Evaluation

The Project
Over the course of this school year along with a few months at the end of last year, I have shot thousands of photographs of a wide range of activities and happenings at the Marine Academy of Science and Technology. I used many of these photos to create a website displaying our school as well as I possibly could. I wrote the HTML/CSS for the entire site, edited each photo used and put together a professional looking website.
Solution
Throughout the year I redesigned this site many times. My solution was to include a homepage that would link to each category page and each category page would have links to the photo slideshows.
Discrepancies

[1-1, 1-2; one of the original homepage designs as opposed to the final design]
As stated earlier, my design for the website changed countless times over the course of the year. The layout for the homepage has been altered so that it looks completely different from my first idea (which can be seen in the above images). The categories were condensed enormously as to create less work for me and make the website easier to navigate. Under the categories are subcategories (the slideshows). These were switched around, condensed and organized many times depending on how many photos I had and how many events I could attend. Besides layout and organization there are not any discrepancies between my original design and my final product.
Learning, Success and Failure
Failures
Although the aim of the website did not change over time, my ability to fulfill all my expectations for it did. This was my one failure, not having the opportunity to shoot as much as I had wanted to. There were events I was not aware of and some I couldn’t attend. I was unable to carry my camera around with me all day every day in school for obvious reasons. All these factors effected how much I could shoot and are reasons some slideshows are lacking in photos. I can fully admit that there are some sections, such as the sophomores and juniors that do not give you a feeling of what it is like to be one of them. That was just how the year worked out, but I did try my hardest to show as much as I possibly could.
Successes
On the other hand there are sections, such as battalion formations, seniors and Sandy Hook, that I believe cover everything under that title. Those are where my successes come. They also came when I shot a photo that was great.
Photography Learning
Both my successes and failures taught me something and pointed me in the right direction for the steps that were ahead. When I had a truly successful shooting I learned what to do for the next one, whether it is to arrive early, leave late, use my flash, turn up my ISO (light sensitivity) or shoot from the front row. When I didn’t live up to what I expected from myself I knew how to fix this in the future. When I had trouble with lighting at the play last year I knew to turn my ISO up to 3200, change how the camera focused and make the aperture as low as possible (allows more light into the camera through an opening in the lens and therefore allows you to shoot in lower light with a higher shutter speed) for the one act plays this year. When I had a multitude of washed out and grainy photos during the regatta I knew to turn my flash off and lower my ISO when I shot the sandcastles in similar light. This way I was able to have clearer photos and lowered my shutter speed as to enhance the color. From each experience, good or bad, I figured out some way to fix my problems or continue to achieve what I wanted. Not only did I learn from my failures after all shooting was done, I learned while shooting. I have a large amount of knowledge on photography, mostly from my years of working with film before making the transition to digital also. When you use film you have to be able to make changes while shooting, to shutter speed, to aperture, to flash, to everything. Because a high end digital DSLR (digital single lens reflex) has the ability to do everything for the photographer it is rare that one may reach the level of knowledge that you achieve using film. I changed things up a lot while shooting, trying different settings continuously in order to get the right lighting, color and every other aspect of the photograph. With every shot that I took I improved a little. From each mistake or success I learned the lighting of the location, I learned where to stand, I learned how far to zoom in, I learned how many photos I would have to take, and I learned a lot of other important pieces of information that helped me throughout the year. For instance, I can tell you right now that on Pershing field on a sunny day you have to use an ISO of about 1000, no flash, f/8 and auto-focus in order to have a shutter speed of over 300. With this information I can take a clear, focused, well lit, contrasted image.
Learning on the Computer
Photography was only one half of my project though, while that took place all over the other half all happened on a computer. After shooting it would be time to upload the photos and organize them on my laptop. From here I would go through them all, critique them to myself, and choose which ones to use in my slideshows. As I did this for each group I continued to learn what makes a good photo. After figuring out which shots fit my criteria I turned to Photoshop. Before this project I did have a good bit of knowledge/experience with this program but throughout the process of editing hundreds of photos I gained much more. Photoshop was a huge part of the project and one of two technologies I learned an immense amount about over the course of making this site. The other is probably the most important skill I learned all year. This is writing HTML. Aside from very basic knowledge of the coding I knew from years ago, I knew nothing about how to write the code for an entire website. After all the pages I wrote and rewrote, I learned enough to understand almost any HTML given, along with basic CSS that was used for the background photos. Attached is an example of a page of HTML/CSS.

