Fandom High School

One might have noticed that Prompto seemed just a slight bit bouncier and brighter than usual, but since that tended to be his default setting, no one would blame you for not noticing the particular subtle differences this week. Either way, he seemed eager to get into class, even if he also seemed slightly distracted, but, again, that also seemed to be how he usually was about most things, so surely nothing to think about too much, right?

"So last week," he began, "was St. Patrick's Day, which I know is an Irish holiday, meaning from Ireland, and so I wanted to look into some Irish photographers we could focus on this weekin class, too! I kind of fell down a little bit of a rabbit hole there," he chuckled, a little sheepishly, " and while there were a lot of really interesting options and really great work from a lot of people, I gotta admit, one photo really resonated with me more than a lot of the other ones, and it was this one:"

He took a moment to put an image on the screen behind him.

"This," he said, "is 'Flying Girl,' from Pete Smyth, and a show he did in 2019 called 'Local.' As you could guess by the name, he focused this show on really candid and casual photos documenting the area he'd lived in for the last thirty years, called Tallaght. We're going to take some time to look at some of the other photos included in the show, and some of his other work to get an idea of his particular style of photography to open up a discussion. Because, you know what? Ireland's a really beautiful country, and there's a lot of photographers taking gorgeous landscape shots, or really focusing on the rich history, but these pictures are clearly going for something else. But do you think that something else is good photography? Do you like the pictures? Why or why not? That sort of thing.

"And I also," he added, "want you guys to think about what his angle was with these pictures: capturing a certain moment in time in a certain place. Do you think he succeeded? And what would you take pictures of if you were to do your own 'Local' exhibition, but right here in Fandom?" He grinned a little extra. "I'm really curious about what you'll have to say to that. But first, let's get into the pictures, and then we can discuss."

"This week," said Prompto, feeling both relieved and excited that he'd actually had the time and attention span to put into an actual focus on a photographer like the class was supposed to be, but, well, that was the thing with Fandom, you definitely had to be flexible for anything in your lesson plans!, "we're going to take a look at one of the powerhouses of American photography, and that's Annie Leibovitz. She's really a top name when it comes especially to modern portraiture and fashion and celebrity photography. And even though she started taking pictures when she was young and her family was moving around a lot due to her father's job in the military, it wasn't until she took a class in college," he grinned a little at that in particular, with a wave of his hand as if to remind them that, hey! Look at that! They were in class in college, too! Could one of them be the next Annie Leibovitz?? "that she really found her passion for it. From there, she got a job with Rolling Stone magazine for a whole decade, which not only ended up defining her style, but also the style and the vibe that the magazine became known for. After that, she went to work for another magazine, Vanity Fair, but she also did some commercial work and personal stuff in that time, as well.

"A lot of people have cited Leibovitz's use of dramatic lighting and color as a reason her photos are so evocative; others have noted how she really turns her focus on a particular interest or idea about her subject and just exaggerates it to make it more present or stirring. And then other people still have said that, really, it isn't so much about how she shoots her subject or even what she shoots, but rather who: she's taking pictures of well-known or powerful figures in society, celebrities and politicians, people that people know, usually provocatively, so of course that's going to garner attention. If she were taking these pictures of just every day normal people, would they have as much of an impact? Would we regard them as highly as we do? I think that's a really interesting question, especially as someone not from this world, who doesn't really recognize all the social commentary, but still really likes her work, especially the ones that focus on fashion.

"But you're not here for my opinion, but I definitely want to hear yours. So we're going to take some time to look through some of her most talked about photos, why some of them were so controversial or noteable, and then dig into it. Let's start with one highly lauded and popular one that Leibovitz herself didn't think was really one of her bests, actually, of actress Demi Moore while pregnant..."

He was definitely blaming last week on why that one seemed like the best place to start.

"A couple of classes ago," said Prompto, with a bit of an apologetic smile for just how many classes ago that had been, "when we talked about Ansel Adams, I mentioned two other photographers contemporary to him that utilized color to solid effect while he was mostly leaning on black and white photography, and today, I want to talk about one of them, and that's Ruth Orkin."

