Ode to an Orange

"Ode to an Orange" Pinterest Board

It may not look like much, but boy oh boy did I put a lot of effort into this photo. I've never really taken the time to learn how to use a camera. Sure, I could take a picture, but only if someone else had already adjusted the settings. Fortunately for me, my dad is literally a pro. He is a film producer and videographer, and has cameras and lenses out the wazoo, but surprisingly enough, I’d never gotten real photography lessons before. But, I thought it was about time I did, so this was a fun project for me!

I began by engaging with Larry Woiwode’s text, “Ode to an Orange,” looking for images and emotions that I wanted to portray in some way. The crate, the purple tissue paper, and the oranges lying outside of it created a picture in my mind that I decided I would try to capture. Then I decided to add another element to my project by creating a Pinterest board with some inspiration pictures. I have pinned many a pin in my day, but I have never actually created my own, so I thought I would figure out how to do that, as well.

Taking a “pinterest-worthy” photo turned out to be a lot harder than it looked! The process of deciding exactly how to set the scene, what to use, what to leave out, where to place the items, what lighting to use, etc., was a bit of a challenge, but I enjoyed the trial and error. I found a cute little crate at my parents’ house, as well as some purple tissue paper, and used those to set up the scene of oranges.

The next process was learning how to use a camera. My dad taught me the basics and background of lens, F-stop, ISO, color balance and shutter speed. I’m going to be honest, I totally underestimated how much skill and precision it takes to take a good picture! It’s about so much more than an aesthetic subject or composition! I realized that I rarely give photographers enough credit for the creating they do and the creative processes they go through.

I love the idea of doing a project like this in my future classroom. I think that this project, specifically, gave me a lot of creative freedom to do what I wanted to learn how to do, but it also gave me a sense of responsibility, in that I was responsible to learn to master a new skill and make sure I was utilizing it in the best way I could. The multiple layers of texts add an interesting aspect to this assignment, and allowed me to turn Woiwode’s text into something that was my own. I think it would be great for high schoolers, because they would actually have to prove that they understood the literary text in order to transform it into a new kind of digital media text or platform.

I will definitely use a project like this with my students some day!