Seniors Speak...

"This week was very fun, I went to the house where the construction class is building and took a lot of pictures. It was cool because I have never seen the construction class’ true talent until I saw what they built."

- Esperanza Rendon

"This week I enjoyed going to the construction house and taking pictures for my promotional project. I got a better sense of what they do, and I think it will help me do a better job on my project."

- Liz Girres

"We learned about the photographer’s color wheel this week and how to manipulate the colors in a photo. This week I also took my senior pictures. Hope they turn out well! It’s been really cold lately, which has made it hard to take pictures. I hope it warms up."

- Carmen Seto

Juniors working video

"This week I finished my intro video and got my music video layout. By next week I’ll be ready to shoot my music video. Everything in video right now is really good. I’m having a little trouble with tutorials here and there but besides that everything’s good so far for me in this class."

- Billy Cha

"This week has been pretty good. I am finished with my intro, and will soon start on my music video. Tutorials are only sometimes frustrating, but other than that video is all good."

- Taryn R.

"I’m really glad I finished my video. I wasn’t sure if the scenes I shot of May and Mercedes would fit with my song; “Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained,” off of the Kung Fu Hustle OST. But in the end everything came out perfectly comedic."

- Brianna Ono

"Over the last week, I learned a lot about editing, camera angles, and how they affect the mood of your video. Also sound effects and music can change how people feel about it."

- Kristina Brown

"The strangest thing happened to me last week. At around midnight on Wednesday, I was struck with the lightning bolt of inspiration when I was randomly thinking about my plans for the music video. I spent the next three hours pacing to and fro in my bedroom thinking about it. The next day I woke up with a headache and fell asleep in my first period class."

- Giayen Nguyen

Seniors Shoot Color!

- Sharice Jackson

- Courtney Rauls

- Eileen Tom

- BobbySue Eriich

- Carmen Seto

Seniors Lines

- Liz Girres

- RaChelle Boswell-Collins

- Peter Pham

-BobbySue Eriich

Junior Video 1.0

"I learned how to work a camera for filming, but the course seems challenging, because of all the breaks in our schedule."

- Gerald Stewart

"We learned about premiere. It's Hard! But I am excited about the music video. The whole editing and stuff in not fun!"

-Mason Hawk

"We started learning about video premiere. My teacher lost me. I'm so stressed out! I can't do this."

-Shawncy Townsend

New Term, New Seniors!

"Finally! Back to photography after a year. Our first assignments were line and environmental portrait. It actually wasn't weird to be using a camera again, it just took some getting used to since we're now using digital cameras."

- Carmen Seto

"I am excited for the photography portion of this class. Last week My partner and I froze our bums off in the cold, taking pictures for the environmental picture assignment. I am a little anxious and worried about the promotional assignment."

- Esperanza Rendon

"It looks like this quarter is going to be filled with interesting projects and assignments. Last week was good for finding out what this quarter is going to look like. I started to use the nice digital cameras and make my hall pass too. I'm planning my video on the electrical major as well. I learned how to use the cameras and I was impressed with Ms. Pelster's Super Photo World."

- Hunter Krout

Seniors and Week 7 - Video!

"This week I had the most fun filming and the most fun in communications thus far. Everyone contributed a lot to the group. We all worked well together, and had a lot of fun while working where it almost didn't feel like work at all. COMMUNICATIONS RULES!"

- Tomas Patlan

"I had a lot of fun this week, I filmed the Benson House on Monday with the electric students. Also I've been working on the HOSA video with the Health Occ. students. The highlight of my week though, was filming horror clips for our next project! Our group was amazing at working together!"

- Christina Doan

"The best part about this week was the story I shared with the class about Abraham. Besides that, the other thing that was great was scaring everyone in the darkroom with Ebony. I also liked the clip we did about horror and how we took a cliche scene and made it unique."

- Clarence Zack-Cade

"So this week we filmeed our horror video. yesterday we were filming and Gaby was supposed to kill me in the scene and instead of faking she actually hit me with a golf club on the side of my face. Talk about mad, I was so angry and after I didn't finish the scene I went back to class. I had a bad headache."

- Sierra Peters

Juniors are picking up on Aperture!

