School rant

I'm taking Photojournalism and Advanced Photography this semester. My Journalism teacher, Bender, is awesome. She's very supportive, encouraging, positive, "don't take no for an answer," "you have a right to be there." A journalist. She's also challenging. Journalism requires people skills. Anyone that knows me in real life knows that People Skills 101 was the class I did not take. :] So, it's a good experience for me. I have to ask for names, ages, WTFs and YTFs and HTFs, I have to kiss ass... It's great. If I ever want to take pictures of concerts and celebrities and musicians... This is the way to go. That, and hang out. I need to be willing to spend the day; company would be nice, but at present I only know people that would eventually start whining. Very sad.

Advanced Photography, on the other hand... Ferris has a stick up his ass. Our first assignment was... "Show Me Your Best." He didn't want anything recycled. He wanted our best stuff at that point. Okay. We get that assignment back. I think maybe two people got a B, the rest all got a C. Uhm, okay... You just met most of us. How do you know what our best is and isn't? How do we make up this First, Introductory Assignment? That's like taking a test of abilities for the first time, with only the knowledge you have walking in, and then, after learning more skills and tricks and shortcuts, you take the test again. Of course it'll be better this time. YOU LEARNED MORE. That's not the assignment.

Next assignment was framing. Got a C on that. I didn't care; I hated Framing the second I learned it was a compositional technique. It's worse than the S Curve. S Curves are at least considered "Leading Lines." Framing is crap 90% of the time that I'm presented with it. He showed us a bunch of examples of it. They all sucked in my view. There was ONE example he showed us. The framing was secondary, if not Tertiary, to the main subject. The photo was of two dogs fighting beside a bridge archway. Were the dogs framed? No. The city in the background behind the bridge was framed in the archway. The city was washed out by the sunlight and smog. The Dogs were clearly the main focused, and they weren't framed. You know who showed me good examples of framing, and only two so far? Bender. Her own work. Her own, Non set-up work. Her Journalism, "don't let the subject know you're photographing them" shots. I. Hate. Framing.

The next assignment was "Unusual Perspective." How nice. I like this assignment. I get to take all sorts of weird shots. :D I went to the fire station and took pictures inside their garage. I climbed all over the fire truck, got under it; zoomed in close to valves and guages; took photos of their sweaty, crumbled up equipment (not sure what the actual name of the boots/pants/suspenders are...); took a photo of their hangers; got a reflection shot of the driver's window; got a shot that I have no idea what it was now that I look at it, it was so unsual; took pictures of chrome. I printed a picture of the bumper (Read: A corner of the grill) and the folded up firehose that was inside the cubby. I turn them in and get them back the following week. He holds them up to critique in front of the class. He gives me rave reviews for the chrome and hose texture, how great it is that I got it to look like metal, etc. etc. etc. "But I want to see more of it." (Read: I want it zoomed out.) He couldn't even tell that it was a grill, that's how "unusual" the shot was. "I want to see more." ... What part of UNUSUAL in "Unusual Perspective" are we not agreeing on? I realize that the actual assignment is open to interpretation. Robin Williams on a tricycle counts as unusual perspective. It's a different take on things. No. He wants "more." Not more photos of the grill, not a sprawled out shot of the hose... Zoomed out more. I got a C on that one.

I just turned in the Love assignment. Can't wait to see the big fat "75 = C+" on the back of THAT one when he hands it back.