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Closer still...

Here are a few more excellent examples from our Close project:

Jessie Gonzales-Flores

Natalie Westermann

Liv Leschley

Ryan Schnell

Maddie Brown

Elizabeth Westrmann

Zoe Adler

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Close... Closer

In this project students are exploring filling the frame with their subject and getting closer to the edge of abstraction. Here are some examples:

Jackson Deutch

Giuliette Prieto

Connor Grant

Elizabeth Westermann 

Chloe Lee

Julia Naik

Lexi Friesel

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And a few more...

A few more egg-cellent examples from our minimalism project:

Lexie Fenton

Ryan Schnell

Nikhil Chopra

Linus Hansen

Teeron Tibrizi

Mikey McGrath

Sarah Westermann

Natalie Westermann

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Minimalism

Some egg-cellent examples of simplicity :

Brooke Dombrowski

Charlotte Yao

Charlotte Yao

Dhruv Mangtani

Coco Layton

Dakin Muhlner

Ellie Hardegree

Elliot Kinder

Charlie Hammond

Derrick Ho

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More Color!

Here’s another batch of experimental color student photos:

Julia Naik

Lexi Friesel

Jessie Gonzales Flores

Maddie Brown

Malia Thompson

Ryan Schnell

Zoe Adler

Lexie Fenton

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Experimental Color!

Here are some student samples from our color editing project.

Austin Stull

Charlotte Yao

Aidan Skinner

Alex Levitt

Derrick Ho

Ellie Hardegree

Coco Layton

Giuliette Prieto

Jake Bianchi

Jackson Deutch

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The LIGHT-er Side

Here are some interesting examples of student work from our black and white LIGHT-er side project. It’s a counterpart to the primarily dark photos they produced earlier. 

Elliot Kinder

Malia Thompson

Nikhil Chopra

Ryan Schnell

Lexie Fenton

Mikey McGrath 

Charlotte Yao

Dhruv Mangtani

Ben Kossow

Maddie Brown

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Early Results on Project 1

My Advanced Photo class has been hard at work on their first month-long project and they are starting to show some of their first results.  Here are a few exciting samples of their work in progress:

Oliver Barlow - Conceptual

King Christian - Portraiture

Reese Grosso - Fashion

Hannah Gorospe - Portraiture

Alec Jabal - Architecture

Ross Muchnick - Action

Justin Pretre - Landscape

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Here are just a few examples of outstanding student photos from our “Dark Side” project. The goal here was to produce dark, black and white imagery with high levels of contrast by using Snapseed, an iPhone editing app. 

Photos by:

Dhruv Mangtani

Derrick Ho

Linus Hansen

Elliot Kinder

Elisabeth Westerman

Natalie Westerman

Conner Grant

Sophia Crouse

Maddie Brown

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It’s Happening!

Here’s a list of my Advanced Photo class students. Check out their blogs to see what they are working on:

Luke Appel - luke-appel-e.tumblr.com

Oliver Barlow - obarlowphoto.tumblr.com

Christian King - kingchristianphoto21.tumblr.com

Wyatt Cole - wyattc-photoclass2.tumblr.com

Isabel Cordon - isabel-cordon.tumblr.com

Justin Creamer -  jcreamer.tumblr.com

Hannah Gorospe - hgorospephotos.tumblr.com

Reese Grosso - reesegrossophotography.tumblr.com

Jane Hratko - jhratko.tumblr.com

Alec Jabal - alecphotography.tumblr.com

Luke MacNaughton - lukemphoto.tumblr.com

JP McKenney - JPMphotographyclass.tumblr.com

Brooks Mead - bmeadphoto.tumblr.com

Ross Muchnick - rossmphotography.tumblr.com

Keane Murphy - keanemurphy123.tumblr.com

Justin Pretre - pretre-photography.tumblr.com

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Week 3: Getting Started

My Advanced Photo students have all gotten their loaner equipment and are starting to work on their own independent projects.  I’m checking in with them on a weekly basis to consult, see how each project is going and to encourage weekly blogging updates. 

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Week 2: It’s has been a difficult start! The pandemic, remote learning, the Bay Area wildfires and the resulting smoke have all made it frustratingly difficult to establish a routine and a rhythm to the new school year. Everyone is suffering from Zoom fatigue already. We need to get out of the house and get some fresh air. 

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2020 Classes Begin

It’s September 2020 and we’re starting a new series of distance learning photo classes at Menlo School. Everything is quite new and different this year. 

Class content is being updated and delivered through Canvas (a new LMS)

All of our class meetings are through Zoom

Our film/darkroom/digital studio facility is temporarily closed

All our specialized photo equipment is being loaned and delivered to student’s homes.

My Advanced Photo class students are posting updates through Tumblr but my other classes are using Canvas this year. 

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End of class

Our year of photography class has just concluded. It was an unusual year with distance learning for the last three months. I was often impressed with the effort and the ideas my students put into their photography work. I believe that doing photography was a kind of relief and a positive response to sheltering in place for many of us. Working alone, observing and thinking about how to record and show the world through our photography is a way of processing and sharing our responses and feelings. It is a kind of tonic for a confusing and complex world.

I encourage my students to continue to work independently on their own photography. To keep exploring their interests and responding with their feelings through this art form. 

Thank you students for letting me guide you and for sharing your work with me this year. We’ll always have our book to remind us of our time together. 

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A wonderful example of student defined project, by Reese Grosso.

The assignment for this week was to create your own project while emulating the work of some your favorite photographers and creating your own style. Last week I researched the work of Richard Misrach, a famous landscape photographer, and one of my favorite photographers, Landon Nordeman who does a lot of work with fashion photography. So this week I decided to try and combine landscape photography with some fashion photography and add my own twist. My friend and I went out to a field for a socially distanced photoshoot and above are a couple of my favorites. My goal was to have a pretty simple and plain background to give off the calming and peaceful vibe of Richard Misrach, then have the subjects have colorful and strange outfits, like many of the subjects in Landon Nordeman’s work. Overall, I love how these turned out and I am very proud of the final results.

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Another beautiful example of a student defined project. This one by Ben Banatao.

This week was our final week of class and our challenge was to use the skills that we have learned throughout the year to create 3-5 of our best photos inspired by famous photographers. Last week I decided to do landscape photography because it resonated with the parts of photography that I really enjoy seeing and because it really relies on the raw skill of the photographer. When I see a quality landscape photo, it makes me want to visit that place in real life, so I hope my photos were able to bring that same emotion to the viewers. 

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Excellent example of a personal project by Jane Hratko.

This week for my independent project, I took advantage of the beautiful scenery in Monterey to practice landscape photography. When planning this project, I was inspired by the photographers that we commented on last class, especially Sebastiao Salgado, who creates black and white landscape photographs. Unlike the work of Richard Misrach, for example, who specializes in very simple, plainer landscapes, I was drawn to the more complicated landscapes with layers in the foreground, middle and background. For the first two photographs above, I chose to edit them in black and white in Photoshop to highlight the balanced composition of each photograph, and I didn’t think the color added much. However, for the last photograph, I loved the contrast of the yellow strip in the sky to the darkness of the rocks on the beach. Although this was the last photography project of the year, I hope to continue creating fun projects during the summer.