This week we worked on developing photos using a AgCl (silver chloride) base. This was the first week that we started actually printing the photos that we had taken. At first the photos didn't print out very well but we found a way to find the perfect exposure time, strength of the light, and distance of the light, through trial and error, to print the photos properly. I really enjoyed this process because I could finally see what my work looks like from start to finish. In humanities we finished reading the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. I really enjoyed the way Steinbeck uses his characters to make a statement about humanity. I also like how Steinbeck doesn't sugarcoat anything, he exposes humanity for what it is and he expresses that through his stories. I feel that this is a great way to convey the actual problems that humanity faces on a daily bases. I plan on reading more Steinbeck in the future. Chemistry Our Photosynthetic emulsion is made by combining Silver nitrate (AgNO3) and sodium Chloride (NaCl). This reaction then turns into Silver Chloride and Sodium Nitrate (AgCl and NaNO3) because, as I explain in a previous blog, the chemicals are interchangeable. AgCl is a crystal precipitant in this reaction. AgCl is also light sensitive so that we can use it to develop photos. All atoms have electrons which they tend to give and take from other atoms. When this process happens the two atoms combine thus binding, making combinations like AgCl and NaNO3. In our reaction, the chloride atom wants an electron while the silver atom doesn’t mind giving an electron away thus forming a bond between the two. Because electrons are negatively charged, the chloride atom becomes negatively charged and the silver atom becomes positively charged. When light hits this connection it breaks, freeing up a positively charged silver ion which turns into metallic silver. Metallic silver's natural color is black thus producing our black and white photos on paper. When the emulsion- coated paper is put in the developer bath, it adds an electron to the freed silver ions, making the reaction visible. Once we put the developed photo into the stop bath the developing immediately stops because it removes any leftover electrons from developing. After the stop bath we dunk the paper in a fixer bath to dissolve any remaining silver chloride salts so that they don’t keep producing overtime, thus increasing the lifetime of the photo. We then wash off the photo to remove any residual chemicals still left on the paper. A a a My Chemistry questions How does the silver ions turn into metallic silver? What happens to the sodium Nitrate during the developer process? Humanities In Humanities this week I finished my one thousand word essay about the photo that I took in Balboa Park. This essay consisted of five different perspectives breaking down the image and looking at its contents through different "Lenses" such as historical and composition. If you would like to see this essay, click the link below. click here. The next phase of the project is landscape photography. I'm really excited for this portion of the project because it means that I get to go out into the world and take pictures of nature and other landscapes. I really want to go up to Julian or somewhere in the mountains so that I can get a nice wide view of nature. I am sure that this phase will include me needing to plan a trip so I have been brainstorming places to go.
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Reflection This week we my team went out into the community to take portraits of people in their Balboa Park. I found the pictures that I took on these expeditions very interesting and inspiring just because of the sheer emotion they conveyed. After these picture- ops we used Photoshop to edit them and make the pictures of even higher quality. This was one of the first times that I really used Photoshop to make something that I was proud of exhibiting. Next week, I believe we are actually going to print the pictures out on the paper that we have created in chemistry class. This paper, as I've said in previous blog posts, is of a silver nitrate and gelatin base. We made this emulsion using the setup that I have explained in previous blogs. I am very excited to see how the final photo turns out. In Humanities class we have continued to read the book "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck. I am currently really enjoying this read because of the way Steinbeck can make a statement about something without actually saying it, he is truly a magician with words. This week I also completed my Dorothea Lange portrait 1000 word essay which was where we wrote five different perspectives on the same Dorothea Lange portrait. This was very challenging for me because I had never had to write about something that other people were thinking and have to explain it in thorough detail. If you would like to see the essay click the link below. We also started writing a 1000 word essay on the photo we took this week. If you would like to see this document click the link below click here.
