When the last day of photography class (this past Monday) rolled around. I was filled with a stream of emotion. It wasn’t easy going into the last day of class. And I had to say goodbye to the students and it just did not seem right. Thank goodness I made a very good friend (Sarah) who I adore and look up to. Her photography is amazing!

When I think about it, these last two weeks have been nothing short of an emotional ride leading up to my final exam project.

This shot I took the other night (30 second exposure) – I’m using this shot as as a sign of my burning flame of passion.

As you recall from earlier posts, Jack assigned me to take shots of strangers. I did not want to do that. In fact, Jack cornered me and told me that he wanted to SEE what I could do.

That’s all it took to light the fire of passion in me to get out there and DO IT! It’s hard to put in words just how much this whole process moved me.

I never recall in my life something burning in me like this last exam. Come to think of it, I don’t recall (in my life) a teacher challenging me and believing in me like Jack.

More tears came during my final exam when I stood up there in front of the class. Tears erupted from the deepest part of my soul and trickled down my cheeks.

As I told the story behind each shot, I was thankful I did not give up. It wasn’t so much the shots as it was the feeling of victory. I did exactly what he asked me to do and I was proud of that. Not in a look at me sort of way, rather that inner sweet peace you get when you know you gave it all you have to give.

Here is a note via e-mail from my professor yesterday morning. – It moved me to tears yet again.

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Good morning Deborah…

I thought I would let you know that not only did you receive the highest overall grade for our class. You received the HIGHEST grade ever recorded in the history of my Photo 150 class!!!

You are a GEM and it has been a pleasure to have instructed you in Digital Photography.

I hope you continue in your newly found passion.

It is students like you that make my job as professor an enjoyable one.

Thank you for being you.

Jack

A few things I told Jack –

• Thank you for stretching me this semester.
• I walk away with confidence I never knew existed.
• I feel so blessed to have you guide me on the path of my dreams.
• Thank you for believing in me and to push me to do something I would never consider doing.
• I truly can’t thank you enough.
• I had it in my notes to thank you for that. I’m sorry I didn’t follow my notes..

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Never give up, even when you are being pushed to the limit. It takes believing in yourself to do the things you never thought possible.

In that case, I too can be one of the “Rockettes”. Every time I hear Mannheim Steamroller play Joy To The World, I imagine myself as a Rockette dancing my heart out. And when I told my hubby all about that dream he said, You can be anything you want to be. Man I love my hubby and I’m so blessed that he believes in me.

Blessings – Debbie

It’s final exam week and I have been in stitches.

I worried a LOT!

I was afraid of the unknown = of taking shots of people I don’t know.

But I’m here to report, it went so much better than I could have dreamed.

My friend “Sarah” – (she and her husband are professional photographers in the area) from class offered to go with me on my assignment.

I want a lens just like hers – It’s on my wish list…

It made a HUGE difference having my shutterbug buddy along with me.

Balboa Park – This is the place Jack assigned to me.

The atmosphere was just what I needed to help calm my fear.

I walked thru the door and didn’t turn back.

I’m so glad I did.

Here’s a little station taking shape. I thought it was too pretty not to capture.

I have more to report. So much so that I’ve decided to post a little series of our day in Balboa Park.

I’m so happy Jack pushed me into the great unknown. It’s something I wouldn’t have done on my own. Here’s a great big “SHOUT OUT” to Jack. Thank you! I have confidence I didn’t know existed.

Blessings – Debbie

Why The Unknown? Another fitting title could be “Be Careful What You Wish For”

My post (yesterday on FB) stated “I hope to learn something new in class” – thus, Be careful what you wish for.

To be completely honest, I was pushed by Jack (my photography teacher) to do something I have not perfected. Something that makes me uncomfortable. The unknown is where I’m headed and I’m scared. Let me explain.

The Final Exam looms and we have just over a week and 1/2 to complete the assignment.

The assignment is “Free Choice” – in other words, we can shoot what we want. We must present 6 pictures mounted and ready for presentation by Monday, December 10. The assignment also calls for “HIGH RISK“.

What is high risk? I want to know. I want to nail it. I’m hungry. And I think Jack sees that in me.

