Life at BETA

Senior Kassandra Granados stares out the window of the bus on a school trip to San Antonio.

Senior Mario Leal rests his head on the desk during a Calculus lecture in Mr. Reyna's class.

Senior Elizabeth Scoggin lays down in the hallway of the Sheraton Gunter Hotel in San Antonio to take a picture of the light fixture hanging above her.

Freshman Sylvanna Cerda is in her own world of music and texting during lunch.

Mrs. Nilda Camarena writes a pass for a student during her AP Chemistry class. 

Brandonn Melchor stares off into space during chemistry class.

Seniors Danika Moran and Maleny Leal relax in the Sheraton Gunter Hotel in San Antonio while their sponsor registers them for the TAJE scavenger hunt competition.

Senior Kassandra Granados poses for a picture in front of the Gateway to the World Library after senior portraits were cancelled.

Senior Diana Cedillo leans over the second floor railing to look down on the lobby and dining room in the Sheraton Gunter Hotel in San Antonio.

Senior Elizabeth Scoggin peaks out from inside a cabinet in her hotel room at the Sheraton Gunter Hotel during some free time before the awards ceremony at the TAJE convention in San Antonio.

Tips for Taking Better Photos

Out of the 10 tips for improving your photo-taking abilities, I would say I could use improvement in #1:  Looking the subject in the eye and #10:  Be a picture director.  As far as the others, I think I have a pretty good command of photo composition, lighting and angles, although I do need to work on my creativity.  When it comes to looking the subject in the eye, I haven't taken that many pictures of children, so I have not really come across a situation where I got a bad picture because of eye level.  However, I know that if I had, I probably wouldn't have taken that into account when setting up the picture.  For #10, being a picture director, I need to work on my ability to visualize exactly what I want a picture to look like before I take it. I am pretty good at picking locations, but posing, when it is needed, is another story.  Luckily, the primary difference between regular photographs and photos for newspaper is that most of the ones we take for newspaper are not posed.

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds 

Chilean Miners Rescue Photo

Although not the most emotional of the photos from the rescue mission, I think this one is the most interesting.  It uses the rule of thirds and conveys how this event affected people all across the world.  If you look in the background, you can see that there is a whole line of people reading the same newspaper.  Furthermore, the picture within the picture is also very good, showing one of the rescued miners directly after he exited the capsule, surrounded by family members and rescue workers.  In that picture, everyone is smiling, capturing the relief and joy that was felt by everyone who followed or was connected to this story.

Column Activity

"The Life Before Her Eyes" is a drama released in 2007 starring Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood.  Anyone who has seen this movie is probably thinking that if this is my favorite movie, I must be a deeply disturbed person.  Although this may be true, the truth is that it isn't my favorite movie.  I am simply obsessed with it.  I have seen this movie about 4 times now and will probably see it many more because, every time I watch it, I notice something new.  The entire 90 minutes is filled with tiny clues that, to the most unbelievably observant audience member, would completely give away the ending and ruin the movie.  Luckily enough, I don't think there exists a person who could notice all of the tiny hints, much less string them all together to come up with the right result.  Honestly, the first time I watched the movie, I did not understand it at all.  I sat there, in front of the blank TV screen, for about 10 minutes after the movie ended trying to reason out what the ending meant.  This, in my opinion, is what makes an interesting movie.  There are as many different interpretations as there are different personalities of viewers.  Everyone who watches this movie will walk away with a different life lesson.  My only advice is to watch it more than once and, if you are squeamish about blood, with an empty stomach.

Editorial Cartoon

This cartoon is referring to the group of miners who have been trapped underground for several months as the result of a cave in.  The miners have survived this long thanks to the safe room that had been set up in the mine with enough provisions to keep them alive for the duration of their time underground.  The people above ground have been doing everything they can to dig the men out without causing further structural damage.  It has taken them this long to create a tunnel large enough for the men to go through.  The tunnel is supposedly only two feet wide, a very tight squeeze for the men trapped underground.  They have been communicating with the outside world through cameras and wires being fed into their enclosure.  Through the use of this technology, one miner was able to see the birth of his daughter even though his wife delivered the baby during his time underground.  As it seems the process of preparing their escape route is finally finished, hopefully the miners will all be able to come above ground for the first time in months sometime this week.

Stephane Peray

Photos of the Day

Photojournalism is capturing stories and emotions in one frame.  It is different from other types of art, commercial or personal photography because it is about issues of importance.  It is a type of news that is just as important as the words in an article.  Photojournalism is a type of art because several types of artistic techniques are used when taking photojournalistic pictures.  It has to be visually appealing in order to get people's attention and bring awareness to whatever issue or person it is depicting.  Memorable news photographs are important if they are about an event or problem that hardly any of it's viewers even knows exist.  They are memorable if they truly convey the emotion of that moment and appeal to the viewer's emotions.

http://steviedubose.blogspot.com/2008/11/war-photography.html

"I have been a witness, and these pictures are

my testimony. The events I have recorded should

not be forgotten and must not be repeated."

-James Nachtwey-

Memoirs of a Bullied Kid

The story shared by the author of the article called "Memoirs of a Bullied Kid" was a very real and relevant one.  Bullying is a serious problem right now, with more and more stories in the news about violence and suicide that was the result of constant bullying.  According to the author of the article, all of the problems come from not loving yourself enough.  Bullies have this problem and feel the need to make others feel it to.  Unfortunately, they sometimes take it to such a level that the person they are bullying can't handle it anymore.  The solution is simple.  If one person who witnesses bullying would realize that it is their responsibility to do something about it, whether it be a parent, a teacher, or a friend, huge differences could be made in the lives of both the bullies and the bullied.