NYT Learning Blog - Ethnography Curriculum

Photography is a really wonderful tool for teaching art, science, and humanities.
"How do writers create or defy popular images of settings? What is ethnography, and how can it be used to reveal the meanings of places? In this lesson, students consider the power of place in their own lives, and then execute an ethnographic research project that dispels clichéd notions about where they live."
Click here for the curriculum
and
Click here for a similar curriculum over at the California Council for the Humanities.
Both are great.

Finessing Final Cut Pro - Filters

Back in the day when I was a film student, I used to attend luncheons at Tiffen. For those who don't know, they are the premiere filter company for still photography and motion pictures. At these informal gatherings I learned all sorts of tricks about in camera color correction (81 EF anyone?), gradation, image enhancement, polarizing, etc.
Unfortunately for teachers/students these filters are expensive and are sometimes not available in the same sizes as prosumer cameras. They also require some in depth experimentation that pre-professionals are not always willing to do.
I recently found out that Tiffen has developed a digital suite of filters for use in Photoshop, Aperture, and Final Cut Pro. Tiffen DFX can be thought of as a toolkit that will encourage students to experiment. I can also see some nice applications in a Physics class - to teach about how filtration can affect light. And for the camera pro's out there, there's even a split diopter option that will allow you to re-create a shallow depth of field.
These filters are available for $100 for the still programs and $600 for FCP and well worth the investment. It's possible that you could even get an educational discount if you sent them a note from your school.
Oh, and if you're program is strapped for cash, here's a link to an article over at Creative Cow with some free Final Cut Pro plugins. Nothing as extensive as Tiffen's DFX, but some fun stuff.

Video Geotagging

I've been doing research for an idea/project I'm putting together and thought I'd share a couple of links. This project won't happen until the fall, so the technology is sure to change somewhat between now and then. This makes for interesting research. Usually I'm looking for the current/future trends, but this time I'm trying to look at what's been done in 'recent' history.

The topic is basically mapping - how are people using mapping to present photos and video? (The deeper question becomes, of course, why would you? I should have more answers once my research is done.) There are some fascinating mashups, some helpful technologies and also some things that have not happened yet, but should. Here's just a few links:
A nice list of geotagging definitions and some lesson plans and other resources to get you started is here.
Flickr shows up on google maps, but Panoramio is another company doing more landscape and beauty shots.
I love this project, which sought funding at donorschoose.org last year. It won't be completed until May.
I went to a presentation earlier this week by FoundSF.org which is using MediaWiki to collect resources and design it's site. Should be even more and more exciting stuff over the next few months. It also looks like an excellent site for a class/after school program to use for research and then add their own contributions. And MediaWiki is an EXCELLENT tool with lots of potential for those willing to do their open source homework.
Actually, I've been quite surprised to see all that Google* is doing and others (like Wikipedia, sadly) are not. A lot of the information I'm finding is from 2008 all the way back to 2006. I wonder why these technologies aren't more widely used? Maybe it's just too much time and research!

* Google geotagged YouTube in 2007, Flickr added video geotagging in 2008, for example.

The Contest Has Launched

Youth: sign up to upload your video and vote for your favorites!
iTeachers: help your youth to create videos and posters and enter them.
Deadline is April 15 - tax day!

MO Project
MO Project is a contest about a movement. Californians are making neighborhoods healthier and we want to hear from you. Join in! Think about what's working, what's not working, and how to make it better. Your short films and posters will be shown to state and local representatives to help shape future funding and laws.

Make a short film or a poster and enter today!

Crossplatform Application for your Digital Photos

Courtesy of Lifehacker Downloads : Shape Collage is a Seriously Fun Photo Collage Application: "Windows/Mac/Linux (all platforms with Java): Desktop application Shape Collage creates customized photo collages with advanced options that will have you creating fun posters in seconds."

Using Digital to Make the "Old" Technology - Books

What Kids Can Do is a wonderful non-profit in Road Island that is helping kids to publish amazing books. Look. See. Be Inspired.

