5 Tips For Quick iPhone Photography

Written by: Marguerite Bysshe

The holidays can be filled with a lot of time to hang out with family and friends, which is fun and exciting, but can also be a stressful time to get the perfect picture. The snow and the cold weather (aka sweater weather) makes the perfect backdrop for a photoshoot with your best friend. With your family, there’s also a lot of pressure to get some good pictures, given that this could be the one time of year everyone gets together. No matter what your plans are for the holidays, I guarantee these tips can help you out one way or another.

Lighting: In the world of iPhone photography, one of the most helpful features is the sliding exposure. Most people know that they can tap on someone’s face to get it to brighten up against a tricky background, but did you know you can actually control how bright things are? Tap on a part of your screen, either the background or the focus point and look for a small sun attached to a bar next to the box that will show what is in focus. By dragging the sun up and down, you can change how dark the image is. This is especially useful when you have an overexposed (very bright) background such as snow or a window. By tapping on the background and dragging the sun down, you are bringing the brightness of the background down, making the picture look darker, but putting your focus in a better light.  

Rule of thumb: If your background is too bright, tap on it and drag the sun down, even if it looks too dark. If you’re in a darker setting and need to see the background, tap on your foreground or focus point and drag the sun down.

2. Framing: Nobody likes a photo where they don’t look good. To avoid generally bad angles, take the photo from slightly lower than your chest. If you’re tall, bend down a little and try to angle the phone up slightly. Your focus point should almost always be centered in your frame.

Rule of thumb: I know you’ve probably heard about the rule of thirds or seen some cute pictures of your friends standing all the way to the side of the frame on Instagram. Don’t do this! Centering your focus point makes editing easier and will look better in family scrapbooks and collages. Keep it simple.

3. Position of Light: A backlit photo occurs when there is an excess of light behind your subject, such as a window or the sun. Whenever possible, try to angle the people in your picture so that the sun is shining on them head on or that window is in front of them. If you do run into a situation where your photos are coming out a little backlit, use the trick from Step 1 and tap on the background and slide the sun down.

Rule of thumb: Don’t pose in front of a window.

4.Editing: Instagram has a surprisingly great editing software built into it. Try to pull away from filters! You can use the editing tab to really edit your picture to look the way you want it. In general, you can lighten up your focus point by raising the highlights and you can raise brightness of the background by lowering the shadows. I usually lower the brightness just slightly before anything else and add some fade at the end. Be careful with structure and vignette as they tend to seem out of place and can ruin a photo really fast. If you don’t have Instagram, there are hundreds of photo editing apps that you can get for free. Aviary is basic and a good place to start.

Rule of thumb: Don’t be afraid to experiment and edit multiple copies! However, sometimes it’s better to keep things moderate and light, as much as you want to over saturate everything.

5.Take Multiple Photos: This seems like such a simple thing, but I guarantee it will save you one day. Taking a picture for a nice couple in front of a pretty view? Take five. Your BFF wants a picture with her dog? Better take at least 50. People will always be able to find something wrong with a picture, so having options when posting is crucial.

Rule of thumb: Really try not to compromise on this one. There’s nothing worse than leaving a family party and not having a single good picture on your phone because your grandma only took one of you and your sister. Just take a bunch.

These tips are in no way the rules of photography. Photography is all about being creative and taking chances. Hopefully, however, you can use these tips to make your pictures look the best they can be. Happy shooting!

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Sparta Orchestra Students Perform at Winter Concert

Written by: Olivia Giralt and Sarah Riley

On Wednesday, Dec. 5, the Sparta High School orchestras showcased their talents at the annual winter orchestra concert. Both led by Sparta High music teachers Ms. Bach and piano accompaniment from Mrs. Lopez, the school’s Symphony Orchestra and the Honors Philharmonic Orchestra separately performed their own pieces, and converged together to perform the night’s big finale.

The Symphony Orchestra played the following three pieces: Radioactive recorded by Imagine Dragons, Jig from St. Paul’s Suite by Gustav Holst, and Themes from “The Nutcracker” by Peter I. Tchaikovsky.

Secondly, the Honors Philharmonic Orchestra performed another three pieces known as The Sleigh by Richard Kountz, Sleigh Ride by Leroy Anderson, and Russian Sailors’ Dance from “The Red Poppy” by Reinhold Gliere.

Lastly, both orchestras joined together to perform their finale: The March of the Kings/Hark the Herald Angels Sing arranged by Paul O’Neill and Bob Phillips.

For two songs, students from the Honors Wind Ensemble joined the Honors Philharmonic during the Winter Concert. Instruments from the Wind Ensemble include trumpets, percussion/timpani, clarinets, flutes, bassoons, French horns, trombones, the piccolo, and the tuba. Together they played two holiday classics, Russian Sailors Dance and Sleigh Ride. Daniela Cassano, a bassoon player, performed an extraordinary solo in Russian Sailors’ Dance. Together, the Honors Wind Ensemble and Honors Philharmonic certainly put on a show.

During the concert’s reception, the school’s very own Chamber Club entertained the crowd as everyone mingled together for conversation and refreshments. As usual, the Sparta High School Orchestra’s annual winter concert was performed beautifully and was a great success.
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Spartan School Spirit Takes Center Stage at 2nd Annual Winterfest

Written by: Marguerite Bysshe

On Friday, Dec. 7, students in grades 9-12 participated in the second annual Winterfest. The school’s acapella choir group, Shacapella, kicked off the event by performing two songs and featuring different soloists. Naturally, the crowd was blown away by their performance. Next,, varsity and JV cheerleading presented their routine and wowed students with impressive stunts and tumbling. While volleyball was the main attraction, student council also planned activities such as musical chairs and tug of war. Each grade volunteered two students to compete in the musical chairs activities. After a long, intense match, the senior class won.

The next competition was tug of war. The juniors faced off the seniors in an extremely close battle. While the juniors had the advantage when it came to numbers, the seniors held their own. The rope remained immovable for an impossibly long 30 seconds, before the juniors pulled through and won. Finally, it was time for the official volleyball tournament.

A team of well practiced juniors began their match against an equally as prepared team of seniors. The game was close and the student body was excited and cheered for every point. When the seniors won, everyone was ecstatic.

A brief intermission occurred to give players time to rest. The students working the event began the balloon pop, a competition where two members of each grade would have to race across the gym, sit on a balloon to pop it, and run back to tag their partner. This tag team style race continued until all the balloons had been popped. The race was short, but the seniors finished in record, winning yet again.

When the second volleyball game, students versus staff, began, all eyes were on the teachers. Would they come out victorious and defeat their own students? The first game gave the seniors a big lead. They consistently had strong serves and used their height to their advantage. The second game brought a new wave of energy from the staff. They began to play more offensively and worked together to prevent the seniors from securing another win against them. Their efforts paid off and tied everything up.

Both teams seemed pretty evenly matched at the start. Everyone was playing aggressively and there were a few good saves by both sides. All in all, everything was pretty close in the third and final game. Once the staff started making mistakes, the seniors got a boost of confidence and won the tournament. Everyone was thrilled and it was a great ended to a very successful pep rally.
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Sparta German Club Performs at the 17th Annual German Christmas Market

Written by: Sarah Riley and Olivia Giralt

On Saturday, Dec. 1, the Sparta High School German students performed to celebrate the 17th annual German Christmas Market (Weihnachtsmarkt) on the Boardwalk. Together, the German students sang various classic German carols to help put a glorious start to the spectacular Christmas season. According to German teacher Herr Bendorf, “I thought it went really well. We had probably 30 singers with us. It was a lot of fun and I hope they invite us back next year.”

Students sung a variety of traditional German songs. AP German seniors AJ Rudolph and Luke Kurian alternated introducing each song before singing it to the audience. Rudolph and Kurian are the President and Secretary of Sparta High School’s German Club, respectively.

The students started off with the carols “O Tannenbaum,” “Stille Nacht,” and “Rudolf mit Rotem Näschen.” In English, these German song titles translate to “O Christmas Tree,” “Silent Night,” and “Rudolf the Rednosed Reindeer.” The group also sang original German Christmas carols, which include “Kling Glöckchen” and “Ihr Kinderlein Kommet.” As announced by Rudolph, the all-around favorite was “Kling Glöckchen.”

Source: Cole Anderson

Featured in the photo above are two brilliant AP German 5 students, Will Theilacker (left) and Julia Muth (right). Muth and Theilacker shared a breathtaking solo in “Stille Nacht” that assuredly impressed the crowd.  

All in all, this year’s German Christmas Market performance was a success. The German students hope to put on another fantastic show next year.

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Students of Sparta: Moses Hughes

Written by: Eva Jardine

Like many of us at the start of our junior year with college right around the corner, Moses Hughes is deciding on how he wants to impact the world. Here, Moses describes just how Sparta High School is helping to make his dreams a reality.

What do you aspire to do with your life, and how is Sparta High School helping you achieve that goal?

I really want to be a good person, to help other people. But not just individually; I mean the earth as a whole. Almost like Elon Musk does, how he does things to further humanity, like how he tries to save humanity by getting us off the Earth… I want to help people, and somehow change the world for the better.

This school does help me achieve that goal. Sparta High School provides a level of higher education. Through hard work, you get better grades, which gets you into a better college and then into a position where you are able to get into better circumstances- giving you a platform to be able to make that change in the world.

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Grande Breaks Records With "thank u, next"

Written by: Lauren Groff

After breaking off her engagement to Saturday Night Live comedian Pete Davidson, Grammy-nominated artist Ariana Grande emerged with arguably one of the most iconic music videos of the twenty-first century this past Friday. Titled “thank u, next," the bold lyrics and catchy beat broke both personal records for Grande and worldwide records for YouTube. The song rightfully serves as Grande’s first number one hit single and is also credited for “breaking Youtube”- the premiere of its video racked up the most views ever recorded in 24 hours (https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8487658/ariana-grande-thank-u-next-video-breaks-youtube-vevo-record-24-hour-views). The comment section was temporarily unavailable as millions of voices from around the world poured in their thoughts in a matter of seconds.

Source: gq.com

The music video was themed around four classically nostalgic "chick-flicks"- Legally Blonde, Mean Girls, Bring it On, and 13 Going on 30. Grande places herself in the main role of each movie, transforming into different characters with costumes and hairstyles unique to each recreation. Stars from some of the original movies even made cameos as their characters- Jennifer Coolidge (reprising her role of Paulette, the nail salon employee in Legally Blonde), and Jonathan Bennett (reappearing as heartthrob Aaron Samuels in Mean Girls). She also paid homage to her beginnings in the industry on the hit Nickelodeon T.V. show, Victorious, welcoming back former co-stars Daniella Monet, Liz Gillies, and Matt Bennett alongside her in the video. A very special mention goes out to momager Kris Jenner for the most memorable cameo.

Source: AOL.com

Hidden messages are strewn throughout the video, most noticeable in Grande’s own rendition of the iconic “Burn Book” from Mean Girls. Not long after the release of the video, viewers screenshotted and zoomed in on the pages of the book to see messages Grande had written about her exes. Notably, she writes "srry I dipped" on Davidson's page in crude red letters.

Source: Variety.com

“thank u, next” is the titular track of Grande's fifth studio album, set to be released sometime in the near future. She is also preparing for her Sweetener World Tour, appearing closest to Sparta at Madison Square Garden on June 18, 2019.

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Sparta Celebrates Thanksgiving With Annual Turkey Trot

Written by: Sarah Riley 

On the morning of Nov. 22, Thanksgiving Day, the annual Turkey Trot commenced at Lake Mohawk. There were three races within the entire Turkey Trot: the One-Mile Fun Run, the notorious 5k, and last but not least, the grueling 10k. These races ran through the Lake Mohawk area, but had different courses according to their contrasting distances. The event is in support of the Sparta Education Foundation, and is usually well-attended by locals and even from people out-of-town.

As if the races alone weren’t enough for our runners, the weather was more an obstacle on its own. The harshness of the cold outside took a toll on almost everyone who attended the event, but that didn’t stop the brave runners from participating, spectators from observing, and volunteers from helping out. Some even showed their spirit with festive Thanksgiving costumes, and others with costumes completely unrelated to Thanksgiving. This year’s Turkey Trot was a good start to everyone’s favorite November holiday, and was yet another success for the Sparta community.

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