This photo is not related to this post. Just a shot I took yesterday morning to calm my every nerve for the upcoming exam.

While other students brain stormed with a range of ideas from landscape to macro – in class (this week – Monday). I sat in a trans wondering “what does Jack want, what will he consider high risk, what can I possibly do?”

After much talk and strategy during the open discussion, I asked the question – What is high risk? PEOPLE! Jack blurted out PEOPLE! People are high risk, he said. And he went on to say, not the cheesy posed couple with the guys arm draped around his lover’s shoulder with the cheesy grin. It’s the shot that captures emotion, feeling, attitude…And he spoke those words with such passion.

He gave us an assignment Monday to come prepared for class Wednesday (yesterday) with ideas we’ve gathered online of the direction we want to go.

You guessed it, I selected “people”. I want high risk, I’m up for challenge, I want to go after something where I have the potential to fail.

I came prepared with 5 pages of ideas and each page had a total of 12 pictures for a total of 60 inspirational shots. I made my pitch and presentation to the class stating that I was going to use my husband and me as my subjects.

Oh NO you won’t! Blurted Jack. You WILL take shots of people you DON’T know. You will go to ____________ he even named the place I’m going to go stating that I will find all sorts of interesting people to shoot. He stated the above so firm as tho my assignment were no longer free choice but Jack’s Choice.

I spun my head around and gave him “the look”. It wasn’t pretty. My eyes were of the beady nature, my brow narrowed and wrinkled and my expression was none other than “oh no I won’t!”

And he laughed! Of all things my teacher let out such a belly laugh at my expression alone.

And then he said (to the students) “you should have seen her expression!”

And then he pinned me in a corner and said “I want to see what you can do – you have it in you – I want to see it!”

It’s then when I realized that Jack sees a hunger in me that lacks in many of his students. And he is pushing me like no other student.

I’m scared – No, it’s not about the grade – I’m worried – And it’s not because I don’t believe interesting people will not be there that day – I can’t sleep – It’s because my head is spinning a million miles a second – I have a tear trickling down my cheek this second – Why? Because I’m hungry, I want it bad, I really want it bad. More tears just trickled as I wrote that.

I’m GOING to do this! Honestly? I’m still scared, but I’m not going to let fear stand between me and the outcome. And I’m going to thank Jack for it.

Sometimes we are pushed over the edge. And the only hope we have is our wings. We can choose to spread them or allow the weight of “the fear of failure” to crush us.

Blessings – Debbie

It’s one of those days when you wake at 5am and the wheels in your head start turning.

A day when coffee is consumed all day, because it’s soothing and calms me while I work.

It’s a day when you know then and there you will not be going back to sleep.

A day when you have better things to think about than to go back to sleep.

And all of this started (for me) yesterday afternoon.

I was sitting in photography class when I learned of our final exam. I sat in what felt like a state of panic. What was I going to do? You have no idea the questions, doubt and concern that flooded my thoughts at once.

I don’t want to do a good job, just to get the grade. I really want to do well and know in my heart that I did my best. And that to me, that is more important than the grade I get in the class. My wheels have not stopped turning and I’m already well on my way to figuring out how I’m going to execute the photos for the exam.

Speaking of grades, it’s something I’ve been obsessed with all semester. While I’m concerned with giving my best shot, I really want the grade to reflect my work. I started off getting 100 on every assignment for the first several weeks. And then…KA BOOM! Just like that Jack (the teacher) announced that he would not be passing out any more 100’s in this class. As he said, “there is always room to improve and nothing is ever 100%.” And you know what? He is absolutely right. But that didn’t stop me from doing my best. In fact, it pushed me.

If I can be perfectly honest, there is one grade that I’m not proud of. Yes, there was that one assignment when he dished out an 85%. I was devastated, but I deserved it. It was not because of the quality of the print, in fact he said the shots I presented were excellent quality. Only I failed to follow the directions. Even tho (at the time), I thought I nailed it. It was my best, but it still killed me.

After that, I continued to get really high grades on my assignments and he even gave me a few 100’s even tho he said he would not be giving them.

