If you are like me, I'll bet you are walking around going... is it really almost April? The new year started off very fast and furious for me, work, work and yeah, some more work. Oh right and some business travel to California, Texas and Seattle. But then along with all of that one very bright spot. I'm a student again taking photography classes at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). The beauty of where I live is being so close to some of the country's premiere colleges - RISD being one of them. They have a Certificate Program for Digital Photography that I learned about and with a few quick clicks of the mouse - viola I'm a student again.
Bottom line, I'm really liking it so far. I've taken one full class and I'm in the middle of my second one. In the course of beginning the program I also made the leap from PC to MAC - woot! I still appreciate my PC and all it can do, but once you go MAC - you don't go back. I got the MAC right before Christmas and then proceeded to spend my entire holiday vacation bonding with my new technology. It's a forever love, I can just feel it.
Currently the class I'm taking is "Photography: An Introduction" and it's brought me back to some basics with photography. Realizing that shooting pictures without a bit of a plan can be frustrating but the converse is that it might take 100 shots to find 2 that are good or what you envisioned. That sometimes your fellow students will inspire you to stretch yourself and some are well - how do I say - "interesting". We'll not go there for now.
The best part of the experience to date has been finding a smaller group of photographers within RISD that I've had a chance to get to know. They are in various stages of the certificate program and have given me great insight into their experiences with the instructors and I feel the beginning of some real friendships forming. Their photography is inspiring and I feel like knowing them and seeing their work will push me to where I can find my own vision and confidence in what comes through the camera.
