My school requires four semesters of chapel credit for all students since we are a private school. I am enrolled in chapel this semester. Convocation is a more formal chapel held in our gym arena the first Wednesday of every month. We have a guest speaker from the community or administration speak to us about whatever they feel is relevant and important. This was not only my first chapel, but my first photography assignment at UMHB. Here's how it turned out: ISO: 1600 APERTURE: 2.8 SHUTTER SPEED: 1/80 ISO: 1600 APERTURE: 2.8 SHUTTER SPEED: 1/80 I am fully aware and take responsibility for these two pieces of crap. So, here's everything I know to be wrong with them. First, let me just preface with no one told me dress code for this, so I wore a tee shirt that wasn't even from our school. Therefore I was put in the stands. It was super awkward because I didn't want to move around too much. The bleachers squeak and everyone's quiet. I had a flash, and Smi

I have been hired on staff as a photographer for the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor's yearbook, the Bluebonnet. I am expected to have a lot of work put into it as a photographer and in other areas such as writing, layout and design. I'm really excited about this opportunity because I've already switched my major and decided to major in Art with an emphasis in graphic design and minor in marketing. Our staff is ridiculously smaller than my high school was, but it's the same kind of environment and work flow. This just means that more is expected of me. When I first walked in to the interest meeting the first week of school, two students approached me and asked if I was Savannah, as if I'm some kind of goddess or something, which flattered me, but still weirded me out a little bit. They seemed really nice. I later found out that one, Cameron is now my photo editor and the girl, Blair, is another photographer that I've quickly made friends with. Apparently, my

I was really bored in class, and I knew I needed blogs, so I tried to recreate an image. It ended up coming out completely different and not SUPER modified from the original photo. I plan to recreate the original inspiration that didn't happen today, but this is what endlessly changing my mind came up with. I wanted to play with opacity and make the layers seamlessly flow in Photoshop. This is what ended up coming out of my fourth period class today.

I was asked to take 2 year old pictures for my cousin, Lily. We had the plans for multiple weeks, but the weather was not cooperative. It stormed every day we planned to take these, so we jumped on the opportunity to take these as soon as the sun came out and dried things up. We took them behind Hardy Memorial UMC, in their field. This was the same place I had taken Kaitlyn Markham's drill team pictures. It was ridiculously sunny, and she was wearing white, so the circumstances weren't all the best, but her mom just wanted something she could have as a keepsake. ISO: 400 APERTURE: 4.0 SHUTTER SPEED: 1/2500 I just kind of let her roam around and pick flowers because there's really no way to happily control a two year old for pictures. I think they worked out, though. 

This blog is not technically related to my actual photography, but after we had our publications' awards banquet, I think that I should follow up with where I'm continuing my education and how my photography will be working after this semester ends and I leave my photography program.  I have accepted two internships this summer through my church, Hardy Memorial UMC and ALT magazine in Texarkana. I will work these through the summer until I move into my dorm at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, August 14. I have emailed about becoming a part of the school's newspaper staff as a staff writer or photographer, but have not received any information back yet. I'm going to study education and receive a teaching certificate upon graduation where I hope to become a journalism adviser. I would also like to take on an internship in Belton with a photography studio or local newspaper. 

I attended the Texas High Publications' banquet tonight, and while I was being recognized for my awards I had won through various contests this year, it was announced by my adviser that I had won the Sharon Jacobus Memorial scholarship. There is only one winner, and the awarded amount is $500.  I was required to send in a cover sheet, an essay over the teacher that has inspired me to pursue teaching, a letter of recommendation from my adviser and a portfolio consisting of five images. These were the five that I entered from my portfolio that won the ATPI fall contest.

I created an online portfolio of my work to showcase my photography, design, and video skills and experience. I used this portfolio to look for internships this summer and received one with ALT magazine in Texarkana. I'm very thankful for this internship, and I'm very thankful that I'll be receiving my own camera for graduation from my mother.  This is the link to my portfolio which also links back to this blog, my references and resume.  savprit.wix.com/portfolio

I decided to make a pinhole camera out of my DSLR after using my Holga camera with my adviser. I found a DIY online to make a pinhole "lens" out of a DSLR body cap.  First I drilled a clean hole through the center of the cap, then I had to cut a piece of aluminum from a can in a square and clean it. Then, Make a tiny hole in the center and clean it again. I placed the pinhole in the drilled in hole on the body cap and placed adhesive on it. After it dried, I put tape around it to secure it. Lastly, I painted it black so that light on this inside wouldn't mess up the image.  This is the end result:  Since I didn't make this very precise, and I sort of just made it in a hurry, it could've turned out a lot better. Maybe had a spray painted the inside a flat black it would've worked a little better, and I slightly think I may have made the pinhole too big because the focus is a little off. Otherwise, I'm very pleased for having done this myse

In the May print issue of newspaper, we featured Chelsea Slider for softball. I went after school to the softball fields and met with Chelsea. Originally, we were going to take a photo of her batting, but I thought a more interesting picture would be of her sliding into the base. I'm aware that it is illegal for girls to slide head first into home, but there weren't any other bases on the field, and for the sake of the picture it looked better.  ISO: 160 APERTURE: 13 SHUTTER SPEED: 1/200 I had two 600 flashes, one on camera and one set off to my right, both pointed at the home plate. I set the on camera flash into master and the off camera flash to slave, both in ETTL. I used settings like I would normally use in the studio, which kills the ambient light so that the flash would be picked up. I had the subject slide only about three times and this was the last take. A problem that we ran into is that the ground was very wet, so instead of dirt, there was thick, so

