Ashton Park - Day 3

On the 25th April, I had my third day at Ashton Park School.

I arrived at the prearranged time of 1.30pm and headed straight to the photography room.

On this day, the class was split up moreso than usual, and I went outside with the technician and a group of five boys to take photos that would be made into photomerges/panoramic images in Photoshop.

We instructed the boys on how to shoot the images so they would be in the best condition for Photoshop (shooting methodologically - straight up or straight across, with a bit of overlap in the images, as this is the easiest way for Photoshop to merge the images together - around 15 images per person). We then split the boys into two groups - one group of two, and one group of three - and gave each group a DSLR. We let the boys get on with it, letting each student complete the images necessary for their photomerge. One group of boys needed some guidance, as they were not completing the images in the way we had instructed, had not paid attention, and were messing around. However, the group of two were focused and followed instructions well - they are doing some photography for their art GCSE and seem to be very focused and hope to do well. Once everyone had gotten their images, we headed inside to instruct them on how to create their photomerges on Photoshop.

We took the boys into the photo editing suite opposite the main classroom. There were three computers in there - one Mac and two laptops. The group of three got to the Mac, which was a bit of a shame since the group of two were more focused on the task and had more interest, also the laptops were really slow.

We instructed them on how to create the photomerges by going to "file - automate - photomerge...", and then to select "collage" and to untick "blend images together" - this was so that they could move the images around and organise them themselves if they needed to. The images were selected, and then the computer generated as close matches as it could before opening the collage. Using the layers function, the students could then select certain images to move around and edit (they edited colours and saturation to create more vibrant images).  The group of two students created the best images, as they had followed my instructions and had overlapped their images, meaning that the computer had created the collage almost perfectly. The group of three each had some matches in their collages, but some had not followed instructions and had just been shooting willy-nilly, so to speak. I helped to keep them on track (the group of three - they were messing around, and not sticking to the task at hand) and offered advise and help when they needed it.

After the class had finished, I helped to save their collages to a memory stick, and then went to help Anita clean up. I helped to tidy up the classroom (some of the students had been sticking their work onto sheets, leaving lots of backing to double-sided paper everywhere), before going in to the darkroom and cleaning away the darkroom chemicals. The developer could be thrown away, but the stop and fix could be reused. To do this, I put the stop and fix into their corresponding bottles using a funnel. I then organised the darkroom filters again (as none of the packs seem to have full sets, and often have multiples), and helped Anita put away the laptops in the upstairs storage space.

I had told Anita previously that I would not be in on the following week (2nd May) as I had the deadline for my second semester photography project that day. We also discussed the exams on the 9th and 10th May, and I agreed to come in at around 8.45, so that I would be there the whole day for both days. We also discussed what to wear for the Year 11 Ball in order to look professional.

I was there for three hours. I am learning more about how to be approachable to younger students (I haven't spent any time with 15 year-olds since I was 15 myself!) while maintaining an air of authority. I also had to keep the students on track when they were getting distracted (not disciplining them per-say, just keeping them focused on the task by asking them about it and offering help), which is something I feel that boosts my confidence, as I find it difficult to speak to people I don't know, let alone be directive. I was called "Miss" again, which makes me smile.

3 hours, 16 hours overall.