This week we really focused on the uses of Aperture:

"This week I learned how to tell the difference between different apertures visibly from my aperture assignment." Tracy Saecho

Juniors Speak! Week 7

"Day filled with belly laughs, while making a camera obscura with Ms. Pelster. She is funny when she is not intending to be. Although I have to say making the camera obscura and doing the aperture activity made things easier to understand."

-Carina Conley

Dionna Johnson wanted to share these quotes:

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people never forget how you made them feel." - Maya Angelou

"Does it ever feel like nothing you do is ever good enough? Like, the whole world has turned its back on you. I do. Sometimes, it feels like I'm on top of the world. But then, I looked down, and realize it's only a stepladder. It's like a 5-year-old coloring a picture. She works for hours and hours on it, but in the end, all we see is scribbles. You probably think I'm stupid don't you. You're probably not even listening to me - it's all right. It dosen't bother me really. I'm used to it." - Ele

Week six

Week six was a bust!
Ms. Pelster was sick and the class watched videos and did some thinking about photography, but no equipment was available for check out

Juniors thoughts on week 5

"Brianna and I were taking pictures of stop action and panning. She took pictures of me jumping of houses....Dog houses!!!"

- Mercedes Pizarro


"I learned how to do panning but I missed a day :( so now I have to make it up, but I don't mind, I love panning!!!, stop action too!"

- Kristina Brown

"This week was OK! It was pretty normal. Got my work done and got some good pictures except for t he ones I took last week, they didn't really turn out too good. Better luck next time."

- Karissa Ryckman

"I learned that chasing squirrels is painful business. I mean, it's not like I didn't know that before, but I never actually did it because there was no point. Well, this week, there was a point: stop action. We even managed to almost catch a squirrel in mid-leap, and Derek forgot to wind the camera. I was like OMG :<"

- Giayen Nguyen

Senior Speak: Week 4

"What I learned this wee was foreground, background and such. It was the hardest picture I ever had to take, this concept was the hardest."

- Sara Phommavongxay

"This week I acted in a friends video. It was very organized and still a lot of fun. I got punched in the face. We were practicing faking it and it ended up a lot more real than I expected. I'm now off to go take foreground, midground, background pictures."

- Zack Bryant

"This week was a good week. We've got better pictures for our promotional project and have our video completely done."

- Fana Habtemariam

Seniors Shoot: Foreground, Middleground, Background

This week seniors struggled to understand depth of field relationships. It was a tough assignment, but I think by the end we got it!


- Gaby Sanchez

- Clarence Zack-Cade

- Sierra Peters

Period 3-4 Junior Favorites

"The reason I like this picture is because I like the way it captures a piece of his soul."

- Shaquila Spruill

"My favorite picture that I photographed myself is of Tracy. She is standing on a vent like thing with a pebbled wall as a background. She casts a shadow to the left of her which compliments the picture. I liked this picture so much that I used it as my environmental picture."

- Thuy Nguyen

"This is my favorite picture that I took because I really like the detail in the leaf. I like how I just singled out the leaf and there are no other distractions."

- Imani Burris

This is my favorite picture that I have taken because I like the setting and how the main focus (Bree is posing).

- Fnan Berhe

"I like this photo because it's plain and simple. I doesn't have too much going on and the main focus is the person. The bricks give it that extra PIZAZZ! The contrast also makes it stand out a little more."
-Dionna Johnson

Period 1-2 Junior Favorite Pics

This picture is one of my favorites because of the great contrast. The glasses are definitely in focus, and the sun 's reflection is brilliant. I love how the angle reflects most of the river, and even the shadow that the glasses cast.
- Ethan Dedrickson

I like this picture because because it looks like an old-fashioned piano that has some kind of history, and the tilted camera with the selective focus makes it look more interesting.

-Kristina Brown

This is my favorite picture because I look good in it. I like the choice of color and I like the way my shirt looks.

- Scotty Chandravongsri (Picture by Carina Conley)

"I like this picture because it was the first picture I took this year and the first picture I took with a black and white film camera. I like how the tree and ivy frame the picture."