ISO: 160 APERTURE: 13 SHUTTER SPEED: 1/200 This is the May issue of Tiger Times. My photo was used in the design for the double truck. I ended up in the studio on a white background with two bees lighting the background just like a high key set up. They were between 1/4 and 1/2 power. The parabolic flash was catty corner the subject to create a shadow and was also between a 1/4 and 1/8 power setting. The subject is not naked, but she did have to tuck in the straps of her undergarments. The point of the picture is that the article is about eating disorders and the subject looks sickly small. The shadows help show how tiny she is and the veins in her hands. 

I don't actually know what this is called, but I liked the idea of it. I haven't executed nearly as well as I would like to, but I'm not finished. Its a work in progress. I haven't found any explanations as to how to achieve this picture, but I've speculated with my adviser and ended up coming to my own conclusion and roundabout way as to how to get my desired image.  This is the original inspiration for this project. I still haven't exactly figured out how many images are in this.  I took the one base picture I had and found a horizontal stripe pattern on the Internet. I put it over the base picture and used the magnetic lasso tool in Photoshop then erased certain stripes. On a second copy of the picture, I did the same thing. I put the images in Photoshop then tried to shift them so the images were lapsed.  I came out with two different images, the only difference being how many spacings I chose to lapse the stripes. This was nudged just o

So I've decided since the last issue of newspaper is about done and there's not many pressing assignments, I'm going to learn as many new techniques while I have the equipment and help to do so at the school.  I've pinterested a ton of different things I've wanted to teach myself how to do, most of it being Photoshop work, but I at least need to sharpen my skills in the program. I took a basic portrait and edited it in color and black and white. This will be the base photo for all of my endeavors for the rest of the year that I attempt my new projects on. These are the photos: ISO: 160 APERTURE: 13 SHUTTER SPEED: 1/200 This is the color picture of chosen and edited. I've gotten in a rut where I've started to edit my photos around a gritty, and dark contrasted style. I think it's pretty reflected in this "color" shot. This is the exact same image with my black and white edit over it. The problem I've come to find i

ISO: 1600 APERTURE: 4.0 SHUTTER SPEED: 1/800 I did a photo shoot with a couple of my friends who have made their own band. They needed a couple pictures to upload on their media to promote themselves so I happily heaped out. It was challenging because I felt weird telling them what to do. They're all pretty assertive and are easy to knock something if they don't like it, so I was very hesitant with my ideas. There were a couple that turned out really neat. They were going for the really grimy look. I ended up running up the contrast and clarity to make it look darker, plus it helped that it had been raining that day and was still sprinkling, so the concrete was wet.

I was asked to take senior pictures for Paige Kennedy, my friend in Atlanta, TX. We went to several locations in Bloomberg, Atlanta and her step dad's house to take a picture with a dog. The dog was probably the hardest part because I'm not a dog whisperer, so he was hard to manage. ISO: 400 APERTURE: 4.0 SHUTTER SPEED: 1/1250 This is in downtown Atlanta, TX. I took a similar photo for a band of boys that I'm friends with in this spot. It looked grungy for them being in a heavy boy band, but I figured it could still make for a good picture for girls senior pictures. The light was backlighting her, but as I've seen with other photographers, apparently backlighting is a new trend and people really seem to like it. It's not my favorite, probably because in all of my teachings I've been taught it's bad, but I tried this time. I don't think it looks too bad.  ISO: 400 APERTURE: 4.0 SHUTTER SPEED: 1/3200 This is one of the first pictu

These are a sneak peek at Ashley Tyson's senior photos. These were all shot downtown in Jefferson, TX. She happens to be my best friend, and I had our other best friend, Kelsi Brinkmeyer, with us to help light and assist. We all worked really well together because we gel and bounce ideas off each other. Kelsi is a phenomenal photographer, so I was glad to have her with us.  ISO: 400 APERTURE: 4.0 SHUTTER SPEED: 1/1250 ISO: 400 APERTURE: 4.0 SHUTTER SPEED: 1/1250 ISO: 400 APERTURE: 4.0 SHUTTER SPEED: 1/1250 ISO: 400 APERTURE: 4.0 SHUTTER SPEED: 1/1250 ISO: 400 APERTURE: 4.0 SHUTTER SPEED: 1/1250 ISO: 400 APERTURE: 4.0 SHUTTER SPEED: 1/1250 ISO: 400 APERTURE: 4.5 SHUTTER SPEED: 1/8000 ISO: 400 APERTURE: 4.5 SHUTTR SPEED: 1/8000 ISO: 400 APERTURE: 4.0 SHUTTER SPEED: 1/8000 ISO: 400 APERTURE: 4.0 SHUTTER SPEED: 1/8000 ISO: 400 APERTURE: 4.0 SHUTTER SPEED: 1/8000 ISO: 400 APERTURE: