Best Advice

Complete every assignment without procrastinating and enjoy what you do.

To all incoming students I can only tell you to come prepared to learn a lot and do things you never imagine you were able to do. If you don’t want to learn, this class is not for you, but if you do, this class will help you learn many things that will help you in the future. But to make sure you do good in this class you need to follow some advice. First, do all your homework assignments and classroom assignments right away and follow the directions given. Second, do not procrastinate. You will find that all the work is not hard, rather fun, and learning but it is time consuming. If you wait until the last minute you will find yourself frustrated when you were supposed to have fun. Lastly, don’t be afraid to ask questions! Ms. Belisle is always there to answer your questions and she is glad to repeat or explain something that you didn't understood. If you don’t ask you will get stuck there so ask questions and you’ll find everything easier.
This is a class worth taking that you will learn a lot while having fun. Good luck and enjoy!!!

My Favorite Websites

I was very shocked to see all the different amazing things people came up with. They all did a really good job on their web pages but the three I liked the most where Andreas, Morgans, and Courtney's.
Andrea's website was just very professional looking and had amazing pictures. Her use of many black and white images was awesome. Her site was very easy to navigate and the fonts chosen where just perfect for her theme.
Morgans website was very exiting to look at because she talked about converse, something that is really cool. She had a very nice, professional looking home page that lead to very interesting pages with a lot of fascinating information. Her navigation bar was really creative. The layout and colors enhance her whole website.
Courtney's website was full of color. She used alot of colorful pictures and a colorful background. Her snake with the navigation bar was just so creative. Her page look very professional because of her layout and the way she provided alot of information. Her pages were very interesting and done with specific attention to every detail.

My Website

Please visit my website at www.cs.trinity.edu/~mrangel. My website is about restaurants here in San Antonio that serves the different food like Chinese, American, Italian, and Mexican food. If a tourist or people who want to try a new place to eat want to know where they can find their favorite food this is where they should go. Making my website was easier than I taught making a website would be because it didn’t required hand coding every single thing. I found it easy to make after I got the hang of it but before I was struggling. For the most part I used Expression web because I felt it was easy and clear to navigate around and fix things. I mostly used the design view to create the webpage but did use hand code when I wanted to change something that got hard in the design like background colors. The biggest technical challenge I faced was that I created a lot of things for my webpage in Photoshop then when I wanted to used them in Expression it didn’t allowed me to write text or work the way I expected to. I struggled to fix this Photoshop pictures but at the end ended up starting my webpage all over because they didn’t t work and part was erased. I also had little difficulty in the design of my webpage, when I posted on the web some pictures didn’t appear in the page and my navigation bar buttons where also missing. I had trouble with that in addition I had trouble working with the tables to get the pictures the way that I wanted because when I moved one side it would distort the rest of the table. But besides these challenges I tried very hard to accomplish what I wanted: an attractive, interesting, and professional-looking webpage. I really feel proud of the fact that I created a webpage by myself but I am very proud of my welcoming page. I felt this page had a warm welcoming and looked like a professional page done by an expert web designer. One thing I would have changed would have been the amount of information I gave in my website. I felt I just guided people where to look for places instead of listing one by one and giving a review on each restaurant.

Creating this website started as a nightmare for me as I had many difficulties but ended up being a very enjoyable project. I really feel that this was a great learning experienced that gave very good results. I have already shown my website to my family and they couldn’t believe I did it. I will try to show it to my friends that are from out of town so they can use it more as a reference. I am not sure if I will make another website for another class in the future but I will definitely create one for my personal things like about my family or any collections I have.