Design Flaws and How to Improve
The homepage is my major design flaw. I redesigned it numerous times and eventually became so overwhelmed with it that I was unable to produce the new design I was aiming to. The background that is used on the site is not the final redesign but instead was meant to be a montage of various photos taken over the course of the project. I worked on it multiple times yet was never happy with anything aside from the two pieces of photos that are currently on it. Near the end I decided to redo it once more and create a collage of many photos for my background. However, this was never completed as it was incredibly time consuming and the parts done did not look how I expected. If this project had time left improvements could be made. I would be able to complete a collage to my satisfaction or make additions to the current background in order to cover more aspects of the school on it.
Other than the background of the homepage I don’t believe that I had any other design flaws. The only other problem with my site comes with the lack of photos in certain slideshows. This could easily be improved upon with more time and chances to shoot.
Skills Improved
Although it is not always obvious while working on senior projects, it is clear when all is over that they taught us essential skills needed in every day life. While we all possess problem solving, communication and organizational skills as is, spending a year in this class working methodically on projects improves them greatly.


Problem Solving
This project faced countless roadblocks, starting over a year ago. The controversy on a photography website began when my original proposal of a book was shot down. From here I was required to change my project to follow the curriculum a bit more. I had to solve this problem quickly and turned the book into an online site. The needs for problem solving continued to arise throughout this year. From changing the layout of pages to whole sections of HTML, every day I was faced with problems to solve. This project improved these skills greatly because I simply had so many aspects to fix and improve.
Communication
The basis of this project is communication through photographs. Throughout the progress update presentations I have learned how to communicate my ideas and intentions much better. At the beginning of the year I was unable to answer the questions “What is MAST?” and “How will you portray this club?” Along the way I learned how to articulate my thoughts and the answers to these. I have learned to use pictures to show what MAST is. Those explanations that are impossible with words, I can use my art for. When I gave up on verbally describing MAST I turned to a few photographs and instead described them to describe aspects of the school. This is an incredibly important skill for me to have obtained in this class because I will spend the rest of my life communicating my thoughts through my photos.
Organizational
A key to being able to set up a professional looking, easily navigable site was organization. Although I have been meticulous in my organization of my photos every since I began digital photography, working on this website improved my skills much more. It required me to keep photos perfectly organized by the categories and subcategories I outlined long ago. Those outlines are another example of this course teaching me this skill. When writing the HTML it was necessary to make sure the code was all completed (every command closed, each command in order, etc.). After each page was written it was also required that I keep them all in a structured folder which was crucial to linking the pages to each other.
Conclusion
This project, the MAST Photojournalism Website, taught me a great deal. My knowledge of photography, my camera, photojournalism, Photoshop, HTML, the internet, my laptop and various other programs skyrocketed. The project I chose is directly related to the field that I intend to study, Photojournalism, so working on it this entire year gave me experience and invaluable knowledge in this that most High School students do not have access to. Even though my website fell short, in my opinion, on some criteria I laid out for myself it was overall a success. Judging by my high scores on my testing and by the site as a whole, I put the skills I learned along the way to good use to create a website that fulfills my expectations to the best of my current abilities. It is enjoyable, it is organized, it is easily navigable, it gives you a feeling of what it is like to attend MAST, it teaches you about MAST, it displays a wide range of photographs of a high quality, it is professional in appearance and it is easily accessed.

Calendar MP4

April:May:June:

Testing Procedure

Example of a professional website format.

Design2host. "Templates 4389". Website Templates. 23 September 2008. <http://www.freewebtemplates.com/download/templates/4389.>

The end product should be a multi-page website with a wide array of photographs showing many events and activities that happen at our school. It should give anyone who looks at it a feel of what it's like to attend MAST and participate in the clubs or activities.
The website will be easily accessed by any student, alumni, parent, friend, staff member or anyone who would like to view how MAST functions and what it is like to attend. Anyone who views the site will gain knowledge of what the students here go through on a regular basis.
The site will stand separate from the current MAST website because it's purpose is to give you a feeling of our school instead of brief information and sparse photos.

To assess my website I will give a survey to classmates, staff, my mentor, and groups from out of school. I'll give another to people I know who have a knowledge of photography and can critique the quality of my work. The first survey includes how professional the website's appearance is, how interesting it is, if it gives the viewer a feeling of life at MAST, along with other questions pertaining to the website itself. The other survey focuses on only the photographs and their quality. They both include space for additional comments.
For the website survey I will use as many students here as possible, staff, family members, and outside friends. The other, which focuses on photography, will be filled out by friends and counselors from camp who learned and taught photography and friends and my teacher from my precollege program who also have a knowledge of photography, along with any other photographers, professional or amateur that I know.

1. Send my created survey to those I chose to fill it out, and hand survey to classmates and staff during class. They will fill them out and either send the completed form back to me or hand it back.
2. Assess the results, making sure they were taken seriously and completely.
3. Record results in spreadsheet.

