Where Every Scroll is a New Adventure
Homework - Blog Posts
I think I chose to be a math major cause I’m a masochist. There’s no other explanation.
The other turnaround for my student film!
I have two characters so here's the other one I designed!
Photography
Elements of Design
Line
Definition: The path of a moving point is a mark made by a tool or instrument as it is drawn across a surface.
Types: Vertical, Horizontal, Curved, ZigZag, Diagonal
Notable Example: "The Eiffel Tower" by Henri Cartier-Bresson - showcasing elegant vertical lines.
Shape
Definition: The area stands out from the shape next to or around it because of a defined boundary or because of value, color, or texture.
Notable Example: "Migrant Mother" by Dorothea Lange - illustrating the emotional impact of the human shape within its surroundings.
Color
Definition: A visual sensation caused by light.
Notable Example: "Afghan Girl" by Steve McCurry - using vibrant color to convey the subject's striking gaze.
Components: Hue, Value, Intensity
Hue refers to the pure, basic colors of the color wheel. It is what distinguishes one color from another, such as red, blue, or yellow.
Example: In a rainbow, each band of color represents a different hue.
Value represents the lightness or darkness of a color. It is determined by the amount of light reflected by a color. A range of values creates contrast and depth in an image.
Example: In a grayscale image, the variations from black to white represent different values of gray.
Intensity, also known as saturation, refers to the purity or vividness of a color. A highly saturated color is pure and vibrant, while a desaturated color is more muted or grayish.
Example: A highly saturated red will be bright and vibrant, while a desaturated red will appear more subdued.
Space
Definition: The area occupied by form. The main area is positive, everything else is negative.
Notable Example: "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico" by Ansel Adams - masterfully using negative space to emphasize the moonrise.
Value
Definition: How light or dark a given color or hue can be.
Notable Example: "The Old Guitarist" by Pablo Picasso (photographed by André Villers) - utilizing value to evoke emotion in a monochromatic context.
Form
Definition: Where light and shape collide to create images with depth and a sense of touchability.
Notable Example: "Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2" by Marcel Duchamp (photographed by Man Ray) - playing with form and movement in a surreal way.
Texture
Definition: The visual depiction of variations in the color, shape, and depth of an object's surface.
Notable Example: "Migrant Mother" by Dorothea Lange - highlighting the weathered texture of the subject's face and hands.
Practice:
Take 5 photos demonstrating lines or explore more variations.
Principles
Balance
Definition: Feeling of equality in weight.
Types: Symmetrical, Asymmetrical, Radial
Notable Example: "The Birth of Venus" by Sandro Botticelli - showcasing symmetrical balance in a classic painting.
Proportion
Definition: Deals with the ratio of one part to another. Ratio implies comparison and is expressed in size, number, position, and space.
Notable Example: "Vitruvian Man" by Leonardo da Vinci - exploring the proportions of the human body in a meticulous drawing.
Harmony
Definition: Creates unity by stressing the similarities of separate but related parts.
Notable Example: "Starry Night" by Vincent van Gogh - achieving harmony through the use of color and swirling patterns.
Variety
Definition: A change or contrast within one or more elements to add interest and to avoid monotony.
Notable Example: "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" by Pablo Picasso - introducing variety through diverse and unconventional forms.
Movement
Definition: Where your eyes look in a picture.
Notable Example: "Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette" by Pierre-Auguste Renoir - capturing the lively movement of dancers in a joyful scene.
Unity
Definition: The whole or total effect of a work of art that results from the combination of all its components.
Notable Example: "Guernica" by Pablo Picasso - achieving unity in a powerful anti-war painting.
Rhythm
Definition: A continuance, a flow, or a feeling of movement achieved by the repetition of related visual units; the use of measured accents.
Notable Example: "The Dance" by Henri Matisse - creating a sense of rhythm through repeated, flowing shapes.
Emphasis
Definition: The stressing of an element to make it more interesting or important through one position, color, object, or texture.
