VWES students take part in photo workshop

Kids & Teens Only Development Workshops conducted a photo workshop that introduced Communities in Schools students at Virginia Williamson Elementary School to the basics of photography.
The workshop exposed students to the art and technical side of photography before the digital evolution.
Students were taught about composition, what a camera is, how a camera works, and how to make a pinhole camera out of a tin can.
After a question-and-answer session, students also discovered a camera is a light proof box, and the word “photography” means to draw by light. Participants also learned a little photography history dating back to the 15th century, when painter Leonardo da Vinci used a device called the camera obscura. They also learned about a French inventor who made the first permanent photograph in the early 1800s.
Students also got a chance to look at various color and black and white pictures taken by the instructor. One shot caught their attention because it looked like snow crawling over and around rocks. Several of the students thought the photograph, called “Waters Flow,” was a painting.
At that point, another learning experience came into play.  Students learned when photographing water that is moving horizontally across the film plane and the camera’s view finder, the water can have the look of snow by slowing down the camera’s shutter speed to a half of a second, and then up to three seconds.
The most exciting part of the day came when the instructor allowed the kids to use his classic 35mm camera to take pictures of each other. Students also received a live demonstration on how to develop black and white film. Within 20 minutes, kids were able to view themselves on the film they shot and watched it being developed in a darkroom developing tank that looked like a quart-size canning jar painted black.
After seeing their images on the film, one student exclaimed, “Wow, that’s cool!”
The future shutterbugs also had a chance to handle and learn about various older film cameras dating from 1949 to the early ’70s.
Some of the instructor’s cameras on display were a Kodak Pony, Mamiya C-220 twin lens, Kodak Instamatic, Polaroid Swinger and a Nikon F. Students also saw the types of film used in these cameras. Finally, students were taught how to use a light-exposure meter to calculate exposure, which is determined by the camera’s aperture and shutter speed setting, film speed and the intensity of the light source falling on the subject.
David Pickett of Shallotte, founder of Kids & Teens Development Workshops, developed and instructed the pre-digital age photography clinic. He used his own self-created course materials and a few of his exhibition photographs from his pictorial art collection for teaching purposes.
For information on an upcoming free photo workshop, call 880-2759 or email KidsandTeensDevelopment-Workshops@yahoo.com.