Introduction

“How can you find, explore, and/or expand your passion?”

Junior Freestyle students were challenged to explore their passion and find a project in which they can grow. Many college-bound high school students have heard of the passion project where they are to pursue one to demonstrate to the colleges that they are good candidates for their colleges. During the junior year, when most classes are intense and difficult, looking for a passion project is more stressful than exciting. That is how I had originally pursued this project. But during the process I found myself truly enjoying my project. I was able to have fun creating photos of my cousins and sister, turning them into superheroes with lightening coming out of hands and force fields radiating out of them. My project is using camera shutter speed to “paint”.

Out of the eight 21st Century Skills, I chose Creativity, Self-Direction, and Teaming and Collaboration. I chose this project because I had always wanted to take cool pictures and see how much Creativity I can muster up. I challenged myself with Self-Direction, setting specific goals of producing fun pictures of my cousins that they would want to show off. The best part of this project was the Teaming and Collaboration. Eventually, everyone became vested in the project and together we explored many composition ideas.

Process

I never watched or followed a tutorial video on how to take these kinds of photos nor did I study what the most effective or efficient way to accomplish my goal was. I got inspiration from the work of other photographers and then envisioned what images I wanted to create. I practiced and developed the skill through trial and error and I now have a better understanding of how to use it.

I started out by taking some photos in a moving car during the night to see how the different shutter speeds would affect the outcome of the light in the photos. Then, I moved on to taking photos with a controlled light source by asking my sister and friends to wave a flashlight around while I photographed them as a way to practice the skill before applying it to the final photos.

Final Production

Finally, when I felt pretty confident and ready, I gathered a team of four including myself, my younger sister, and my two younger cousins to take the final photos. I chose really long camera shutter speed settings with durations of 10 to 25 seconds so that there would be enough time for someone to draw with a source of light. Since I had to use a really long shutter speed setting, the photos were taken in pitch black darkness in the basement movie theater of my house in order to limit light exposure. I used a phone flashlight for the movement of light in the photos. My sister and I moved the lights around, my cousin and sister posed, and my other cousin pressed the button to take the photo.

Overall, I am pretty satisfied with how the photos came out. I think this project was a success because I have a better understanding of how to use shutter speed and I created some pretty cool photos. Maybe in the future I’ll create cooler photos and I hope the readers will try out shutter speed light photography for themselves.

Experimental Music

We were assigned a project to use ProTools to create music with different music software, including Vacuum, XPand!, StructureFree, Boom, etc. The song had to be at least 60 seconds long per person and you were allowed to be as creative as you wanted to be. This was probably my favorite Freestyle project of the school year.

The instructions said to “be as off the wall as you wish to be” and there were a lot of different kinds of songs I wanted to try making so I ended up creating five short songs. The percussion pattern and rhythm is very similar for each of the songs and I used a piano sound instrument in almost all of the songs because it is my favorite instrument and the only one I know how to play well. I wanted each song to have a different mood. I am most proud of the last song that I created because it is kind of like a combination of the first four songs. I really enjoyed creating each song and experimenting with different sounds, instruments, tools and chord progressions. I value how versatile Pro Tools is and how creative you can be with it and I hope to create something polished with it in the future.