Stress Awareness Month Activities

Here are some best activity about Stress Awareness Month:

• Meditation and Mindfulness: Practice daily meditation to calm the mind and reduce stress.

• Regular Exercise: Engage in physical activities like jogging, yoga, or swimming to release stress-reducing endorphins.

• Educational Workshops: Attend stress management workshops to learn effective coping strategies.

• Stress Journaling: Maintain a journal to identify stress triggers and track your progress in managing them.

• Community Support: Join support groups or online communities to share experiences and find support.

• Healthy Eating: Focus on a balanced diet rich in nutrients to support overall well-being.

• Mindful Breathing: Incorporate deep breathing exercises into your daily routine for relaxation.

• Express Creativity: Engage in creative hobbies like painting, writing, or music to reduce stress.

• Nature Retreats: Spend time in nature to unwind and connect with the environment.

• Volunteer Work: Helping others can boost your well-being and reduce stress.

more here!

#1 You are not alone. FACT

The 10 Tools for Living Mentally Healthy:

1. Connect with others

2. Stay positive+

3. Get physically active. Walk and exercise with friends! 

4. Help others! Be there for others and volunteer too!

5. Get enough sleep. It is hard to make decisions when you are too tired. 

6. Create joy and satisfaction

7. Eat well. Food fuels the body and mind!

8. Take care of yourself and soul <3

9. Deal better with hard times

10. Get professional help if you need it. talk to your guidance counselor for suggestions and free resources! 

A good rule to set shutter speed close to the approximate miles per hour the subject doing…

• 150-200 mls/hr – s/speed 1/200th sec. – Racing car, small aircraft landing

• 130 mls/hr – s/speed 1/125th sec. – Fast motorcycle

• 70 mls/hr – s/speed 1/60th sec. – US motorway driving limit

• 30 mls/hr – s/speed 1/30th sec. – typical city free-flowing traffic

• 15 mls/hr – s/speed 1/15th sec. – Sprinter, running dog

• 3 – 8 mls/hr – s/speed 1/15th sec. – jogger

Other camera settings

If you are working in shutter priority your camera will adjust the aperture.
You should leave the ISO on automatic. The camera will take care of itself while you shoot the movement.

If you are working with full manual set your aperture to give you a good depth of field – say f11 on a bright but cloudy day.
In this case set the ISO to an appropriate setting. Probably around 200 ISO (bright day) or 400 ISO (bright/cloudy) will be best. On a very bright sunny day you could try 100 ISO. Practice and run some test photos to get the right exposure.

If you are using either manual or shutter priority you should also set the ‘burst mode’ – otherwise known as continuous shooting. The burst mode will let you fire shots continuously. You will need to fire more than one shot at a time when panning your camera. At least some of the shots will come out sharp. Your camera will shoot off about four to six shots in a burst (RAW) – more with some cameras.
You will need to judge the best place to start continuous shooting.

And so to the panning…

By now you have your camera set up. The fun bit is actually capturing your shot. The aim of panning is to follow your subject with your camera shooting as you go. Here are some pointers to get you started…

• Stand with feet shoulder width apart for stability. Ideally you want the action to pass right in front of you. Place yourself so your subject comes from one side and passes you when you are facing forward. It will then recede again on your other side.

• Turn your body toward where your subject is going to come from. Don’t move your feet. Point your camera at the oncoming object.

• Start tracking the subject with your camera as it comes toward you. As the object comes nearer you must smoothly swivel your body from your waist. Note that your camera/head face the object, it is your body that rotates. As the object passes your body will be facing full forward. Then, you continue to swivel keeping it in your sights as it recedes the other side. Smoothness in the rotation of the body is essential.

• When your subject is large in your viewfinder you can press the shutter button and hold it down continuously shooting as you pan along with the subject.

• Do not stop tracking the subject when your ‘burst’ is finished. It is important to follow through With the panning so there is no sudden jerky move at the end.

What you are aiming for

Ideal panning shots provide the following outcomes…

• At least one element (the subject) will be sharp.

• The background will be too blurred to see any details.

• Moving parts on the subject (legs, wheels, oars, propellers etc) may also be blurred.