Week 13- Final Blog

It has been a great year. I am proud to say that we have succeeded doing our 20% project. Our project was to inspire people by taking pictures using a macro lens. From the past weeks, we really tried our best to take as much pictures as we possibly can. For my part, I think that I did what I possibly could, because I was always on top of my agenda. When my group partners were lacking, I was the one who did it for them. I was the one who lead my group. Last week, my groups and I presented. The night before, my group and I gathered together in Google Docs to make our script for our presentation. We did this because we wanted to be organized. I believe that we did good on our presentation, because my classmates cheered on us and my teacher told us that we did a good job. We made people laugh with our videos, and I hope I inspire my classmates with my penny speech. However, it saddens me that some of the groups chose to not do anything at all. There were some presentations that I enjoyed: Who's better? Guys or Girls, and the Letters To Our Troops. Looking back, I believe that our 20% project was a success. In the future, I would still want to continue this project. I want to continue inspiring people, and I want the whole world to know me through my pictures.

Week 12- Presentation in progress

This week, we have been working on our presentation. My two partners are working on the presentation, and i am working on the slideshow video. I never thought that making the video was going to be a challenge. Since all our pictures are squares which is made for instagram, i had to find a way to show the pictures in a full view. i dont know how to explain it, but you will see the picture on the bottom. Finally, my teacher told the class our dates for our presentation. Ours is on Friday. I think that's a good date so we have at least one more month to work on it. Moreover, i have to look for a background music for the video. My partner told me that I have to find a music that is emotional. Moreover, I really hope that we will have time to get together and practice for our presentation.

Week 11-Making the presentation

Last week, we have planned our presentation. This week I have been working on our presentation. Also, I have been looking for some apps that could help make make the video we will include in our presentation. Time passed by so fast, I didnt know we are going to present next week! I just hope that we finish making the presentation before it due. I think that we will do great on this presentation. I took this video on a spuder last week and I think that my classmates will like it when we present. My teacher said that we have to practice presenting without looking at the screen. Now that can be a challenge, but I think we will do good on that also. Anyways, I don't know what else to say so I will just ask you to follow our Instagram account and our Vine account @_macroworld. Even though the 20% project is ending soon, I still plan to continue to take and post them on our accounts, especially on Instagram.

Week 10- Plan Plan Plan

Time is running out! Theres is only about three weeks until we present our 20% project. Yesterday May 8, 2014, my partners and I talked about how our presentation is going to be. At first, we were all like, "I don't know." Deciding what we were going to do was tough. So we decided to throw out ideas and read them all off if they were a good one. Our plan is that we are going to make a presentation in Google Docs. We are going to talk about what we did and what we learned. Also, we are going to make a short slideshow to show at the end. Also, we decided to take as many pictures of peoples eyes as we can; I dont know what the point is, but i think it's going to be cool! I believe that we will be successful in this project, because this project is well planned. Hopefully we will present like a boss! 

Week 9- Panning our Presentation

This next few weeks is starting to be a little scary. My teacher said there is only six weeks left. I think that we have to start planning on how are we going to do our presentations. My plan is that we make a video, but we have to talk about what and how we are going to do it. Moreover, My partner went to the mountains and luckily she took 6 pictures; I'm not satisfied but it's OK. It's better that nothing. This week, I have the macro lens, and I will plan to take at least more than 20 pictures to add on our presentation. In the past few days, my group and I were trying our best to post as many pictures as we can. I can say that this is always the hard part because there are time when I run out of pictures, but I still manage to find one in my camera roll. What I also did last week is that I organized my pictures. I made an album called "macro" so that it is easy to look for pictures that I have taken in the past. Below is a picture that one of my partner took when she went to the mountains

