Halloween Follow Up

Photo by Don Shrubshell, staff photographer

Due to scheduling conflicts, we decided against going to the superhero event for Columbia Public Schools, and it is a shame. It looked like a blast. Click to check out the story by the Columbia Daily Tribune or to see their slideshow of pictures from the event. There weren't enough people to break the world record (only 762 people showed and they needed 1,580 to break the record), the event did raise $3000 for Columbia Public Schools.

We did, however, go to the corn maze to test lights and lens. It was not as easy as I expected. One of the lights (read flash) was improperly soldered and wouldn't turn on. The other two worked quite well, but as fall as photography is concerned, they didn't lend themselves to great pictures. Here are two sets of pictures - each has one without a flash and one with. You can determine the quality for yourself.

The lenses were a different story all together. Neither the sticky gel lens would stay on, nor the magnetic ring ones. They also cut off the corners of your photo in a weird way. I have no idea why you would need most of the lenses that we tested.

Fisheye effects are not very journalistic, and if you wanted to create some of the effects such as sepia, etc... you can do so on one of any photo editing application such as Photogene. The biggest thing to note about the lenses is that you cannot use flash with them, especially on an iPhone 4. The lens will cover the flash and will create a photo of the inside of the lens. See example below.

I wouldn't recommend using a lens on an iPhone unless maybe it is an Owle Bubo or something more sturdy, durable and a higher quality.

Halloween Plans

For the end half of the semester, we wanted to try to test some other applications and equipment (mainly photo editing applications) in a fun way. On Oct. 30, we will go to Hickman High School for the “Be a Superhero for Columbia Public Schools” event. On this day, Columbia Schools is trying to break the record Guinness Book of World Records by having 1,501 superheroes. Click here for the Columbia Tribune article about the event.

We are also looking at going to take a slice of life at a corn maze near Columbia. Every year, Shryocks Callaway Farms corn maze is cut into a new and interesting shape and this year is no different. This year, the maze theme is "Around the World" and we are hoping to test lighting and lenses. Stay tuned for our results!

Photo (right): Superintendent Chris Belcher, with school board President Jan Mees, sports a Mr. Incredible costume for the Sept. 14 announcement of the upcoming “Be a Superhero for Columbia Public Schools” event.