Another Photography Assigment

Okay. Assignment #4 was my favorite. I like landscapes, so this Space/Place/Land project was right up my alley. Professor Buzzy told us to shoot a space that we can go back to several times. "Don't just show up someplace and take a bunch of photos. Trust me. I can tell when you do that." Yikes. Okay.

I chose the canal/Paseo Trail as my subject for several reasons. First, it's a quarter mile from my house, so it was easy to revisit. The fact that we have mountain biking conditioning practice once a week made it a convenient choice, too. Third, I have a strong connection with the canal after walking, running, and biking on it so often over so many years. We are tight, the canal and I. And lastly, though it's certainly a modern marvel that allows us to live in this dry desert, the idea of the canals is an ancient technique engineered by the Hohokam. It's remarkable that these canals are not only still supporting life but also enriching lives by serving as a beautiful space for so much activity.

I tried my best, as always, but really enjoyed being there and trying to capture how valuable and special this particular stretch of canal is to me. This was my favorite assignment so far, and according to my grade Professor Buzzy felt it was my best submitted work.

I woke up early one morning, packed my camera in my backpack, hopped on my bike, and arrived at the canal just before sunrise. The light was really pretty then, so I got a few good landscape shots.

I took this one during our evening practice. None of the bikers in this photo are on our team. Yet. Matthew is being groomed for next year.

This next photo was taken in the early morning. I set up my shot and waited a long time for a cyclist to breeze through this still intersection. Then I waited some more. Finally I saw a runner approaching and thought that will have to do! I liked how it turned out, even though he's blurry. Though I would have preferred him blurrier (like a cyclist would have been) but I decided to get the runner and didn't have time to change my shutter speed. Blurry was what I was going for to show movement through the stillness. It does the job. And when I got home and edited the image, I realized that is Elizabeth's former PE teacher!

The canal provides a lovely habitat for wildlife, too.

Though the city has created a really beautiful path, the canal's true purpose isn't superficial; it's one of supreme importance. I tried to get some industrial shots to illustrate that.

A little flora to go with the fauna.

Water is life!

Here's another shot from our evening practice. Night shots are a challenge. Always.

My friend Aimee said these make her want to run the canal again. I think I'll stick to the bike.

Assignment 3

Our third photography assignment focused on portraits. We had to submit 10-12 portraits of one person. Professor Buzzy was very firm in his expectations. He really did want us to photograph only one person because he didn't want any of us to put a bunch of our co-workers up against a white wall and take the same photo twelve times in ten minutes and call it done. While that makes sense, let me just tell you that it's very hard to take ten to twelve good photos of the same person in a two-week period. Especially if you choose your ten-year-old son who's just not in to this.

Matthew was a good sport generally, though. He'd roll his eyes when he'd see me pick up the camera, but that's about it. He mostly likes to get his picture taken. What I didn't realize is how often he wears the same shirts.

I took this one after the last day of school before fall break. I told him to look happy that school was out for 18 days. I would have been better if I could figure out how to get him out of the shadows.

Here he is helping to get rid of some spider mites that were on our front plants.

And he helped get the water jugs ready for a mountain biking ride. By the way, we don't fill them with hose water.

I got a few shots of him during game time.

We visited some friends at their neighborhood park, so I took advantage of the unfamiliar landscape and outdoor lighting.

Professor Buzzy didn't say the one person had to be alone in all the photos.

The next few were taken while we were at the bike race in Sierra Vista.

As usual, the best shots were taken while we were away. Our house and yard really are not that interesting. The kids and I took a trip to Flagstaff while Brian was in Germany, and our hike was the best place for good photos.

He was a pretty good subject after all.

ART142 Assignment 2

I'll continue with my photography class assignments because that's an easy way to keep this posting streak alive without having to think too much about content.

Our second assignment was called "8-3-8." For five consecutive days, we had to take a photo at 8 am, 3 pm, and 8 pm. Wherever we found ourselves at those times of the day, we had to find something interesting to take a photo of. That sounds easier than it is. Again, some photos were better than others, but luckily this project was assigned over the weekend Matthew and I went to cub scout camp together so my mundane life wasn't as apparent.

8 am Thursday

Let's just say I was not in the mood for this class, this project, or taking stupid photos. I was "letting Buzzy have it" here by showing him how dumb this idea is. As if he cares what I think. I was also angry at Matthew for not making his bed. Whatevs.

3 pm Thursday

Um. I pick up Elizabeth from her bus stop at 3 pm every day. "Ooooo. A fence!" Ya. Not so much.

8 pm Thursday

There was just no way I was putting any effort into anything that day.

8 am Friday
"What the heck is there to take a photo of?" Nothing really interesting. Nope. Neighbor's ripped flag it is!