A photo of the photographer showed up the board behind Prompto and he grinned a little bit as he continued with his lecture.

"Ruth's mom was a star of the silent movie silver screen way back at the beginning of the last centry," he said, "so she sort of grew up around cameras, and, in fact, also worked in film as well as photography. She also took a lot of portraits of Hollywood starlets," and a series of some of those continued on behind him as he spoke, "and, if Adams' focus was capturing the beauty of nature, Orkin seemed mostly focused on the beauty of humanity. Lots of portraits and candids or structured scene that really took the little things about humanity and capture it through her lens. And, like a lot of other photographers, she got her first camera as a child, but she really started to lean into the photojournalism of life when she was seventeen and decided to ride her bike across the country, from California to New York for the 1939 World's Fair. The trip took her three weeks, and she took photos all along the way, and as someone who one spent a whole weekending doing almost nothing but riding my bike aorund the island before, that's impressive. And I didn't even get any good photos out of it!

"And while Orkin's most famous photo, An American Girl in Italy," which, of course, was now on display behind him, "is in black and white, and, in fact, the bulk of her work is in that style, she also started working to great effect with color, especially with her print and magazine work, with photos like this one, of a woman at the grocery store, which really lead the way in color in magazines, especially covers. And I love the story behind this photo, too. Orkin knew exactly what she wanted: a beautiful woman engaged in an every day activity that the readers of the magazine could relate to, highlighting a sense of normalcy after the end of World War II. Like, the strawberry in her hand? With just a bite taken out of it? So good. And the vibrancy of the color of the groceries really gives it that vitality that wouldn't really be there in a black and white photo, if you ask me.

"So," he said, winding down to his conclusion, "we're going to take a look of more of Orkin's work, both black and white and color, and then I want that to open up a discussion: do you find one style more evocative than the other? Which do you find more effective? Are they both effective in different ways? What do you like or dislike about some of this work, and what do you find more compelling: Ansel's sweeping shots of nature or Orkin's focus on people and their lives? Let's get into it!"

Prompto really hated to do this, but sometimes, it just couldn't be helped. He was wondering if he could blame an overdose of graphic design, but the only thing that did was mean that the message he sent out to his students (via text or email or squirrel or whatever other preferred method) was littered with relevant pieces of clip-art and fancy fonts:

Hey, everyone!

Sorry for the late notice, but the kiddo is feeling under the weather and I'm not feeling too great, either, so I figured it'd be best to skip the whole class thing today and just come back full force again next week!

So have some homework instead, but don't worry! It's pretty easy! I'd like you all to come to class next week with a photographer you like to share with the others! Simple, right? Just email or text me if you have any questions, and I'll hopefully see you guys when I'm feeling better again!

--prompto!

[[ guess who didn't have time to write class this week, lol! Enjoy the period off! ]]

"Hey, there, everyone!" Prompto said, giving the very small and very familiar class an almost grateful smile. He was still holding out hope that there'd be some kind of a surge in interest in photography around here one of these days, but honestly? If it weren't for these three, he'd be pretty out of luck on the topic, wouldn't he? Oh, well! He'd just have to make the most of it, so that maybe they'd come back if he ended up doing another photography class again!

"And welcome to Focus on Photographers," he continued enthusiastically, despite that small bit of maudlin self-relfection, "the class where we're going to have a look at a variety of different photographers out there, discuss their style and techniques, talk about what we think about them, and maybe, with some of them, even try a few things inspired by them. As you all know, I'm Prompto Argentum, I'll be your teacher again this semester, and since we've all had classes together in the past, I think we can just skip right over the introductions and get right into it. After all, there's a lot of talented photographers out there, so let's make the most of it, yeah?

"We're going to start with the artist who actually randomly inspired this class when something came up on my socials about him winning the Wildlife Photo of the Year for 2024, with a photo that I'm putting up now called Swarm of Life. There were a lot of really cool photos in the running, but this image of western toad tadpoles from a lake in Vancouver, Canada, is what really took the title and what we're going to focus on, as well as the other works of its photographer, a Canadian by the name of Shane Gross. So let's get right into it.

