Artist Introduction

About me

Hayley Dykins

Photograph by Meggan Greyling

Hi, My name is Hayley Dykins. I am a grade 12 student currently attending Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School. I am currently taking Though I am an able Videographer, Editor, Audio person, News Reporter and Graphic Designer, my true passion lies in Photography. I love being able to take an ordinary mundane object or idea an turn it into art that others will appreciate.


I am involved in many technological courses and extra curricular activities such as grade 12 communications technology, Yearbook, an independent studies course, HCTV, and SHSM, a Specialist High Skills Major. At the end of this school year I will have met all of the requirements to graduate with the SHSM red seal on my diploma. A few of the necessary certificates I had to take were CPR and first aid, Fall protection, and a Cogeco training session where we were allowed to handle high end cameras. This training also included a covering a live sport event as well.


Though my hobbies are to make videos and photograph my life, they may not be the field I wish to ensue after High School. My plans are to return to Holy Cross for an extra semester and obtain the required credits to pursue Dental Hygiene as my career. I will always keep what I have learned this year close to me and continue to use my skills as a hobby later on. I feel very privileged to be allowed the opportunity to take these specialized courses offered at Holy Cross and will always be grateful for the skills and confidence they have given me.


Please enjoy my blog and feel free to comment. :)

Extra Credit

News Report

Filmed and edited by

Hayley Dykins

As an extra credit for my communications technology course, I was asked to film and interview the regi junior boys basketball team and create a news report which was later run on television during half time at the memorial basketball game held at regi. The report included interviews of one coach and three players. It also included clips of the team practicing, a voice over written and recorded by me, and myself doing a stand up at the end of the report.

Having never had the opportunity to report on a special event, there were a few new effects I was able to learn. I learned how to properly hold the microphone while doing a live interview, how to speak when doing a stand up and a voice over in a report, how important it is to match up your footage to what is being said in the voice over, and how to write a proper report. While editing in final cut pro, it was crucial to match visuals to audio, be sure the audio flowed nicely from voiceover to live interview. Creating a banner in photo shop and bringing it onto final cut pro was also a necessary skill learnt in this project.


Poster Design and DVD Case

Poster and case design by

Hayley Dykins

In my independent study course, I was asked to create visual promotions for Holy Cross' production of  "The Phantom of the Opera". The poster was created in photo shop using the original poster, with text added to promote the prices and dates for the show. The poster was then printed in colour and posted around the school.

I was then asked to create a DVD cover for the filmed version of the play, for extra credit I helped film as well. The DVD case will be printed in colour and distributed to the cast and crew who worked hard on the play to make it the success it was. The case cover was made in photo shop using the same logo and image from the poster but with the names of cast and crew written on the back. 

Santa's Workshop

Santa's Workshop

Filmed and edited by: Hayley Dykins

In my independent study course, I made a short video for the website in the construction class. It was used as a promotional video for the shop class and also just a fun Christmas video used on the school website. The video was shot in the wood shop at school and is called “Santa’s workshop”

The video was made in final cut pro and allowed me to play with matching the visuals to the music I had selected as the song. I brought a Santa hat to the wood shop and asked each of “Santa’s helpers” to wear it as they worked on projects.

Video

Grade Nine Interview Video

Grade Nine Funniest Video produced by:

Hayley Dykins

Grace Esford
Meggan Greyling

Every year is it the grade 12 class that is responsible to make the promotional grade nine video shown to grade eights at our feeder schools. We are broken into groups of three and are specifically given our own tasks within that group, audio, producer and camera person, mine was Audio. The video allowed us to explore interview based journalism, while also teaching us how to use blue screening in video for the first time.

As the audio person it was my job to monitor the proper audio level during the time of recording, also to adjust the microphone to the height appropriate to the interviewee. Once the interviewing process was over I was then to create a piece of music with five levels to it to accompany and compliment the theme of the video, using the program “Soundtrack Pro”. And during the editing process, using Final Cut Pro. It was my responsibility to adjust the speaker’s volume to -6 db.

Tv Commercial Reproduction

Cool Quenchers Commercial reproduced by

Hayley Dykins and Meggan Greyling

In the grade 11 Communication Technology class one assignment was to recreate an existing Television Commercial. Megan Greyling and I worked as a team and decided to do the Cool Quenchers commercial. After capturing the original commercial onto our computer, we imported it straight into "Final Cut Pro" and made a Story Board of the commercial. Documenting exactly how many frames, the angle and closeness of the shot, and if there is any camera movement.

When it was time to film, we played the commercial in the background as to be sure that we were on time with our motion and lip syncing as we kept the original audio from the commercial. We had to find costumes that matched the commercial as best as possible, this included me wearing a wig and Meggan wearing glasses.



Water PSA

Water PSA Filmed and Edited by

Hayley Dykins and Meggan Greyling

Every year the Grade 11 class creates a water PSA based on the theme of the year. Our PSA was based on the phrase "Water: it's a human right." Meggan Greyling and I worked together closely to finish this project. We chose to show wordlessly how each of us can waste water without noticing we are doing so. we then rewound the video and played what the person should have done in each situation to preserve water.