But yesterday was a pretty exciting day in class. A day when my grade shot up over 100. In fact, Jack dished 100% + I got an additional 20%. Here’s how it went down.

So last week our assignment was to edit a picture (everyone in the class did the same picture) by taking things out. But the goal was to make the shot look real, as though none of that stuff were there to begin with.

Below is the shot we were to work on. Circled in white are the areas I corrected. The bummer is, I had already spent 2 hours at this point. A car was already removed in the lower right and several of the lights and posts had already been removed.

So here’s where I was two hours in. The white circle in the bottom right corner represents the spot where the car was before I removed it.

11 hours later. Yes, I timed myself as it was insane! + it was the first time I’ve worked in Photoshop in nearly 15 years. Trust me, it’s not like picking up and riding a bike once you’ve already learned.

With that, Jack (our teacher) had us line up our work for critique. Then he had the students judge who came in 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Followed by saying “the student who comes in first, gets an extra 20 points for this assignment.”

I was humbled when the students in unison agreed that my work came in first.

That added 20 points more than made up for that lousy 85% (back when). In fact, that little extra bumped my GPA from a 97% to 99.2% in the class.

Now if I can pull thru with the final exam, I’ll feel pretty lucky. But most of all, it’s about giving my best shot. That “to me” is more important than “the grade”.

Blessings – Debbie

It seems days, no, weeks since I last posted.

Days have come and gone, the hubs was out of town, classes have come and gone and here I am learning more than I ever thought possible in one semester.

Like the other day, for example.

While filling the pool (I was indoors at the time), all of a sudden I heard what I thought sounded like rain. I had my doubts that it was rain as we had the most beautiful sunny day. But pray tell what could be making that noise?

Upon investigation, the hose had formed a bit of a fountain in the pool.

I found it to be a bit intriguing, so I used the motion tools I learned in photography class the other week.

It was fun toying with the camera settings to make the effect of freezing/stopping the water in its tracks.

On Veterans Day, I remembered Pa (my father-in-law) for serving our country during WWll. I wish I could have gotten to know you. And I wish I could have seen your humor and love in motion. I’m thankful for the stories I’ve heard and the pictures that help to put the pieces together. And thank You for my Dearest Hubby too, he’s amazing! I know you already know that. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

For this pic, I took a pic of Pa’s flag and then edited it in Photoshop by using the oil paint tool.

On Sunday, November 11, our pre-lit Christmas tree went up.

On Monday, November 12, the Christmas tree took shape but not without a few troubles.

A Rough Patch = When some of the lights on the old girl no longer work. Light At The End Of the Tunnel = When you just add more and forgetaboutit. A Rough Patch = When the old ribbon topper doesn’t work this year – Light At The End Of The Tunnel = When you go get more where that came from.

As we’re studying Photoshop (in class) this week, I put it to work on several pictures.

More Photoshop fun.

I never knew Photoshop could be this much fun!

Over the weekend, I narrowed it down to the exact photography class (Digital Darkroom) I’m taking next semester. There’s a lot to look forward to as I look to the New Year!

It’s that magical time of the year. I feel so blessed to be in this together with the one I love.

On that note, I hope to update more often than this last stretch.

Blessings – Debbie

The assignment this week is Free Choice! And it could not have come at a better time as this has been one of the buzziest weeks for us in a very long time.

The instructor scratched our 3 page writing assignment this semester and I literally had a jump for joy party. So there will be no more talk about writing that paper. (Sigh)

We were in LA for three days (over the weekend) helping our daughter get settled into her new home sweet home. And to be honest, there was not a lot of time to take pix up there. When I asked our daughter if I could use her as one of my subjects this week, she was not a fan stating she was a “hot mess”. I understood and honored her wishes and kept the camera tucked away.

Guess what? I went to two brand new places (for me) for the very first time in my life this week! The first place was Cheesecake Factory = major YUM factor + I had the best red velvet cheesecake in the world at that fine establishment.  AND we stepped inside IKEA for the first time ever, with our daughter as she was in the market for furniture.

We had quite the productive weekend, but now we are pretty much in the mood for some good relaxation.

I was able to get just over half of my assignment finished by shooting when I had a chance. I should be able to finish up by the time it is due for class this Wednesday.

