Punctuating life

A week is a long time in photography school and writing a new post for this blog is a way to punctuate what would otherwise be something of a blur. Writing it gives me time to reflect and is usually accomplished at the weekend. Not so this time - life goes by very quickly.

We seem to have had a string of work to prepare for class recently and quite a number of late evenings in school. Often the late evening classes end earlier than scheduled, but when it's a session in the studio that luxury doesn't usually apply. We work three to a studio bay with one person shooting and the other two assisting or sometimes acting as model depending on the topic we are working on. So if you take a 7.00pm start, allow three people an hour each to work, and add in time to set up and pack away afterwards you'll see why it's sometimes quite late when I get back home.  Fortunately it's only a 10 minute bike ride from school to work and my classmates are good fun to work with.

A recent studio session using mixed lighting and a packet of breakfast cereal

Studio has it's fun moments, especially so when we headed out onto the streets for a class, and later headed to a local hotel to experiment with lighting and different poses.  The school had arranged for us to have more or less free reign at the hotel which was an interesting experience. Some of the ladies in my group really got into the mood of things with their dressing up.  Here are some clips on studio lighting.

The main focus last week was The Slideshow. It had been the focus for all of us over a few weeks as we selected a topic, then changed it, then changed it again before eventually ending up with 20-30 photos which we had to put to music for presentation to the class. I decided to shoot the Higgins Building - the old building which houses the school plus other shops and offices.

The Higgins Building was commissioned by C.P. Higgins in 1889 (so it's old by US standards at least).  Higgins and his partner Frank Worden founded the first European settlement in Missoula in the form of the Hellgate Trading Post near the Clark Fork River.  Missoula grew and so did Higgins' importance and he eventually became chairman of the First National Bank in town only to be ousted from the board by a rival. Higgins was obviously not one to let a setback get in his way and decided to establish a new bank on the corner of Higgins and Main - the Higgins Building. The old vault is in the basement area occupied by RMSP classrooms. No expense was spared and the result is Missoula's finest example of Queen Anne commercial architecture.  It is made up of grey granite with a copper dome on the corner section and has a polychrome red brick exterior for the rest of the building.

Higgins Building - street level from the corner of Higgins and Main. (School is down the steps to the right).

Higgins in sections

If you'd like to see my slideshow you can download a small version by clicking on this link: Download Slideshow   Although small, it is still a 10mb file and you may not see anything happening immediately but it will be downloading in the background... please be patient and check in whatever folder your browser uses to store downloads.

With the slideshow behind us we are starting to think about the final assignment which is due very soon... we have passed the half way point of the course.  My ideas on what to do are becoming clearer, as is my understanding of my own way of seeing things through a camera. Not that I'll get to a definite point and be able to say I'm there as far as seeing goes.  This is more of a journey that will last as long as I do and I'm happy with that.

Things are becoming clearer

Before I finish I'd like to give a special mention to Slinky - he's the other guy sharing the house. Now I'm not really a dog person... thoughts of plastic bags and dog poo are definitely not my thing. That said, Slinky the dachshund is an endearing little fellow - always ready to give you a friendly lick if you let him and the best thing there is for keeping the floors crumb free. I have been known to let the extra crumb or two drop to the floor just for his benefit. He has a very optimistic world view and no worries at all about final photo projects... we could learn a lot from Slinky.

(Credits: Thanks to Carol for letting me ship cereal bowls, spoons, and a tool set to studio to use as props.  Thanks to Alan J for his help on local history).

PS. I need to post earlier or work out how to switch this to USA time... it's still Wednesday 20th here... and still sunny and warm outside!