"Hey, guys!" Prompto could be found waiting near the puppy pen, where he'd set up a few chairs if anyone wanted to sit in them while he did his lecture for the day, but, um, there was a puppy pen, why would anyone want to sit on a chair when they could be sitting with puppies? But that was neither here nor there. There was a folding table set up in front of him with a few boxes and a small stack of photo albums, and he had a projector screen set up behind him. "Welcome back for more pet photography! Today, we'll be focusing on dogs, but, before we get into that, I wanted to take a moment to hand these out to you guys. They're albums for the pictures you take in this class and outside of it; by the send of the session, I'd like you have collected enough pet and animal pictures to be able to present a portfolio at the very end of class, so I'll get these to you guys now so you can slowly start building it. Sound good? Any questions, let me know.

"But, like I said, today, I wanted to talk about dogs in pet photography, and there's a lot to work with there! Dogs are a pretty popular pet, especially in photography, because dogs are also pretty well-known for being able to be trained to perform. They're all such good boys! But if you're talking about dogs and photography, a lot of people are going to think about William Wegman, who is probably best known for his work in photographing Weimaraners specifically, in costumes and settings to make them look like people. They even did acting segments on kids' TV shows!

"Some of his work," Prompto started to go through some slides on the projector now, "are a bit more artistic, some of it definitely can be uncanny, and some worry that it might be a bit cruel to pose and dress up the dogs like that. We're definitely not looking to do anything that intense today, but we do have some eager models," he gestured toward the puppies, some of whom were being impossibly cute with their wagging tails and excited faces, "some costumes and props," he gestured toward the boxes, "and some spaces for setting up a scene if you really want to get into it. There's also the kennel suites; the guy I used to work here with and ran the place before me set those up like little boutique hotel rooms, so there's a lot to work with already here at the shelter. I've got snacks and toys for the dogs if you need to sweeten the deal a little, but basically, let's just get out there and have fun and take some cute pictures, yeah?"

"Well," said Prompto, with a little bit of a grin as he sat on the desk at the front of the classroom as usual, his legs kicking out just a little bit, because someone still could never really manage to ever sit still, "it's our last class, and I hope you guys have really enjoyed going on this color journey through photography with me. I know I've really enjoyed seeing what you guys have brought to the table in this class. No lecture today, then, especially since there's not going to be any homework, but, after we've had a chance to look at everyone's purple photos from last week, I was thinking we could just hang out and talk photography. You guys can ask questions or if there's anything you want me to go over again or a little more in depth, we can do that. Or you can just head out and call it a day and enjoy the rest of your week. Whatever you want to do, really, nice and easy end to the class, you know?

"But before any of that," he said, "we've got pictures to look at! So who's going first for the last time?"

"I'm sure you'll all be very shocked to hear this," said Prompto, unable to help himself from grinning as he got class started that day, "but we're going to begin by looking at your green photos from next week. And...it's probably a good thing you're already sitting down for this, but then, we're going to be talking about our next color focus, which is going to be blue. I know, right?" He chuckled a little bit. "Just full of surprises around here."

Honestly, the set-up for this class didn't really leave a lot of room for creature structure, but, hey, if it wasn't broke? Don't fix it! And that meant all the creativity could go into the photos themselves!

"So, then, let's get into it! Who's ready to step up first and try to make their classmates green with envy with their green shots?"

"Well, guys," said Prompto, looking pretty tired from his weekend but no less energetic to be there that morning, while also trying not to be distracted by everything else on his plate today, "by now, you should know how this goes! Hopefully, you had a good chance to really explore the color orange as a theme with your photographs and have some really good work to show off, because we'll start with that, and then we'll dive right into the next color we're going to focus on, which is my personal favorite color and adjacent to one of yours, and that's yellow.

"And, so, without further ado, let's see what you've got for last week's assignment, and then we'll look at some good inspo for next week's! Who've we got volunteering to go first this time around?"

