Studying three specialist subjects in the Pro Studies classes was fun and I learned a lot. It was especially good that the instructors in each case were among the top professionals in their respective fields and were able to give lots of good advice about working in those areas.
- Outdoor Photography: Darrell Gulin gulinphoto.com
- Documentary Photography: Ed Kashi edkashi.com
- Food and Product Photography: Joe Lavine www.lavinephotography.com
 |
| The Sandwich |
In fact the whole summer has been filled with classes led by educators who are also professional photographers, but whereas the Summer Intensive course was about technique and appreciation of photography for the most part, these later courses are about putting it all into practice as a professional photographer and adding even more skills to the toolbox... or paints to the paintbox.
So what have I been up to?
My previous post covered the start of the outdoor photography class at the Lee Metcalf Wildlife Refuge.
 |
| Lee Metcalf Wildlife Refuge |
That week continued on a high with trips to the National Bison Range and to an old town called Philipsburg. Interestingly the assignments were not simply to come back with pictures but pictures and the story.
 |
| National Bison Range |
 |
| Philipsburg |
Documentary Photography continued in the same vein with pictures and stories from an assisted living home where I interviewed and photographed a Native American man who is from the Blackfoot nation. Next evening the class descended on a local truck stop and interviewed truck drivers and staff and took lots of photographs. The final evening of shooting started at a local baseball game and then went on to a small open air musical event in a Missoula side street.
 |
| Truck stop |
The Food and Product Photography didn't require a story, just a whole bunch of ingredients and a lot of patience. Some of the food was even edible after we'd finished with it.
 |
| Pasta |
Shooting pasta is not quite as simple as: cook pasta, pour sauce over the pasta, serve up and shoot. If it hadn't been cold when we started it would have been by the time we'd finished chasing crumbs of cheese round the set. There's an art to crumb wrangling... it involves odd numbers of crumbs, a fine implement of some sort, and a lot of patience. In contrast to this the sandwiches we made and shot one day were rather less than edible. If only we'd used organic vaseline to coat the bread before adding the mayo instead of the regular stuff, it could have made all the difference! Maybe we could have used organic cotton wool balls to pad out the delicately folded slices of meat, but least the cocktail sticks adding structure to the sandwich were sustainably sourced. It looked wonderful, at least so long as it stayed on the plate.
Fortunately the location shoot at the James Bar featured food prepared by their chef and real wine... which meant it was all fit to eat and very tasty even after we'd done with using it as a prop.
 |
| Edible, hot and tasty, even after it had posed for a photo! |
This week has flown by, and at the end of it I know lots of new techniques to try in Photoshop (like a kid with that new box of crayons). I know a little about printing on alternative surfaces - you name the surface and there's sure to be a process out there for putting a photograph onto it. I know about animation and time lapse and 3D images and I'm starting to get ideas for playing with those too. Next week we start on shooting video.
Despite there being lots to do in the remaining five weeks there is a sense of the time coming to an end. It's matched by a distinct autumnal air and cooler temperatures, in the morning. Gone are the days when I could cycle to class in a short sleeved shirt - I'm already thinking of buying some gloves!
