Freeze Frame

Just a quickie post to update anyone who might be interested on my school shenanigans…

I can’t believe how much I’ve learned in such a short time…almost 4 weeks to be exact!  I also keep learning how much I don’t know!

Some of you heard me whine mention the rigorous school schedule I have.  One day was particularly rough, a sunrise shoot with a Canon tech rep at Lee Metcalf Wildlife Reserve in Stevensville, Montana.  This required a 3:00 am wake-up and shoot, then class from 9:00 am to 10:00 pm!

Besides getting to play with $11,000 lenses, this was really a lesson in exposure and later a lesson in Lightroom using something called the gradient tool (I’ll never look at landscapes the same again).  And I seem to have a thing for dead trees?

Just after we think we’ve got the technical stuff down, they teach us to break the rules!  One of them was photographing out of focus.  I have to say that I actually love that, it gives a photo a beautiful ethereal feeling.  I loved the below photo so much that it was my choice for printing class.

I was excited to learn a little bit about night photography, it has the potential to be so beautiful.  This shot is of the old 9th Street bridge in Great Falls.

And we are learning fun stuff like painting with light.  I did the below photo in my walk-in closet with a mirror and two types of lights.  Talk about fun (and harder than it looks since you can’t tell what your have done until after the photo processes in the camera).

How about this technique?  It’s called ghosting, for obvious reasons.  Insanely cool!  What do you think of my orange pot?  Found it at a second hand store, love at first site for me!  (BTW this is my place and that TV tray was acquired from a little dumpster diving and is my “dining room table” for now.

We also did a field trip to the Augusta Rodeo, the lighting was horrible so I practiced panning with a slow shutter speed, cool huh?

We have finally started doing studio work, I have my second studio lab tomorrow, yeah!  I’m also working on a big mid-term slide show.  The criteria: 20 to 30 slides, with a theme, set to music and will be shown to the entire school!

Here’s a hint of what my slide show will be about…I haven’t got it all buttoned up yet but I’m getting there.  So far I’ve taken over 700 pictures for it…no really I have, that roughly translates 4 decent shots out of 100.  So I ask myself “am I that crappy? do other photographers take an insane amount to only use a few? or do I just have high standards?.  The answer is probably some of all three!

Time to sign off and get back to homework!  Miss you all!