Humans of Emma Willard School

Meyerson, A. (n.d.). Capturing Moments in Photography: Telling a Story with a Photo from Nikon. Retrieved October 8, 2019, from https://www.nikonusa.com/en/learn-and-explore /a/ideas-and-inspiration/the-stories-that-can-be-told-through-photography.html. This website is helpful because it explains how to take pictures that tell a story. The site was made by Nikon, a camera company, so the author has experience taking various types of photos. It says that when taking a picture, you should keep in mind what you want the picture to say and pick the aspects of the scene that best represent what you’re trying to show. 

Open Eye Creative. (2017, May 12). Ask better interview questions: 3 lessons from Humans of New York. Retrieved October 8, 2019, from https://openeyecreative.com/blog/ask-better- interview-questions-3-lessons-from-humans-of-new-york/. This article has quotes and advice from Brandon Stanton, the creator of the Humans of New York pages. He discusses various tips for asking interview questions that will get authentic answers from the people you are talking to. It says that you should ask straight forward questions that cannot be answered in only one word, and to ask follow up questions that lead people to say more. 

Sebastian. (2018, November 11). The Art of Storytelling In Photography. Retrieved October 8, 2019, from https://streetbounty.com/art-storytelling-photography/. This website has advice on taking photos that are interesting to look at and tell a story. It’s written by a seasoned photographer, and it says that an efficient way to do so is to pick significant details that stand out like human interaction, or specific objects, and make them the focus of the picture.

My name is Sophia and I am a Senior at Emma Willard. This will be my second year of working on this project, and my overall goal of bringing the community closer together remains the same. In addition to helping people get to know each other, I hope to use this as an opportunity to continue working on my photography and communication skills. This year, I am going to do more spontaneous interviews and try to do them when people in the community are actively doing something they are passionate about. Instead of finding somebody in the library and asking them about playing field hockey, I want to talk to them right after their game and take their picture during it. By doing this, I hope to get more authentic interviews. Having this goal will also encourage me to attend more school events to get to know the people there. In addition to continuing to run the Instagram page, I also plan on creating a book with the picture and interviews from both this year and last year. This was a goal I had last year, but was unable to do it so this year I am going to plan my time better so I will have enough time and content to make a book.

October: Do six interviews. Have at least three of them be of people actively doing something instead of talking about something they like to do.

November: Do six more interviews.

December: Do three more interviews and find the company that I’m going to use to make my book.

January: Do four more interviews and begin formatting book.

February: Continue to format book and do interviews.

March: Continue to do interviews and be done with designing the book by the end of the month.

April: Finish and order book.

Although I was nervous, our presentation went really well! Once I actually started talking and saw my friends and family in the audience, I became more relaxed. Many people have come up to me since Friday and said that they enjoyed learning about our project, and we have gained some followers on our Instagram.

Our biggest challenge was becoming comfortable with talking to people that we did not know and ask them questions about their personal lives. As the year went on, I gained the confidence that I needed, and it became easier for me to approach people and have fluid conversations with them. One of my biggest personal successes was learning more about how to take better portraits. In each interview we did, I had practice finding places with nice backgrounds and lighting and I had the opportunity to be creative and take the photos in any way that I wanted.

As I continue this project next year, I am going to continue with the same basic idea of conducting interviews and taking pictures. In addition, I want to make a book of the interviews from this year and next year, and include the pictures. I also want to hang the pictures along with interviews somewhere on campus so people can look at them throughout the day.

As time goes on, I feel more comfortable with the thought of presenting. At first, I was very nervous about public speaking but participating in this project this year has helped me get out of my shell so I am feeling more confident about presenting. We have finished our presentation and I am happy with how it looks so I am looking forward to show everyone our final product. 

Sophia and I have started our presentation. We are trying to figure out how to split the load and decided who talks when but I believe that if we get into the flow of it, it will be nice and we will compliment each other. We were having some trouble with the formatting, but we found a template that we both like. 

Julia and I have started making our presentation for Signature day. We had a little trouble deciding what aspects of the project to talk about, but we were able to work it out and include everything that we want to say. We have our first practice presentation soon, and I have been practicing on my own the past couple of days. Speaking in front of large groups of people usually makes me really nervous, but it makes me feel better knowing that Julia will be there with me because if I forget to say something, she can fill in for me.

We were able to do more interviews this month, however we did not have time to plan making an exhibit of our photos. Earlier in the year, we did not have enough photos to make a book or a formal display, and now that we have a sufficient amount, we do not have time to plan something like that. However, the display and the book are now my goals for when I continue this project next year.

We have to finalize what we would like to do for our end of the year project by next month. We have been discussing different options but have not made any progress and I would like to solidify a plan. I would like to showcase our work rather than having our big end of year project as the instagram and facebook but depending on the time restraints, we may have to work with what we have. 

This month has been a lot slower than usual. Obviously having break for the majority of the month has not helped, but we have not conducted any more interviews. We still have a few to post so we should try to upload those as soon as possible but other than that, there has not been much progress.