Still sort of riding the high of yet another successful Mother's Day for Liz in the books (so much mint chocolate! So much adorable, indecipherable babble as Noctra explained to her everything she'd drawn on the card they'd made for her! So many things handwavily from Pick Your Poison cluttering up their bathtub now!), Prompto was bouncy and eager to get started with class, grinning as usual from the front of the room.

"Hey, everyone," he greeted them, "and welcome to Another Photography Class!" He cocked a finger gun at them, as well as a grin, chuckling a little sheepishly that he'd done that and then just quickly moving on. "This one's going to be focused on the use of color, and it's a pretty simple concept: each week, we'll focus on a color, you'll have some homework to build up a small portfolio of about four to six pictures, and then you'll show them off the following week before we get into the next color. We'll talk about the mood and effect that those colors can have when utilized certain ways, and talk about some examples in the color scheme. Pretty simple, right? If not, please, don't hesitate to ask me question, but I'm sure you'll start to pick up what I'm putting down as we get into it more.

"First, though, of course, especially since I see a new face," he gave a nod to Stewart assuming he was there OMG, "is introductions. I'd like to grab your name, how much experience you have in photography, and what you're hoping to get from this class. And, once we're done with that, we're going to take a moment to make sure everyone knows how to use the equipment. We really want to use digital for this class," a nod in particular to Arden and Stark, since they were in his last class and knew just how many different methods there could be!, "it just makes sharing the pictures so much easier. If you've already got a digital camera you know and love, great, you can totally use that! But, if you don't, or you just want to try something new, I've got some pretty sweet new cameras from the shop you can borrow."

(Was he a little partial to the Canon EOS series for very sentimental reason? You fucking bet he was!)

"And once we're done with that, we'll just right into some photos. We're doing the full color spectrum, so that means we'll be starting with red, but first! Any volunteers to kick us off on the introductions?"

He then blinked, and realized, "Oh, wait! I guess I should probably do one, too!" He laughed a little. "Okay, so I'll volunteer. My name's Prompto Argentum, I've been passionate about photography ever since I was a little kid, and now I bring my passion to you guys through these classes! I've also got a professional photography business if you ever need a photographer, and my wife and I run the Photo Hut here in town! And, for this class, I'm really hoping to see some great photos from you guys! Oh! Hey, we should also say our favorite colors! Mine's definitely yellow! Okay, enough about me! Who's next?"

"This week," Prompto said, from his usual perch on the top of the desk up front at the start of class, "we're going to be taking the time to learn about another photographer, and another focus on street photography, with the story of a woman named Vivian Maier, who spent most of her life as a nanny and amateur photographer, but when a cache of her photographs were found after her death, she sort of skyrocketed into popularity and interest in the photographic world. I don't know about you guys, but, to me, that means that even if we are just snapping shots of the most mundane things or our every day lives, photography has a way of living well beyond our scope and can carry on stories through generations. And I think that's pretty great.

"So, settle in, get comfortable, and we'll watch the documentary, and then go over some of Maier's work to have a discussion about her style, what me might light about it, or anything else about the film that struck you as worthwhile or interesting."

Was anyone even really planning on coming to class this week? Prompto didn't know, but he did know that it felt like he should at least try and give Liz a break from having him clinging all over her. Like, he was pretty smitten even on the normal days, but now? Yeah, no, even though the feeling had been entirely mutual so far, the last thing he wanted to do was smother her with his affection.

Well, okay, definitely not the last thing, that sounded pretty nice, actually, but...anyway, the point is, a little break might do them both some good, and so he was going to trot up to the school and hold class even if he was the only one there, because, really, all the were going to be doing was watching another documentary.

Was he going to be constantly checking how much longer in the run time? Yes, yes he was. Ugh! He did not have the constitution for this!

