Genius Hour: Reflection

Well, here we are at the end of our project! It really did go by in a FLASH. Get it? This process was hard, but also so much fun. Which was the whole point! Thank goodness for YouTube because, without it, I honestly don't think I would have been able to learn everything that I needed to know. I still have a long way to go before I'm truly proficient with my camera and am able to edit professionally in Lightroom, but I'm so much more confident (and I'm pretty sure much better!) than I was before.

So here is my final picture for the project. I wanted to get a new "candid" family photo but it ended up more posed than I had planned. I needed to figure out where the best place would be to take the picture. I decided to set us up in my and my husband's bedroom because that way I could frame the picture the way I wanted and control the lighting. I edited both in color and black and white to see which style I liked better, and now I'm having a hard time deciding which one to frame. I'm happy to have captured this moment-in-time in a way that I'm proud of.

Black and White Edit

Color Edit

Original, Unedited

This was by far my favorite project for USF that we've done, and it also took the most time. But because I got to choose something that I was truly passionate about and motivated to learn more about, I tried my hardest and got so much out of it. I know that this experience would be so beneficial for my students - if only TIME wasn't in such short supply. I'd really love to try to carve out even just 10 minutes a day for my students to work on something they really want to pursue. This is something I'm going to try to work out for next year!

Genius Hour: Working Through the Process

This project has gone on long enough that it's starting to feel more like my normal routine. I'm looking for opportunities to take pictures and have my camera "at the ready" for whenever I might need it.

I've noticed that when I'm trying to learn something new on my own, I get frustrated if it doesn't click with me fast enough. I start to feel defeated because I don't have anyone readily available who I can ask questions to. I think I learn better in a group so I can listen to others and get clarification when I need it. 

I found some videos that were helpful because I learn best when I can see and hear what I'm trying to learn how to do. I'm the most successful and efficient with my learning when I focus on one small skill and try to learn about that so I don't get overwhelmed. This is especially applicable to Lightroom. There are soooo many tools and it's super intimidating to try to figure out what each of them does and how they all work together. So I'm just trying to work with one at a time and see where that gets me!
This week I worked with my remote timer since I'm going to need to use it for the "final picture" that I want to take for this project. I let my son push the button (which you can see him doing in the photo) but I do like how it turned out overall!