Three bits of good news!

First:
This is a video that one of our instructors does that is teaching us about photojournalism and the stock photography industry. He puts them on youtube about different stuff we're doing at school. I'm excited because one of my photos made the video! It may not seem like much, but it's really exciting for everyone here when one of the staff recognizes one of your photos. The photo below is the one on the video... it's at the very beginning!!



Second:

We finally stepped into the studio!!!!! So the picture below is the first of many pictures that I will be doing in the product studio! French's Fried Onions anyone???

Third:

There's a story and a couple parts to this one, so take a breath.... ok.

There is an instructor here named Gregory Heisler (www.gregoryheisler.com). I didn't know who he was before coming here, but I really know him now!

Anyways, Gregory is an amazing portrait photographer that worked for another amazing photographer that was pretty much huge in the photographic world. His name was Arnold Newman (www.arnoldnewmanarchive.com). One of the assignments given to us by Gregory was kind of in homage to Arnold Newman. Newman had a very distinct way of taking a portrait that has in many aspects died with him. He really pioneered location portraiture. I.E. taking a photo of the president in the Oval Office instead of a studio. Or a pianist with a piano, but in a really radical way. Here are a couple of his shots. And you have to remember these were the 40's and 50's, really different from what was mainstream.

So the assignment was to look at Mr. Newman's stuff and apply it to a portrait of a partner. I took mine of a good friend here named Jon. There was a couple of Newman's photos that stuck out to me which is how I came up with the picture below. To me his images were really "quiet" and very geometrical. And rarely was the person in the middle of the frame.

So for the cool part, Gregory was the keynote speaker at the International Photo Expo in New York City this past weekend and was introducing a fund in honor of Arnold Newman. He spoke about the time he worked with Arnold and showed how some of his work has been indirectly influenced by Newman. At the end of his speech, he showed about 10 photos from our school of the assignment he had us do

AND MINE WAS ONE OF THEM!!!!!! He gave us a breakdown of his speech to us today and showed us the photos he used. I seriously almost cried. Only because these few weeks here have already had their ups and downs. From turning assignments in wrong, to not feeling up to par with some of the other kids here, being away from Kari and Olivia (which believe me, has been the hardest part and if you can ever avoid being away from your family, do it!!) But to have someone like Gregory Heisler recognize one of your photos AND to use it in an internationally recognized expo in a room with so many other huge names in photography, was really nice.

It really made me feel like I didn't make a mistake by coming here and that I really can do my own thing and it be ok.