"Alright, so!" Prompto greeted the class with an eager grin to get to today's topic, so much so that he already had one of the cameras they were focusing on for the lesson in his hands, juggling it almost idly between them as he sat on the desk at the front, kicking his feet a little. "We've been going over some of the different...developments," AH! PHOTOGRAPHER HUMOR!, "in cameras through the years, as one might expect for a class named like this," he chuckled a little at that, "and most of the cameras we've gone over use a film or other process that you need to go through in order to get your pictures to show up, right down to developing our own pictures in the darkroom. Today's going to be all about a camera that turned that concept on its head a little bit by giving your photos instantly, but also physically, and that, if you haven't guessed it yet...." He lifted the camera in his hand, "are instant cameras, or, as most people know them by the most popular brand name here on Earth, Polaroid.

"Back on Eos," he added with a little bit of a grin, "I actually had a LOKTON brand one of these for a little while, they're pretty fun. It all started with this dude named Rott Andor," and didn't that sound like a name that would have been right at home in Eos?, "who created something called DTR, or Diffusion Transfer Reversal, that allowed for the film to develop immediately inside the camera itself! So all you'd do is just...." He lifted the camera, snapping a shot of the class, "...take the picture, and..." A few seconds later, the photo was sliding out of the camera and he held it up to show them as the image began to surface, "voila! Instant Pic! Pretty neat, right?

"So I'm going to break down how the process works and some of the different types of instant cameras that are out there, and then you can probably guess what happens after that, you guys get free range to borrow them for the week and sort of play around with them as much as you like, and I'll even throw in some extra film rolls for you, because it can definitely get addicting."

With that, he hopped off the desk and the lesson could begin!

"With the school trip coming up," said Prompto, leaning on the desk in the front of the classroom as usual, "I thought today would be a good day to deviate a little bit from the usual timeline and talk about a few things that I hope will be relevant to you next week, if you're going on the trip, especially since, well, taking a one-year-old into space for her first big vacation seems a little ill-advised, so I actually can't make it this time around. But that's where you guys come in! Because, yes, I'm that teacher who gives an assignment over the break period, but, I mean, it's also an assignment that I would hope you guys were going to do anyway. Just maybe with a little slight tweak.

"So, today, we're going to talk about travel photography, a little of its history, and we'll go over some examples and some helpful tips to follow.

"Then," he chuckled a little, because it sounded like a lot, but it was basically just looking at pictures, it wasn't that bad!, "we're going to talk about these guys." He reached back to pluck a disposable camera up from the desk and show it off. "Disposable cameras! Now, the first one of these showed up here around the year 1949, but it wasn't until about 1986 that they really started to take off, and then really had their heyday in the 1990s. The encroaching popularity and convenience of digital cameras, especially once cell phones started having camera built right in, turned these guys into a bit of a novelty or just a fun little gimmick...I know me and my wife had a bunch at our wedding so that guests could take pictures at the ceremony and reception, and it was a lot of fun to go through them all afterwards. And that's kind of what you'll be doing on the school trip!

"Err," he chuckled again, this time a little sheepish, "if you want. It's your vacation, you do whatever you want, but it'll be really cool to just see what you can shoot, and then when we're back the week after, we'll get a little more practice in developing them and see what you got! They're really easy to use, too, that's kind of the whole point, but we'll save that for after we talk a little about travel photography itself, to hopefully inspire you to really snag some good shots, because I am definitely looking forward to living vicariously through your experiences."

Well. At least he was honest about it, right?

"Hey, guys," Prompto greeted the class with a little wave, looking a little more tired and reserved than his usual bouncy self, but he'd get there, don't worry about it, especially once he actually got to teaching them about today's topic, "sorry about last week, but I'm sure if any of you were also surprise ponies, you'll start to understand why this lesson was definitely not going to work in that state once we really start getting into it. We'll be doing a lot with our hands today, because today, we're learning about how to actually develop the film in those camera you borrowed a couple of weeks ago.

"So, hopefully," he chuckled a little, "you remembered to bring those with you and to try and take some pictures with them. If not, you can probably shoot off a few real quick while I'm explaining, and then develop that film. Now, photographic processing is basically a chemical treatment on the film that takes the film's negative image and brings it out to make a photo as we're used to seeing. It can be a little intimidating at first, but the process can actually be pretty simple once you're used to it, so we'll go over it, talk a little bit about science behind it, and then we'll process those photos and see what you took!

