Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 791, Taking Photographs.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 791.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there, download a learning guide, become a member, improve your English even faster.
This episode is about taking photographs, taking pictures with a camera.
Let's get started.
Stop mugging for the camera and stand still.
I've been standing still for ten minutes while you've been setting up the shot.
I have to do something.
This is boring.
I almost have the settings right.
Okay, let's try a shot.
Say cheese.
Cheese.
Oh, you look washed out in that shot, and it's blurry.
I think the flash came on when I didn't want it to.
You have red eye, too.
I'll have to adjust the settings again.
Hurry up!
Okay, I think I've got it now.
Get back into your pose.
Lift your head a little to the side and face the sun.
Take the picture.
I just need to focus.
There.
Say cheese again.
Cheese.
Um, it's still not perfect.
Let me put the camera on a tripod.
Try to stay still while I do that.
I thought you wanted the shot to look like a candid.
I do.
But how am I supposed to make it look like a perfect candid if you keep moving out of your pose?
Ryan begins our dialogue by saying to Katrina, stop mugging for the camera and stand still.
To mug M-U-G for the camera means to make funny faces or to try to be funny looking in a photograph, when someone's taking your picture.
Sometimes it can mean just to try to get into the picture.
You see someone taking photographs and you walk over so that they will take a photograph of you.
And so you maybe change your face or your body in such a way that they will pay attention to you.
Ryan says, stop mugging for the camera and stand still.
Still.
S-T-I-L-L means not moving someone who is without motion, who's not moving, who just is there.
Still has a number of different meanings, however, in English.
Some of those are in the Learning Guide.
Katrina says, I've been standing still for 10 minutes while you've been setting up the shot.
To set something up or to set up something is a phrasal verb meaning to get ready, to prepare.
The shot S-H-O-T here means the photograph, the one photograph you are going to take with your camera.
Shot also has other meanings in English, none of which are found in this week's learning guide.
Katrina says, I have to do something.
This is boring.
This is uninteresting.
She's just standing there waiting for Ryan to take the picture.
Ryan says, I almost have the settings right.
A setting is an adjustment on a piece of equipment.
It could be, in this case, the speed that the camera will use.
It could be the light.
It could be a lot of different things.
Cameras at least expensive cameras have many different settings, many different things you can change on the camera, so it's a better picture.
Ryan says, I almost have the settings right, meaning correct, the way I want them.
He says, okay, let's try a shot.
Let's take a picture.
Say cheese in English if you want someone to smile.
That's the expression you use when you're taking a photograph, only when you're taking a photograph.
You would say okay, everyone say cheese, because when you say cheese, the mouth has to open and you can see the person's teeth and it looks like they're smiling, even if they're not.
Katrina says cheese.
Ryan says, oh, you look washed out in that shot.
When you say someone looks washed W-A-S-H-E-D out in a photograph, you mean they don't seem to have very much color.
Perhaps there's too much light and you can't really see the person very well.
Ryan says it's also blurry.
Blurry, B-L-U-R-R-Y, is when a photograph is not in focus.
That is, it's not sharp.
It looks like someone was moving the camera right when the picture was being taken.
And so the lines aren't clear.
They're not sharp.
They're not in focus.
Ryan says A flash F-L-A-S-H is the part of the camera that shows light on the person as you are taking the picture.
So a bright light comes on right when you take the picture, so that when you take the picture you can see what you are taking the photograph of.
But of course, if you don't need the light and you have the flash on, that may make the person look a little washed out.
Ryan also says that Katrina has red eye.
Red eye means just what it sounds like.
The eyes in the photograph look red.
And this is sometimes caused when people are too close to the flash of the camera.
And it's a problem because it makes the person look like there's something wrong with them.
Ryan says, I'll have to adjust the settings again.
To adjust, A-D-J-U-S-T, means to change, to change something, to improve it.
I need to adjust the settings.
Katrina says, hurry up, go faster, she's saying.
Ryan says, okay, I think I've got it now, meaning I think it's ready. get back into your pose.
A pose P-O-S-E is when you move your body into a certain position and you hold it there for a photograph or a painting.
So Ryan tells Katrina to get back into her pose and Lift your head a little, he says, to the side and face the sun.
Lift means to raise, to move the head into a higher position from a lower one.
Face means to look toward, to be in a position where your face is toward a certain thing, in this case the sun.
You may say to someone your son or daughter who isn't listening to you.
You may say face me and listen to what I'm telling you.
Face me means turn around so that your face is looking at mine.
Katrina says, take the picture.
Ryan says, I just need to focus.
To focus means to adjust the camera, usually the lens of the camera, the part of the camera that has glass in it that the picture is taken through.
And you change the glass, you change the lens so that the lines are sharp, so that the picture isn't blurry.
You can see the person.
They look like, what they're supposed to look like.
Ryan says he needs to focus.
There, he says.
Notice the use of the word there.
It just means he's ready.
What he did is now correct.
Then he says to Katrina, say cheese again.
And Katrina says cheese.
But Ryan says it's still not perfect.
Let me put the camera on a tripod.
A tripod, T-R-I-P-O-D, is something that has three legs.
And if you've worked with a camera, you know that you can put the camera on this special stand and that will keep the camera from moving.
That stand, that thing you put it on, has three legs so that it's stable.
It doesn't move.
It keeps still.
And that's called a tripod.
T-R-I, of course, means three.
So Ryan's going to put the camera on a tripod.
And he tells Katrina, try to stay still while I do that.
Katrina says, I thought you wanted this shot to look like a candid.
A candid, C-A-N-D-I-D, means a candid photograph.
And candid means informal.
It's when you're not posing.
You're not putting your body in a certain position or you're not looking at the camera and smiling just because someone is taking your picture.
You're sort of doing what you normally do.
And while you do that, someone takes a picture of you.
There are other meanings of candid.
Those can be found in, of course, the learning guide.
Ryan says he does want the shot to look like a candid.
But he says how am I supposed to make it look like a perfect candid if you keep moving out of your pose?
Well, this doesn't make any sense because a candid doesn't have a pose.
So Ryan obviously doesn't understand the meaning of the word candid and he should definitely take a look at our learning guide.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Stop mugging for the camera and stand still.
I've been standing still for ten minutes while you've been setting up the shot.
I have to do something.
This is boring.
I almost have the settings right.
Okay, let's try a shot.
Say cheese.
Cheese.
Oh, you look washed out in that shot, and it's blurry.
I think the flash came on when I didn't want it to.
You have red eye, too.
I'll have to adjust the settings again.
Hurry up.
Okay, I think I got it now.
Get back into your pose.
Lift your head a little to the side and face the sun.
Take the picture.
I just need to focus.
There.
Say cheese again.
Cheese.
Um, it's still not perfect.
Let me put the camera on a tripod.
Try to stay still while I do that.
I thought you wanted this shot to look like a candid.
I do.
But how am I supposed to make it look like a perfect candid if you keep moving out of your pose?
She never mugs for the camera, but she does write wonderful scripts.
Thank you, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
