Photography Class

Photography Class
Mel videto

In the photography class of the fall of 2014, we have been working on taking panoramas to re-illustrated books, taking pictures down Mainstreet, and taking formal portraits. Throughout the entire first half of the year, each of the students have taken at least 300 photos which range anywhere from friends to the great outdoors. Currently, everyone is working on re-illustrating a children’s book. Each student has picked out a different kid’s book and must take photos for that book that are roughly the same photos as the originals. We also have to add the text and the credits with the help of Adobe Photoshop. After creating the pages with the recreated photos and text, we must then print them and staple them together into a book. Near mid-term time, students form the Homer Elementary School will be coming over and we will read them our newly reconstructed books as our final for the class.

Before the books, the photography class had worked on panoramas. Instead of taking the easy route and switching to “panorama” on our phones or cameras, we had to take roughly forty separate pictures by rotating slowly around a field, in the woods, or a trail outside. These photos had to be excessively overlapped to make it easier to photoshop. Using Adobe Photoshop, we then stitched each photo together, blending in the edges and making them seamless. These panoramas can be seen on the wall between Mr. Andre and Mr. Wallace’s rooms.

Weekly, Mr. Andre assigns us sketchbooks. We have to take pictures of a specific topic each week. Topics this year have been things like sad, time, ice, love, happy, shiny and seasonal. This past week was focused on hands and feet. Along with the sketchbooks, we also go for “walkabouts” which are mini field trips. We have gone to places like Coffee Mania and Mainstreet. On these field trips, we take photos based on certain topics such as the current season or  the representation of Homer.

Here are some pictures by a few different people in my photography class.

Harmony Johnson

Kendra Allen

Kuerstin Markley

Mel Videto

Meleah Hartnett

Area All-State

Area All-State

Ana Shore

Every year at the end of January, a select few music students travel to Ithaca College to rehearse and perform a concert. It starts out with hopeful musicians from all over New York sending applications into NYSSMA board members in October. These applications have all the scores of past solos on a particular instrument or voice part and the level of the difficulty of each solo. After about a month of deliberation, the board members inform the music teachers of the students selected. For Area All-State, the musicians are selected from their zone in the state, of which there are 15. Homer, part of Cortland County, is in Zone 3 with five other counties.

This Friday and Saturday, twelve Homer High School students are heading out to Ithaca.  The choir members are Kate Halstead, Rachel Crompton, Robin Baumeister, Sarah Denkenberger, Zach Sovocool, Will Loiselle, Ellie Anderson, and Hanna Whalen. The band members are Julia Brazo (french horn), Nate Ulrich (trumpet), Erin Stafford (tuba), and Ana Shore (tuba). Congratulations to all these musicians for their hard work!

Indoor Track Participates in John Arcaro Invitational

Indoor Track Participates in John Arcaro Invitational

                

Joe Settineri

On Wednesday January 14, the Homer boy's indoor track and field team participated in the John Arcaro Inviationional at Onondaga Community College. The team did well overall and is exceeding its expectations for this year. Since many of the seniors last year left and a meek amount of other runners returned, the team is composed of a lot of underclassmen and can be described as a young team. The team views itself as having a rebuilding year, but is surprisingly holding its own against other schools. This can be attributed to hard work, a lot of running, and a new weight-lifting program integrated into practice which emphasizes on leg strength. The shot putters, Ben Mortas, Griffin Langhans, and Ryan Parker, posted respectable throws at the meet on the 14th. Mortas launched the shot 36’,  Parker threw a 33’ 6” and Langhans threw a 27’ 2.5’. Both Parker and Langans had personal best throws.  Long jumpers Nicoli Grihin and Christian Pittsley had impressive marks. Grihin led the jumpers with a jump of 18’ 6.5”,  which was a personal best for him in the long jump. Pittsley also had a good jump and posted a 18’ 4” leap. Participating in the triple jump was Logan Grihin and Lucian St. John. Grihin had a solid jump of 37’ 3.75” which landed him 7th place out of 22 and St. John had a jump of 35’ 4.25”.  Fifty-five meter hurdlers Nicoli Grihin and Dakota Wagner had times of 9.92 and 10.96 respectively. Nicoli qualified for the league championships in the fifty-five meter hurdles, even though it was only his first time running the event. In the fifty-five meter run, Josh Thompson and Christian Pittsley both had solid times and respectable places. Thompson ran a 7.06 and placed 13th out of 56 while Pittsley ran a 7.20 and placed 23rd out of 56. The 4x400 relay team, which was composed of Lars Roos, Paddy Fox, Michael Morse, and Lucian St. John, placed 16th out of 21. Both Nicoli and Logan Grihin ran the 600 meter dash. Both of the brothers ran solid times, and may have done so well because they were competing against each other. Logan posted the faster time of 1:34.53 with Nicoli right behind him with 1:38.48. Logan qualified for both the sectional and league championship in the 600 meter, which was pretty good for his first time ever running the race. Last but not least the 4x200 relay team wrapped up the meet on a sweet note. They had a placing of 9th and an overall time of 1:42.46. Overall the boys did a good job and continue to improve on strength and experience at the OCC arena.