"And, side note, you don't even need a dark room specifically to process photos, although it does make it a lot easier, and we've got one at the Photo Hut, so if you ever have some film you wanna develop in your spare time, you're always welcome to swing by. Okay! So, before we get into it, let's talk safety, too...."

When it was decided that this lesson was going to be held in the danger shop, you'd better believe that Prompto spent way too much time setting things up to look all old-timey to fit the period of time they were going to be working from, and he might have even dressed accordingly, too, but he didn't have the time or resources for something like that. He did have a fancy old-timey jacket on, though, so that was something!

"Hey, guys," he said, greeting them all with a grin and a tip of his invisible top-hat that he was absolutely pretending to be wearing. "You may be wondering what about photographic history might be dangerous enough to require the danger shop, and if you're thinking of some kind of battle or monsters or anything like that, you're going to be disappointed. But the next step on the development of modern photography as we know it today was pretty dangerous, in that it involved a lot of chemicals to process images that are now known to be super harmful, especially mercury, which, fun fact, was sometimes called quicksilver, in the way that it was shiny and how it moved, and, well, if you know your Latin...."

He chuckled a little proudly, preening, because it was just really cool how the weird Latin thing with their names seemed to reveal itself to be accurate on so many levels!

"But, anyway! Today, we're talking about daguerreotypes, which is sort of our next step in camera evolution after the camera obscura. Basically, people were really trying to figure out a way to make the images projected by the camera obscura actually permanent, and, though a lot of trial and error, and a lot of different prototypes, a guy named Louis Daguerre finally landed on something that got enough traction to be commercialized and spread into popularity...until the next big thing came around. The development process is a bit involved, and, like I said, involved some harmful chemicals, so we're here in the danger shop so that we can try to recreate our own daguerreotypes without, you know, exposing ourselves to some really gnarly stuff. And you'll see some of this again once we get into developing film, too, and, honestly, considering the technology at the time, the crispness and detail you could pull from a daguerreotype is pretty impressive! But don't just take my word for it! Let me show you guys how it works, and then you can see for yourself! Any questions about the daguerreotype itself before we start to get into it?"

No choice but to wear a super comfortable and adorable Snuggie all day? Oh noooooo, what a horrible faaaaaaate! However would Prompto even survive??

Also, how was the knowledge that Noctra had an exact match to his not the cutest thing ever? Prompto was a big fan of this one, and he was definitely nice and comfy-cozy as he came into class today, which was going to be of an equally relaxed vibe.

"Alright, guys," he said, "last class is finally here, and you know what that means! Or, if you don't, then you haven't been paying attention and hopefully you've got enough pictures saved on your cameras already to throw together a quick portfolio, because that's what we're doing today! Time to show off you final collections of pictures to really show off what you've been learning in this class, simple as that! So who wants to get us started? Sooner we get through them, the sooner we can get out of here and go enjoy some nice hot chocolate or something in our comfy, cozy Snuggies!"

Mmmm. He should have brought hot chocolate to class, actually, damn.

Having been exposed to Fandom weirdness long enough, Prompto spent far too much time debating whether or not to actually eat any of the marzipan fruit that had fallen into his hair on the way over here, but, really? Honestly? Free snacks, man, like he could look at that adorable little pear and not just pop it into his mouth?

But anyway...fruit would be forgotten for a moment, as there was now a class to be had!

"Hey, everyone," he said, nodding his greeting to the class, "last week we talked about photojournalism, so if you managed to put together some kind of story through photographs, we'll take some time at the beginning of class to show those off, before we can into a story about photography and a well-known Earth photography with a documentary. Figured we'd take it a little easy and also learn about some of the history of the art and some of the big figures in it, you know? And if we've got anything we want to discuss about it afterwards, we can do that, too. So, without further ado, who has some pictures to show off, or should we just get right into the film?"

