Semester: Fall 2026
Section: 27
Date and Time: Tues. – Thurs.
Location:
Instructor:
Del Siegle, Ph.D.
2131 Hillside Road Unit 3007
Storrs, Connecticut 06269-3007
del.siegle@uconn.edu
Phone: 860.486.0616
Office: Tasker
Student Facilitators:
Course Description:
The purpose of this seminar is to help students develop their phone photography skills and see the world through new eyes. Emphasis is placed on using photography to communicate ideas and feelings. The course focuses less on the technical aspects of using a phone camera and more on developing the ability to see and capture visually interesting images to express abstract concepts.
Objectives:
During this seminar the student will…
- discuss the role of photography in the 21st century
- create images with a digital phone camera to illustrate abstract concepts
- develop a multimedia presentation using digital sound and visual images
- describe the photographic digital process
- manipulate the color balance, contrast, density, and saturation of digital images
- review basic photo composition guidelines
- apply creativity strategies to create digital photographic images that reflect originality and flexibility of ideas
Grades:
Grades will be based on semester participation (you cannot participate if you do not attend) and completion of digital images:
- Participation — 10% (1 point for each day you participate during the facilitator’s section)
- Digital Projects — 75% (5% for each assignment) – 15% for the final video) Each digital assignment is due by 11:59 p.m. on the Sunday before the class where the assignment is listed (e.g., The Near and Far assignment is due Sunday evening [September 6] at 11:59 p.m.).
- A – 90-100%
- B – 80-89%
- C – 70-79%
- D – 60-69%
- F – Below 60%
Schedule
September 1
|
September 3
|
| September 8 Assignment Due: Near and Far
|
September 10
|
| September 15 Assignment Due: Random Emotion
|
September 17
|
| September 23 Assignment Due: People without People
|
September 15
|
| September 29 Assignment Due: Compress and Stretch
|
October 1
|
October 6
|
October 8 Assignment Due: Portraits (4 images)
|
| October 13 Assignment Due: Light Makes All of the Difference
|
October 15
|
| October 20 Assignment Due: Broken Rules |
October 22
|
| October 27 Assignment Due: Leaving Planet Earth
|
October 29
|
| November 3 Assignment Due: Replicate a Famous Photo
|
November 5
|
| November 10 Assignment Due: It’s Not What It Seems
|
November 12
|
| November 17 Assignment Due: This is Who I Am (Hands or Feet)
|
November 19
|
| November 24 Fall Recess – No Class |
November 26 Fall Recess – No Class |
| December 1 Assignment Due: Manipulated Photo
|
December 3
|
| December 8 Assignment Due: Music Video (Youtube example of using still images to create movement) |
December 10 Assignment Due: Music Video (continued)
|
Descriptions of Assignments
Submit each of these assignments by Sunday at 11:59 p.m.
Assignment One (due Sun., Sept. 6):
Near and Far
The purpose of this assignment is to create an image that communicates the concept of something being both near and far at the same time. Submit a paragraph that describes how the image represents both near and far.
Assignment Two (due Sun., Sept. 13):
Random Emotion
First year college students experience a wide variety of emotions. Each of you will be randomly assigned an emotion that someone in our class felt was being experienced by first year college students. Create one image that you believe depicts that emotion. Submit a paragraph describing how your image depicts the emotion you were assigned. Do not share this assignment with your classmates. We will be discussing the emotions next week in class.
Assignment Three (due Sun., Sept. 20):
People Without People
Create a photograph that illustrates the concept of “people without people”– submit a paragraph that describe why it represents “people without people.” By now we should be producing quality images. If you find that your photograph is out of focus or poorly lit, please retake it.
