Photography at Santa Cruz High School is taught with the "hands on" approach which emphasizes working on projects more than processing of information. Assignments in this section begin with simple photo skills and little experience and build toward the completion of a portfolio at the end of 18 weeks of class. The student does the work in this class, the teacher is there as a coach to help give assistance and to guide, but real learning comes from digging in and doing the projects.  Students determine their own work schedules and plan their own use of time in class. Students who just sit and play and don't get to work on projects learn very little in this class. Students are not told what to do each day and are given the freedom to use their time as needed.

Web site visitors are encouraged to put themselves into class as a virtual student. Try the projects and read the material and view the helps given in the technical section. The only thing you will miss is the coaching part from the teacher.  If you would like a critique of your work you are welcome to scan your images and attach them to an email.

This class is self-paced. Work will be collected every 4 weeks in notebook form, but other than those restrictions students work on projects in any order.  Most of the grade in this class comes from the work turned in by notebooks. Students may work on projects within a block at any pace they wish as long as work is completed by the end of the term. Work from the first half of the term may be completed the second half of the term if complications develop in completion of the work. All work is due the last day of the grade period and is not extended due to illness or missed class time unless written permission is requested by the parent and granted by the principal, otherwise, there is plenty of time to make up work if less than 9 days are missed. (Additional time is available at lunch to make up work)

Most of the work in this class is in the form of photographic challenges but some of the work can be done without film or supplies.  Each grade period has one Magazine assignment which asks you to apply your photo evaluation and observation skills in finding commercial examples of what we study in other projects. There will also be a Questions section each grade period that will have questions to be answered in your notebook that verify your understanding of the technical material on the web site.

Week 1 - 4 - Basic Introduction to the process

Week 5 - 9 - Technical skill development - end of the first term

Week 10 - 14 - Advanced Techniques - Start of the second term

Week 15 - 18 - Conclusion - Portfolio and final projects end out the class and term two