Notable Example: "Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Johannes Vermeer - emphasizing the subject's enigmatic gaze and the play of light on the pearl.
Composition
The way the principles of art are used to organize the elements of art. It determines the movement or direction it takes your eyes around the picture. There are many types of compositions; some of them resemble an S, O, U, T, L, S, and more. Understanding composition enhances the overall impact and storytelling in your photographs.
Composition in photography refers to the arrangement and organization of visual elements within a frame to create a compelling and harmonious image. It involves making deliberate choices about how to position and combine various elements like lines, shapes, colors, and textures. A well-composed photograph not only captures the subject but also guides the viewer's eyes in a way that enhances the overall impact and storytelling of the image.
Key Aspects of Composition:
Framing:
Choosing what to include within the frame and what to leave out is crucial. The frame acts as a boundary, focusing attention on the subject.
Rule of Thirds:
Dividing the frame into a 3x3 grid and placing key elements along these lines or at their intersections can create a visually pleasing balance.
Leading Lines:
Lines within an image (like a road, river, or architectural elements) can guide the viewer's eyes toward a focal point or create a sense of movement.
Symmetry and Asymmetry:
Symmetry can create a sense of balance, while asymmetry adds visual interest. Both can be used to guide the viewer's focus.
Contrast:
Contrast in color, tone, or texture helps certain elements stand out, drawing the viewer's eyes to specific areas of the photograph.
Depth and Perspective:
Creating a sense of depth enhances the three-dimensional feel of a photograph. This can be achieved through techniques like using leading lines, overlapping elements, or varying focus.
Balance:
Achieving balance ensures that no single element dominates the composition. Balance can be symmetrical, asymmetrical, or radial, depending on the desired effect.
Guiding the Viewer's Eyes:
Visual Hierarchy:
Establish a hierarchy of importance within the image. This can be achieved through the use of size, color, or contrast to make certain elements more prominent.
Focal Point:
Clearly define a focal point to which the viewer's eyes are naturally drawn. This can be the main subject or a strategically placed element within the composition.
Leading Lines:
Utilize leading lines to guide the viewer's eyes toward the main subject or a specific area of interest within the frame.
Contrast and Color:
Use contrast and color to create emphasis. A pop of color or a high-contrast element can immediately attract attention.
Positioning and Flow:
Consider how the viewer's eyes will move across the image. Arrange elements to create a natural flow that leads the eyes from one point of interest to another.
In summary, composition is about purposefully arranging elements within the frame to create a visually pleasing and impactful image. By understanding the principles of composition, photographers can effectively guide the viewer's eyes, control the narrative, and evoke specific emotions or reactions.
Practice:
Here are three famous photographs where you can circle or draw an arrow to the focal point:
"Migrant Mother" by Dorothea Lange:
Assignment: Circle to highlight the focal point. Consider how the photographer uses the expressions and gaze to create a compelling focal point.
"Afghan Girl" by Steve McCurry:
Assignment: Circle or draw an arrow pointing to the focal point. Notice how the intense gaze creates a powerful focal point and draws the viewer into the subject's emotions.
"The Falling Soldier" by Robert Capa:
Assignment: Draw an arrow pointing to the focal point. Reflect on how this focal point captures a decisive moment in the chaos of war, conveying both action and vulnerability.
For each photograph, consider the composition techniques that contribute to the effectiveness of the focal point. Pay attention to factors like framing, contrast, and the placement of elements within the frame. This exercise can help enhance your understanding of how photographers use focal points to guide and engage the viewer.
No context but I came across this image while doing homework
5/3/19
Photosynthesis is so interesting! I still can’t believe that lowly plants and even cyanobacteria harness the energy of the humble electron to power this stuff. It’s so intricate
Edit: this app is called Notability for anyone wondering!
4/3/19
I hate electrochemistry so much but I’m trying not to make life harder for myself by creating a mental barrier
Good morning, sunshine!