Week 8- In Progress

There are 7 weeks left before the day of the presentation. Last week was a stressful week, because one of my partners had the whole spring break to take pictures, however he did not. I have reminded him many times, however it did not work. We have been doing good on our Instagram page @_macroworld. On our Vine account, I cant seem to remember what email I used. I do not think I can still log in to that account, but I am determined to make another account. This time I will record the email and the password I used. Today, one of my partners will camp on the mountains for the rest of the weekend, so I gave her the macro lens.I am counting on her to take a lot of pictures. I am hoping that she would capture small plants, insects, and all the things that nature can offer. This time, we are not doing weekly topic anymore, because we always had a hard time thinking for one. I can say that our lives got easier because we can just post pictures everyday. Below is an Ant. You will be reading 10 facts that you probably did not know about ants. Ants are as old as the dinosaurs. Ants have already survived a mass extinction event. Ants have conquered almost the entire globe. One group of ants conquered six continents. The total ant population makes our 7 billion look weak. Ants have a hive mind. In some regions of the world, ants can account for over a quarter of the animal biomass. Ants cooperate with other species. Last but not least, ants practice slavery.

 

Week 7- In Progress

Last week, my group and I talked about our plans until the day of the presentation. So far we have been doing great! The only problem is that we only have one macro lens. So every week, one person is only able to take pictures, while the two people are at least working on editing the pictures that they have taken before. Luckily, I had the macro lens. I took so many pictures, but I deleted most of them because they were not perfect. Also, I edited the pictures that I have taken and you will see one of the pictures below. Below is a cockroach laying an egg. Female cockroaches produce egg cases, known as oothecae. Oothecae contain many eggs and are enveloped by a protein substance that gradually hardens into a strong, protective casing. Some cockroach species drop the egg case, while other species carry it until the eggs are ready to hatch. Below is an American Cockroach. The American cockroach’s ootheca is dark brown in color and averages 8 mm in length. One female may create six to 90 oothecae in her lifetime. The female American cockroach carries the ootheca for a few hours to a few days, at which point she deposits the egg case in a safe, hidden location. The American cockroach ootheca contains approximately 15 embryos and remains in place through the use of the female’s saliva. Immature cockroaches will emerge from the ootheca within 24 to 38 days. 

Week 6- Plan

On March 14, 2014, my English teacher talked to us about how we should have a plan for our 20% project. Which is true because I think that most of us does not even have a plan. He also told us that we will be presenting starting May 29, 2014. Moreover, he showed us a video of how we should present. Now back to the plan, our plan is to take more macro pictures, so that we can show tons of the pictures during our presentation. My partner, Divina made a website, so that she can also put pictures there. My other partner, Gino will be running our Instagram account. And I made a Vine account to also share macro videos that i have taken. We believe that the plans that we came up with will help us to have a successful project. Also, I came up with an idea take a picture of my fellow classmates' eyes. Luckily, many of them wanted their eyes taken with the macro lens. Moreover, they were suprised when the saw their eyes up close and thought it was really cool. Please also follow us at out Instagram and Vine account @_macroworld

Week 5-Reflection

       In the first semester of my English 3 class, my teacher assigned a collaborative project. We had to create something to improve someone's life, physically, mentally, or spiritually. My team mates Divina Bartolome, Gino Delatorre and I had come up with different things: food blogs, virtual tour at Savanna High School, taking sunset pictures. These are the things that we've came up with, and we had agreed on a project that we think we can achieve, taking macro pictures.

       Looking back, I can say is that we are doing great. We have taken more than two hundred pictures and posted at least 30 pictures on our Instagram page. Also, we've posted videos. Also by every post, we partner it up with a meaningful quote or a trivia. In conclusion, I belive that by pushing ouselves through the finish line, we can proudly say, we have changed some people's lives in some ways.

Week 4- Buttons

Last weeks weekly topic was chocolate; this week is buttons. Buttons may have been invented almost four thousand years ago. In ancient China people used buttons made out of gold and silver. Sometimes they only put a button on the cap, and the clothes were held together by strings and buckles. So initially were used as ornaments. But when people did realize that they could use buttons to hold clothes together, they started making buttons out of wood, seashells, iron or ivory. But today all the buttons are made out of plastic. Early settlers in North America often used buttons in trading with the indigenous peoples. The manufacture of buttons began in the United States c.1826. Buttons, originally made of bronze or bone, have also been made of materials such as metal, porcelain, paste, wood, ivory, horn, pearl, glass, and plastic. There are two main types, those made with holes and those with shanks. The latter have a loop of metal let in through a hole or soldered into place. Below, you can see an up close look of a button.   

