In photography, there are several ideas behind the creation of a strong composition. The first of these is called the rule of thirds, which refers to breaking your frame into three parts either horizontally or vertically and weighting the composition along one side or the other and not fully centering every image. The second is called the golden ratio or golden spiral, putting more focus in the corners of the image and spiraling outward. Both are extremely successful but should be considered while photographing and not after the fact.

Another major compositional technique is called leading lines—this refers to perspective or actual lines in the image leading to the part of the image you want your viewer to notice. It is essentially highlighting the important subject of your photograph.
Last is framing--use natural framing (windows, doors, etc.) or make sure to compose your image how you want it to look while taking the photo and not later in post-production. Cropping is an option but it is always better to frame the image with intent. ​

There are several editing apps available for free download, but the editing app on your phone will offer a lot of easy options. First, crop out any extraneous information that isn't important if you didn't do this while framing the photograph. Second, don't use filters. If you want your photo essay to appear as professional as possible you need all of the images to be cohesive. Adding different filters to several different images will create a choppy, not to mention amateur, visual. On this same idea, obviously do not use snapchat or instagram story filters.  

I just wanted to welcome you all back from what I hope was a very fun and restful summer. I spent most of my summer traveling both near (Nantucket, Cape Cod, Maine) and very far (Hong Kong) and taking classes (yes, I still like to learn new things). One of the things I focus on while I am traveling is seeing the art and culture of the city I am visiting. If there is something special about that city that is related to art (ceramics, frescoes, paintings, museums, graffiti, jewelry) or culture (food, dancing, music) I want to see it firsthand! I hope that you were all able to do something amazing this summer and I can't wait to share some experiences with you in class this year! Here are a few Instagram photos of my travels this summer. 

On Tuesday, May 31st this year the Burlington High School fashion class, taught by Mr. Mistler, will hold the first ever fashion show at the Massachusetts State House. We are so excited for this amazing opportunity to showcase the fabulous talent and designs of our students! This event is open to the public and if you would like to attend please RSVP to StateHouseFashion@gmail.com. 

This year my Photography I classes were challenged to make a stop-motion animated GIF for one of their projects and they came out with some really fantastic mini stories. Some stories were serious, or funny, or even sad, but all of them were really creative! There were so many good GIFs to choose from but I wanted to showcase a few of them here. Check them out below (click on the GIF to see it larger or to make it run). 

Every year we here are Burlington High School enter some exceptional art pieces from our very talented young artists to the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and this year BHS had some beautiful pieces accepted. I wanted to congratulate all of the winners and all the students who participated in this competition—the full list can be seen here. The following photography students received awards for their photographs: Ronika Patel was awarded an honorable mention for her portrait of Jessie, Alpha Bathol and Mia Celik both were awarded gold keys for their photographs. The gold key photographs will go on to the national competition and will also be featured in a local exhibition at EF (Education First), Two Education Circle, Cambridge, MA 02141 (near the Science Museum), from March 5–March 20, 2016. Congratulations ladies!

Stephanie O'Neill won a silver key for her photo portfolio, Dripping In Paint, which is currently on view in the Cambridge Street Art Gallery (across from the BHS cafeteria). Here are a few photographs from her portfolio.

Originally seen on Ms. Chang's blog:

We have an all -star line up for Friday's 8th Annual Artist Alumni Day. From fashion designers, to architects and graphic designers you will be impressed by the wonderful talented artists who graduated from Burlington High School. The schedule is below so feel free to come by and see all or some of the artists.

Check out this great video featuring the artists from Jenn Scheffer:

​Schedule:
Artist Alumni Day 2016 :: Friday, January 8, 2016


Period 7: 7:38- 8:22 :: Rachel Faller*- Fashion Designer and founder of TONLE
Period 1: 8:25-9:09 :: Kristina Makris- Makeup artist and owner of Flawless Makeup  & Lauren Vigneau- Graphic Designer and owner of BirchNine
Period 2: 9:12- 9:56 :: Michael Gulesarian - Sophomore at Lasell University, majoring in Graphic Design. Owner of MikeCDesigns
Period 3 (long block): 9:59-11:14 :: Chris Coe, Studio Manager @ RIT Production Services. Junior at Rochester Institute of Technology. chriscoephoto.com
Period 4: 11:17-12:26 LUNCH Provided by BHS for Alumni Artists and Elizabeth Johnson  11:20-12:00, Senior at Framingham State University, Product Development Intern with the TJX Companies
Period 5: 12:29-1:13 :: Kaitlyn Morneweck - Graphic Designer kaitlynmorneweck.com designer at 36creative.com & Jake Ursino - Montserrat College of Art - http://jakeursino.weebly.com
Period 6: 1:16-2:00 :: Jenn Vachon, Designer at Isgenuity

Rachel Faller, fashion designer and creator of Tonle will be in on google hangout with us. The link is here to hear her talk:

Google Plus Event Page Link

Bring in this flyer (or show it on your smartphone) when you buy food at Chipotle between 5-9 PM on Wednesday November 25th and 50% of the proceeds go directly to the BHS art department scholarship fund! 

I LOVE Instagram! Really, I do. But one of my favorite things about Instagram is starting off each new school year with a new set of students sharing their visual journal with me via their school Instagram accounts. All of my students have a school account (I do too) and every school day we share an image from the day or a favorite image from vacation and at the end of every week we vote on them. These first two weeks impressed me with the variety of imagery that was shared. Really nice work everyone! 

If you're interested you can follow me @ms.djordjevic—and here are the new class hashtags if you want to follow along with all the photo goodness being shared in each class! 

• #bhsphotoone
  
• #bhsphototwo
  
• #bhsphotofour
  
• #bhsphotofive
  
• #photo7bhs
  
• #advphoto4

This is a great video of Ira Glass on Storytelling, reminding all of us doing creative work that sometimes when we think we are not doing the work we need to be doing we just need to do more, just need to fight our way through it. And to all of you, my photo students, working so hard this year and knocking down walls with your creativity, ideas, and inspiration—I salute you and your struggle. Push onward and forward. 

This year Mr. Mistler and I escorted 49 fantastic art students on a trip to MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art) and the galleries in Soho, NYC. It is one very long day of travel starting at 6:30am and ending at nearly 11pm, but every year it is worth it to watch our students see art that they have studied and looked at on computer screens and actually have a chance to experience the works live and in-person. New York is host to some of the most incredible art museums in the world and that is what prompted the BHS art department to start this annual field trip nearly a decade ago. The exhibits at MoMA are always impressive and this year we were able to see a lot of pop art (Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Rauschenberg), abstract expressionists including Pollock and Kandinsky, works of Van Gogh and Picasso, and many other amazing artists. 

Here are a few images of the trip taken by my students (and a few of my own) that I pulled from Instagram!