't be afraid to try new things, get close, crop into your subjects, shoot at funky angles.

Ms. Herrmann had already shot her assignment and I thought they were great examples of what you can do with things you see everyday.

Big N' Green

Ok so I have a few photos that were turned in for big and green. Thank you to those of you that did the assignment and emailed it over. Mr. C and I had some family stuff happening this weekend, so I will shoot mine tomorrow and post it when it is done. We will talk about the photos tomorrow in photo club. Don't forget to bring in a photo that you like from the internet or from a magazine and also be sure to bring in the cameras that you will be using.

Photo by Coral Aiello

Photo by Connie Diaz

Photo by Amy Herrmann

Photo by Maria Pluff

Photo by Miriam Morales

Photo by Jack Chapel

Photo by Jamie Moore Chapel