Week 3- Chocolates

Last week's weekly topic was spider webs; This week is chocolates. And I will be telling you some fun facts about chocolates. A recent study indicates that when men crave food, they tend to crave fat and salt. When women crave food, they tend to desire chocolate. Aztec Emperor Montezuma drank 50 golden goblets of hot chocolate, dyed red and flavored with chili peppers, every day. Chocolate syrup was used for blood in the famous 45 second shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, Psycho, which actually took 7 days to shoot. The average American consumes more than 10 pounds of chocolate every year. 76% of Americans say the ears of the chocolate bunnies should be eaten first. 5% think chocolate feet of the bunnies should be eaten first. 4% think the chocolate tails should go first. One ounce of milk chocolate has only a little more caffeine than the amount of caffeine in a cup of decaffeinated coffee. White chocolate has no caffeine. Are you amazed yet? If you want to know more about chocolates, please visit http://morkeschocolates.com/chocolate-facts. 

Week 2- Webs

Last week's weekly topic was dollar bills. This week we are thinking of doing it on spider webs. Spider webs are threads of silk. Spiders can make as many as seven different kinds of silk, with all different purposes—from making egg cases, to hiding. They are mainly used to catch prey. The silk is made inside the glands of a spider’s abdomen, where it is liquid. When it’s drawn out of their spinnerets, it becomes thread-like. Spider silk is very strong—sturdier than a thread of steel that is as equally thick. Webs are spun by female and immature spiders. Argiope spiders form orb webs made of ultraviolet silk. Some flowers (their food source) are also ultraviolet, confusing insects, which believe they’re about to eat nectar. Instead, they end up getting stuck in a web. The slightest vibration of a web alerts a spider to the possibility of prey, which then rushes toward the movement. The picture of the spider web below is owned by Mike Hall, My Shot. 

Week 1- Bugs

Last week's topic was bugs. A bug is a certain type of insect. Some examples you might be familiar with are the boxelder bug, milkweed bug, assassin bug, and stink bug. True bugs have a stylet (a mouth shaped like a straw) that they use to suck plant juices from plants. The assassin bugs use their stylets to suck blood from other insects. The front wings of true bugs are thickened and colored near where they are attached to the insect's body, and are clearer and thinner towards the hind end of the wing. The hind wings are usually clear and tucked underneath the front wings. The picture below is a Fruit Fly. Did you know that fruit flies often feed on decaying fruits and vegetables. This is where they get their name from. However, one most note that they are often found in unsanitary conditions like garbage dumps and trash cans. Moreover, fruit flies are also a hazard to human health. They spread diarrheal illnesses. Their hairy bodies and sticky foot pads can carry germs and bacteria from sites that have been contaminated. Wash your hands periodically. Do not use your hands to kill flies. This week's weekly topic is money, and I cannot wait to see those dollar bills up close!

Week 9- Editing Pictures

It has been nine weeks since we started the 20 percent project. I can say that we are on track. I still could not believe that it has been many months! Last week's weekly topic was donuts, and this week is fruits. During the two-week break, I have discovered some of the cool editing apps that I can use to make my pictures better. The best thing about them is that they are free on the appstore. Snapguide, Camera Plus, and Fotorus are some of the apps that I liked. Why? Because the have everything that i needed to make my pictures better. These apps can brighten the picture, they can give the picture more details, they can give the picture a filter and a lot more! Below is a before and after of a picture I took. Also if you are reading this, please follow us on Instagram @_macroworld and please do not hesitate to like our pictures. We are working really hard to give you the best macro pictures we can take. 

(Before)

(After)