3 pm Friday

More like 5 or 6 pm because it takes a while to drive to Flagstaff. Not the best composition or exposure, but at least it's more interesting, no?

8 pm Friday

If you don't have a campfire going at 8 pm, you're not camping right.

8 pm Saturday

The pine trees at sunrise were inspiring. I love pine trees. This one is my favorite.

3 pm Saturday

I just needed some alone time for a moment. Why not take a photo while I'm in the tent? Done.

8 pm Saturday

Because I camp right. This is probably my second favorite.

8 am Sunday

Um. Not much happening that morning.

3 pm Sunday
This was actually taken Saturday afternoon, but I forgot to get one on Sunday so I cheated. I love how genuinely happy Matthew looks here. I mean is here.

8 pm Sunday

I'm 41, so by 8 pm I'm exhausted and in my pajamas. The backyard had to do.

8 am Monday
Is this over yet? At least Ringo is always photogenic.

3 pm Monday

Listen, Buzzy. This is stupid. I'm uninspired. Here's a photo of my car after it spent the weekend in the dirt. Wow. Try not to think too hard about it.

8 pm Monday

Clearly I just didn't care anymore so I took a picture of Elizabeth's homework. Buzzy had plenty to say about my white balance on this one. 

There you have it. The most boring and uninspiring assignment I recall doing. Ever.

Back to College

My friend Aimee and I decided to take a photography class at the community college right next door to our neighborhood. We both have nice cameras, and we wanted to learn how to use them properly. So over the summer, we went to the college and registered for the fall semester. How that went should have been a sign.

Talk about fish out of water. We stood in a line for a few moments only to be told to go over to a bank of computers to input our registration information. Next we had to wait to be called over to a window in which an employee actually registered us for our class. Only they never called us over. We waited. And waited some more. Finally, the lady called my name in a rather aggravated tone. When I went to her and sat down, she asked me if I hadn't been receiving the text messages. I checked my phone with the ringer on silent, and there were two messages requesting my presence at Window 2. Oops. Sorry. I forgot we live in the digital world. However, you're like thirty feet from me and this place is pretty much deserted. I'd hear you. Like I did. Whatever. At least I was ready and reported swiftly to the next window to pay for the class upon receipt of another text message instructing me to report to another window.

Yes. That should have been a sign that this was not going to go well.

A few months later, it was our first day of school. We walked in, sat down (not next to each other because we were going to take this seriously!), and then everything came crashing down on us.

Professor Buzzy (he just goes by Buzzy, but I like to say Professor Buzzy--not to him but pretty much everyone else) made it clear that this was not an instructional class on how to use our cameras. This was an art class. ART142 to be exact. He joked that by the end of this class we'd all be walking around museums in berets, but was it a joke? I don't know. He's very artsy. He's very hipstery. He's the kind of person I feel laughs at people like me, and he makes me uncomfortable and insecure. Well, maybe he did. I've gotten over that a bit lately mostly because he is not a very good teacher. That somehow evens things out for me.

I do my best, but since the first assignment I don't get upset or panic when things aren't going right. That could be because things don't go right an awful lot, and if I got upset each time I'd probably lose my mind. But I do try and I do put in the effort as much as I reasonably allow. Let's face it, my livelihood does not and will not ever depend on what grade I get in this class. I took the class for fun, and though it's been mostly nothing but dreadful I suppose I can concede that I have learned a few things.

I did learn how to use my camera. I mostly learned all that I wanted to know in the first two classes. We learned the theory, and though it was difficult to figure it all out when applying it to real life experience in taking photos, I eventually figured it out. What I do not enjoy, and what this class mostly focuses on, is editing my photos in Photoshop.

Buzzy is big into editing. He edits every photo and expects us to do the same. I took the class so I could take good pictures, not so I could fix pictures that aren't so good. But I'm doing it anyway because that's what it takes. I'm not happy about it, but I signed up for it, paid $300, and I'm not a quitter or money waster.

So far we've turned in four assignments. I'll share these with you so you can quietly determine if I'm getting any better at this. At all. I feel like I'm not. I have a feeling that all this overthinking is ruining it for me. I think setting the camera on auto and shooting jpgs is what I need to do. Shooting in raw and editing images doesn't feel like a good use of my time. There are  seven weeks left, though, so I'll keep on keeping on and see how this ends.

In the meantime, here is my first assignment--Shoot What You Know. After two lessons on camera basics, he sent us off to try these new techniques on whatever we found interesting. Um. Yeah. Some aren't very interesting, but he gave us a few parameters to meet like take a photo in the middle of the day in the bright sun, include a circle/triangle/square, indoors, something behind something, something in front of something, etc. We were supposed to take hundreds of photos (and I did) and submit our best 10-12. Some images are better than others, but feel free to critique. To yourself. Surviving in-class critiques is a challenge each time.