I could not think of a better subject than autumn. It’s that glorious time of the year, so why not shoot it? So I did.

The steps I took:

• All shots were taken on the sidewalk leading up to our front door.
• The leaves were soaked with water as I had it in my head that they should be wet.
• As the water ran off the leaves (in the early shots), I noticed a hint of reflection.
• So I saturated the leaves and the sidewalk with water, creating a makeshift looking pond on the sidewalk.
• And with the snap of the shutter, here are a few creations.

I think this shot below is my absolute favorite. In fact, I’ll be mounting this on mount board this afternoon during class.

Another shot – I’m still amazed that a little bit of water created such a cool reflection. I’ll have to remember this…

I’m thankful for the little things that pop up to make the average shot a little more exciting.

That said, it’s time for me to call it a wrap and get myself ready for lab work and mounting today.

Blessings – Debbie 

Huh? My thoughts exactly when I first learned about the assignment for my class last week.

Do share, how does one paint with light? That’s my question exactly when I learned that I would actually be painting with light.

Photo Project – Painting With Light

Using Time or Bulb exposures and a flashlight can genterate fantastic and creative images.

Equipment – Flashlight – A “Maglite” or led flashlight works perfectly. An 8.5 x 11 sheet of black construction paper (recommended) to “cone” the light for more light control. Dark clothing. Cable Release or Romote and a Tripod.

Subject – Friends, family, objects found or placed. Automobiles, trees, buildings,You name it! All’s fair in this assignment.

Procedure – Using lenses of your choice, you are to place your camera on a tripod, open the shutter and, using a flashlight or other constant light source, “paint” your chosen subject (s) with light. Remember, painting with light is just like using a can of spray paint. The more you leave the “spray” (flashlight) in place, the more light and density will build. Be careful of ambient light such as street lights, window lights, etc. They can cause unintended density buildup…HAVE FUN! BE CREATIVE!

Having poured myself into this assignment and reading all of the directions at least 4 x’s, I got my things together and went to work.

Here’s how I created the subject (dragon) below.

First and foremost, I waited for it to get pitch black outside. Then I moved into our bedroom and closed the door. I did not want any extra light interrupting and spewing onto my nice black canvas.

I wore a long black sleeve shirt and dark bottoms “a must”!

I set up the ironing board and placed one of my solid black dresses over the top such that my canvas would be black when light bled onto it.  Then placed my subject.

Next, I got the tripod all set up with the camera. And set the shutter speed for a “LONG” 30 second opening = I used every bit of those 30 seconds to paint the dragon.

Using a small Maglite, I covered the end of the light with my thumb to give a red glow. I won’t go into the detail of how I discovered this, but I love the outcome.

Next I was in place behind the subject (pointing the light towards the camera), grabbing my remote with the other hand to engage the camera.

I had a full 30 seconds to paint what I wanted to achieve (fire).

I started on the right and worked quickly to get all the way around. When I reached the front left side, I had already positioned myself in front of the dragon. Then I quickly released my thumb from the tip of the light to produce that nice white glow at the base of the dragon. My hopes were to achieve the look of him in the clouds and I believe my goals were accomplished in the shot below.

Now, GO have some fun painting with light! Who KNEW this was possible?

For my next subject I used the hubs tools. These guys were placed on the ironing board and on top of my black dress as well.

Only this time, I took a dark piece of (rather thick) paper and formed it into a cone over the small Maglite. The tip (where the light streamed thru) was probably no bigger than an eraser.

This shot was achieved by tracing the tools with that cone attached to the end of the light.

With this assignment, I learned that I just scratched the tip of the gigantic iceberg. Painting with light has no boundaries in terms of what you use for the subject and the light source. Flashlights, glow-sticks, sparklers and fire are just a few things out of many that can be used to paint. And it was so cool to see what the other students came up with. Makes my imagination run “wild”.

As the weeks go by, I continue to learn that I still have so much to learn. I think I see another photography class in my future (next semester).

In other news: The hubs asked if I felt the “mini” earthquake last night. Nope, I slept right thru it.

Blessings – Debbie