F/Stop - September, 2004

IPS adventures! Right now we are on the side of a road near a highway, and our van is sitting on the side of the road with an empty gas tank because of a broken gas guage. Anyway…

I'm supposed to write about our last day of IPS. Wow! The week went by soooo fast!

For our last day we had a session on filters (they are little pieces of glass or plastic that you put over your lens to make your image different, less light, more light, etc.).

Then we had a session on digital cameras and I learned a lot of things about my camera that I didn't even know about! Such as, changing a picture to black and white once it is in the camera! We also learned about buying SLR cameras.

We had lunch and then after lunch we went to a State park. We took a hike to a scenic overveiw but somehow took a wrong turn and ended up just walking in a big circle for about an hour. We decided once we got back to the first spot, we didn't really need to see that scenic overlook. :)

After our "hike" we found a large field and played some soccer (my team won!) unfortunately one of the girls tripped and sprained her ankle and then one of the other girls fainted just thinking about the pain. So we decided to stop playing soccer. :) It was fun while it lasted. :)

We moved to a grill and started to warm up the coals to cook hamburgers and ate waternelon until it started to rain. Then we moved to a larger covered area and had hamburgers, chips, and made s'mores in the rain. Then Rowan shared a really cool story about 3 knights who learned the truth of the song, "Not to the strong is the battle, not to the swift is the race, but to the true and the faithful, victory is promised through grace."

Looking back at the empty gas tank, the injuries, the rain… I see that God is always in control and is always giving us opportunities to rejoice!

–American Endeavor Student Bethany Wuerffel

Whoo, we have already reached our fourth day of IPS with just a turning of the eye. After breakfast, we gathered at the classroom for our devotions as usual. Will's leading the devotion today. He shared a little on the life of Jacob. So as we all know, Jacob was the well known cheater, he always cheated when situations are not in his favor. But God change him by wrestling with him, giving him struggles to overcome. And this time Jacob did not cheat even though he had a broken bone. Therefore, God change his name to Isreal for he was no longer the man he used to be and the Lord bless him. We sometimes face troubles and harsh situations where we stuggle, but it is alright to stuggle with God for the truth, but never give up nor fall back, keep on persevering with determination in hope, and he will bless you beyond measures.

Right after devotions we proceeded into our lessons on how to make a good composition of pictures. The lesson was interesting, something none of us had never heard before. And after the lesson, we were all excited and can't wait to go out for another photo shoot to practice what we have just learned, the stuff we just heard was so fresh in our minds that it was running wild in our thinking, in fact we find it hard to get rid of those things in our minds. Anyway, we hop in the van and off we were to the Arboraetum.

We were divided into two teams after reaching there. Rowan lead the first team who will be taking shots of Mr. And Mrs. Bell, and will leading the second team who wil be taking shots of a bride. It was a very fruitful time observing them taking pics of the two subjects.

Lunch time finally came. We were given today's assignments and the contest's subject while having our meal. Today's assignments were taking pictures with leading lines, opposites, rules of thirds, profile portraits, and three quarter portraits. The contest has to be with children and flowers. The Arboratum was an awesome beautiful place for pictures. Plenty of lovely spots, full of room to be creative. We had a wonderful time there. And all of us can't wait to see our results.

In the evening after dinner, we went to a park for some recreation. Some played football, some played soccer, and some peacefully lay down to sleep.

But it soon became very dark, those who were sleeping were sleeping even more peacefully, but those who were playing soccer couldn't play anymore, so we had to leave. On our way back to the training center, a few of us at the back of the van got into a very looney conversation, Jeremy imitated Goofy, Annette was some E.T. from outer space, and I was the Porky Pig. Our looney conversation added lots of laughter in the van. This team has grew to be a awesome team, our love for each other grows more and more, day by day.

We finally reached the training center, with each heading to their own rooms. This wonderful day has ended, this time everyone peacefully lay down to Zzzzzz…

—American Endeavor Student Jason Foo

Our first real day of IPS, we learned how cameras work. The neatest thing I learned was how the mirror works inside the camera. Then we all enjoyed playing soccer!

After lunch, in our second class, we learned about shutter speed and aperture. I had never really known how the aperture changes the amount of light for the pictures until now. We also went to Old City Park next door where Will took our portraits for our name tags. After this, we had a third short session about finding medium tone, tone vs. color, and types of metering.

This evening we watched a neat video about photographers who won the Pulitzer prize for photojournalism. I really enjoyed watching as it showed the persistence in the most difficult circumstances. Afterwards we discussed our thoughts on the video and the different prizewinning images. That's the start to what looks like a great week!

—American Endeavor Student Sydnee Tuckett