Remaining Teachable

I remember when I found out that our Photography course was going to include black and white photography and printmaking. I had some preconceived notions about black and white photography. I could not figure out why we would be working with antiquated technology with 35mm film when today's world is so deeply rooted in digital technology. In retrospect, I would not trade my black and white photography and printmaking experience for anything. There is something beautiful about the art of black and white photography that cannot be explained. Rather, it must be experienced.

There were a couple of students enrolled in my class that had previously taken photography classes and claimed to have digital photography experience. Suffice it to say that the experience they had did not help them to succeed. Those students did not do nearly as well as students, such as myself, that had no practical photography experience beforehand. There is a lesson in all of this. The moral of the story is that in order to learn and progress, we must remain teachable.

I have barely scratched the surface when it comes to photography skill. When you have little knowledge to build upon, your learning curve is the steepest. When I look at how far many of my classmates and myself progressed over the course of a semester, it is amazing. As a beginner, there are two ways to learn photography. One is in the classroom and the other is out in the field. I am of the opinion that the two types of learning are symbiotic. I do not believe I could have grown nearly as much if I was just getting information off the internet and going out shooting. The feedback and the ability to ask questions in the classroom have proven invaluable.

I feel that taking graduate level courses, engaging in some self-directed online learning and practice in the field will help me to continue learning at a rapid pace. Seeing other people's work gives me inspiration, but I believe that there are still some technical aspects of photography that I can build upon to help me progress well beyond where I am with the art at the moment.

Progress, Not Perfection

I got a chance to do a little more work in the darkroom last week. I made prints from some negatives I had not used for previous assignments. We needed a total of 15 prints for our final portfolio. It turns out that I had 15 prints that I was willing to have critiqued. With a couple of minor tweaks, I earned an A on my final portfolio. I realize this just means that I am making excellent progress considering where I am at in the process. However, there were times not long ago that I doubted whether I could progress to the point I have currently. So, I am proud of what I have accomplished.

There were times that I was very frustrated with the time requirements of my photography class. However, all of the time I have put in paid off handsomely. I built a great foundation with skills I can build on to improve my photography and chemical processing skills.

I have been offered the Graduate Assistant position in the Photography lab at the University of Wisconsin-Stout for the 2010-2011 school year. The duties include keeping inventory, mixing chemicals and supervising other lab assistants. I look forward to not only taking care of the day-to-day tasks necessary to keep the lab running, but also the opportunity to help the undergraduate students who will inevitably approach me for help.

Underexposure

I have used three different cameras to shoot the work for my weekly assignments. One thing I have noticed is that different cameras will meter "normal exposure" differently. There are some things I like about each camera I have used. The camera I am using now has an aperture priority mode. This is suitable for the majority of my shooting.

I am having problems with exposure now that lighting conditions are so much brighter. I had gotten used to shooting in low light and low contrast conditions that are common in the winter when there is not much snow on the ground. I am going to have to experiment a little bit to overcome this problem. I am assuming that I am getting some shots that are underexposed because the brighter areas in a scene are telling the camera to use a faster shutter speed.

As much as I prefer the way the camera I am currently using feels in my hand, I may go back to using my Pentax K1000. In bright conditions, I cannot even see the shutter speed the camera is choosing, as displayed in the viewfinder.

On the other hand, I may try changing my Exposure Value on the camera I am currently using and see how I fare. I really do like some of the features of the camera. If I can solve the underexposure problem, I am willing to live with some of the camera's other shortcomings since I like the way it feels in my hand, prefer the auto wind and auto advance, ability to uses aperture and shutter priority modes, etc.

Some of the nuances of photography dictate that a little bit of one-on-one instruction out in the field could go a long, long way. Unfortunately, we do not have that opportunity in the class I am taking. Sometimes, all of the explanation and discussion in the classroom has less value than firsthand experience. I have learned quite a bit by going out and shooting myself. I guess I will have to continue with some of the experimentation and see what conclusions can be drawn from my results. Assuming I REMEMBER to compensate with EV the next time I go out shooting, I should be able to document the results in next week's post.

Ready to Go!

One thing that improves photography is getting out and taking photos. Busy work does little to improve photography. Blogs, Twitter and all of the other BS is a waste of time and energy. I'm quite tired of having it shoved down my throat, thank you very much.

I am glad I have the summer off. I will be taking time to go out and shoot and make improvements in my photography skills. I have made a good bit of progress up to this point. I am confident I will earn an A on my final portfolio. Goal accomplished.

Looking Forward

Although, in many ways this week has been uneventful, I have made some decisions in regard to my future. Initially, I had my mind set on taking Photography II at UIS. I had gotten permission to enroll in the tutorial from the instructor. I decided that since the course does not include any classroom support that I am going to take a pass on that opportunity. Considering by the time I pay tuition and fees, it will cost me upwards of $1200 to go out and shoot photos on my own, it makes more sense to just get out and shoot the photos without lining UIS' pocket.

I am not going to worry about getting a Visual Arts Minor. The great news about this is that I can move on to graduate school without having to jump through any more of the hoops at UIS. It is a great weight off my shoulders knowing I am done here.

