Click Happy Summer Academy 2021
Week 2:
Inspiration
The Intent of the Inspiration Week
Here are some things we will be learning this week.
Overwhelmed? Confused? Here is a solution
Start at Orange Belt level. If that is too tough then. Dial it right back. Just shoot the white belt level - a photo a day.
Drop it in the Signal chat… Stay long enough to make comments on 2 other students work.
Then jump off the chat. Tomorrow go see if you got any feedback then take the feedback and use it to improve your work. If you don’t get feedback don’t be discouraged…keep shooting and critiquing others. Critique yourself using the guide above and then shoot some more. If you want to increase the colour of your belt do it in your own time and drop back down a level if you need too. You get to manage it all and no one minds how far you stretch yourself but you. We will cheer you along at what ever pace you choose. Just drop 5 images per week in the chats and you are winning.
Getting Exposed to Manual Settings
Our cameras and phones can operate in purely automatic or you can get back some of the control and shoot instead in manual settings. This workshop will slowly introduce you to manual settings. Here is a link to our poster about it.
Reminder of Adjustable Exposure Elements
Aperture
Shutter speed
ISO
ISO - Film / Sensor sensitivity
Back in the day when we used to use film in our cameras we had to pick the ISO of the film in our camera. The ISO related to how sensitive the emulsion on the film was to light. So if were going to be shooting indoors we needed a very sensitive emulsion (ISO 1600). If we were outdoors we needed one that was much less sensitive to light (100). The main difference is that the 100 ISO had no grain in the shot. But the ISO of 1600 had a lot more. Grain is the stuff that looks like pixels in your shots. The dots, sometimes of different colours that tend to show up in your shadows. It is as if the camera is making up stories for what it can’t see. (A bit like our brain does in unfamiliar situations). The lower the ISO the less grain. The higher the ISO the more grain. But it is a balancing act. If your ISO is too high the image will be too bright. If it is too low the image too dark. Usually your camera will adjust this automatically but it is a leg of the tripod of exposure that you have the option to control either in the pro-settings on your camera or phone or through Lightroom.
To learn more have a look here for a more detailed written description or a video here
Here is how to adjust it in your camera.
Here is how to adjust ISO on a cellphone 2 ways.
Shooting in Lightroom Mobile (may need to use this on Apple as there are no manual / pro settings.) - Written link + Video Link
Pro Settings on Your Phone (not all phones have this setting)
Composition Technique:
Leading Lines
Techniques my mentor and I use to get good ideas flowing
Mandi Lynn | The Moth
What are Leading Lines?
Leading lines lead your eye around an image. They take you on a journey. Ideally they are constructed by you to take the viewer on a journey that you have designed. Ideally arriving at the subject for consideration. Or they take you on a storytelling adventure. They are essentially the roadmap to your image. They can be constructed and straight or they can be organic and flowing. Each image is different. But you generally want to make sure that you are guiding the viewer and your leading lines are pointing into the frame where you want attention drawn versus out of the frame and out of considering your image.
Composition Skillset | Leading Lines
Composition Skillset | Leading Lines
Where do you see the leading lines here?
Image Credit:
Pippa Jones
Photo a Day Challenge
This week is all about Flow. The creative flow that brings us from idea to manifestation of that idea. But we are going to let that idea percolate by focusing on one of Papatuanuku’s elements and observing how water works. I want you this week to explore the element water. Really get to know it. Try to see it again for the first time.
Remember to stop. Breathe deep. Really see what is in front of you before you lift the camera to your eye. Give it time. What lessons does water have for you?
Week 2
Theme - Flow- Element Water
Composition Challenge | Leading Lines
Crop – 16:9 Vertical
Image Credit - Sophie Hansen
Behind the Scenes of the image above
Sophie is one of our youth mentors from the Waikato. She is a doctor Doolittle and obsessed with nature photography. She came on our program last year and stepped up to the role of youth mentor this year. She is always surprising me with the way her mind works. This image is no exception and she shared her methods with our group that I will now share with you.
Photo a day (PAD) questions answered
Post your PADs on to the 101 board.
Who Inspires You?
Go on a Hunt for Style that resonates with your own.
Mandi Lynn | Mum can I keep them?
Find Yourself a Stylistic Mentor/s
When you are just beginning down the road of photography or art in general it is often a good idea to find out who stylistically you resonate with? And this can and will change over time. But start now. Go on a hunt to find imagery that resonates with your particular style. When I was your age I was a bit weird and I had posters not of the popular bands at the time (okay maybe one Duran Duran poster) but mostly my room was covered in Pre-Raphelite paintings. I loved the mythology and the photorealistic painting style. I loved the lighting and the angst and the moodiness. Now as as an artist, I can still see that Pre-Raphelite painting quality reflected in my work.
Flaming June - Frederic Leighton
Flaming Mama-
Mandi Lynn
The Power of Pinterest
Whenever I am creating new constructed piece I will create a unique Pinterest board for each idea. This is where I pull in work from others that I like, colour palettes, moods, Styling, inspiration. Then I give a link to that board to my collaborators. Most artists are visual learners so this really helps them to get what is going on inside of my head as the director.