My eyes snapped open at 7:30am so I figured I’d have a wash, stretch out my aching muscles and do some maths. After this I’ll go and grab some breakfast :)
It’s finally half term so the pressure is momentarily off and I can catch up on all my outstanding tasks.
I feel like I’ve achieved a lot in the past couple of hours I’ve been up!
Have an amazing day!
8/2/19 Chemistry :D
I hate surprise tests but I know I need to start revising now so that’s what I’ve been doing all evening. Now I’m done I can finally sit down with the book I’ve been wanting to read all day!
I love that feeling of being so absorbed in a book you don’t want to ever put it down. I’ve finally found pleasure in reading again - something I lost when I found out aphantasia wasn’t something anyone else I knew had. I just read because I love words and can feel their nuances rather than see them in action in my head :)
Have a lovely evening!
9/1/18 - 3/100 days of productivity
Today has been awesome. I had chemistry first thing, and then double German (my favourite class!), then I had some Galette des Rois in French and ended the day with Biology. No frees today but a really positive time all round :)
I’m sat doing homework now and I’ve promised myself I can watch a new TV programme that’s on later if I get it done haha
8/1/18 - 2/100 days of productivity
Sorry this is late - I had no WiFi yesterday at all! However, in my only free I made these notes on the brain :)
I hope you’re having a great week!
07/01/19 - 1/100 days of productivity
Thank you for 2000 followers! I love you all!
First day back at sixth form and first day of a new productivity challenge! I will honestly try to suck less at posting every day this time hehe
Because I have 4 free hours on a Monday before my first out of two lessons at 2pm, I got a lot done. I started out with some maths, but then my computer logged me off my digital books and it wouldn’t load again, so I ended up writing up some biology notes and then doing some chemistry - that’s what you can see here :)
Although I am full of cold, it has been a good day all round! I found out I got an A* in my bio mock when I thought I actually flunked that test so hard.
2/1/19
I love the library! Plus I’m spending time with my good friend and am just round the corner from town so... did someone say shopping? x
First study session of 2019!
Would love a cup of tea right about now :)
19/12/18 - 100/100 days of productivity!
As if I saved this as a draft instead of putting it into my queue 😑
Thank you so much for your continued support during my absence. It’s been a while but it is the holidays so I’m going to wait until next week to try my next run of 100 days, because that’s when I go back to sixth form.
So this was a while back, when I had just finished mocks. I find out how I did on the 10th January.
Integration at A2 is disgusting. Integration by substitution and especially integration by parts are just stupidly hard for my brain to understand for some reason haha
I feel... fulfilled. Somehow. Like I managed to achieve something meaningful that pushed me forwards in my goal of ultimately getting 5A*’s, because I’m normally a terrible procrastinator when I’m bored. Who knows, I may or may not get those grades but I will be proud of whatever I get because I put my best foot forward.
See you guys soon! I will be posting in the meantime (I promise) as I revise and get my brain back into the swing of things, so I’m going to be busy!
9-12/12/18 - 90-93/100 days of productivity
It is Wednesday, my dudes!
I am right in the middle of mocks right now and I have biology and chemistry tomorrow. I am revising the heart because I’ve not done it in a while! (I also quite enjoy drawing it - can you tell?)
How has your week been so far?
3-8/12/18 - 84-89/100 days of productivity
Omg life is so hectic right now - sorry for no posts for ages! So I have had my Cambridge interviews (I think they went... ok?) and am now revising for mocks beginning on Monday morning with German!
I’m at my friend’s house doing some Quizlets of new vocab :)
2/12/18 - 83/100 days of productivity
Whiteboard time! I’m just preparing for my Cambridge interview by reviewing a mechanism I namedropped in my personal statement in the first pic, and then later on I was bored so I decided to see how long it would take me to learn and remember the Krebs Cycle. (Not as long as it looks like it should take!)
