OK, OK, OK, it’s been a while. It’s been a heckuva past couple of weeks, but it’s been productive. Teaching is a great job! I can’t tell you how fun it is to be able to lecture and discuss something you love, and I’m fortunate enough to do so in conjunction actually fulfilling that passion! Grading, however, is what throws a wrench in to the cogs if you know what I mean, and it seems like that’s all I have been doing. Nonetheless, the positives always outweigh the negatives in academia, and at some point, you are done grading (usually winter and summer).

Other than marking Xs on tests and providing notes about students’ compositional structures, the photography front has been pretty busy, and varietal. I read in a magazine…Texas Highways…November 2008 issue…where a photographer, to paraphrase the author, said one of the great things about his job is that he gets to learn, or get insight, into many different things. I would have to agree! Over the past two weeks, I have shot portraits, both formal and environmental, photographed a retrofitted video sales bus, photographed the fall colors, and just two days ago I was photographing an 18-inch Santa doll (more to come on that). I have spent several years as a freelance photographer, but not near as many as some of my influences, and judging by stories told by those I look up and listen to, the variety never ends. To me, this is very welcoming! To future photographers, I hope this encourages you as well. It’s something I continually tell my students, especially the older, ready-to-graduate-and-let-the-”real world”-see-what-I-have students, that the more open you are and varietal your photography is at first, the more business you can make and the more direction you will give yourself in your future career.

Well, take it for what it is worth, but that’s my current piece of advice. It may come from having a freelance perspective on the photography industry. It may come from growing up wanting to pursue several different career paths, or the education that I received in college. No matter what though, in today’s photography industry, versatility is a must!

Anyways, the photograph up top is another one of Joe, but since the last one of him wasn’t very flattering, I thought I would post this one. His brother was in town, and being a photo hobbyist, we took him out to shoot, and at the end of the evening, all I wanted to do was shoot a couple brothers, who in my opinion, know what life is all about.

The shot of Joe above was taken with one flash through an umbrella at camera right, and Joe’s brother was holding a gold reflector opposite of the flash to fill in just the tiniest bit on Joe’s neck. The second shot (right above this paragraph) was taken with the one flash sans the umbrella. Real simple, but interesting. Are there a few things I would fix? Yes. Were the mosquitos eating us up? Yes. Did we all want to stick around for West Nile Virus epidemic #2? No.

I owned these flashes for at least a year before I actually knew how to use them. Thanks to more demanding assignments and photographers such as Joe McNally and David Hobby, my small flash lighting has come a long way. That’s another beauty about photography. I teach it, but that doesn’t mean I know it all. In fact, anyone that says they know everything about photography (or anything for that matter), needs to have a swift reality check. Learning is the second greatest thing about photography…the first…visualization!