This week we worked on photo editing in Photoshop. I had already used Photoshop before but I still learned a lot about how to make a black and white image look good. In Chemistry we learned and started making our photo paper using the emulsion that we had created the previous week using silver nitrate and gelatin. This was our very first lab of the year and it was very interesting. The way we prepared for this lab was by transforming our room into a dark room. The way that we did this was by putting tin foil over the door and putting lights in Trader Joes bags so that we could see to a certain extent without prematurely exposing the emulsion. In humanities we continued to read the book "Of Mice and Men" and had a seminar about it. I thought that this seminar was very interesting because I heard some points that I hadn't thought about before. Overall I thought that this week was a very interesting and informative week. Humanities This week in Humanities I completed my 1000 word essay on the Dorothea Lange photo of my choosing. If you would like to see it click the link below. In humanities a group of friends and I went to UCSD to take portraits of people. It was surprisingly fun interacting and taking pictures of people out in public. I thought that this was a great opportunity to interact with people while learning more about photography. I helped plan this trip which was something that was very new to me because I am used to going on teacher- planned field trips and have never gotten the opportunity to plan one myself. I am planning on going on the class field trip to balboa park next week so I should have a wide variety of photos to choose from for my second thousand word essay and final portrait photo.
Chemistry These are some pictures that I took in chemistry class of my partner Misael Contreras. I also helped set up the lighting so I learned about how different lights affect the face and also the time it takes to take a simple photo. The top image is the photo before edited in Photoshop while the bottom image is after editing took place. The assignment was to make a color picture black and white and to bring out certain features in the subject's face. Reflection- This week in humanities class we started reading a short story by John Steinbeck called "Of Mice and Men." We focused on "Reading between the lines" and thinking about what Steinbeck was alluding to without specifically saying it. We also started on our first benchmark. Our first benchmark consists of looking at a picture by Dorothea Lange and writing about them through the influence of different lenses. These lenses could be anything from an autobiographical lens to a historical lens. The reason that we are doing these things is because we are currently studying the Great Depression. In Chemistry we started setting up a dark room. I was assigned the role of chemical crew. In chemical crew we prepare the chemicals needed to develop photos and other experiments. this week we worked with silver nitrate and citric acid. These two chemicals will be essential components when we begin to make the emulsion for processing photos. Chemistry In Chemistry my role for the development of the dark room is chemical crew. In chemical crew, as I explained more thoroughly above, we prepare the chemicals to develop photos. We used chemicals like silver nitrate and citric acid this week by separating them into small bottles for later use. The group that I was working in had to use extreme caution while handling these chemicals so that we wouldn't injure ourselves or each other and so that we didn't waste the additives. We completed separating the chemicals into separate flasks so next week we should be beginning to make the emulsion. The apparatus for making the solution for developing photos is made so that it will heat up the chemicals to a specific temperature. We made the apparatus by putting a bowl of water on top of a hot plate and partial submerging a syringe that would hold the chemicals. The reason we didn't have the syringe directly on the hot plate was to make sure we had the right temperature by heating the water first so that we can measure the temperature of the water instead of measuring the hot plate's temperature. Humanities In Humanities this week we studied portraits by Dorothea Lange. We then picked a portrait and started to write 5 200 word paragraphs with different lenses in mind. At this point in time I have only done 3 out of the five but am going to finish the rest next week. I choose a picture that focused on a man migrating west with his family so that he could find work. The reason that I choose this photo was because it was very interesting seeing the emotion on the man's children's faces. A link to my progress so far is below. In Humanities we also started reading Of Mice and Men by George Steinbeck. After reading the first two chapters we answered these two questions:
Who is George and Lennie? George and Lennie are two friends that are by definition opposites. George is described by Steinbeck as being meager with very sharp features. George seems to be an intelligent person who never quite got proper schooling. Lennie on the other hand is a very different specimen. Lennie is characterized as being a colossal of a man with round features. Many times in the first chapter Lennie has shown clumsiness including killing mice on accident and drinking gulps of potentially contaminated water. In these instances George has shown a degree of hostility towards Lennie and Lennie has countered with kindness, possibly because that's his personality or maybe because he is obviously lacking in the intelligence department. From what we have read so far, George has seemed strangely connected to Lennie even though Lennie is always getting George in trouble. I am predicting that we will discover that George and Lennie are somehow related or George owe Lennie in some way What is Steinbeck saying about Humanity? |
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May 2017
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