I totally should be revising things I need to regurgitate for mocks next week, but that’s boring. You know what’s not boring? Learning how a process that’s fundamental to life works!
27/11/18 - 1/12/18 - 78-82 days of productivity
Hi all! So November just decided to defy the laws of time by not existing haha
Time to get festive!
But first I have my Cambridge interviews on Tuesday 4/12/18 and then the week after I have mocks. So lots of revision up ahead, on which I have already made a start over this week as you can see.
Sorry for my absence this week - been busy having a breakdown over how incompetent my school is at organising things. However, I’m okay now!
25/11/18 - 77 days of productivity
This is why I love chemistry. It’s messy yet highly predictable, and all molecules are intrinsically related to one another - even if it’s hard to get from one to the other in a single step.
I mentioned nucleophilic acyl substitution on my personal statement, and I’m just reminding myself of it - just in case Cambridge decide to grill me on it. In fact, as much as I HATE my personal statement, I’m going through it all. But my grey mildliner is healing my heart :)
21-24/11/2018 - 73-76 days of productivity
Hi guys! So today I was at the library all morning having a biology brain dump/crisis because we have literally just been told we have mocks in a couple of weeks. My Cambridge interview is the week before.
So yeah, I’m a little stressed right now. Which is why I am writing a formal petition to put the mocks back - none of our teachers knew about them and we are all basically screwed. I’m going to see how many signatures I can get and do this democratically.
However, I do have an incentive to work hard:
I have an unconditional offer from my favourite uni (behind Cambridge)!
If I don’t get into Cambridge, I’ll definitely be accepting the offer from the University of Birmingham to read Chemistry with German. Of course, if it becomes my insurance choice, it will become conditional - but it’s okay, because the only way it’ll be second best is to Cambridge.
My acceptance letter came with a handwritten note from the admissions tutor congratulating me on my knowledge of everything that came up at interview, which instantly made me smile.
So I’m stressed, but I got this!
We all forget things.
So today I was meant to give a presentation in front of my chemistry class, but I completely forgot and didn’t prepare anything. I was mortified when my name was called and I told her, “But I can’t - I’ve literally not prepared for this at all!” The room went silent and I felt so awful in that moment.
My chemistry teacher said, “I will see you outside.” And I thought I would get a bollocking. As soon as I got outside, I broke down crying, annoyed at myself because I never do things like that. I wanted to show her how on it I am and how well I can rise to challenges like public speaking, but instead I failed to follow a simple instruction and humiliated myself in front of the class.
So I went outside, ready to go on the defensive about why I should not be made to present. My teacher gave me the biggest hug and told me that I am only human - which is why she would let me do my presentation next week and just in front of her. She reminded me not to be so cruel and hard on myself, because I do that. I beat myself up over little things.
She told me that I have so much on my plate right now with university stuff as well as upcoming mocks that I should allow myself to be forgetful once in a while.
She told me that she is usually the most organised person ever but she forgets to bring stuff to the right lessons all the time.
She told me she doesn’t hate me, isn’t disappointed in me and all she wants is for me to stop stressing. And then she told me to go to the toilets and wash my face while she told the rest of the class not to talk about it.
My point is, it’s okay to skip a beat and forget something. It’s okay to admit you are only human.
And I am blessed to have a teacher who genuinely cares. How many people can say the same nowadays?
20/11/18 - 72 days of productivity
I got an interview from Cambridge!
Oh my goodness I’m so excited that I get a second chance to show them I’m up for this. I was whinging this morning that I just wanted to find out and then opened my inbox to find the email I’ve been waiting for :)
So what you see above is the product of a newfound energy and zest for life. I’m writing up some biology notes in advance and also got to play with some logarithmic graph paper (OMG that stuff is so cool!) and did some (heavily tippexed) maths. They were just the examples haha I suck at copying things down
Happy Tuesday folks, I hope today has treated you as well as it has treated me!