Larry Hechler's Presentation

Larry Hechler’s presentation on hardware and computer maintenance was a phenomenal presentation. We usually use and use our computers and learn how to use all the different programs we can install but we don’t really pay attention on maintaining the computer in good conditions. Talking about the hardware and the prices it cost for repairing was a great thing because we sometimes don’t realized that a little piece of plastic can cost a lot. Also, the things that can harm the computer were great to know to make sure bad experiences don’t occur to us. The main thing that I learned from his presentation was that we should let our computers run until it warns you that you have a small percentage of battery remaining. I always had the perception that when you use the computer you should plug it back in when you are done so the battery will last longer. But the reality is the opposite: you are setting the computer to understand that it could only run for a little while before it needs to recharge so you shouldn’t charge it if you only used it a little. The computer will then get used to being charge constantly that when you disconnect it from the battery it will only last a small amount of time before it needs to recharge. I personally can relate to that because I would “overcharge” my laptop and now when I disconnect it, it only last a little time. I taught it was because it was getting old, but now I know that it was my entire fault for overcharging it.

This was very interesting to learn from his presentation, but am surprise that when you buy your laptop at the store they don’t tell you this. I think it’s because they will sell more in the future since we will replace them faster.

PPT Presentation

Doing a PowerPoint presentation was a learning experience. While at first it had seem to be easy to just do four slides on your career of interest or any subject that is important, it was not as simple. First, it was choosing a right topic that was not so general. I decided to do by presentation on Forensic Science specifically on Women in the field of Forensic science. Since,  I am  interested in pursuing a career in this field in the future, I had so many to show and say about this topic but was limited to only four slides. I have to admit while I spend many hours playing with the animations, setting the specific time to fit the presentation and at times frustrated to not get it right, I really enjoyed creating this presentation. Not only because I was interested in the topic but because I made me be creative and use different tools in PowerPoint that I had never used before. The most important things I learned from this project is how to use the custom animation to have various pictures enter and leave in the same slide while having words come in and leave with the pictures. I definitely felt proud of my presentation because I think the music, pictures, and dark colors used in the presentation fit my topic of mystery and crime. But one thing I would of changed would have been adding a video into the presentation showing some action in the forensic science field would have created a visual and be more interesting presentation.

While I taught all the presentations were amazing and very interesting and unique in their way, I really enjoyed the presentations of Katie and Esther. When I saw Katie’s Sushi presentation I was like “nasty sushi” because I don’t like sushi. But with her beautiful and variety of pictures contrasted by the black background everything seem so good and delicious. Plus, when she gave the recipe and said it was not raw fish, I was excited to hear that and was already planning to get some sushi for lunch that day. For Esther’s ballet presentation, I really liked the music that was played throughout the presentation it really match the theme of ballet. Plus the various pictures and the animations used just fitted perfect in creating this calm and relax atmosphere. The colors used, the video shown and the animation of the ballet shoes made the presentation even better and more interesting.

Piture that Lies




Manipulated Piture



Original Picture





     At a first glance you might just see a normal picture of a baby with a rabbit sitting outside. This was exactly what I intended to do. I had this idea of creating an Easter picture that lie because it is almost Easter day. I started by having a rabbit which I got from the internet (flickr.com) but seem too lonely so I decided to include a human. As I was looking for a human the idea of having a baby holding or touching the rabbit came to mind. Finding a baby in that position of holding something was difficult. But when I had it I used the opacity tool to be able to see the rabbit picture in top of the baby picture, while positioning the rabbit in the hands of the baby. Using the eraser tool I erased the parts of the rabbit picture that were on the way of letting the baby connect directly to the rabbit. It was a little difficult trying to go around the rabbit and erase everything else. Once I was done the baby seem to be holding the rabbit from the neck. I really liked it but the background of the picture didn’t match and it seemed obvious that the rabbit didn’t belong there, so I decided to look for a background that would fit with the picture. Since it is an Easter theme I decided to add spring flowers. I used the same tool of erasing the parts to show the baby and the rabbit and the flowers in the back. I also used the cloning tool to clone some parts that I erased accidently or to lines around the figures to make it less noticeable that these where picture put together. I continued by changing  the photograph to make it more real,  by using the brightness/ contrast in  some of the layers to make them brighter but  not that bright  because I wanted to  cast a small shadow from the right direction. Then, I used the hue/saturation to change just the lightness of the picture a bit.

