Snapping photos with smartphones

A motley crew streams out of the Clovis Regional Library’s back door, some hoisting props, some with digital cameras dangling from straps around their necks and others wielding smartphones.

The students of the Friends of the Clovis Library-sponsored digital photography class proceed to set up shots for their final assignment: portraits.

Emily Ladd, a senior at Fresno Christian High School, is instructed to lean against a tree and pretend to read a book, while Sarah Saporna, 14, a University High School student, is asked to stand behind the tree and pretend to read over Emily’s shoulder. The mastermind behind the shot -- 10-year-old Rowena Romero.

Taking several steps back and squatting down to take the photo from a low angle, Rowena carefully aims and clicks the button on her digital camera. Instructor Marc Blake, local photographer and gallery curator at JewelFM in downtown Fresno, stands behind her and offers tips to the photographer, and direction to her subjects.

Meanwhile, Kayland Harrison, an electrical engineering student at Stanford University home on summer break, snaps his own photo of the scene from a different angle.

“I taught them to realize that a photograph can be taken from different angles,” said Blake, who was asked by Friends of the Clovis Library to teach the three-week workshop that was held in August. “It doesn’t have to be ‘just say cheese and click.’ Get down low when you’re taking photos of kids and pets; get down at their level. Get up high and look down onto a scene.”

Harrison, 20, said the most important lesson he learned in Blake’s class was to look at a subject with a ‘photographer’s eye.’

“Marc asked us to look over at the bookshelf on the first day of class and asked what we saw. We said ‘books,’” Harrison said. “But he taught us that a photographer sees vertical lines created by the book bindings, the horizontal lines of the shelves. Spaces of light and dark, shadows, colors and how they all work together. Even the white stickers on the books make a rough horizontal line.

“He taught us to notice the subtleties, and to get the right positioning for a photo.”

When Blake was asked to teach the workshop, he realized that not everyone lugs around a camera anymore.

“Most photos nowadays are taken with smartphones, so I taught the class how to take better picture with their phones,” he said.

Blake’s dozen or so students, who ranged in age from eight to 20, also learned about a photograph’s composition.

“We took an artistic approach to composition, which is the rule of thirds,” Blake explained. “Instead of having a horizon in the middle of the page, have it take up the lower third of a page. Don’t always put your subject dead center in a picture. Put him to one side and have him look into a direction and lead the eye where the subject’s looking.”

The students took their own photos, applying the techniques.

Rowena Romero, 10, said her favorite part of the class was going outside to take photos.

“I learned to not take blurry pictures,” she said, although her favorite out of all the photos she took during class was a purposely-blurry still life of flowers. “The colors of the flowers make it look pretty.”

Sami Schramm also loved the chance to go outside to take photos. She used a digital camera and also her smartphone to photograph objects and people.

“I prefer using my digital camera so that the photos won’t take up space on my phone,” she said.

Her favorite photo was a still life of a plant.

“It looked cool because it was half in the shade and half in the sun,” Schramm said.

The last day of class included portrait taking. Students were asked to set up shots to tell a story.

This proved to be a valuable lesson for Emily Ladd, who writes and does videography for The Feather Online, her high school’s publication.

“I learned that I always need to be looking for the shot, instead of just taking a picture and saying ‘that’s good enough,’” she said. “ I need to pay more attention to setting up a photo and taking my time with it until it comes out right. Too many times I look back at a photo and think of what I could’ve done better.”

The students will get to show off their photos at a downtown Fresno Art Hop event Oct. 1.

“Their photographs will be printed and matted and on display at the Galerie de Merzan,” Blake said. “So not only are they applying what they learned to their photos, but they’ll get to experience what it’s like to have their work on exhibit at a real art show.”

This story was originally published September 22, 2015 at 5:28 PM with the headline "Snapping photos with smartphones."