18-19/11/2018 - 70-71 days of productivity
I’m having an awful mental health day. I don’t know if I’m worried about something or not... that is the beauty of depression. It’s been at bay for a while but I’m afraid it’s going to come back and I hate feeling like this :(
I just want a hug.
And to hear back from Cambridge. Anything. I don’t care if I get rejected, I just want to know.
Other than that, this morning was ok, and I got a fair amount done. It was my Maths morning today so I did a bunch of integration. Fun times!
17/11/18 - 69 days of productivity
Thank you for >1000 followers! Ahhhh!
Hi all! So middle insomnia kicked in again and I woke up very promptly at 4am and couldn’t get back to sleep :(
As such it was very difficult to concentrate BUT my newest book (Frauen in der DDR - Anna Kaminsky) is very interesting and I’ve arranged to visit the library with @natrevisin next Saturday to crack on with my IRP.
I introduced a friend to Duolingo and she was so happy she could start learning German again! My XP then went from 5000 to 13,220, so that should tell you what I’ve been up to all day haha
Anyway, pictured above are my chemistry notes for the topic we have got round to studying. I actually made these months ago, but they are relevant right now.
Happy weekend!
15-16/11/18 - 67-68/100 days of productivity
What a week! I’m exhausted!
I’ve been mainly reading today, because I wanted to be productive but didn’t really have all that much to do - for once! I am going to have a day of maths on Sunday to make up for missing my mentoring session this week, but I’m still going to take it easy.
But right now I’m researching for my IRP in German, ft. the new book I ordered which got delivered today. So far, so very interesting! I can’t wait to reach a conclusion :)
Happy Friday, guys!
13-14/11/18 - 65-66/100 days of productivity
14th - well today has been long. I had an applicant visit day to the uni of Birmingham, which was so much fun - until it came to getting home. I was supposed to be on a quarter past four train to be home for half seven. It is now ten to seven and I am waiting another 30 minutes for the final leg of my journey home to start after standing for 2 hours on a packed and very late train. I should arrive at my finial station at nine.
It’s not the staff’s fault necessarily, but we were turned away by a staff member when our train was actually boarding, so we missed it.
HOWEVER I did get to make good progress with Selam Berlin! And I got to play with sodium alginate and calcium chloride, and experience a lecture on why transition metal compounds are coloured.
I did my German catch-up work on the train to Birmingham, too. Now to make some important emails!
8-12/11/18 - 60-64/100 days of productivity
Hello everyone! Thank you so much for >800 followers! Sorry I haven’t posted recently. I’ve been so busy doing preliminary research for my IRP in German.
My theme is women’s lives in the GDR and there’s so much to say about it! So this morning and last night I was making notes on two of my sources - one of which was a very interesting 2005 paper which put everything into one place for me with lots of interesting stats I can use in my presentation.
Speaking of presentations, I’ve got to stand up in front of the class on Friday and talk about enthalpy, so I’ve just finished my snazzy PowerPoint on that.
Today I’ve also been revising stats and making sure I have actually understood the material.
I’m just waiting on my two new books to use as German sources.
Tonight, I’m going to read Selam Berlin (I put it down and now have got round to picking it back up again!) and do some analysis on Der Vorleser. I aim to complete 5 chapters as they are quite short. I’ll also do any homework I’m set today.
Have a great day!
6-7/11/18 - 58-59 days of productivity
I’m so so happy I’ve finished this topic because a lot of it is just common sense. However, lessons are a laugh, as always :)
Analysing Der Vorleser in German is really amazing and I have my first essay to write on it this week! I really want to smash it out the park.
Maths is going well - I’ve used all this time I have to take it a bit easy these past two days because I felt like I was neglecting French.
Chemistry work is all done! AND I was in bed for 9:45pm, too :)
Plus - there’s supposed to be a biology test next week and I’m going to miss it for a visit day to Birmingham, which might just mess my schedule up but I’m excited for the visit nonetheless.
Have a great rest-of-week guys!