ALA Gear up for Photo Motion

Objective: Design IT Studios teens from Applied Learning Academy (ALA) are finishing up their Light Cycle with Photo Motion.

Time: January 2007

Activity: With Light Cycle coming to its end, the Design IT teens from ALA are wrapping it up with Photo Motion. Photo Motion is using the same setting as we did in Light Painting, which is slowing down the shutter speed to 15 seconds and turning off the flash. The materials needed for this activity was a flashlight, a tripod, and a digital camera. Timing is very important in Photo Motion. As shown in the picture to left, Joe is playing two characters a bully and a hero. Allie set in the middle must hold still for 15 sec so the photographer can take a shot of Joe in two different spots. When the characters are ready the camera person must tell everyone to hold still for 5 sec. and then the light person must cover the light source while the characters are changing positions. The ending result would look similar to the picture above.

Some of the Photo Motion activities were for the ALA teens to make self shots of themselves, combining light painting to the shots, perspective, and the final product was to combine all the little activities together. The teens were again split into 3 groups. They had to tell a story through Photo Motion by using nonverbal communication, incorporating the exercises that was mention earlier. Photo Motion is challenging and rewarding. The ALA teens took a few weeks working on their story. Some frustration for them were: standing still for so long, working in the dark can be painful, and the timing needed to be accurate for the shot to be clear. For the most part, the teens love Photo Motion and was excited to show off there stories to their peers.