- Mercedes Pizarro



"I really enjoyed coloring the picture of my son and learning new ways to fix pictures up and make them look good."
- Wendy Reyes

Seniors Shoot: Color

Check out the great work our seniors did this week picturing color and understanding color theory:

Complementary or Contrasting Color:

- Nopthira (Yuii) Wanwan

- Tomas Patlan

- Clarence Zack-Cade

- Katelynn Robinson



Harmonious Color:

- Sue Yang

- Mekhena Tannehill

- Claudia Barcenas

Week Three: Students Speak!

"This week I began my promotional video. Automotive is, in fact, a very interesting major - Mr. Anderson explained to Fana and I about the wonders of a water carburetor."

- Ebony Foreman

This week was very good, I'm actually getting to do what I want - taking pictures most of the time. I snapped a few pictures that I really like and I hope to take more that others will enjoy as well.

- Tomas Patlan

"This week I attempted my first "stop action" photo. When I saw that my partner was in the air, jumping through the camera lens, I had a rush of enlightenment. I love catching what I see on film, it's a way of showing the world how I see things"

- Thuy Nguyen

"I had a lot of fun going downtown to take pictures. We took a lot of neat close-ups and stop action/motion pictures. It was a bit too sunny, but overall it was a good day."

- Billy Cha

"I got better at loading the reel and developing the film. I also learned how to color black and white pictures in Photoshop and made my pictures all pretty. I've noticed, though, that I tend to favor a drab, "faded out" color scheme when coloring them"

- Giayen Nguyen

Thanks for the great week guys and gals - looking forward to see what you all do next week!

- Ms. Pelster

Top Picks from Senior Walking Field trip:

-Tomas Patlan

-Claudia Barcenas


-Ebony Foreman




-Christina Doan

Seniors Shoot: Line

Here are a couple pictures from the seniors shooting "line" from their elements of design series.

-Sara Phommavongxay

-Qadira Moultrie

Communications Students Week 2 thoughts

"This week I found out that I love photography."

- Shaquilla Spruill

"I finally got the handle on perfecting the reel in the dark, the pictures came out better the 2nd time."

-Carina Conley

"I'm happy that I am going to get my picture on the wall. Everyone's going to see it.

-Shawncy Townsend

"I feel like the week was a bit slow...but then I feel like I'm behind on work. It's been an exhausting week and I hope I have more energy to take good pictures for communications. I'm a bit worried about the promo board - I should start working on that. I've been busy working all week - Mmm! Ice cream!"

-Sue Yang

"This week I went out to take some pictures with Kawanna. We made hall passes, it was fun because we get to design our own hall pass. So far, this week has gone by fast!"

- Yuii Wan

Communications puts out 1st Promo Video

Mekhena Tannehill helped robotics make a promotional recruitment video for the assemblies today. Check it out!

Junior Communications - Portraiture Success

- Tracy Saechao

Today the first successful environmental portrait made it to the display wall. Good Work Tracy!

Senior Communications - Environmental Portrait

Assignment 1 - Take a picture of your partner for display in our classroom

Top Picks:

Mekhena Tannehill

Clarence Zack-Cade

Great job this week! Looking forward to more awesome images to come!

Ms. Pelster

Communications students and the first week

Here are a few comments from communications students when asked about their first week and the what they are looking forward to for the year:

"My first week of school has been awesome. All my classes are super relaxed and and cool. I am looking forward to working on developing the end of year video. Also, I am excited to start my professional photography portfolio. I can't wait to learn everything Ms. Pelster is going to teach us. Will will see how the year goes"

- Katelynn Robinson Comm IV

"Well, I want to have the best experience this year; playing soccer for the school, getting better grades, and having fun - but taking grades and graduating."

- Daniel Morales Comm IV

"I'm excited about being in communications class because this is my major, and it's something I want to do in life. So, I'm happy about taking pictures and learning how to work the camera, and learning the different techniques of taking pictures"

- Bryana Hale Comm III


"I'm excited for this year because my classes already seem enjoyable, even though its only the third day. Also, my friends and I have a jerk crew, so we'll be making videos occasionally."

- Taryn Randle Comm III


We are looking forward to a great year stay tuned to see the work we produce weekly!

- Ms. Pelster

Benson website

For all you new students, don't forget to check out website for updates and the bulletin.
www.bensonhs.net

Welcome Back!

We are gearing up for a new year at Benson and the Communications Technology department is looking forward to the great work our students will soon produce! Check back throughout the year to see what we are working on and some of our finished works.