This project gave us much more freedom than the commercial reproduction did. In this project we were able to decided exactly how we wanted the scene to look or if we wanted camera motion or not. It was interesting to see how how much technical work is done before and after the actual filming. This PSA was also edited in Final Cut Pro.

Graphic Design

Kingston Whig Newspaper Ad Contest

Newspaper ad for James Reid Furniture.

Graphic Designer: Hayley Dykins.

As a Grade 11 assignment in my Communications Technology class, we were given a local business and asked to make a Newspaper Ad from scratch. I was given James Reid Furniture. The Ads were submitted to the owners of each business and 1st, 2nd and 3rd place were chosen and published in the local Whig Standard Newspaper. My Design placed Second overall.
The Design idea for my Newspaper Ad was to propose that there was something missing from your home and to offer James Reid Furniture as the place to look to fill what was missing. I went to the closest James Reid Furniture store to take photos. I chose this photo and decided to remove the chair to exemplify that something was missing. I chose to use the colour red because it is very eye catching

Promotional Basketball Posters

Graphics and Photography by

Hayley Dykins

In a mixture of Graphic design and Photography, we were each assigned a junior and senior girl to create a basketball poster promoting them during the annual PH classic held at our school. We first needed to find an appropriate pose for our player, and ask them to do said pose in the studio. We them took the photo of our player; we were marked on the ability to replicate the pose and also the proper focus as we used manual focusing for this project. We then close cropped the photo in photo shop to remove the original background and placed the player in the pre-designed template, and rearranged the logos to suit the photo.

The poster contains the schools logo, crest and the logo of the PH classic. The posters are green and silver to represents the schools colours. To differentiate between senior and junior players the green and gray banner and backgrounds have been switched. The poster also promotes the schools sports website for more information on sports in our school community.

Muse Art

Muse Poster
"Eternal Bonds"

Photography and Layout by
Hayley Dykins

Every year as a tribute to the student production being performed the arts students are asked to provide art for an art show based on the theme of the play. This year’s performance was The Phantom of the Opera, and our Communications Technology class was asked to produce a piece for the show as well. Being based on The Phantom of the Opera, the theme was our Muse. We were told to think of what our Muse was and do research on the internet to come up with an idea that allowed to create a piece of art that had a minimum of ten layers.

I chose my family as my muse, as my inspiration. And after finding a tutorial on the internet of how to use photo shop to create a weaving illusion to a single photo, I decided to try the effect using ten individual strips of photographs of my family’s faces. Each of the strips have their own effect on them, individualizing them, the idea was to weave our faces together to create a new face, to symbolize we are all unique individuals, yet when brought together we are a close knit family. Two other elements brought to this photo was my recently deceased grandmother painting used as the background to symbolize our families background and its importance to us, also, the word family is repeated underneath the piece, to represent that we are family, and how deep set that bond is.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Architectural Photography

One Way Sign

"Leave This Way Only"

Grade 12 Communication Technology

Architectural Photography

Kingston is a rare city with a lot to offer. There is it's vast country side, or the incredible shore line of Lake Ontario. And right in the center of the city is Downtown Kingston with cobbled streets and historic limestone buildings. As a class, we took a trip down to capture the essence of downtown Kingston in 12 given categories. We were then asked to choose our “Best” photo and produce an essay on it. I chose to use my “Sign” photo as my best, because the moment I saw the wall I knew I had found an image that I wanted others to see.

Overall, this photo is one that I am very proud to call mine. It as been special to me since I saw the sign as I walked across the parking lot. It is a photo that exemplifies three of the given themes from this project; Sign, Nature v.s Architecture, and Heritage. This photo has gone from being a simple snapshot to a piece of art that could be enjoyed by many people, years from now. This photo was given "Peoples Choice Award" according to the votes taken durring the photography display in the main foyer of the school.

 

Publicity Head Shot Photography

This is a "Publicity Head Shot" of Grace.

Photography by Hayley Dykins

As part of our Photography unit, one of our assignments was to take a Publicity Head Shot of another student in the class. We used a digital SLR Nikon D5000 camera along with a Camray 300 studio flash, with no outside light to get our desired effect. To achieve the traditional Head Shot look, we arranged the studio to give us a Rembrandt look. We then pulled the photos onto Photoshop to optimize them. We converted the photo to black and white and brought up the contrast to give the Head Shot a bolder look.

This was a great exercise for us to do as a class. It gave us the experience of taking professional photos, and since we all posed for a photo, we all leave this semester with our very own Head Shot. This is very helpful for those of us who look to explore the arts as a future career.

Photo Journalism

 In an individual assignment, my job was to capture video and photography of the Junior and Senior boys football teams at Holy Cross. The idea of the assignment was to be able to use the material for the website and for archival purposes. The photos were taken at Holy Cross and then optimized in photo shop to bring up the contrast and vibrancy of the photos.

I was equip with a Nikon D5000 and a 55mm lens and used a fast shutter speed. when taking photos outside it is very important to be aware of your surroundings. I was sure to keep the sun at my back to ensure the colours were vibrant and not washed out as they would have been if the sun was in my shot as well. One other consideration I had to make was to photograph with the school in the background rather than portables or houses. Being able to read the plays is a major part of being able to capture the "perfect" photo. I believe my experience playing sports gave me a step up in being able to read the plays and position myself appropriately to obtain the shot.