But it can also help you if you are just trying to get a sense of what you like. I have created a board of some notable photographers. Please feel free to add to it people who inspire you. And create your own pinterest board if you are able. But feel free to start on our combined board. The link is here: https://pin.it/1tiEt2r
Visual Poet of the Week Challenge
An Homage Challenge..
An homage is where you celebrate the work of another by paying them the sincerest form of flattery…imitation.
In your challenge this week you will find a photographer whose work you admire and you will recreate one of their pieces of work. Yours should not 100% mimic theirs but it should be a nod to the work but you must change something. If it is a painting, you photograph, if it is a photograph you can change the character or the setting or something to evolve the narrative. And out of respect you will want to title the piece in some way that nods to the original author.
There is also a great little book to get out of the library called Steal like an Artist. Which aludes to the fact that all art stands on the shoulders of those that came before. There is a fine line between respectful homage and out and out plagiarism. Make sure you do not cross that line, this is most easily done by giving credit where credit is due.
https://filmschoolrejects.com/imitation-game-difference-homage-plagiarism/
Creative Self Care section
This is the section where we develop the difficult “soft skills” of being a thriving creative. This means learning to create boundaries that protect you and your creative energy. It is about learning to be kind to yourself and others. To build community around your craft, and to develop creative routines that serve your creative process.
Creative Self Care challenge - 3 pages a day
Break the ice on your creative flow by challenging yourself to write three pages a day handwritten of stream of consciousness. Ideally in the morning first thing. Think of it like you are on a creative summer retreat and this is the first activity of the day.
This is hands down the best gift, I have given my creativity and my mental health and for that matter my relationships.
It can’t be typed because then you lose the somatic wisdom (body smarts). Our body stores the warehouse of our emotions and intuition which are rich mines for our creative process. By writing by hand versus typing your keep “in the body” and that wisdom can flow through your pen. If we stay only in our head we get just the tip of the iceberg of our creative genius. Get out of your head and go deeper. This writing technique will help get you there even if you HATE to write. Just start and commit to doing it just for this week and see what happens by the end of the week. How much richer are your creative ideas?
Here is the link of how to do the Create Happy Journaling method:
Important Reminders and Links
All of the important links can be found on this webpage with the exception of your personal Telegram chat page which should be on the email that delivers this content to you.
Online safety - Revisited
How to Critique an Image that helps and doesn’t harm
Remember the rule of thumb.
For every one image you post. You give feedback on 2 images of others.
The better your feedback the better you learn as an artist as well.
Here is the link to the How to Grow Better Artists Through Compassionate Critique document.
It will feel clunkey and not “authentic” or weird to give critiques like this, and much simpler to say “its pretty” but that doesn’t actually help the photographer except to pet their ego. Which is fine but doesn’t improve their game. We are all about rapid feedback loops here. Shoot something. Get real feedback. Then shoot something better. And start again. This is how we grow. But we do it a special way so that we stay confident and curious and not crushed. So read that document and practice. You will feel weird at first but then you will start to improve. Ava Thomas one of the youth mentors has refined the art of giving detailed helpful feedback. See if you can tune into some of her feedback to get an idea of how it can be done. Or listen to how I give it and try and model it.
Summary of Challenges
You have read about the options now choose your level
Click Happy
201
Week 3
Choosing your Belt level
White belt option
Shoot a photo a day, edit it.
Subject is anything that takes your fancy.
Upload it to the Signal Channel
Comment on two other images of other students for each image you put in
Put your improved from feedback image into your google drive folder in the largest size between 3.5mb and 10mb.
Put your images into your workbook.
Before Sunday at 10pm put your favourite image into the Mural Board.
Yellow Belt Option
Do the white belt stuff but instead of photographing whatever your choose for your PAD’s you try to use your new skills:
Orange Belt Option
Do the Yellow belt version and add three pages exercise done once in the week.
Green Belt Option
Do the Orange belt level and then add in two teal and green Monochromatic images as well and submit them to the rainbow folders so that your images will be added to the options for the exhibition curation.
Brown Belt Level Challenge
Shoot 7 images this week.
Shoot them all Monochromatic with green and teal monochrome
All shot in Raw and edited and saved and put in your workbook and in your files no smaller than 3.5MB each image.
The subject should all focus on the concept of flow but each image needs to be unique in and of itself.
Black Belt
Do all of the Brown belt work but do three pages every day for the seven days.
Take the style of 3 of your photography crushes and mash it up into one style and try to shoot like that for your 7 images this week.
Be more generous.
Instead of 2 comments per image you drop.
You instead give 5 lots of feedback per each image you drop.
Copyright Notice
All Click Happy content is collectively owned by Mandi Lynn and Every Body is a Treasure Trust. Please contact Mandi or the trust if you wish to reproduce or adapt any of the materials that have been shared with you.