Our final team project on Wood Lane

Here is the final Soundslides photo team project on Wood Lane:

Our team photo project at Wood Lane Industries

Linda, left, plays a board game with one of the facility workers. (PHO245 photos by Yusta Kyusa)

Bill St.Clair sorts out hangers.

    As we come to the end of the semester,  I and my fellow classmates were required to do a team project at Wood Lane Industries.
    We met at Wood Lane Industries with our instructor, where we were introduced to Linda Brownell, the co-coordinator of Wood Lane Residence Services. Brownell  explained what Wood Lane residential services was about.
   They had individual homes and group homes that helped taking care of the elderly and the mentally challenged. Some of them stayed home and some worked. As a group we decided to split up and visit different areas.
    I visited the place where they worked, which is the Wood Lane Industries. The moment I got there I was amazed how serious they were with their work. Most of them looked very passionate while they worked. Some of them have been working there for over 20 and plus years.
    Technically, I never had any problems while taking the pictures, I wasn't  the best  with the settings on my camera because sometimes I found myself being way over exposed and sometimes out of focus, but I was comfortable enough to take as many shots as I could.
    I am glad to share with you through photography the beautiful experience I had at Wood Lane Industries.

             David Schult has assembled spray can parts for 27 years.

Shooting sports was a technical challenge

Imani Vickers,0, warms  up before entering the game against Mercychurch North East Community College, on November 8th.(PHO245 Yusta Kyusa)

    I am a sports fan, especially basketball. Having to shoot a sports game was a challenge to me. All i could think of was the technical aspects I was supposed to set on my camera.

I realized while shooting  sports I was supposed to set my camera at a high shutter speed so as to capture the action on time. Setting my shutter speed low could really affect my pictures by being out of focus.
    Also while shooting sports I came across the problem of light. Some stadiums have so many lights that make it hard to have the best exposure. At first my shutter speed was at 100 and aperture was at 3.5 as a result my picture came out really dark, so i decided to bump up my shutter speed to 250 and live my aperture at 3.5 and came out with a good picture.

Antoine Benford dunks and scores two point against Delta College Pioneers at Owens Community College November 8.(PHO245 Yusta kyusa)

    I have learned in photography Shutter speed, aperture and ISO  are the main important things to consider before taking a shot.

interesting portraits

Toledo Firefighters pose for a portrait during training. (PHO 245 Yusta kyusa)

    As I am getting close to the end of the semester, I am beginning to get a lot more challenging assignments. Through out my college experience I never thought i could have a class that would really take me out of my comfort zone.
    For this week we had a portrait assignment. According to the class course materials i have learned portraits are memories that involve people in a certain environment.
    A portrait picture can either be posed or candid. For a posed picture you need to let a person or a group of people pose, let them be natural and don't settle for one shot. While taking a candid portrait picture you need to be patient and wait for an interesting moment.
 
In this assignment i was also required to shoot head shots, I learned while shooting head  shots i was supposed to avoid destructing backgrounds, subject should be at an angle,  and to be very careful with the amount of light.

Commander Gayle Lohrbach an Instructor at Owens Community College Police department. (PHO245 YutsaKyusa)

      In this assignment I chose to cover my beet which is criminal justice. I thank Commander Gayle Lohrbach and Commander Mike Wiederman  for helping me be comfortable and take pictures of his class, though sometimes it felt awkward because no one smiled. I had great experience though very challenging, and i will be happy to do this assignment if i am required.

Engaging in feature photography

Jake Miller, 4, talks to a mascot at a football game at Bowling Green State University Saturday. Photos by PHO245 Yusta

     feature stories are human interest articles that focus on  particular people, places and events. Sometimes photojournalist refer feature photography as evergreens never form brown or sometimes a slice of everyday life, according to the text book "The professionals Approach" by Kenneth Kobre.
 
    When taking feature photos some photojournalist choose to cover the most interesting element or situation in occurrence so as to make the picture interesting and for it to tell a story.

     To have a good feature photo one should consider the following.

• the covered story should be timeless.
•  the news should be covered in depth.
•  have fun and be open minded and engage readers.

Camera operations while taking a shot

Owens CC firefighters train in a smoke-filled room during a simulated rescue. (PHO245 photos by Yusta Kyusa)

   Camera controls and light are the biggest elements while taking a picture.

Fire fighting  tools at Owens Community College. (PHO245 photos by Yusta Kyusa)

   Controlling my camera has always been tough to me. In class I learned three ways to control light on a camera:

• ISO
• Aperture
• Shutter speed

    ISO stands for International Standard Organization. ISO is a function that control how much light  is available while taking a shot. Setting your ISO is very important, as it gives you more light to play with. The higher the ISO, the faster shutter speed you can use.

    Shutter speed is an element on a camera that allows time exposure. Examples of a slow shutter speed can be 1/60th of a second and slower. While taking a shot that has movement make sure your shutter speed is fast in order to stop the motion of a fast moving object. If your shutter speed is too slow, the object will come out blurry.

    The aperture controls the amount of light coming through the camera lens. An example of a large aperture, or f/stop, is f/1.4, f/2.8 and f4.  A small aperture is f/22. Aperture also controls depth of field.

    It's been tough for me to be a able to control all these elements in my camera, but i believe its one of the important subject to fallow while operating your camera.

A scene created to be rescued by firefighters at Owens Community College.(PHO245 photos by Yusta Kyusa) on

The importance of caption writting

    It is believed  that a picture says a thousand words, but in some cases especially magazines and news papers a plain picture can leave a reader hanging with a lot of questions.
    For instance when am reading a  news paper or a magazine and come across a picture the first thing that comes into my mind is;

• Who is that in the picture
• What was the occasion
• Where was is taken
• Does the picture relate to what is written , but good thing most pictures have captions underneath.

    Caption writing are words that describe a photograph. I think caption writing is very important because it makes it easier for the reader to understand the picture. Sometimes captions act as a summary once you read the outline you could at least know what is going on.

Steps to take a better cell phone picture

  As technology progresses in our world, we experience lots of things that make our lives easier. For me it's easier to take pictures with my cell phone than with my digital camera because a digital camera has lots more settings to deal with.
    Most cell phone cameras are equipped with settings that are simple and ready to use. My phone has easy steps to follow while taking a picture. These steps are:

• When taking a picture indoors, especially if the room is dark, turn on the lights and take a shot
• Get close to the object, and don't move around 
• With my phone I can edit my pictures any way I want  
• Set the white balance 
• Clean the lens before taking a shot

    It is not necessary to have an Android or iPhone to have the best picture; but you can use any phone and follow the easy steps and have  a good picture.

My thoughts on the First Amendment

    The First Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law,  respecting an establishment of religion impending the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, Infringing on the freedom of press and the freedom of assembly. .
When a country enacts a law which allows freedom of religion, It becomes very pleasant. Finding freedom through faith can be very satisfying.
    As a photojournalism student, having freedom of press is very convenient as it allows peoples voices to be heard through my work. I believe we cant think alike, but we can come to an agreement by listening to each other, and that is the best way of knowing what people really want.

Driven by my belief in positive branding

     I was raised in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.I came to Toledo after being accepted for school in the University of Toledo.
    I believe in love and not defeat, and that is what drove me into the field of public relations and marketing at Owens Community College. I am passionate with what I am studying because of my belief in positive branding.
   I am two semesters away from getting my associate degree, then I will transfer to Bowling Green State University.