Sunday, April 9, 2017

Seven Day Social Immersion Challenge

Photo-a Day

Backstory on the week...
Okay, so I want to give a backstory on my week so that my photos make some sense. In our cyber school, PSSA testing week is the WORST week in the entire school year. Admin, teachers, and students/families all know this; it's really no secret. Unlike a regular brick and mortar school, CCA teachers must go to a center or hotel conference room at a close location to hold these testing sessions around PA. We are totally detached from school during this week, having limited to no contact whatsoever with our colleagues and students for 4 -5 days. It sucks. So, I was assigned testing for this week, at a hotel in Northeast Philadelphia, and my testing hours were from 7am-6pm. Yup! Since my phone was confiscated during testing hours, I either took a picture in the morning or during the drive to the location (not while I was actually driving), or else the picture would be taken at night. 

Then--because that is not bad enough, I fell ill on Wednesday. I never...EVER...had any experience with the stomach bug or with food poisoning. So of course, on the most important week of the year, I fall victim to the stomach bug on Wednesday, at 4:02 pm, during testing. I have to tell you something, having the stomach bug and being 21 weeks pregnant is something terrible. 

So what am I'm saying...I'm saying I had a really crappy week, with the exception of Saturday and Sunday, and wished I enjoyed this experience a little more.  

The Experience and Reflection 


                                                       

                                       









Monday: Vocabulary List
Tuesday: Wawa cup
Wednesday: Sink 
Thursday: Bed
Friday: Car
Saturday: Party
Sunday: Computer

Slideshow link: https://www.flickr.com//photos/149527425@N06/show/ 

The first thing I did was research the Project 365 and read up on the challenge. I wanted to do a photo-a day experiment because once upon a time, photography use to be a hobby of mine, and I lost sight of that a few years ago. Nowadays, I rarely take picture even though I have a smartphone; I happen to be one of those individuals whose cell phone is not permanently attached to their hand. On one website, I used their Project 365 tips to guide me. There tips were: 1. Bring Your Camera Everywhere; 2. Make Posting Easy; 3. Vary Your Theme; 4. Tell a Story; 5. Don't Stop, No Matter What. I decided to keep my phone with me as much as possible this week. Since I could not do this at work due to testings, I decided to just keep it in my robe pocket while at home so I'd remember to take a picture. I decided to use Flickr to upload my pictures for this assignment; I wanted to use a tool that was simple and easy to understand and orchestrate. When it came to theme, here is where I felt I lacked in trying different things. Usually, I'm really particular about the pictures I capture for the most part. In the beginning of the week, I was just taking pictures so I'd remember to take the picture. By Saturday night, I noticed I did not try to capture the best lighting, perfect zoom frame, and/or decide on the greatest angle to shoot many pictures. I wish I would have put more thought into those aspects rather than just snapping a picture for the day.

Telling a story was one that took some thought. Since I knew this was going to be a busy week, I wanted to take a picture of things that consumed my day; pictures or items that either made my day, was on my mind, or helped me in some way. With Monday's picture, my son had this major Reading Comprehension test to study for that day. I'm really big on studying, and since I had to leave earlier for work every morning this week, I told my son I was going to snap a picture of his Robust Vocabulary words, put him on speaker as I drove, and listen to him recite his words before he left for school; at red lights, I would glance at the sheet to make sure he was on point. Tuesday was my Wawa cup. I was so serious about this picture, I even wanted to capture the dirt in my car for realness. My hotel had a Wawa around back, and before testing I decided to stop at Wawa and grab a Ginger Peach Black Tea; I can have minimal caffeine while pregnant. This tea made my morning--I was beyond happy to have it before enduring the grueling hours of testing. 

On Wednesday, I did not take a picture in the morning with the intentions of simply one after I left the hotel. However, when I fell ill, I climbed into the bed and curled up into a fetal position. Thursday morning, I took my picture for Wednesday--my bathroom sink. Due to the stomach bug, I kept running to the sink all night, and sometime, I just rested my head on it before returning back to bed. Thursday's picture was my bed. I took off of work of course, woke up to help my son, and  then took my picture before falling in the bed for about 8 hours. I was a mess. On Friday, I stayed in my car. My House Warming/Gender Reveal Party was on Saturday, and since I was feeling better, I had to make so many errands; I left my home at 8:35 am and did not return until 3: 30 pm. My car is a life saver. Party day was on Saturday, so as the party was ending, I snapped a quick selfie of myself smiling because I was in a great mood (I'm having a girl! Surprise!). Lastly, on Sunday, I took a picture of my laptop. Aside from homework, my grades are due Monday (4/10) and Wednesday (4/12) I run progress reports. Thanks to PSSA testing, I'm behind in grading with over 140 items left to tackle. Yey! The computer will be my life on Sunday. 


I actually think this challenge was pretty cool. I've seen Project 365 examples, and was really impressed with the imagery captured in most of the pictures as time went one. You can tell the project has evolved for most over the span of time due to the images becoming more poignant; I would like to do a Project 365 challenge one day of one image, like of my home or children together. Flickr wasn't that bad to use too for the first time. It was easy to upload all my images, and even figure out how to view them in a slideshow. I copied and pasted the url, and then placed it in the search bar. Once the url was in the search bar, I typed in the word "show" afterwards, and suddenly this Flickr Slideshow of my images came up. My only issue was trying to arrange the images in the order I took them; that wasn't happening for some reason. I'm still trying to figure that out, along with embedding my slideshow into my blog. Overall, this was a cool experiment even though I was sick and super busy. 

Works Cited 

Project 365: How to Take a Photo a Day and See Your Life in a Whole New Way. Parabo Press. Retrieved from http://content.photojojo.com/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/

No comments:

Post a Comment