      I felt that this manipulation was not harmful to anyone because I didn’t change the pictures a lot to create new features (on the boy) or to change the whole perception of the photograph (deform the rabbit). I actually change the meaning just because I added the three pictures together to form one. Since the little boy is smiling and as he “holds” the rabbit in his hands this seems as a picture taken in a happy moment, which is usually what we capture pictures of, people may not suspect it’s a fake picture. It is the background of flowers that might be questionable if it’s real of fake but not so much because it seems to be a natural environment.

     Creating this picture that lies proved the arguments claimed in the article I read called “"The truth of a single instant" Focusing on the issue of photo manipulation” by Susan Balcom Walton. My photo might represent a single instant of a little boy outside in a spring day but it’s not true. This just shows how easily a picture can be modified and changes its meaning. I just change and put together some photos using Photoshop without having any restrictions on what I can do and what not. That is why I think guidelines should be established to prevent more harmful photo alternating.





Photo Manipulation

“The Truth of a Single Instant” Focusing on the issue of photo manipulation

By Susan Balcom Walton

Manipulating pictures to fit your purposes or for your convenience has become a common thing to do now and days. While they are using technology to change/ alter photographs to make them more appealing, dramatic, or more “perfect,” they are making this conception that all photos are altered so nobody can trust photographs anymore. While we may take pictures to remember that moment in the future or to have evidence or something, it can no longer be reliable. As described in this article, “No painting can tell the truth of a single instant: no snapshot can do anything” (Walton). As stated in this quote I truly agree with it because you might have a picture that you thing it represents an instant in the past but this cannot tell you the reality because you don’t know if it has been altered or changed by anyone else. One might not suspect about a picture being manipulated because it seems “original” but with the technology today it is very easy for someone to alter a photograph and if done with care it can be changed without having any clue that it has been altered.

While many people may think that image manipulation is a recent thing done with new technology in the 21^st century it is not fully true. Back in 1996 when the society of Professional Journalist revised its code of ethics it was already being question, and “while the code was not specifically revised in response to photo manipulation issues, people had brought up the fact that New Media should be considered.” The code of ethics helps but doesn’t prevent from the continuation of photo manipulation.

Very surprisingly, we find out in this article that many institutions of higher learning have encountered photo manipulation. For example, Brigham Young University has already established guidelines that “simplifies the decision-making process and increases the awareness of everyone involved in selecting and producing materials” after a photo raised questions about airbrushing a photo (Walton). While this might seem little that is not all. Other schools like the University of Wisconsin-Madison have composed a photograph to reflect diversity for their admissions brochure. When we see school brochures and we see diversity we actually believe it, so altering the photograph means that it’s not true but it’s just to attract more students which is to harm others. Besides common people, schools that are supposed to set example of higher learning are altering picture, so what makes us think that official authorities or the government is not doing the same? We can no longer trust any photograph because it might not be the reality.

In this article it gave an example of a video that had a small but noticeable mark of a certain organization and their decisions to fix that. It gives the reasons of leaving the mark hoping for nobody to notice it and think they support that organization, or manipulating the photo, or conduct a new shoot but spend more money. While conducting a new shoot will cost more money and more time it is the correct manner to handle a thing like this. But that is the main problem with society today they want everything the easiest way possible they don’t want to go through all the trouble again so they would just preferred to alter the photo to meet their wants.

Photo manipulation is just everywhere and anywhere. We might not even realize it but its there. So how can we trust photos? How do we know if they have not been altered? One must follow their own judgments and analyzed if it has been altered or not. But remember a photograph can easily fool our eyes.

Works Cited

Walton, Susan Balcom. "The truth of a single instant" Focusing on the issue of photo manipulation." Public Relations Tactics 14.11 (2007): 25. Business Source Complete. EBSCO. Web. 5 Apr. 2011.