I am going to attend the University of Wisconsin-Stout. I will have many opportunities to expand not only my photography skills, but actual skills that can be used in the real world. A change of scenery has been much needed for a long time. Unfortunately, once you start attending a school and accumulate hours you are stuck like prey in a spider's web. If Universities were forced to accept transfer credits from other accredited Universities, schools such as UIS would actually have to serve the students rather than the other way around.

Not every aspect of my experience here at UIS has been bad. Fortunately, I have met a handful of people that have been helpful in mentoring and encouraging me along the way. My path may have been quite different were it not for those individuals.

In the meantime, I am going to continue to practice and improve my photography. I will take advantage of having the summer off by going out and shooting with some more experienced photographers. I will be able to spend more time exploring online sources that can help me to learn and improve myself. I have built a great foundation and can continue to learn and develop (pun intended) from there.

Wiggle Room

Last week I discovered that my camera has a tendency toward overexposure to the tune of about half an F-Stop. Overexposure is much easier to deal with than underexposure. There is a saying that you expose for shadow detail and develop your film for highlight detail. I have found that if you overexpose your shots slightly, you are much better off than having underexposed the shots. Underexposure means shadow detail will not be on the film due to "thin" negatives. Particularly for a beginner, such as myself, one is much further ahead to err on the side of over exposure. However, there is much more latitude in highlight detail. Therefore, if film is slightly overexposed, shadow detail is plentiful and highlight detail can be obtained with slightly longer exposure times on the enlarger when making prints.

Now that spring is upon us, shooting Black and White film is a whole new ballgame. As I mentioned, my camera tends to slightly over expose shots. This fact helped to ameliorate the problem of underexposure of scenes that are highly reflective of light, such as snowy landscapes. Snow and other highly reflective surfaces tend to "fool" a camera meter into thinking there is enough light available for proper exposure in a given scene. For proper exposure in such a circumstance, it can be helpful to meter the highlights in a given scene and then to meter the shadows. A good place to start is to split the difference, take a shot, open up a half F-stop (or slow your shutter speed if you prefer to use shutter speed as your priority), and then open up another half stop and take another shot. I believe taking a third shot opened up another half-stop is overkill, but I am rather new to photography and may find it is necessary under certain circumstances in the future. This procedure lends itself to giving plenty of latitude, particularly if you may not get the opportunity to take a particular shot again.

There are also some instances where the above procedure is necessary during nicer weather. For example, shots of white sand, sky or other highly reflective surfaces will require this procedure when composing shots that must also include shadow detail. On the other hand, almost any winter shot with snow on the ground is going to require a little extra work in properly setting a camera for the best results.

I did not have to fight under exposure nearly as much as some others in my class just due to the fact that my camera metered "normal exposure" differently than theirs. In other words, by dumb luck, I did not have to fight underexposure to the degree many of the others did. When I found out my camera metering was "off," my initial reaction was that I would have to shoot all of my shots closed down by half a step. I have since decided that I quite like that half stop of "cushion" and I will continue to use it until such time comes that I have found reason not to. In the meantime, I continue to learn and try to keep an open mind.

Spring Break was Refreshing!

Wow! I needed some time off. Spring break came at a great time for me since I found myself burning the candle at both ends. In my last photo class before spring break, our professor displayed several photos from previous student's portfolios. These photos were representative of "A" quality work. I was rather impressed by some of the photos, particularly because most of the students had little or no prior experience in photography. I was left wondering how I was ever going to produce photos that would measure up.

My new found passion for photography has driven me to have very high expectations of myself. Particularly considering I am a newcomer to photography and art. Until jumping in with both feet this semester, the last time I was exposed to art to any degree was on a school field trip in fifth grade. Nonetheless I had made my mind up early on that anything less than earning an "A" in my first photography class would be viewed as a major disappointment.

All of our course assignments, up to the mid term of the semester, had been designed to teach us basics such as lighting, aperture and shutter speed; and their relationships to achieving a desired effect in photographs. While I could see myself growing in regard to technical or mechanical aspects of photography, I was chafing at the bit to begin work on the artistic or creative aspects of subject matter as well as shot composition. I was dying to figure out if I had the requisite creativity to produce decent photographs.

While I am not the type to fall in love with my own work, some of the shots that I was able to capture over spring break were impressive--particularly when I consider that I came into class with virtually no working knowledge of photography whatsoever.

In shooting just two rolls of film, I captured some images that meet the standard of photographs such as those shown to us from previous student portfolios. I was able to capture several shots I can use for my final portfolio for class! Due to the fact that we need to produce two shots for our portfolio per week for the rest of the semester, having a surplus will help to eliminate some of the pressure that I surely would have put upon myself throughout the remainder of the semester. These shots have upped the ante regarding the quality of work I will expect of myself as I continue to improve my photography skills over the course of the semester. As I make improvements in my photography skills, I can pick and choose to replace photos from the pool of photos that already meet the standards required to earn an "A" on my portfolio.

Keeping things in perspective, I certainly have not become Ansel Adams overnight. Small successes have been helpful in building the confidence I needed in order to realize that pursuing my interest in photography is not a mistake, nor wasted energy for which I will never be rewarded for my hard work and dedication. Discovering whether or not I have potential to be a good photographer has been of considerable concern to me since the graduate program I have been accepted to has an option for concentrating on visual communications with a strong emphasis on photography course work.