What I’ve Learned…

• It really IS useful to know some of the history of your medium…  and to study the work of other photographers… past and present.
• I’m not afraid to put the camera on “manual” anymore.  I still need to learn a bunch more and practice a bunch more… But I’m not afraid!  (OK, “afraid” may be too strong a term.)
• I work best when I let the images themselves suggest a project, rather than deciding on a project and trying to force myself to take “those” pictures.
• You don’t need the most expensive, best glass to make effective images.
• It’s getting less scary to photograph people (and let them photograph me).
• Related:  there are other subjects besides nature.  Who knew?
• It’s kind of fun to work in black and white…

Many thanks, Mark Kirsch, our instructor, for all you brought to class.  I got what I was looking for, and oh so much more.  Many thanks also to my classmates, from whom I learned a great deal, too.

Maddie

Cribbage

That Point and Shoot Camera I Told You About

For Scott:

Here’s a photo taken by Dave Cooney’s son with his new camera.

The camera: Canon SX 20 IS, 12.3 MP and 20x zoom

Class Notes

Tonight, Mark introduced us to the work of Milton Rogovin, a native of and current resident of Buffalo, NY who will celebrate his 100th birthday at the end of this month.

We saw samples of his work, a video segment from the Morning Show with Charles Kuralt, and other video clips from the Rogovin website.

Here are two from his “Working People” portfolio, in which he photographed folks at work, then at home.

There is an exhibit currently on display at the Burchfield-Penney Gallery in Buffalo through January 3, 2010. For more information, click –> here.

Also remarkable was the poetry Rogovin has written about some of his photos. Click –> here.

Happy Birthday, Milton! And thank you for your inspiring body of work.

Class

Project 5

I’m (sort of) done with Project 5.  You can view it here:

http://deeplypersonal.wordpress.com/

I say “sort of” because I keep tweaking it… and adding more “Journal entries” to it…

Class Notes

Mark introduced us to TED:

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Program, the new TEDx community program, this year’s TEDIndia Conference and the annual TED Prize.

In particular, we watched a 20 minute video in which nature photographer James Balog gave a talk about the Extreme Ice Survey – photographic evidence of Global Warming. Incredible time-lapse sequences of glaciers calving and retreating at alarming rates.

After the video, we each worked on our own projects.  Scott had brought in a package of paper, so several folks printed more work.

I became curious about Balog’s other work.  He has a website, of course.  Click –> here.

Platon – Portraits of Power

I heard an interview on NPR. A photographer who goes by only one name – Platon – was given a gift – a studio in the United Nations during a time when many world dignitaries would be visiting.

To go to the NPR story, click –> here.
To see all 50 photos, go to the New Yorker site by clicking –> here.

Class Notes

Tonight was a work session. We cranked up the printer and several of us made a few prints.

Scott will pick up a box of 100 sheets of paper from Sam’s Club for next class. Interested classmates can pitch in and buy sheets from him.

Jen asked about photography podcasts. Mark told us about this website: