Konnichiwa ds106er’s!

So after a tough week of audio clips and bits, we moved on to visual week! Even though I liked taking pictures way more than recording my voice (I feel like I sound like a little baby, eckk!), I still had a hard time since I don’t have a fancy smancy digital camera, and I’m always doing ds106 work at ungodly hours when the sun’s long gone and I have to work with fluorescent lighting. Anyways, here’s what I did this week:

Join a Radio Show Group

Done, and done! Here’s the tweet announcing my Radio Show Group’s name!

@kncrotty @hellobrittanyy @kelsielasalata @bparker5 @sarahhpark2 Hello Fab 5 group! One up on the Beatles. #ds106

— Alan Levine (@cogdog) February 14, 2013

Comment Group

So this week, we had to comment on our Radio Show group members’ blogs. I was happy to see that Miss Kelsie is in my group for the radio show project. She did an amazing job with her visual assignments this week! My favourite was the one where she drew a pink bow on her dog with Paint. So cute! Miss Brittnay also did a great job on her visual assignments, especially on the A-Z photo collage. She did it with Disney characters, isn’t that creative? Miss Kaitlyn gave me some inspiration after looking at her submission for the “An Album Cover” visual assignment. Hers was so good! And lastly, Miss Brooke offered good insight on my “Splash the Colour” assignment by stating I should have made the background darker. But she said she doesn’t like Christmas lights! Not going to lie, but I don’t understand how anybody could not like Christmas lights! That’s just not American!

Become a Better Photographer

After reading a bazillion and one things written by other people, here are the tips and tricks I learned that helped me this week:

1. Move your body instead of the camera.
   This tip definitely helped me for the Twenty Minute Photoblitz challenge. Compared to most peoples’, my camera actually isn’t that good. So when I had to take interesting photos, instead of zooming in and making the shot all blurry, I physically just moved closer to the object. Here’s an example:
   
   
2. Use different angles.
   Again, this tip helped me during the Photoblitz challenge, especially since one of the things we had to do was take a picture of something from a new angle/perspective. I had to sit down and think about what to shoot for that one, but I ended up putting the camera down on my baby’s crib, and shooting up at the mobile. Here’s the result:
   
3. Have a camera on you at all times.
   I really appreciated this comment because I was able to use this comment in real life. Every morning, my baby smiles at me when he wakes up. One morning, after reading this tip, I was able to pull my camera out and take a quick picture of his adorable face. Being a busy person, I kind of forget I’m supposed to capture these moments. Now that I have some sort of camera on me at all times (whether it’s my iPhone or my digital camera) I’ll be able to capture everything. BTW, here’s his beautiful face:
   
   On a side note, I wish I could buy one of these babies instead of lugging a camera around. Anyone wanna buy me an early Christmas present?

Photoblitz Assignment

I did a post of my Photoblitz and my experience here. Let me know what you think!

Spiff up Your Flickr Page

So, for my flickr page, I just did a few of the suggestions I saw. For one, I customized it by adding in a username. Secondly, I linked my flickr account to this blog, so I could embed sets to posts, such as this set I made of TJ’s typical day. I also made a “My Best Photos” set but I didn’t really want to write a blog post on it since it’s kind of boring and random.

Daily Creates

I posted all my daily creates and the stories behind them here. Feel free to tell me what you think of them!

Visual Assignments

This week, we had to do a minimum of 10 stars worth of visual assignments. I wanted to challenge myself so I ended up doing 11 stars! Yay me! Here are the assignments I did:

The “Valentines Day Caption” Challenge = 2 Stars

The “An Album Cover” Challenge = 2 Stars

The “Splash the Colour” Challenge = 2 Stars

The “Warhol Something” Challenge = 2 Stars

The “Street View Something” Challenge = 3 Stars

Although I had fun with all of the challenges, I think my favourite one was definitely the “Street View Something” one. I think it’s because it combined visual and textual elements, which made it a little more unique.

Summary of Week 5

So, this week was kind of exhausting, but I’m glad that, unlike the previous two weeks, I started on my work early and didn’t wait until the last minute! I think it’s because I had to co-host this week’s ds106 show on Monday, which got me into the ds106 spirit. Also, I didn’t really have any Valentine’s Day plans, so I started on my visual assignments (I’m sucha heartbreaker… haha jk!) But speaking of the ds106 show, I’m glad I was able to participate this week! Last time I joined in, I was a little timid since I’ve never used Google+ Hangout, but I felt a lot more comfortable this time around. I think it’s also because it was kinda funny how a ton of trolls were invading our Hangout (whack a troll!)

Anyways, I cannot believe we’re almost halfway done with the semester! I feel like we haven’t even cracked the surface of all the things we have to do, but at the same time, I feel like I’ve already learned so much. I’m looking forward to future projects, like working with my Fab 5 ladies on our soon-to-be amazing and spectacular radio show! See ya’ll next week