Pat's passion for photography is obvious as soon as he starts talking about his images. A staff photographer for the Arizona Republic for the past 8 years, Patrick Shannahan has been doing photography for half of his life; since he was 16 year old. His work has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, The Arizona Republic, The Washington Post and Time Magazine. Pat's pictures capture a moment in time. His images are dynamic and filled with emotion. His biggest piece of advise: learn how to shoot, "don't let the camera think for you." He suggests learning how to experiment and learn from mistakes. Practice a lot -- just like playing piano or the violin; the more you practice the better you'll get. He also recommends filling the entire picture frame and let your feet do the zooming.
A Rosenthal
The Hockaday School
Dallas, Texas
Posts
One question that I still had after this session was, "How do we teaching students to be patient?"
ReplyDeleteI know that there isn't a simple answer to this question. We all seem to be struggling with it. Our kids want to show up three minutes into the basketball game, snap five shots, and have the world's best photo ready to go, no editing necessary. I think conceptually, they know it's not that easy. But they are teenagers--they aren't exactly patient by definition.
As someone who has a passion (but maybe not so much skill) for photography, I know how frustrating it can be to craft the perfect shot. You know how you want the subject to line up, what you want the end result to look like... But often getting from point A (what you're working with) to point z (the award winning photo you've crafted in your mind) is often a marathon or a test of will power. At some point (and for high school kids, this is sooner rather than later), your patience runs out. I get that.
How do we overcome this hurdle? Or, how do we teach kids good photography skills so that awesome photo CAN happen a little sooner? And with skill, rather than trial and error... It's a challenge, especially because I know most of us are working with sub-par equipment. I mean, you can't exactly control the f-stop on a fujifilm disposable, ya know?
Jessica Young
Orange Glen High School
Escondido, Calif.
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ReplyDeletePerhaps quantifying is one part of the answer. I experimented with stringbooks this year, a grading system in which each action that contributes to newspaper production is worth a certain amount of points. The points are added and assigned letter grades according to a scale of the teacher's choosing.
ReplyDeletePhotographers are awarded points for covering entire events, less points for less than entire coverage. Although professional photographers have the luxury of shooting only 45 minutes of a two-hour basketball tournament, I encourage students to stick it out by dangling the carrot of more points in front of them. The longer they are there, the "bored-er" they get, so what's left to do but snap, snap, snap.
Out of the sheer numbers of photos they shoot, there is bound to be at least one of those "award winning photos" in there, or at least one useable one.
Kye Haina
Kamehameha Schools Maui
Pukalani, Hawaii