Assignment Eight (due Sun., Sept. 27):
Compress and Stretch
This is a two-part assignment. First, select a subject to photograph. Set your camera to maximum telephoto and photograph your subject. Set your camera to maximum wide angle, move closer to your subject and photograph it again with the subject the same size as it was in the first photograph. The focal length of the lens you use (from wide angle to telephoto) makes a difference in the perspective of your images. Submit both images. The second part of the assignment is to take a photograph with extreme wide angle (zoomed out) or extreme telephoto (zoomed in) that is more dramatic because of the focal length you used. Take a regular focal length image of the scene as well. Submit your extreme image and your regular image and submit a paragraph explaining why the extreme wide or telephoto made a more interesting photograph. Therefore, with the two parts you will be submitting four photographs in total.
Assignment Four (due Sun., Oct. 4):
Portraits
For this assignment, you will photograph one individual four times. You will create three formal portraits (one with split lighting, one with 45 degree lighting, and one with modified butterfly lighting) and one informal environmental portrait. The formal portrait should demonstrate your understanding of portrait lighting of the face, masculine and feminine poses, and a distraction free background. The environmental portrait should reveal something about the subject’s personality or interests while trying to still use effective portrait lighting. Nothing should be included in the environmental portrait that does not tie to the identity you are portraying. Submit a paragraph describing how the elements in the environmental portrait represent the subject of the photograph.
Assignment Five — (due Sun., Oct. 11):
Light Makes All the Difference
Your photograph should be one that makes use of dramatic lighting. This photograph should be a scene or object that would not be interesting if it were not for the dramatic lighting and shadows you captured. The image must be in black and white. Submit a paragraph describing how the lighting makes the image more interesting.
Group Class Project on October 8
Scavenger Hunt
You will work in a team to take 10 unique photographs that no other team duplicates as part of a class scavenger hut. One member of your team will be responsible for texting me (860.634.2361) the photographs as you take them along with a description why the photograph meets the requirement. The winning team will be the team with the most unique photos. In case of a tie, the team with the fast time wins.
Assignment Six (due Sun., Oct. 18):
Broken Rules
Take a photograph that breaks one of the rules of composition/photography that we discussed in class. The photograph should be successful (better) because you broke a rule. Take a second photograph of the same subject where you do not break the rule. Submit a paragraph describing the rule you broke and why breaking the rule made a better photograph.
Assignment Seven (due Sun., Oct. 25):
Leaving Planet Earth
Imagine that you are leaving planet earth and you are allowed to take only one photograph with you. Your friends, pets, and family are accompanying you, so you don’t need photographs of them. The photograph you take should represent how you want to remember the planet. This must be a photograph that you take this week. Submit a paragraph describing why this is a meaningful image that you want to remember the earth by.
Assignment Nine (due Sun., Nov. 1):
Replicate a Famous Photo
Select one of the famous photographs we viewed in class. Replicate the photograph as closely as you can. Subjit a paragraph describing how your photograph is similar and dissimilar from the famous photograph.
Assignment Ten (due Sun., Nov. 8):
Not What It Seems
Select a common object and photograph it in an unusual way so that it is not initially recognized. You might do this by photographing a part of the object, making an extreme close up, depicting it with dramatic lighting, photographing it from an unusual angle, or using the object in an unusual way. Submit a paragraph describing how the technique you used make the object appear unrecognizable.
Assignment Eleven (due Sun., Nov. 15):
This is Who I Am (Hands or Feet)
Take a photograph of your hands or feet that express your personal identify. You may have additional items with your hands or feet to enhance the message you are conveying. Submit a paragraph describing how the image represents you.
Assignment Twelve (due Sun., Nov. 29):
Manipulate Photos
This assignment has two parts. Often photographs can be improved or made more interesting with retouching. First, select a photo and change it in some way to improve its technical quality (It should simply appear as a good photograph). Save the original photo and the retouched photo. Second, select a photograph and dramatically manipulate it (It should appear as having definitely been manipulated). Save the original photo and the manipulated version. Submit paragraphs describing how you manipulated each of the two photographs and why the manipulation made the photographs more interesting.
