May 16th

My presentation is really starting to come together. I am basically done with my power point, now it is just time to think of what I am going to say for an hour. I think that I will talk a lot about how I originally wanted to do Photography as a career but because of this project, I no longer can ever see myself being a Photographer.

May 11th

I feel like I have not been blogging as much as I should be. I know that I post a lot of blogs, but I do not think that I fill the requirement of 1,000 words per week. I have talked to some people though and they said that they only blog about once every two or three weeks so I think that I am doing a pretty good job when it comes to staying on top of everything.
These next two weekends are going to be really busy for me. I have Campolindo's ball this weekend and our ball next weekend. Since I do not have much time during the weekend to work on my project, I need to work a lot more during the week so that I am not rushing to finish my project a few days before it is due.

May 10th

My presentation is really starting to come together. It is actually a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. Getting motivated to start was the hard part. I am almost done with my power point presentation and I have started putting together presentation packets for everyone that comes to my presentation. I feel like I should not make that many. I do not think that a lot of people will come to mine since it is during 7th period, but you never know. I will probably make about 10 or 15 packets, just to stay on the safe side.
Bianca has agreed to also come to my presentation and be on my panel of judges. I am really glad that I know everyone who is on my panel. I think that since I will know everyone, it will make me a lot less nervous.
I have never been good at public speaking. To be honest it scares me a lot. I hate standing in front of people and feel like they are judging me on everything I do or say. I know that if I am able to do well with my presentation and get over my fear of public speaking, it will help me a lot next year in college when we do group work or when we talk in front of our classes. We also have to do a big project in Mr. McAlisters class. It also involves public speaking. If I get to present my project first in his class, it might help me with my project in this class.

May 7th

I am really starting to stress out about how much work I have to do before Graduation. I am required to keep all of my grades as Cs or above. If I fail to do so, I will not be allowed to go to Chico in the fall since my acceptance was a conditional acceptance. This means that I have to work extra hard in all of my other classes also. Right now is when my ability to stay on top of everything will show and hopefully I will be able to go to Chico in the fall.
Along with the stress of keeping my grades up, I am also sick again. I really have to rest and lay low. I do not think that the stress of school is helping me get any better.
About a week ago, I said that I wished that my project could have been harder and right now I think I am starting to find out that the hardest part for me will be getting my project finished and being able to go to college next year. I know that it is weird that I like the fact that things are getting harder, but I am a person who always likes a challenge.

May 3rd

Since I missed so much school last week, due to Strep Throat, I just found out a few things from Mrs. Stanton. I need to observe another student's presentation, another student needs to come to mine and I need to decide and ask a teacher to be on my judging panel.
I will be observing Andrew Walker's project. I am excited because he did his project about working out and completing a triathlon. I am excited to find out how his project ended. He is presenting exactly a week before I do. I am glad that I get to see another student present before I have to so I an get some ideas of what to do and what not to do during my presentation. I convinced Katie Records to come watch my presentation. I choose her because she i son e of my best friends. Presentations make me really nervous so it will be nice to have a friend in the croud that I can look at in case I get nervous. As for the teacher to be in my judging panel, I asked the choir teacher Bruce. I have been in his class for all four years of high school, more than one period a day for three of the years, and I think it will be good to have him be one of the adjudicators. He seemed really happy and excited that I asked him to be on my panel.

May 2nd

I have been trying to put together my presentation, but it is a lot harder than it sounded. There is so much I want to talk about and so much I need to put into the presentation, I simply do not know where to start. Maybe the presentation will be the hard part of the project that I was looking for.
So far my power point consists of a title page (Looking Through the Lens), and a few slides with pictures on them. I think that I need to make an out line of what I want to talk about in my presentation and then work around that.

May 1st

I have officially started working on my presentation. I have been working a lot on the reflection aspect of my project. I kind of wish that I had gone with my first idea for a project, which was to volunteer in a hospital. I think I would have learned a lot more when it comes to my future since I am going to college to become a nurse. I feel that my project was not challenging enough. I am not saying that the project was not hard and stressful, it just seems like everyone had to deal with a lot of big problems when it came to their project. My biggest problem was that my camera was broken, but I was able to fix that with some duck tape. I think the project was easy for me because I was able to choose where and when I was going to work on it, unlike a lot of other people who had to change things in their schedules so that they would have time to work on their project. I am a person who loves a challenge, and when I decided to take this class I thought that it would be a great test to see if I can handle the great amount of stress and if I can deal with problems easily. I was simply disappointed, but relieved at the same time, when it turned out that I had no big problems with my project.

April 27th

I know that if I do not start my project soon, I will end up putting everything off till the last week. I can not let that happen because I do not want to be over stressed during the busiest time of the year. I think that even thought I have had a history of being a procrastinator, I will be able to handle this project and finish it up very well.

April 25th

It is official, I will be presenting on May 26th. I have to skip 7th period to present because that is the only time Mrs. Pagano can go to my presentation. I kind of wish that I was going sooner. the last two or three weeks of school are going to get very busy. I have four different choir concerts, Senior Ball, finals week, and lets not forget about graduation! I really hope that I do not start putting things off till last minute.

April 18th

We only have a few more weeks of school left and I am getting really excited about everything that is happening and will happen as the year comes to an end. I have officially decided to go to Chico State next year. Now that I have almost all of the college stuff out of the way, I am able to concentrate on finishing my project and doing everything I need to do so I am able to graduate on June 10th!

April 12th

     I asked Katie Records if I can try out fashion photography and take some photos of her. She said that she would love to help me out. The only problem now is trying to find a time and a place for me to take the pictures. I was thinking the Lafayette Reservoir. There are a lot of really beautiful places at the reservoir. I could also take some photos of the wildlife there.

April 9th

     So I have been thinking a lot about the idea of doing photography as a career. I have come to the conclusion that I do not think I could ever be a professional Photographer. Some Photographers have to sit in one place for hours, just to get one photo of what they were looking for. I simply am not patient enough for that. I possibly could do fashion photography. I think I could do that. You do not have to sit in ridiculous types of weather to take a photo of a certain animal that you can not find. With fashion photography, you get to work with people, which I am really good at. Maybe I will try out fashion photography by taking photos of some of my friends.

April 4th

     Over the weekend, my family went to Paso Robles. My aunt and uncle live there so we decided to go down for a visit. Of course I brought my camera with me. It was the only thing that kept me entertained while down there. We spent most of the weekend driving around and going wine tasting. Since I am not 21, I just took pictures instead.
     We went to a very old winery. The wine tasting room was in an old barn. When we went in, we met the owner. He told us how he has lived on that property since he was born and it originally belonged to his grandparents. Before the land was used to grow grapes for wine, it was all farming land. When you looked into the field of grapes, you could see an American flag placed randomly among the grapes. We asked the owner why the flag was there. He told us that it is because during World War II, a plane crashed right there and the pilot died. It crashed due to engine failure, but they decided to place an American flag where the crash happened.
     While my family continued to talk to the owner and taste wine, I decided to take a walk. The property was really big and had a lot of cool things on it. There were about 2 other old barns, besides the one that was turned into the wine tasting room. The wood on the building was starting to rot and there was pieces of metal sticking out of the wood that was covered in rust. The way that the sun hit the building was really beautiful, so of course I took photos of it. As a kept walking, I came across a few cars. One was a very old Jeep. I think that it was one of the first Jeeps ever made. It looked like the ones that they used during the war. I also found an old Mustang. My mom told me that the Mustang I found was the same year and design of the Mustang she owned before she married my dad.
     I had a great weekend and even thought it was a little boring, I got a lot of really great pictures out of it. (The photos I took will be in a later post.)