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    • « District Drop Rates | Home | A good resource that you can lose yourself in »

    Oregon Campus Compact: Capture the Impact: Alternative Break and Service Day Photo/Video Contest!

    By Tobi Kibel Piatek | January 14, 2009

    I recently posted information about the upcoming Weekend of Service in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. (Be the Change: Sign up to Volunteer Soon)

    Now, Capture the Impact: Alternative Break and Service Day Photo/Video Contest! offers another way that teachers and mentors (anyone taking the Making Connections class) can make the most of the weekend. Oregon Campus Compact, “a statewide membership organization connecting community engaged colleges and universities with resources, convening the state for collaborative work and advocating for the civic mission of higher education,” is sponsoring a photo/video contest. The contest is a perfect opportunity to creatively answer the question: What does Community Service and Engagement look like?

    By recording what they see and experience in their community,  mentors and teachers can spend quality time with kids, get involved in and more familiar with their community, provide some service, encourage creative thinking, and share what they learn. What a great way to add even more to a day of service

    For more information and a contest application, click here

    To increase your chances of winning :-) here are Ten Tips for Better Photographs (courtesy of John Waller and the Photo of the Year Contest)

    1. Be in the right place at the right time. Get out there, look around, and take your camera. It’s tough to take great photographs if even one of those actions is missing.

     

    2. Take lots of pictures. Digital photography has opened up a world of possibility to the amateur photographer because now you can instantly review your pictures. Adjust your settings, try different angles, or capture the action at different moments. The more photographs you take, the more likely you are to get a great shot. But remember what worked and what didn’t and apply this new understanding when you take the next picture.

     

    3. Watch the sun. The best times to take pictures are usually early in the morning and early evening; the worst time is generally midday, when light it most harsh.

     

    4. Flash away. Just because you are outdoors doesn’t mean you should put away your flash. Subjects in shadow can appear much too dark when compared to a bright sunny backdrop. When using your flash outdoors, the camera exposes the background first, and then adds in the flash to illuminate your subject.

     

    5. Get close up. Investigate the world around you in finer detail and you will discover a wealth of photo opportunities right at your feet. Most cameras have a macro mode that make getting those close up shots of insects and flowers a snap. Or when you are shooting action, zoom in so we can see the beads of sweat on an athlete’s or worker’s forehead.

     

    6. Anticipate what is going to happen. To take a great outdoor action shot, you need to prepare for it in advance. What might happen, what would be the best angle, and are your settings appropriate? Then when your buddy cuts a sweet turn on their skies down the mountain, or a laughing kid comes zooming by on a swing, you’ll be there to take the picture.

     

    7. Use a tripod for low light. Those sweet sunsets, or moonrises, or starry night shots can be really sweet pictures if they are sharp and crisp. But a tripod is necessary because even the slightest shiver or tremble from a hand-held camera can cause the scene to blur.

     

    8. The rule of thirds. This time tested rule tells us that we should not put the horizon line in the middle of the shot, but rather drop it to the bottom third or the top third depending on what meaning you want to convey. A low horizon conveys a sense of open, vast airiness, and a high horizon instills a sense that the land is the dominant force. The same is true for framing people.

     

    9. Get a sense of perspective. Sometimes having a person in your scenic and street pictures really impresses how big those trucks or buildings, mountains, cliff, waterfall, or landscape really is.

     

    10. Get creative. There are a lot of predictable photographs out there. The unconventional photographs really grab people’s attention.

    Play around with angles and settings and HAVE FUN!

    Topics: Community Service, How To's, Quality Time |

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