Columbia Scholastic Press Association

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Summer Journalism Workshop - Class Description

Digital Photography

Students in CSPA's Digital Photography class will learn to shoot photographs for use in student publications. Special attention will be made on shooting academic, sports/action and photo stories/picture packages. Environmental portraits will also play a part in the daily assignments.

The class will also practice other styles of photography, including architecture, time exposure and fine art.

Students will work both individually as well as in teams, having their work critiqued in both settings.

Leaving the class with a substantial portfolio of shots taken during the week will be a major goal of this class. Organizing and managing publication photo staffs will also be emphasized.

Required:

Digital photography students must bring a laptop computer with Photoshop (version CS3 or CS4 preferred) pre-installed. A 30-day trial version of Photoshop is available from the Adobe website, as long as it has not been installed previously on the computer.

Students must also bring a digital Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera as well as a battery charger, connection cables and a card reader for loading images onto their laptop computer. Blank discs (CD-R/DVD-R) or USB drives, extra memory cards and any additional equipment (lenses, flash, tripod, etc.) are recommended.

Class Instructor

Mark Murray 
Mark Murray is the coordinator of technology systems for the Arlington (TX) school district. As the photography teacher at Lamar High School in Arlington for 12 years, he was one of the advisers for élan, Lamar's Silver Crown literary magazine. He is the executive director for the Association of Texas Photography Instructors and is a co-consultant for the international Photo Imaging Education Association. He is a CSPA Gold Key recipient.