This testing procedure will work by giving me a variety of feedback on my completed website from various groups of people. I want to have groups with varying levels of knowledge on our school which is why I chose students along with outside friends who hardly know anything about MAST. Parents provide the inbetween, they don't attend the school but they're children do so they have knowledge of it but not a large amount. The surveys will include a grading system, from 1-10 on each question that I ask. When I go over these results I can average the grades to see what is really thought of my work and what to improve.

Calendar MP3

Math and Science

Science and Math Report: MAST Photojournalism Website
This project is to design and make a website showing all aspects, photographically, of the Marine Academy of Science and Technology for public view. This school is very unique and has no form of publication to show anyone what it’s all about. People such as incoming freshman, current students, alumni, faculty, family and friends would all benefit from being able to view a site that shows what it is all about here at MAST and what life is like on a daily basis. The website will be a photojournal, complete with slideshows of all the pictures. The site has been redesigned many times to portray the school better, to be better organized, and to be aesthetically better. The idea of the final website is shown in the developmental work.
Engineering and Manufacturing
This project originally did not fit into Systems Engineering II at all, but was changed to at least somewhat fit in. It is still not a standard Systems project but because of it’s technological side, does partially fit in. This project is a photojournal website and therefore is an innovation. Both photojournals and websites exist but not for MAST. It is an open system because the website is editable, it is able to be changed if needed and is informational because it provides anyone who views it with information about MAST. The only type of engineering used to create this project is infotech (information technology). It is a technological view of information. The website is a custom design, all HTML written by hand and all photos taken by the website’s designer. No other type of manufacturing is used for it. No manufacturing categories are involved in this design.
Science Concepts
The website is artistic, and therefore the concepts used for it are design principles and color effects. The elements of design include line, color, shape, form, value, size, texture, illusion of motion and illusion of space. The principles of design include unity, balance, harmony, contrast, repetition, variety and emphasis. Color effects deals with the effects that colors can have on a person, whether it calms them or excites them or if the color scheme is harmonious. My website is mainly for photographs, and because I want them to be the focus of my site, I have decided to keep the rest of the pages simple besides the photos that I include on them, in order to keep them from distracting from the photos. Color effects deal with how a color make you feel when viewing it, for my website this was important. MAST is a strong and unique school, because of this a color such as pink or yellow would be inappropriate for the color scheme. Instead of using a solid color, an opaque photo relating to the page will be used as a background with navy blue font and links. Navy blue is appropriate not only because it is one of our school colors but also because it appeals to both men and women, and is associated with importance, confidence, power and authority. All these traits relate to MAST and therefore navy blue was the font color chosen. The principles of design are much more involved with this project. The website must have unity, if each page looks like a separate item from the others it will look dissonant. In this website each page is balanced, symmetrical, so that they do not give a feeling of being confused or scattered. In the photos there is not a set balance that is attempted.

[1-1]
Symmetrically Balanced


[1-2]
Asymmetrically Balanaced

When a photo is cropped a symmetry is not usually created, such as in figure 1-2 because much of the time the focal point does not belong in the center, this becomes boring and monotonous to view. If every photo was symmetrical like figure 1-1 the slideshows would have no variety. Harmony is important to a website, each page shares similarities with every other page, therefore they are more appealing as a whole and look like they do belong together.

[1-3]
Color Contrast

In the photos contrast is a main element. Color wise it is what gives the photo depth and clarity between elements. In figure 1-3 the bright colors of the trees contrast the light blue sky and dark colors of the people, therefore they pop out creating a striking image. The textures in the photos are also contrasting which makes them much more interesting. Because each photograph is very different and each shows different people in different situations, no two are alike, there is a great variety. In no slideshow is there any bit of monotony.


[1-4]
Focal Point Off Center


[1-5]
Focal Point Off Center

One of the main things to decide or figure out in a photo is the focal point. This is the point of the photo where a viewers eyes land. For instance, in figure 1-5 the viewers eyes go directly to his face, making it the focal point. Inexperienced photographers usually believe that the focal point must be in the middle or must be what would be assumed (such as a face). Straying away from this belief makes your photos much more fascinating and edgy, if the focal point of figure 1-4 was in the center the photo would lose some interest that having it to the right gives it.
Technology

[2-1]
Photoshop

Creating this website requires the use of HTML coding and Photoshop (CS4). Each page was written in Notepad using HTML. The HTML for the slideshows were created using SimpleViewer (http://www.airtightinteractive.com/simpleviewer/) which is uploaded to Photoshop and from there will automate the script for the slideshows. Photoshop is used for that as well as editing each photo that is being used (ex. increasing contrast, cropping, fixing colors and dodging/burning).


Math

[3-1, 3-2]
Original Photo and Faded for Background Image

The only mathematical computation involved in this project is changing the opacity of a photo for the background of the category pages. The opacity of the photo above was changed from 100% to 50% in order to create a faded image that the words and links will be visible on top of. It had to be faded 50% so that the colors are not bright enough to distract from the photos placed on top.

