Exploring with Cameras

Me and another adult set out with a dozen teens with cameras in downtown Santa Ana for the annual Photography Workshop. The workshop is organized by the Santa Ana Library Teen Space and was so successful last year, we're doing it again!



Currently, the cameras we're using are various cheap digital point-and-shoot styles but they allow the teens to creatively view their surroundings. We had people climbing walls, trees and benches, lying upside down, lying on the ground, shooting up/down anyways they could. We are orchestrating this workshop at 2 separate libraries in Santa Ana in order to reach even more of the community and I can't wait to see what they capture.

If you'd like to get involved or donate to the cause, email me for details of how you can make a difference.

Thanks for checking in!

Santa Ana Library Photo Project

It's that time of year again and I've volunteered to orchestrate the Santa Ana Library Teen Space Photography Project for Spring 2010. Funded by a Grant to the Library, this Project/Workshop is a unique opportunity for local teens to use a digital camera, take as many photos as they want walking around town and/or on an organized field trip and then choose a few photos to put up in the Teen Space and 1 Photo per teen submitted to a local photography competition.

This year we are starting April 3rd with a field trip to the Getty Villa. Last year this Photography Workshop was a great success, we had a lot of positive feedback from the teens involved and others that wished they had joined when it started. We had 8 of the 20 final pieces accepted and honored in the Orange County Fair Photography Competition.

Please contact me or the Library for more information, to donate for this particular or project or to get involved. Cheers!


Here's our trip to deliver the accepted artwork to the OC Fair in 2009.


One of our participants photos hanging in the photography competition space, with a red ribbon of acknowledgment.

Texture; Photo Project at OCCTAC

Here are the results of our first photography project at OCCTAC. My young adult students have done such an awesome job with the theme Texture.






These students are learning the technical side of SLR cameras and photography and I'm proud of their accomplishments so far. We hope to have more cameras next semester so we can spend more time shooting in our next class, so please keep us in mind and help spread the word that we can use digital photography equipment. Thank You!

Photo Competition Entries

Last weekend, the volunteers and I took the 8 young adults whose photos were accepted into the OC Fair Photo Competition to deliver their artwork. The OC Fair Competition workers acknowledged that over 2,000 photos were submitted and only 800 were accepted - and 8 of those were from our small group project at the Santa Ana Library Teen Space. We're so excited for the young adults who were accepted into the competition and we all look forward to the next photography project this summer!

Photo Project Entrants in OC Fair

I'm proud to announce that Eight of the Eighteen photos submitted from our Santa Ana Library - Teen Space Photo Project, were accepted into the Orange County Fair Photo Competition! Congratulations to all the participants! Everyone's photos are currently being displayed in the Santa Ana Library Teen Space and those accepted into the OC Fair will be sent out this week and as a group we'll get to go see them when the Fair opens this summer. This has been an inspiring project and I'm so glad I could be a part of it, Here are some photos of the final space and a few more photos from the project...

Thank You For your Donations!

I want to share a special Thank You to Professional Photographer Will Jacks from Mississippi. (www.wiljax.com) Mr. Jacks, kindly donated a used digital SLR camera body and we're so appreciative. I'm so happy to have another camera body for my current photography class and so are the students.

We're now seeking any new or used generic Nikon lenses so we can have another full camera body/lens when we shoot. It's exciting to see this project reaching so far across the country and I'm pleased that everyone is still spreading the word so we can gather and redistribute equipment in our community.

Thank You! To everyone who's spreading the word and going through storage to find old equipment and especially to Will Jacks for donating his old camera body to the Shutter Release Project!!

New Photography Class at OCCTAC

I'm excited to have the opportunity to teach photography to an under-served population in Santa Ana, CA and we could use your support. Starting this week I'm sharing my experience with and enthusiasm for photography to teens enrolled in an after-school arts program at the Orange County Children's Therapeutic Arts Center (OCCTAC). OCCTAC is a local non-profit (501c3) organization dedicated to education, empowerment and therapy of at-risk youth and children with limited resources. Learn more about the center here: www.occtac.org

If you're interested in learning more or contributing in some way, Please contact me regarding how to make a donation to the Shutter Release Project, which is dedicated to collecting photo equipment for use in these types of programs. This is a perfect place for used photo equipment to make a huge difference, right now, we have nothing... we're hoping to collect any used digital SLR camera equipment so we can have something specifically for use for the participants enrolled in this class. Please help us make a difference and get the appropriate equipment into the hands of these teens. Thank you for your support!

To get in touch with me, please email: caseylarae@gmail.com