The  first big section of the class — the Visual/Design section — is over. I thought it would be nice to do a bit of a recap of what’s been going on. (And not just because I was told to, either!) This period covered both the DailyShoots, plus the Visual and Design assignments that we all did. I’ll talk about my work in a separate post; this one is just about the other students.

There was, quite honestly, a ton of really cool stuff that people in ds106 created. (For sanity’s sake, I’ve primarily kept track of the people in the face-to-face class, so my examples will reflect that. I’m sorry to everyone who’s fine work I’ve overlooked!) I’m going to start with the DailyShoots, and to make this simple, I’m going to go roughly in order of the different dailyshoots (Although I’m not going to do one per day, as that would make this post WAY too long) I’ll be giving credit in the caption, but also making it so that you can see the original on flickr by clicking on the image itself. (That keeps it cleaner than having links all over the place)

For dailyshoot 444, ” Pretend you’re a stringer for your local newspaper today. Make a photo that captures something newsworthy to you,”I really liked Erin’s photo:

Photo credit: Erin O'Neal, via flickr.com

There’s just something about it that’s….awesome, and totally genuine instead of staged. It seemed really in keeping with the spirit of the assignment. For the next assignment, ds445, “Look upward today. Make a photograph with a low horizon and that emphasizes the sky,” I really liked Brad K.’s picture:

Photo credit: Brad K.

I’m honestly not entirely sure why. There’s just something about the light sky over the dark trees, particularly with those unlit parking lights sticking up there. Normally, I’d probably be annoyed — “Gah! What are those ugly things doing in this picture of nature!” — but honestly, I think it works pretty well here. There’s something about the lack of light from the artificial light sources in the picture, with the rapidly fading natural light, that is just really pretty.

(And of course, who could forget Jordan and my “We’re twins!” moment? It was a very teachable moment. And I say teachable moment because I know Jim Groom hates that phrase. This post may result in another teachable moment.)

The power plug DailyShoot was one of my favorites. Galagon Wagon’s entry for that was simply incredible; he managed to capture so much texture and detail that it simply leaves me in awe:

Photo Credit: Galagon Wagon

Since this is getting a bit long, and I haven’t even gotten to the visual and design assignments yet, I’m going to mention just one more photo. This next picture is by the constant commenter, Cali4Beach. I think it’s really well done, and is nicely proportioned with a really great level of focus on the central (sugary) object. Also, I really love tea and sugar cubes, so I may be slightly biased.

Photo credit: Sarah K./Cali4Beach

Now, moving on: With the Design and Visual assignments, there was a lot of really great work done. Some of my favorites were Megan’s nerd Valentines Day cards. It’s probably just because I think Firefly is such an awesome show — those of you know love it know what I mean, and those of you that don’t, don’t really matter — that I just loved this one instantly:

Image credit: Megan McMillan

The Minimalist movie posters were also really great; the 007 poster is pure genius. The Four Icon Challenge was a really big in the ds106 online community as well. Some of them were really funny; a lot I didn’t quite get. (I’m sorry Jim Groom — I’m a product of my generation, and am a film Philistine!) This was my favorite, because not only did I get it right away, but it made me laugh, and brought back fond memories of my childhood:

Image Credit: David Gallager

I’ve talked about everything that I planned to, but it really doesn’t seem enough: we’ve done so much, and I’ve barely touched even the really, really good stuff.

Oh well. I have Qdoba.