Teaching Photography in Sierra Leone...

[mbdamdg]

Hello! This summer I'll be going to Sierra Leone and teaching photography there - right now I'm working on lesson plans...Do you all have any thoughts?

You can read all about the project here: Sierra Leone Photography Project

Thanks!
Paul

 

[JDN]

You might be able to get some ideas from here:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/

Not sure what you are looking for. But anything for inspiration right?

 

[mcarnes]

Ken Rockwell. Nikon cheerleader and a true idiot to boot.

Go to Borders and look through some photo books. Buy a few that you like.

 

[Clix Pix]

Hello! This summer I'll be going to Sierra Leone and teaching photography there - right now I'm working on lesson plans...Do you all have any thoughts?l

This sounds like a wonderful and challenging summer project! Kudos to you! Will the cameras be provided to the students? P&S, SLR (film), or digital P&S and DSLR? Will the emphasis be on shooting and viewing and reflecting the world through the lens or will there also be darkroom work?

Probably the first lesson or two will need to be pretty much focused on the hardware and how to use a camera (if all the students are issued a particular camera, then a lesson would of course involve the full examination/description of that camera and all its functions and features). Then the lessons would need to get into the basics of exposure values, f/stops, aperture priority vs shutter priority, etc. I imagine that this would take several lessons. When you get into the fun part, such as composition and such, the assignments could be pretty open-ended in order to foster creativity.....

For example, an assignment could be to present three images illustrating various aspects of composition (perspective, lines, shapes, frame-within-a-frame, etc.), without any limitations on what the actual subject of the photos would be. Or, conversely, you could throw out an assignment saying, "three images using light as the subject," or "three images using water as an important element, if not the primary subject."

Take a look at Jodie Coston's online photography course (free) at http://www.morguefile.com. This might give you some good ideas, too, on how to best structure your lessons. Good luck!

Oh -- Sewanee, eh? The son and daughter of a friend of mine went to St Andrews back in the day.....

 

[miloblithe]

Rent Born into Brothels, if you haven't seen it already.

 

[JDN]

Ken Rockwell. Nikon cheerleader and a true idiot to boot.

Go to Borders and look through some photo books. Buy a few that you like.

And your justification for that comment is.....

 

[Clix Pix]

Ken Rockwell is not well-regarded by many photographers because of his arrogance, his "reviews" which are highly subjective and not terribly accurate, the fact that he sometimes puts forth a "review" on a camera or lens which he has not even seen or handled personally. While he does offer some good information on his site, for the most part it is a good idea to take a lot of what he writes with a large grain of rock salt.

 

[mbdamdg]

Will the cameras be provided to the students? P&S, SLR (film), or digital P&S and DSLR? Will the emphasis be on shooting and viewing and reflecting the world through the lens or will there also be darkroom work?

We're hoping to have everything digital to facilitate sharing the images online (and since the group over there is working to eliminate the "digital divide.") Hopefully we'll be using digital P&S - I'd love to walk in with a box of DSLR's, but right now that just isn't cost effective. We still have to find enough point and shoots - we're on an incredibly tight budget and have to come up with someone to donate the cameras. If worse comes to worse we'll shoot 35mm film and set up a mini-darkroom & scan the film, although I would definitely prefer to be all digital. I'll be using a DSLR as my primary camera. I might shoot some medium format film as well - not really sure yet.

Thanks for the lesson ideas - I'm studying photography myself, but it's a whole different world teaching it in a developing country.

Ah yes St. Andrews - I'm actually giving a presentation there next week about using technology in solving problems in developing nations....small world.

Born into Brothels - quite a moving film. I found it very inspiring.

 

[mbdamdg]

Ken Rockwell is not well-regarded by many photographers because of his arrogance, his "reviews" which are highly subjective and not terribly accurate, the fact that he sometimes puts forth a "review" on a camera or lens which he has not even seen or handled personally. While he does offer some good information on his site, for the most part it is a good idea to take a lot of what he writes with a large grain of rock salt.

For me, it's just a camera, a way of capturing a moment in time - so why have all these arguments over different systems? I'll let someone else argue while I actually take pictures. I usually use Nikon, but I'll use whatever will get the job done - and whatever I can get my hands on, given the financial realities of being in college....

 

[mcarnes]

For me, it's just a camera, a way of capturing a moment in time - so why have all these arguments over different systems? I'll let someone else argue while I actually take pictures. I usually use Nikon, but I'll use whatever will get the job done - and whatever I can get my hands on, given the financial realities of being in college....

Photography is both an art and craft. You cannot forget the craft part (i.e. gear).

Ansel Adams, arguably the grandfather of modern photography, was *the* technical guru of his time.

 

[JDN]

Ken Rockwell is not well-regarded by many photographers because of his arrogance, his "reviews" which are highly subjective and not terribly accurate, the fact that he sometimes puts forth a "review" on a camera or lens which he has not even seen or handled personally. While he does offer some good information on his site, for the most part it is a good idea to take a lot of what he writes with a large grain of rock salt.

Yeh i do agree. Having read through nearly his entire sight he does have a lot of useful stuff, perfect for someone like me. However some of his reviews seem somewhat arrogant (as does some of the non-technical advice). He certainly does take some dam good photos though.


(sorry to hi-jack kinda. will stop talk of KR now)