skool

This semester I’m enrolled in Photography II: Color, Techniques of Photographic Lighting, and History of Photography. I had better not figure out, halfway through the semester, that photography isn’t actually that cool. So far this is pretty much the most exciting semester ever, despite that classes don’t start until 2pm, meaning I don’t have quite enough time to work in the morning, and must therefore run around trying to work 3 jobs after 3pm.

But back to classes. Photo II focuses on color correction on the enlarger and playing with color filters on the camera and the enlarger rather than Photo I where we pretty much just explored depth of field and contrast with different techniques. Lighting seems like its going to a free-for-all where Kneessi sets up lights, explains what the lights are doing today, and then the class forces someone to model and paparazzi-ies them to death. We’re allowed to shot film or digital for either class, but I figure I’ll learn more shooting film, especially since I only bought the required filters for my 50mm lens. I’ll be forcing myself to do a lot more work for the same effects, and that should making shooting digital even more of a breeze when I go back to journalism-y things.

I’m also taking the online version of Media Materials and Processes in which we do three presentations: one each with PowerPoint, iMovie, and Flash. My hidden agenda is that next semester I’ll be able to take QuarkXpress, thus making it one step further toward industry-standard journalism skills.