A little tutorial on our old friend GIMP

Image Editing: Apply Antique Color Tones to a Photograph: "Antique photographs have a certain warmth to them imparted by the development process that can't be replicated by simply dumping the color data from a photograph. At wiikiHow there is a tutorial on using GIMP, a free Photoshop alternative, to take the rich tones from an old photograph and apply them to a brand new photo. The process works with both black and white and sepia toned photographs, and can easily be adapted from the given steps to work with Photoshop too. The above image is a blend of the before and after sample photo from the tutorial. If you don't have any antique photos handy, the tutorial covers where to find public domain images to lift tone samples from. If you're looking to take the opposite route and inject color into a black and white photography check out how to color black and white photos and isolate colors for emphasis."

Cool Software - Mac Only

Create Polaroid™-like pictures over at the Poladroid Project.
Samples are here

Fun Idea for P2P Learning

This is a nice little lesson plan that has 6th Graders making a project for 2nd Graders. I do wish there was a link to some student samples...

Techlearning :Making Flip Books to Improve Reading : "Each sixth grade child will take a basic picture book and turn it into a digital picture book using GarageBand, iTunes, scanners, and iMovie."

How to Reduce Camera Shake - 6 Techniques

How to Reduce Camera Shake - 6 Techniques: "In this post photographer Natalie Norton explores 6 ways you can hand hold lenses at low apertures and low shutter speeds and still avoid blurry images caused by camera shake."
- Thanks Lifehacker

Disposable Camera Projects

Sometimes I find that my students take better pictures with disposable cameras than with digital cameras. (It's all still digital to me - I have the images put onto CD and import them into the computer regardless of origination.)

So I thought I'd do some research to find some cool new projects that would incorporate the 'old' technology of film while using a typical educator's budget. (Disposable cameras are almost 30 years old, after all.) Here's what I found:
stranger photos have happened
cameramail cameras
camera belt
diy ring flash
add a fisheye
kite camera
stereo camera in stereo
(my friend did this recently with her students - absolutely brilliant work)
double take camera
diy high speed photography
or, buy a kit for $120
or, curiously strong diy

And one cool project for a 'disposable' video camera. (Now known as flip cameras.)
camcorder rocket project

DIY Resource

Looking for some ideas for a student project with disposable cameras, I found this site: Camera Hacker: Hacks.
Some of the info is old, but there are some useful tutorials on building soft lights, and both bicycle and car camera mounts.

Photography Contest - June 17th Deadline

Artists Wanted is proud to announce EXPOSURE: a nationwide open call for
photography! All photographers will have their own online portfolio &
receive a complimentary copy of JPG Magazine.

The Top Photographers will be selected by New York Times Photo Editor
Patrick Witty, Supermodel and Fashion Icon Tiiu Kuik, and NYC Gallery
Owner David Kesting for the following award opportunities:

- The Grand Prize: The Top Photographer will have their work presented
in a massive scale photo show on buildings in the top New York City
Art Districts: Chelsea, Dumbo and Williamsburg. Their work will also
be featured at an Opening Event at the Leo Kesting Gallery in
Manhattan on August 9th and they will receive: $2,008 cash, a
full-press promotional campaign and a feature in our upcoming
publication, "The Annual".

- Student Award: The Top Student Photographer will receive a $1,000
scholarship; a feature in "The Annual" and their work will be
presented at the Opening Event.

- Educator's Grant: The Educator of the Top Student Photographer will
receive a $500 discretionary grant and a feature in "The Annual" for
Teaching Excellence.

- People's Choice Award: The public will vote on all the portfolios on
our site and select their Favorite Artist. The People's Choice
Photographer will receive a $500 grant; a feature in "The Annual" and
their work will be presented at the Opening Event.

The Deadline is June 17th.

Submit your best work at:http://www.artistswanted.org/exposure

Lifehacker: Stitch Photos into Panoramas with Free Software

"You can get decent photos out of a standard, consumer-grade digital camera, but a little post-processing can turn them into fantastic wide-angle landscapes. You don't need to be one of those people who can explain the concept of lateral chromatic aberration to get truly eye-catching digital pictures. With a few shutter clicks and some free, cross-platform software, you can easily mesh standard digi-cam shots into true landscapes, fix one photo's deficiencies with another, and create layered photo collages. Let's take a look at how to use the free, open source application Hugin to make two basic kinds of panoramas."

Read More Here...

Media Management Tip - Photos

Courtesy of the great folks at Techlearning, a Renaming Photos
how-to for both Mac and PC.

(FYI: On the Mac, you can also use Automator for this task and many others, but it's a little more complicated.)