AP Summer Homework

1. Camera

• • • any camera that allows manual controls (ie phone, dslr...)

2. Sketchbook

   • blank, dots or grid, not lined

   • smallest approved 7in x9in

Choose and complete 12 of the following assignments: Log them in your sketchbook! including aperture/f-stop, shutter speed, light conditions, etc. 

1. When you travel to a new place this summer, record the adventure. Take 3 to 5 photos. 
2. Take 2 photos of the same friend or family member, focusing on a very different mood in each photo.
3. Take a series of photos that deal with repeating shapes in the composition.
4. Study faces and figures this summer. Take a “character” photo whose face really speaks to you personally. 
5.  Do a series of photos where you are panning the subject/subjects.
6. Create a composition where you freeze the action of your subject. 
7. Take a series of photos of the same landscape, cityscape or beach scene at different times of the day, capturing the changing light. 
8.  Photograph night scenes. Try some time-lapse photography.
9. Work with silhouettes. Try a series and improve your composition with each new photograph. 
10. Study the work of a famous photographer that you admire. Emulate his/her style but with your own twist…your own subject matter/concept. 
11. Take a series of photos that tell a story or present a social issue or something that you are passionate about. 
12. Set up an interesting still life of any related or unrelated items. 
13. Take a series of photographs as though you were a fashion magazine/ home magazine photographer on assignment.
14. Concentrate on texture, shape, composition, negative and positive space, lighting… 
15. Take a strong photo using only natural lighting. Soft or strong contrast. 
16. Isolate a pattern you see in nature or a manmade pattern and photograph it. 
17.  Go for the biggest pop, the most color impact you can imagine in a great color photo. Maybe try a primary color scheme…or go for warms or cools…have fun with this one!
18. Think outside the box…go to a weird location or find some strange angles to a seemingly normal situation or subject. Photograph it. Maybe juxtapose a normal and a strange place… 
19. Photograph your subject with restrained color…use an analogous color range. 
20. Take a series of black and white photos. Experiment with lighting, contrast, light tones, dark tones, texture, etc. 
21. Photograph something that deals with perspective. Think of composition and leading the eye into the work. 
22. Experiment with different ways to use framing in your photographs. Try for a series of three different framing devices. (Doorway, window, foliage, hands and hair) 
23. Photograph your subject from an unusual viewpoint. 
24. Try using a screen or reflective surface in your work. 
25. Work with people, people and more people: try posed shots in different lighting, try informal street portraits, try group portraits, and try people in positions where the background helps explain the photo…. 
26.  Take some sky photos. Beach photos. Wherever you go photos. 
27. Enhance any and all of your photos. Try a collage of several of your best photos. 
28. Head to the junkyard, an industrial park, or at least find some interesting dumpsters or piles of garbage to photograph. With diffused light (overcast day), you’ll be able to see shapes and color beautifully. With direct light (bright sun, late afternoon) you’ll notice textures and lines. 
29. Experiment with horizontals and verticals. 
30. Make an image that will show scale: a large space surrounding a single, small figure, which is emphasized by breaking the pattern, or breaking the space.

Choose ANY 5 of these to do. 

BUT BE SPECIFIC when you do them!

 Log them into your sketchbook! 

1. Create blur 

2. Freeze

3.  Shallow depth of field

4. Move in close 

5. Every angle

6.  Balance

7.  Low angle

8.  Incongruous 

9. Self-portrait 

   1. in shadow 

   2. strong side light

   3.  Available light 

10. Photograph at night 

11. Scale 

12. Leading lines 

13. Empty 

14. Reflections 

15. Movement of the sea 

16. Silhouettes

17.  Isolate subject

18.  Surface texture

19. Unusual views 

20. Local detail 

21. Industry Sculpture

In addition to your summer assignments students are required to complete two museum or Gallery visits.

Document what you see in your sketchbook—write down the names of artists and work you like—make sketches of that work. Create ideas for your own work using the work of others as inspiration. 

Photo exhibits are best, but other types of exhibits are also beneficial! Take your sketchbook along, and while in the gallery or museum:

1. write a review of the exhibit

2. highlighting two works, which particularly struck you as powerful. 

3. Do a sketch or take a photo of the works and include them in your sketchbook.

 4. Also add your ticket, armband, sticker, or receipt!

Do online or library research one of the following photographers. 

Do a double page spread in your (left page nd right page)  journal/sketchbook on each one, and on it, include 2 printouts of their most well-known works, with all credits given. 

Include: Their name, years born and died, type of photography, why they’re so well known, how to recognize their work, websites or sources you used. 

Photographers to select from:

Berenice Abbott, Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Eugene Atget, Richard Avedon, Margaret Bourke-White, Brassai, Irving Penn, Eliot Porter, Man Ray, Cindy Sherman, Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Weegee, Edward Weston, Garry Winogrand, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Imogen Cunningham, Robert Doisneau, William Eggleston, Walker Evans, Lee Friedlander, Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange, Sally Mann, Joel Meyerowitz, Annie Liebowitz, Andy Goldsworthy

Write a reflection on the process, inspiration, challenges, etc. you encountered shooting over the summer. 

No less than 1 page, no more than 2 pages, neatly written or typed. (Get used to the idea that there will be writing assignments in this course. Written artist’s statements are a core part of the AP Studio curriculum.)