Photo Credit: Nicoli Grihin and Ashley Wirges 

Midterm Study Tips!

Midterm Study Tips

Kennedy George

With midterms being only a few weeks away, panic is starting to set in for many students. Studying for midterms is stressful and difficult because there is an exam for every class a student takes. That’s a lot of information to review and remember. Although studying for these tests may be hard, it’s not impossible. Here are some studying tips that will be sure to lead to success.

• Take regular breaks while studying. Forty minute studying periods with ten minute breaks in between is much more efficient than hours straight of studying.
• Avoid the internet. Unless the internet is needed for the actual studying, avoid it at all costs.
• Don’t feel like you have to sacrifice your sleep to get good grades. On test day, having enough sleep will be more beneficial to you than having a few more hours of studying under your belt.
• Organize what you’re going to study and when you’re going to study it. If you have a plan, it’ll be easier to spend part of each night studying.
• Caffeine will keep you alert and more able to focus. Drinks like coffee and tea can be beneficial to your studying by allowing you concentrate better (although make sure you don’t learn to rely on caffeine for every time you need to study).
• Reading information out loud can help you retain it better.
• Copying important notes over again will help you be more likely to remember them on test day.
• Don’t try to relearn a whole subject in one night; space your studying out.
• Right before you go to sleep and right after you wake up are both good times to study because it’s been shown that you absorb information the best at these times.
• Making flashcards is a great way to study. Not only do you get to write down information (which helps you retain it) but you also now have an easy way to quiz yourself anywhere.
• Focus on the main ideas of the topic first and then move on to the little details. It’ll help the topic make more sense and this way if you run out of time for studying, you’ll still know the most important ideas.
• When you start studying, make sure that all of the materials you could possibly need are out. This will prevent you from wasting time looking for things and will make the studying process smoother and more effective.
• Make sure you’re in a good studying environment. You’re going to want to be away from all distractions. If there’s no place like this in your house, consider utilizing one of the local libraries.
• Study alone. Group studying seldom works because distractions are easy and frequent. If you are determined to study in a group, make sure it’s with people who are determined and prepared to study and make sure it’s not too large of a group.

Sources:

• 10 High School Study Tips for Students. About. n.d. Web. 11 Jan 2015.
• Study Tips and Study Skills. Test Taking Tips. n.d. Web. 11 Jan 2015.
• 22 Science-Backed Study Tips to Ace A Test. Greatist. 2012. Web. Jan 11 2015.

Species Spotlight: Lady Amherst Pheasant

Species Spotlight: Lady Amherst Pheasant

Alex Levitskiy

This week’s featured bird species is the Lady Amherst Pheasant (Chrysolophus amherstiae).  This pheasant, being found in Southwestern China and Northern Burma, is an ornamental bird commonly found in the collections of many aviculture enthusiasts across the United States.  It is considered a Ruffed Pheasant, since the males sport an elaborate ruff which is utilized during the courtship displays.  The males take two years to acquire their breeding plumage which features multiple contrasting colors.  The hens are overall a rufous brown color.  During courtship, the male chases the hen and his display includes extending the ruff and hissing. Lady Amherst Pheasants are a pleasure to watch and raise as they can become quite friendly.