Final Assignment (due Sun., Dec. 6):
Music Video
Select a song that has a message that you feel you can illustrate. Plan a storyboard of images to illustrate the song you selected. Take the pictures you envisioned with the storyboard. Sync your digital images to the song you selected and save it as a video.
Absence of Students due to Religious Belief:
Connecticut law states that no person shall be expelled from or refused admission as a student to an institution of higher education for the reason that he is unable, because the tenets of his religion forbid secular activity on a particular day or days or at a particular time of day, to attend classes or to participate in any examination, study or work requirements on such particular day or days or at such time of day. Any student in an institution of higher education who is unable, because of such reason, to attend classes on a particular day or days or at a particular time of day shall be excused from any examination or any study or work assignments on such particular day or days or at such particular time of day. The University Senate requires that students anticipating such a conflict should inform their instructor in writing within the first three weeks of the semester, and prior to the anticipated absence, and should take the initiative to work out with the instructor a schedule for making up missed work. For conflicts with final examinations, students should, as usual, contact the Office of Student Services and Advocacy (formerly the Dean of Students Office).
Academic Integrity:
A fundamental tenet of all educational communities is academic honesty; academic work depends upon respect for and acknowledgement of the research, ideas and intellectual property of others. When we express our ideas in class assignments, projects or exams, we need to trust that someone else will not take credit for them. Similarly, others need to trust that our words, data and ideas are our own. We find the intellectual property of others in textbooks, periodicals, newspapers, journals, solution manuals, dissertation abstracts, emails, the internet and other sources electronic or otherwise. Regardless of where we find information, protecting and acknowledging the rightful originators of intellectual property is vital to academic integrity.
Academic misconduct is dishonest or unethical academic behavior that includes, but is not limited, to misrepresenting mastery in an academic area (e.g., cheating), intentionally or knowingly failing to properly credit information, research or ideas to their rightful originators or representing such information, research or ideas as your own (e.g., plagiarism). Knowing what constitutes academic misconduct is so important to an educational community that all students are encouraged to go to their advisors, instructors, counselors, or assistant deans of students whenever they need clarification. When an instructor believes there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate a clear case of academic misconduct within a particular course taught by that instructor, the instructor shall notify the student in writing, and also orally if possible, that unless the student requests a hearing to contest the instructor’s belief, the instructor shall impose the appropriate academic consequences warranted by the circumstances. This should occur within 30 days of discovery of the alleged academic misconduct. The appropriate academic consequence for serious offenses is generally considered to be failure in the course. For less serious offenses regarding small portions of the course work, failure for that portion is suggested, with the requirement that the student repeat the work satisfactorily for no credit.
Students with Disabilities:
Students with special needs should contact the instructor early in the semester so accommodations can be made. Additional help is available through the university. Through the merge of the Center for Students with Disabilities (CSD) and the University Program for College Students with Learning Disabilities (UPLD), one office now serves all students with disabilities. All students may contact the office by visiting the Wilbur Cross Building, Room 204, calling (860) 486-2020 or emailing csd@uconn.edu.
Cell Phones and Texting:
As an educator, I understand the importance of “engagement” for learning. You also understand how nonacademic tasks detract from engagement. Please be respectful of your other students and me and do not electronically text during class. If I notice that you are texting, I will ask you to put your phone away. If this becomes a problem, I will ask you to drop the class.
Counseling and Mental Health Services (CMHS):
The campus environment can be exciting and challenging. It can also be highly stressful since social and emotional concerns can interfere with effective functioning and academic performance. CMHS is committed to helping students benefit from their college experience. One way students can do this is to talk to a mental health professional in a supportive atmosphere to aid self-understanding and the resolution of personal concerns. Although CMHS may work with students in crisis, the primary goal is to assist students with their concerns before they develop into more serious problems. CMHS works to promote students’ emotional, relational, and personal development. Phone 860.486.4705 or visit http://www.counseling.uconn.edu/