Spring 2019 Course Syllabi

Grading Philosophy: Please understand that I do not care about your grades, I care about your education. My job is to teach you, your job is to learn what I teach you, and hopefully more. If we both do our jobs, grades shouldn’t be necessary. The best way to succeed in my class is to NOT focus on - “what’s my grade,” or “what do I need to get an A?” - but instead focus on - “how much can I learn.” If you embrace this, you won’t be doing assignments for grades, you’ll be doing them in order to learn, and the grade will become secondary and take care of itself. Weekly Assignments: ALL assignments must be created for this class. You MUST create new work every week. Work created for other classes, or created in the past will NOT be accepted. Every assignment will be graded on the following categories. Each of the following four categories are worth 50 points each for a total of 200 points on each assignment. Aesthetics - We are learning to create professional images that would sell to a magazine, stock photography house, or hang in a client’s living room or art gallery. EVERY assignment should be done with this in mind. While aesthetics can be purely subjective, there is still a professional standard that we are striving for. Principles of art and design – Composition and design are basic visual rules that apply to all 2 dimensional art. This part is not subjective. A strong composition is a strong composition. Intent – What was the photographer’s intent and did they successfully create an image that expresses that intent? For classes, the intent will be the criteria for the assignment. For example, if the assignment is freezing motion, then did the photographer successfully freeze motion?. Is the viewer interpreting what the photographer wanted to say? Is it clear what the photographer was trying to accomplish? Technical proficiency – This one is fairly simple as it’s all about using the photography equipment properly. Is the photograph in focus, is the white balance correct, is the exposure correct, were all the camera settings correct, was lighting equipment used properly, etc.