88 posts tagged “school”

Latest photos

Apr 19, 2008
Post a comment

Here is just a sample of some of the photos which I have been uploading to my flickr account recently.

This was Cadet Corps parade - the first one of the new term, so obviously some of the kids had forgotten their uniform, or couldn't find it, or put it in the wash,or.......The certainly didn't seem too pleased to be on parade! I took a series of shots with all the cadets looking various shades of miserable.

Later on they cheered up as they got on with the afternoon's activities. Some of the RAF were doing a command task - blindfold challenge - but that didn't stop one boy from posing as soon as he saw the camera.

IMG_3326

I've also uploaded some pictures from my holiday in Spain. This one is from a series of two boys play fighting on the beach - again they seemed to respond well to the camera.

DSC02477

I've also added some old photos - here's one of some students on a Duke of Edinburgh Award overnight walking expedition in the Cotswolds. This was 2005.

DSC01308

Finally I used fd's flickr toys to create a mosaic of photos featuring my wife.

Hilary

"Neither a Borrower nor a Lender be"

Mar 15, 2008
1 comment

I should give up lending things to people - or should I?

Over the last few days I have lent a USB drive, a video camera, a digital camera and a tripod.

The digital camera came back on time with no problems, and the student who borrowed it had taken some photos for me, which was great. However, the tripod came back broken due to an accident (we think!). The video camera came back a day late after I had sent various messages and had to get cross with the student who had borrowed it - and then there was no apology. The USB drive also had to be chased up and came back about a week late. Unfortunately, I had foolishly lent a drive with some of my files on - and when it came back the files had disappeared.

I don't mend lending things to people but it really irritates me when they don't come back on time and I have to go chasing them. It's not just students who are bad returners, it's staff as well, which can be quite awkward. Perhaps I should institute a system of deposits or fines? Or should I just stop lending things?

School Photo-Gallery

Mar 12, 2008
Post a comment

PhotoGallery

After having shown you some of my flickr photos over the past few posts, I thought I would show you something of what I do at school. I spend a lot of time taking, collecting and uploading to web galleries photos about all aspects of school. The school web gallery is at http://deancloseschool.info/photos and you are welcome to go and take a look. Not all the photos are taken by me - some are taken by students and other staff. Strictly speaking, it is internal - there is an outward-facing marketing website and photo gallery. Mine is aimed at students and parents and is more candid and less strictly controlled than the marketing site.

The website is coded by hand in html and css, but the galleries themselves are created using a Mac program called Galerie, fed from iPhoto and uploaded using an Ftp program called CyberDuck. I have been using a MacPro since last September and have found it gives me a much more efficient and much faster workflow than I had previously on a PC where I used Photoshop Elements, PicSizer, Picasso and Filezilla. I do have PhotoShop CS3 on the Mac but mostly I can do everything I need to do using iPhoto - straighten, crop, adjust exposure, contrast and colour - and even remove offending items like car number plates. And of course, delete all the unsuitable images. Our parents sign agreements for us to take and use photos but I do try to be careful that photos are appropriate, and we don't identify any of the youngsters.

Parents and students alike seem very appreciative of the galleries and they are extremely popular with an average of 3000 page views a day and 250 unique visitors a day. There can be 4000 hits an hour and a gigabyte a day download - not bad for a school of some 450 students. By the way, my hosting company is Siteground who give me 750Gb storage and 7500Gb bandwidth for £3 a month roughly, so I've got plenty of room left. I actually have four websites with them, one for online learning using Moodle with nearly 150 courses; this one for photos and videos, one for backup and testing of Moodle, and a fourth one we use for Drupal (for the school theatre), Wordpress (for a student blog/cms) and Gallery (for a new version of the photo gallery).

Big Pink Friday

Jan 31, 2008
Post a comment

IMG_8798

Last Friday at school we had a Breast Cancer awareness day - we called it Big Pink Friday, since pink Friday is fairly common anyway. The kids were able to dress up in pink for a donation, and quite a number when wild, although overall involvement of staff and students was rather less than usual I thought. Here are a few photos of them (more here):

4 Rugby Videos

Dec 15, 2007
Post a comment

Here are 4 clips making up all the good stuff from my school's old boys' (Old Decanians') Rugby match. This is a great occasion in the school's calendar and a great opportunity to meet up with many of last year's leavers. They formed a powerful team and gave the school's first team a run for their money.

2 more videos

Dec 9, 2007
1 comment

Here are two more videos I've done recently; the first is of the cadet RLC Trophy inter-house competition at school, where cadets compete to produce the best drill or other tasks. I was in charge of a signals demonstration (with which the video clip starts) run by cadets who weren't in any of the house teams. The second video is the beginning of our Remembrance Day service held back in November.

