My Picture that Lies: Water pollution turned to a waterfall

I created the picture to the left from a picture of polluted water coming out of the sewer. I chose the original picture because it wasn't pleasant and it was shocking to me to see the damage done to water by humans. All in all, I wanted to make something ugly look beautiful. I dont know where the original image came from, but it was probably taken in a lake where the sewage is drained. What I first did to the original photograph was change the color of the dense green water into a light blue-green with white to represent the splash from the waterfall, I had to use a layer on top of the original to create this effect. Secondly, I had to get rid of the sewer tube that was in the picture so I used the clone tool and cloned the rocks on top of the tube, this made it seem like the tube was never there. I also played around with the opacity of the water to make it look lighter and realistic. After a couple of minutes of changing things here and there I was pleased with the outcome of my fake waterfall. When I manipulated the photo I was doing it to make something ugly look beautiful, and to play pretend for a while that water pollution isn't a major problem in the world. If it wasn't for this special project I would say that manipulating this photograph is bad because you are taking away a reality from people's eyes. If human beings don't see how they pollute our water they will never learn!

Powerpoint tips round 2!

So I thought I published this post after I wrote it but oddly it never got posted so here I go again with my power point tips and feedback on the articles on powerpoints. After I read the articles I was happy to have realized that my AP Spanish Lit teacher was right when she gave us such a hard time on powerpoint design. She prepared me for the rough world of powerpoint craziness. As I read along with the articles I noticed some of the same points of what I should never do:

1) Do not have more than 6-10 words per slide.

2) Do not have distracting colors that take away the focus of your presentation.

3)Do not use boring templates that have nothing

4) Do not use annoying transitions, which are also distracting!

5) When presenting NEVER read off of the slide!

Now for the good things I guess you could say do the opposite of the WHAT-NOT-TO-DO but I guess some valuable things to remember are:

1) Communicate with the audience, use visuals and images and know how to explain.

2)Be sure to make good notes and be knowledgeable about your topics

3) Have interesting graphs and data, not just boring charts that no one understands.

4)Have a adequate size font that is understood by everyone.

5) Play around with color, but be careful to use it to your advantage only!

Hopefully these tips are helpful for anyone using powerpoint including myself. I think powerpoint is a great tool nowadays to get a point accross visually and verbally. It is amazing the technology that we have today, but we have to make sure we understand how to use it adequately.

Powerpoints!

I really liked all the powerpoints I saw in class, because they all contained something special but I have to say my favorite presentations were Noelle's on Oedipus, and Will's presentation on Bonobos. I liked these two presentations both because of the graphics, and because the presentations were well done and interesting. Noelle's presentation was really nicely done, and the design was adequate for what she was talking about, she also made Oedipus's story very interesting to me which was the point of the presentation. Will's presentation was also memorable because it was really funny and interesting at the same time. He had very fun graphics and sounds which made the presentation interactive. I never really thought a presentation on apes would be fun or interesting, but he made it happen.

Bottom line is that I learned a lot from all the presentations but these two were my favorites so far!