Prompto was, of course, getting the short end of the stick this week. He had every intention of being in for class that day, but, thanks to being woken up bright and early with a baby that was very clearly not feeing well, those intentions were thrown right out the window in favor of other, more important things.

He did manage to pop over to the school to at least put up a sign on the classroom door, as well as shooting off a text to his students to let them know about the situation:

Sorry, everyone!
No Photography Class Today
Due to a Sick Kiddo!

Enjoy the day off and go take some awesome pictures for next week!

--Prompto--

Believe him, he would much rather be talking about photography than cleaning up baby puke all day, but there they were!

[[ lol I have a very small WiFi window for posting today, you can tell where my priorities are, and I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO SHAME ABOUT IT. ]]

Class being relocated today out to Furnado Animal Shelter, so there was probably a pretty good chance people could guess what the class was going to be about this week! All the pet costumes being up front and center was probably a pretty good indication, too, and once everyone seemed to be there, Prompto met them with an excited grin.

"Hey, guys," he said, "thanks for coming all the way out here for today's class, but I figured, since it's Halloween, we might as well have a little bit of fun with our topic today. Now, please let me know if you're allergic to any animals, because I didn't get the chance to ask before, and we'll work something out if that's the case, but, for everyone else, today we're going to take advantage of all these adorable animal costumes for Halloween and turn some of these shelter animals into some stars! I've got some tips and suggestions to offer you guys before we get started, but, if anything, hopefully it won't just turn into a lesson on how to work with uncooperative models!

"But before we get into that, of course, I've got a set-up to show off last week's photos so we can discuss how that went and then? On to the adorable!"

"Alright," Prompto said with a grin at the start of the class, "you guys know the drill by now! But, this week, showing off your landscape photos from last week might be especially helpful, because next week is the school trip, you all are going to New Zealand if you're going, and so the chance to put these landscape skills into a more practical use are going to be off the charts! So let's see what you've got, look for areas of improvement, and then, as you could probably guess, we're going to talk a little bit about travel photography!

"Is it kind of lame to give you guys homework during a break?" He chuckled a little. "Kinda, yeah. But, if you're in this class, I suspect you'd be taking a ton of photos anyway, and, I'm going to be completely honest with you guys, I'm a new dad with a eight-month-old just started to discover movement at home, so there's no way I'm able to go, I need to live vicariously through your photos! Besides, when else are you going to get the chance to show of your vacay photos to a captive audience anyway?

"But let's get into that in a moment," he nodded. "Let's see what you got from last week. Who's going first today?"

"Okay!" Prompto, grinning, clapped his hands together at the start of class, pushing himself up from where he was leaning on the desk and looked everyone over. "You guys probably know how this is going to go from here on in. Last week, we worked on lighting, which of course means you should have some pictures to show off from the week that takes lighting into consideration, so we're going to do that before we go ahead and dive into our next big basic photography topic, which shall be revealed in due time. But first!" He gave his finger a dramatic swing in the air. "Photos!"

And once those were out of the way, it was time to get into the real work.

"Good work, guys," Prompto complimented, whether that was actually true or not, but come on, he still got indistinguishable blurry shots of the ground on his rolls every once in a while, he was in no place to judge! "So, then, we've tackled Rule of Thirds and we've tackled lightning, and so today, we're going to talk about types of camera shots, especially the eight most common types. But, In general, you've got three basic ones: close-up, medium, and long, and within those, you've also got your extreme close-up and extreme long shots, POV shots, so on and so forth. Those are generally going to refer to the distance at which the picture is being taken. And then you've got your angle to consider, and with that, we're going to go over five basic ones: high angle, low angle, over the shoulder, bird's eye, and the Dutch angle or tilt. For the most part, the names are pretty self-explanatory, but let's get into some examples and the details so you can really start getting an idea of what makes them different from each other."

And if there's one thing Prompto will always have plenty of, it's photographic examples! And he's put together basically a slide-show of pictures to show off the various different types of shots mentioned, and you know he's going to take the time to break down how the examples fit the type of shot, things to consider when taking a shot like that, and, on occasion, also referring back to previous lectures by pointing out when a picture is a good examples of Rule of Thirds and interesting lighting use as well.