Conclusion
This project, although not engineering based, does involve science and math. It is an innovation, an open system and uses infotech engineering. This MAST website will provide information and photos to viewers in the following format. The design principles and color theory are important concepts involved in this project, determining which photos will be used and how they will be edited, as well as how the website is designed. This website will exhibit a side of MAST that is not shown by other Systems projects.

Calendar MP 2

November 17-21
Bid Process, shoot: boat trip, NHS inductions and info session
November 24-28
Choose and edit photos
December 1-5
Shoot some club meetings, begin html template
December 8-12
Html template, choose and edit photos
December 15-19
Html, start slideshows, shoot: winter ball, club meetings
December 22-26
Edit photos
December 29- January 2
No school
January 5-9
Templates, developmental work, math and science report
January 12-16
Developmental work due, math and science report due, work on midterm
January 19-23
Presentation and midterm

Logs MP1

9/9/08
I have began to fix everything I did this summer that was incorrect of needs improving.

9/12/08
For the past week I have fixed everything wrong with my summer work. I have also not had a computer that reads my hard drive so instead of working on my photos I have been looking at photo websites to get ideas for mine.

9/16/08
I have started to choose pictures to use from what I have shot so far. I also began editing them in photoshop. There is not much else to do yet.

9/19/08
I am still editing and choosing photos. It is starting to seem that my plans for this marking period were not accurate and although I am getting a lot done, my calendar is not what I will actually be doing.

9/23/08
My calendar states that I would be working on choosing pictures for a full week and then begin work on my model. I have finished choosing from the pictures that I have taken so far, and instead of starting on my model, I edited them all in Photoshop. Since I finished editing all my photos I have, I also started to create the image I'll be using as my homepage.
Now, I have to register my domain name in order to start building my website and html.

10/3/08
Since the last log I worked on my model. I completed it but because it did not look professional or neat or clear I started it again and will complete it today or tomorrow.
My calendar says that I would get my domain name and began building my website this week but instead of doing that I have done my model.
Since I have gotten a lot done, just in a different order than I had planned, my progress is going well.

10/7/08
I have gone over all my photos with my mentor, and also edited the flow of my website. We changed the design a little bit in order to connect all pages together better.
My model is complete for now. It is a flow chart of my website, showing how all pages connect to each other.
Soon I will start to create the site and design pages.

10/10/08
It turns out that my alternate solutions were really just brainstorming so I have been redoing them.

10/14/08
I created my outline for my presentation and worked on my model more. Since my last post I have also been redoing my alternate solutions more.

10/17/08
The presentations were this week and I was asked in many ways and for a long time, what is MAST?
I know that this is something that I have to figure out but to be asked it that many times was pretty bad. I'm now looking at pictures to find ones that I really think exemplify MAST, so that next time I don't have to stand up in front of my class being asked the same question so many times.
I was also asked how my photos are different than the yearbook snapshots. The more I think about this the more reasons I think of. I'm using a professional camera and shooting in an artistic way, taking good photos and portraying the emotion and action of each even that I shoot. On the other hand the yearbook pictures are snapshots, not showing what this school actually is and just showing groups of friends.
For my next presentation I know how I can answer what I'm asked and stick up for myself instead of just saying "I don't know."

10/21/08
My model was completed yesterday so I'm currently working on photoshopping photos and my alternate solutions.

10/24/08
This week i finished my model, continued choosing pictures to use, photoshopped my chosen pictures, shot the crop walk and beach sweep and athletic b schedule, and tried to make a list of everything that i have to shoot this year. It was a productive week.

10/28/08
Today I figured out what MAST is. Although I'm sure that that still won't be enough for my presentation.
Also, last class while holding my model I was asked "is that it?" although it was exactly what I was told to do. I haven't presented my model yet and I'm not sure how that will go but at least now I know what MAST is...somewhat.

10/31/08
Yesterday was my presentation. I did well, covering everything necessary although I did forget to go over my process of selection/rejection since it was in a different post.
The questions were different this time, instead of being asked about how my photos would be different than the yearbook and what is MAST? I was asked how my alternate solutions are creative and professional, which I cannot explain anymore than I did. Then I was critiqued on why I'm including my portfolio in the website. Again, I'm including my own portfolio in my website because it is my senior project and I want whoever views it to see my own personal work. Although I do really love the pictures I've been taking for the project, they are not me as a photographer for the most part and that is just another thing I want people to get out of viewing my site. Although the site is not "about me" or "for me" I want my portfolio on it for public view and whether it fits into the homepage or not is a matter of opinion. There are other ways to include it in the site, and maybe I'll modify that but no matter what, it will be included.