I *heart* School

For those of you that follow this blog, you're probably wondering what in the heck is wrong with me to be posting a title like that. I have pretty much despised my entire post-secondary academic career.

That is, until now.

I mentioned earlier that I was taking three photography classes this semester. I've been to two days of classes (I have class one day a week for 9 hours), and I am absolutely loving it.

I was fairly certain that both classes would be a bit redundant for me. I've been interested in photography since I started working at Cord (over 10 years ago). I have a nicer-than-average camera and I've been using Photoshop (among other things) for graphic design purposes for about 10 years. I've even taken classes online from various professionals concerning photography and photo editing. I thought I was going to be mildly bored in two of my classes, but it would still be good for me to hear it all again from an academic prospective.

Well, I was all kinds of wrong.

I am not bored. I am busy. There are certainly things that are refreshers for me, but even in the first class I was learning things.

When I purchased a tutorial from Erin Cobb last year I learned about her workflow and which layers she uses to correct images. I really enjoyed the tutorial, but even then I was curious about WHY she was doing what she was doing. Some were really obvious, but some I wasn't 100% sure as to the reason behind her decision to do that. Why this and not that?

After my class last week, two of those questions have been cleared up for me. And, actually, I've even learned a better way of doing something.

I'm really fortunate that after a series of really crappy online instructors at LCC I have really smart, really talented instructors for these classes. Since I sit in each class for over 4 hours that's pretty important! I also discovered that LCC is known for having a really great photography program (Their business administration program? Not so much.). Both of my in-class instructors have been teaching for 25-35 years at LCC. One is an architectural photographer and the other shoots primarily weddings.

So I'm doing my mountains of homework and enjoying it. That's weird for me.

I had to pick up a few new things for my classes, which I'm really liking.

A new camera bag was definitely in order. Dustin got me this for my birthday :)

 

It's the Crumpler 5 Million Dollar Home bag. It's a little bit small, but we can definitely make it work for the next year. If I had to do it over again (and had the extra $$) I would get the 6 Million Dollar Home instead. I like that they have great padding, a fun interior color, and the secure closure/long strap!

 

I needed to get a 500 GB portable hard drive for my classes. Both of my classes require that I shoot in RAW (read: huge files), so this little guy is a necessity. I love the feel of it and it was extremely easy to use. I am excited to have extra storage for important pictures once these classes are over, too.

I also picked up a remote while I was on my little shopping spree. This was more for personal use (I need to be in more pictures with Henry), but it was on the list of "recommended" items. 

Off to do some homework before lunchtime!