By Graham K. Rogers

Once every semester, I include a segment on photography in my English Communication classes. The subject is concerned with using various forms of media to communicate in English and my experience with many engineering students in the past has been that taking photographs for project (or other) work is treated as a lower priority. As a consequence, some reports have out of focus images (or worse), spoiling an otherwise good piece of work.

There are some quite enthusiastic photographers among the engineering students, but by and large, the students may try one snap for a subject and leave it at that.

I start by pointing out how input may affect an image: light, time and sensitivity. I explain each of these, including aperture, time settings and ISO, demonstrating both with film and DSLR camera. We also look at lenses, and here I am able to demonstrate how the different focal length of lenses will change the image.

I use Sofortbild - tethering software - and switch lenses between each picture, focussing on the same subject, using lenses of 24mm, 50mm, 85mm and a telephoto lens of 300mm. After a few other points of theory, I take the students out of the classroom for a walk round the campus.

Some students tend not to look around, so I point out up, down, left and right as important directions, as well as contrasts, shapes and colours. While students used to have problems finding suitable cameras, most now have smartphones if nothing else, so all have the chance to take good images.

I also take a couple of cameras with me (digital and film), as well as a small assortment of lenses; so the walkabout gives me a chance to take photographs and occasionally catch a student in an unguarded moment.

I usually upload the images to Facebook, but with the copyright regulations of that social networking site, I now prefer to link to my own site, where I can keep my images as my own. Of the 183 images I took, there was a lot of winnowing to bring the number down to a more manageable 40 or so. The rest follow. . .

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs. He is now continuing that in the Bangkok Post supplement, Life.