"Welcome back, guys," Prompto said, getting class started once everyone was there and grinning from his spot leaning against the desk at the front of the classroom, "and welcome back. Now, these new few weeks of class are going to be doing a lot of talking about techniques and methods, although if, after a week of taking shots, you've got some more technical questions about camera use, come see me and we'll go over them. Today, we're going to focus on something called the Rule of Thirds, which is a popular principle in how to most effective frame and position your shots. But, before we go into that, you guys did have a little bit of homework, so let me take a second to show you how to use the projector here with your camera and you can show off some of your shots from last week."

And once that was taken care of, it was time to get into the lecture proper.

"Now, again, the rule of thirds refers to the framing composition of something, whether it's a drawing or painting or photograph or even a movie or video game frame. They all can take into account the rule of thirds. Basically," he hopped off the desk and moved around to the blackboard so he could start drawing as he explained, "it's breaking the shot down into three parts horizontal and three parts vertical, like this, see? Voila! Now you have a grid with nine equal sections of your picture or painting or movie frame or whatever, and now it becomes all about how you fill each of those squares, what's going on in each of them, and why having things in certain ones makes for a better picture.

"All these points where the lines intersect..." He started drawing circles on the spots where they crossed, the four in the middle. "Those are your points of interest. And the idea is that if you place the main subject of your picture within these points of interest," he drew a circle around all of them to emphasize them, "then you've pretty much got a perfect shot! The points of interest is the goal! Of course, that's just in general. There are a lot of interesting ways to sort of break that general rule, but that's something you can play with in your shots to start seeing for yourself how and when to apply and when to defy," he grinned, a little too proud about that one, "the rule of thirds."

"And when it comes to landscapes that might not have a particular focal point, then the idea is keep things lined up with the lines of the grid, so, like, your horizon might rest on one of these horizontal lines, or let's say you've got a few trees, try to get them to line up with the vertical ones! Same goes with portraits: how can you line up the subject and pose with various lines of the grid to make it seem more balanced? Rule of Thirds is basically just Placement, Placement, Placement!

"So...any questions? We're going to use this class to dive deeper into the Rule of Thirds if you want...I've got plenty of examples, or we can sort of use the class period to practice shots that take the rule of thirds into account. Obviously, then, next week, I'd like everyone to come in with a few shots where you try to put it to use IRL. And? Pro-tip? The cameras we got at the beginning of the class actually have this really neat feature where you can put a digital overlay of the grid right there on your viewfinder, so you can just boot that up and use it as a guide! I'll show you guys how, and then you can start playing around and seeing how following or not following the rule of thirds can change the way your pictures look and feel. I don't want you to rely on the grid entirely, but it could be a good way to get started until you can start seeing the Rule of Thirds in action just by looking at something!"

"Well, guys," Prompto said, grinning from where he was sitting on top of the desk at the front of the classroom, "after today, that's a wrap on this class. I want to take a moment to thank you both for taking it and letting me sort of play around with a new format, and I think it worked pretty well! I know I had a lot of fun seeing what you came up with each week, and I hope you guys had a lot of fun finding things for the prompts, too.

"For our final class," he said, with a nod, "we've just got a nice free-for-all, where you can share some of your favorite photos from the session or some of the ones you've taken in the last week, and I've got it set up so you can sort of go back and forth between pictures and we'll just have a look and talk about them as we share. How's that sound? We'll flip a coin to see who's up first this time, and then just go from there!"

"You guys know the drill by now," Prompto chuckled a little from the front of the classroom, once all his massive amount of students had arrived and settled. "Let's see how your selfies went over this last week, and then we'll get onto your next thrilling and exciting topic!

"I'll apologize for that one now," he added with another grin. "This one probably helped you become a verifiable selfie expert, but this next one, if you're anything like me, is going to just make you hungry! But we'll get to that! First, let's see what you've got this week!"