Although not endangered, the Lady Amherst Pheasant is becoming increasingly harder to find in its pure form in captivity.  A closely related species, the Golden Pheasant, hybridizes with Lady Amherst Pheasants to produce fertile offspring.  Crosses have occurred in captivity and the hybrid progeny have been bred, being passed as pure stock.  Others also attempt to create color mutations, which are truly no more than hybrid birds. Most do not realize the damage this causes to the dwindling gene pool of pure birds.  Pure birds are challenging to find, but not impossible.  More people need to focus on keeping these gorgeous pheasants pure, since one of the objectives of aviculture is preserving birds in their pure form.  I suggest educating oneself on the Lady Amherst and find reputable stock, which is typically out of imported lines, as I have done.  This species is a great beginner pheasant to help people gain experience before pursuing other species, which may or may not be endangered.  

SS: LA- Pic 1

Male Lady Amherst Pheasant

SS: LA- Pic 2

Lady Amherst Pheasant Hen

(All of the above photos were taken by Alex Levitskiy)

The next picture is a comparison of a hybrid (Lady Amherst x Golden) pheasants compared to a picture of pure Lady Amherst pheasants in the wild (on the bottom) to provide a comparison.

Depending on the extent of the hybridization, the hybrid birds may vary a lot in appearance.  Various regions of the bird’s plumages will give away whether the bird is pure or not.  I have noted some prominent regions that give away that that bird is a hybrid.  The crown should be a short metallic green and the crest should be crimson red.  In the hybrid the crown is also crimson red.  The legs in the hybrids are not bluish-grey and the facial skin is not supposed to be yellow like in the hybrids.  All of the pictures were taken from The Internet Bird Collection (http://ibc.lynxeds.com/photo/lady-amherst039s-pheasant-chrysolophus-amherstiae/colony).

Movie Review: Unbroken

Unbroken Review

Skyler Powers

Unbroken is the new movie in theaters directed by actress-turned-director, Angelina Jolie, and starring actor, Jack O’Connell.  The film follows the true story of the Olympic runner, Louis Zamperini (1917-2014).  Before his true running talents can shine, he is drafted into World War II and the Olympics are cancelled.  While on a rescue mission, Zamperini and his crew crash land in the Pacific Ocean and drift on a raft for weeks, only to be captured and tortured by the Japanese.  This is a heartwarming story of survival, resilience, and redemption.  

The acting in this film is good to great.  No actor or actress was bad in the film, but, to me, no one stood out besides O’Connell.  The visuals in this movie are great and really life-like.  However, the movie lacks some of the inspiration that the novel, written by Laura Hillenbrand, brought to the table.  In some parts, it seems to drag along and it loses the message of the book. The events in the movie don’t always come across as inspirational or they seem forced and unnatural compared to the events is the book.  On the other hand, the movie does have its fair share of truly inspirational moments, tear-jerking moments, and even comedic moments which make up for many of the bumps along the way.

Fans of the novel should be warned that due to the length of the book, much of the end of the story is cut out and shortened to pictures and blurbs right before the end credits. This was a smart decision, but fans still may be upset with the modification.  In the end, good acting and some very great moments carried the film along and I was able to mostly overlook the issues it had.  This movie is not as great and inspirational as I hoped it would be, but it is not at all bad.  It is a good film with a good message and gets its story through to the audience in an effective fashion.  

Species Spotlight: Mandarin Duck

Species Spotlight: Mandarin Duck

Alex Levitskiy

The Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata) is an ornamental duck, and the male has arguably the most ornate plumage of all ducks.  A notable part of their plumage is the orange sail feathers that the male sports.  They are a medium sized perching duck that is related to the North American Wood Duck.  They are native to East Asia, although feral populations have been established in some parts of Europe and the United States of America due to captive birds escaping.  They are common in Chinese art since they were believed to form lifelong couples, unlike other species of ducks.  Mandarin Ducks are a great beginner bird to get started with.  They are the eye-candy of the duck world, coming in the natural form as well as various color mutations.  Their displays are fun to watch as they attempt to attract mates.  Another interesting aspect of them is their nesting.  They are cavity nesters and nest in trees.  The ducklings climb up to the entrance of the cavity and take a leap of faith as their mother calls them down.  This species will always be in my collection.

*Drake is the term for a male duck.  

(All photos taken by Alex Levitskiy)

Mandarin Duck Drake*

Mandarin Duck Drake

White Mandarin Duck Drake

Mandarin Ducks

Mandarin Duck Pair

Mandarin Duck Pair

Two Mandarin Ducklings