Friday, February 20, 2009

Success!!

 

I successfully got up, went to the gym, and was at my desk by 8:45 this morning! How awesome is that!?! We are inching towards 9:45 now and I haven't made a ton of progress, but a few odds and ends are done and momentarily I will start reading those nasty documents which I will finish today! Yay! It is cold again, so I've broken out an ice picture. Technically from a few weeks ago when there was quite a bit of ice around, but it is still freezing out, so I'm going with it.

 

In other news, first photography class was last night. Oh my god, that guy is a pompous asshole! Comically so. It was ridiculous. I'm not saying there is no chance we will learn anything, but god lord that man needs some lessons in being a teacher. First, he made lots of references to how awesome he is while trying to claim he was not awesome. He referred to "those famous photographers" and then said things like, "I'm not famous, well I'm getting famous, but..." Ok, good for you. And there were too many other such similar things--repeated scoffing at amateur photographers, discussions of how idiot beginners do this or that, etc, etc Seriously, we are obviously amateurs!! THAT'S WHY WE ARE TAKING THIS CLASS. Next week he will be critiquing our pictures, many of which I'm sure he will think suck, but that's fine. The thing is, he has good information. The main thing I've learned from all my internet investigations of composition and the like is it is all about becoming more aware of everything that is in your picture, how those things relate to each other, and what they are telling the viewer. ie, in the most basic lessons, pay attention to if that building in the background will look like it is coming out of someone's head, etc, etc and he had lots of new things to consider and some good info on how people look at photos. And lets face it, B (introducing boyfriend, B), had a good time mocking him after, and I will be curious to hear what he thinks of our photos even I'm planning to take it with a grain of salt. But let’s not be so dogmatic about things. People have different tastes. Apparently he has a strong preference for rolling hills, I like jagged mountains, he informs me they don't make "pleasant, inviting" pictures, end of story. I can like them, but they are not pleasant. Clearly we are just not on the same page there and I've seen some amazing pictures of dangerous places. So since when is "pleasant" the only measure of "good?" Plus, as someone who was recently writing a teaching philosophy and has struggled in many hours of sections getting people to talk and given that B has taken many an education course to get that teaching certification, it was comical the extent to which this guy could use some pointers on being a teacher. You absolutely cannot preface a question by telling your students that they will not get the answer you want and then actually expect people to answer the question! Ok I'm done. Mocking is over. The above is a picture of a "texture pattern," something we discussed. As far as I can tell, it might meet with his approval, although not the most exciting photo ever in my humble opinion! :)
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