Rugby and Cross Country

Dec 7, 2007
Post a comment

I seem to be doing a run of videos at the moment - here are two more taken at school events recently. The first is the Junior House Rugby competition - I was going to film the senior competition as well but by the time the Junior one was over I was frozen. Shivering and photography don't mis too well! The second video is from earlier in the term when we had our inter-house Cross Country Competition - junior boys, girls, and senior boys. It's much more of a school social event than the rugby for some reason. Hope you enjoy!

CCF Infantry Field Day

Dec 5, 2007
1 comment

This term my school CCF army section went to an MOD range in Worcestershire for Field Day. The morning was spent on the range shooting cadet rifles from the 100m point. Usually I spend my time taking photographs and loading magazines and doing the scoring; this time I was just taking photos. In the afternoon the cadets did a section attack and also a short signals exercise which involved them erecting a 27 foot mast for the antenna and using it to do radio checks. I blogged about the day earlier this term at http://chrisleigh.vox.com/library/post/ccf-shooting.html. But now - eventually - I've edited the video that was taken and here's the results in two clips - one of the section attack and the other of the signals exercise.

My previous post about CCF activities was about the Navy section sailing; read it here.

Fashion Rocks Uganda

Dec 2, 2007
Post a comment

A couple of weeks back we had a big fund raiser at school called "Fashion Rocks Uganda". It was a fashion show to raise money for our partner school in rural west Uganda. We have visited the school several times and completed various projects. This last summer we provided materials for the building of a new science lab and spent time teaching in the school. We also provided various teaching materials. We have some Ugandans at my school in the UK but none from that school - they're all from the cities - mainly Kampala. Here's two video clips of the fashion show.

Previous vox posts linked to Uganda: http://chrisleigh.vox.com/library/post/nerdy-day.html - http://chrisleigh.vox.com/library/post/cheap-laptops-to-rival-the-olpc.html - http://chrisleigh.vox.com/library/post/youtube-counting.html - http://chrisleigh.vox.com/library/post/back-to-school-1.html - http://chrisleigh.vox.com/library/post/uganda---chilling-in-kampala.html (last post of this year's Uganda trip) - http://chrisleigh.vox.com/library/post/uganda---last-pictures-from-ibanda.html - (last post about Ibanda, our link school's location).

More Photoshop fun

Nov 16, 2007
Post a comment

I love playing with Photoshop - mainly helping my students, but sometimes I get to play on my own stuff. Here are some photos I've done recently. First is a version of this sailing photo with added gradients and blends.

Sunset sail

2 comments

These next four are variations of originals that I liked on flickr which I've altered with various filters, effects, blends and overlays. The first is a lovely autumn shot - I think mine is an improvement :) and would be great as a desktop wallpaper.

autumnleaves3

The next three are all variations of some pink flowers that I liked. Again all sorts of things have been done to the original. I really ought to write down what I do, because I forget what I did to end up with the finished effect. Actually, they are never really finished, I just run out of time. The first is a gentled down version - nice and soft.

pinkflowers1

Next a really purple version with some neon glow.

pinkflowers6

And now a different version with the purple toned down a lot and the flowers turned white.

pinkflowers5

Now three portrait shots, the first two rendered as sketches. The first one had to be cut out from a very busy background before much could be done. I should have feathered the edge of the cut-out and I think he's wearing a little too much lipstick! But I do like the overall effect very much.

Josh

The next is a straight-forward sketch effect from what was already a good photo. I have various versions in different colours and can't really decide what colour is best. I love the pose - it's so full of youthful confidence.

Rupert 2

Finally what is probably my all time favourite portrait shot - partly because of the result and partly because of the journey to get there. The original was crooked and needed straightening; there was red-eye from the flash, a few facial blemishes, and the rest of the picture was distracting. Cleaned up and cropped, with a bit of glamour added courtesy of layers and blends, I think the result is stunning with the flash reflected off the glass behind the model. Perhaps I should have enhanced the eye colour a little; maybe changed the shirt colour? I'd never be finished - there are more pictures to play with!

Rupert 1

Writing this has made me want to try some more. I have lots of surfing photos I took last summer in San Diego (well Encinitas actually), for example, which would benefit from enhancing contrast and colour both of sea and sky. And I take lots of train photos which aren't very interesting to non-train people and could do with some dramatic touches. Trouble is I need more creative imagination; may be I can pick some up from the art I'm teaching at school these days.