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Behind the Image: NAU Guest Blogger – Margaret Whittaker

Apr 192013

Photograph copyright Margaret Whittaker

“Reflection” – Margaret Whittaker
January 19, 2013 was a beautiful, balmy Saturday, ideal for some camera time out in nature. So, my fiancé and I headed out to Beaver Creek, located in the Verde Valley, Arizona.

Beaver Creek is nestled between the mountains and sunset was approaching. I carefully hurried down the embankment to set up the new camera equipment that I did not want to end up with in the middle of the creek. I was particularly excited to try out this “professional” camera, which has oodles of bells and whistles, including an ISO range of 100-25600! It is the new Canon EOS 5D Mark III 22 megapixel camera! Fully programed, the camera does all kinds of wonderful things, automatically, including adding copyright information to the metadata.It has so many more functions than my previous Canon Rebel XSi, such as new control types situated in different locations on the camera. I have so much to learn, so many new techniques to practice!

Beaver Creek’s water level is not deep in January; however, the water flows rapidly down the mountain and here and there little waterfalls gurgle and bubble. I captured Reflection just above one of those waterfalls.

The new Mark III tops a Gitzmo Tripod with a ball head. A Sigma 28-200 mm zoom lens focused on the water at 40mm, f-4.0 for 1/40^th of a second at ISO 400. (The Canon FS lenses for the Canon Rebel XSi are not compatible with the Mark III. Although the new Canon Zoom Lens EF 24-105mm, Canon Lens EF 50mm 1:1.4, and Canon Zoom Lens EF 100-400mm 1:4.5-5.6 L IS lens are ordered, they were arriving the following week.)

I attempted several different angles and perspectives prior to achieving the effect of this image. As I looked down into the flowing water and realized I could see the small rocks through the water into the creek bed, I smiled in anticipation of capturing them with the Mark III. I do!

Among the thousands of photographs, I have taken, only a few evoke the feelings that this one does. Every time I look at the photograph, I feel the peacefulness of that day. I hear the babbling waterfall. I breathe the fresh clean air and feel the cool breeze on my skin. The movement of the flowing water created the surreal effect of the reflected trees and the deepening of the afternoon sky provides the rich blueness of the water. The photograph reminds me of an impressionist painting and, after all these years, I finally see what inspires the impressionists. I have a new found appreciation of their work. I look forward to reliving this moment in time, this feeling, and this revelation every time I look at the photograph. I feel a sense of peaceful, grateful anticipation.

About the Photographer:
Born Margaret Whittaker in St. Jerome, Quebec, Canada 61 years ago, my first camera was a Brownie camera given to me by my father who gave me suggestions about subjects and lighting. Over the years, I had various point and shoot cameras. I purchased my first SLR camera and took a couple of community college classes. Professors commented that I have an eye for composition. Photographing is a joy, however, when co-workers saw my photographs, they encouraged me to create greeting cards. Sales of greeting cards and prints, reorder requests and queries about whether I took family, wedding and portrait photographs, prompted me to pursue those revenue sources. Co-workers joked that I already had a part time retirement income figured out.

In the spring of 2007, “Hunter,” a photograph of a tiger from Out of Africa Wildlife Park in Camp Verde, Arizona was one of over 500 entries at the International Photographers Society Convention in Las Vegas. “Hunter” won second place and I took home a $2,500 check.

God’s artistry is the inspiration. The challenge is to capture with the camera what God has created. A major in Photography enables maximum utilization of the camera; perception of the world in new ways; unique capture of moments in time; and the ability to share God’s creation with everyone else. Visit my website at MIWhittakerPhotos.com.

To read more about the Northern Arizona University “Behind the Image: Guest Blogger” project on our blog, please read the introduction on our April 15 post at youcansleepwhenyouredead.com/wordpress/introducing-the-nau-photography-students-behind-the-image-guest-blogger-project.

Behind the Image: NAU Guest Blogger – Colby Rycus

Guest Blogger, Making the Image 2 Responses »

Apr 182013

Photograph copyright Colby Rycus

It all began as Spring Break came to a start. Here at Northern Arizona University, unless you go home or on vacation, there really isn’t much to do for a “break” for us college students. Saturday rolled around and my boyfriend suggested we go on a road trip to Page, AZ and the southern tip of Utah, of which neither of us had ever been to before. We grabbed our friend Chandler and hit the road. We drove for about 4 hours before we hit Page. There was nothing that excited us in Page either unless we wanted to get gas, go to Wal-Mart or eat at McDonalds. We did know that the Horseshoe Bend was somewhere around Page. The Horseshoe Bend is where the Colorado River horseshoes around a mountain, it’s a majestic site and I recommend it to everyone at least once. We looked up where it was and found it not more than ten minutes away from where we were. So we got in our car and drove out there.

My boyfriend and I both brought our DSLR cameras due to the fact that we are both camera nerds. He’s been taking pictures longer than I have though so he still helps me out every once in a while. As we walked up the hill to the top of the mountain we began to see all the tourists. Bus loads—literally, from Las Vegas. We got to the edge of the cliff and looked down at the water. It was amazing. Like nothing I had ever seen before.

Our friend Chandler was walking around as my boyfriend and I took pictures. We noticed he started jumping over the rocks with large cliffs, which were 50-100 feet high. I walked over to him, scared to death that he would fall and climbed down into a little ditch below him, so I could look up at him jumping. Once I set my camera to the proper settings, I told Chandler to jump. The jump was probably 3-4 feet wide, although in the picture it looks a lot wider. As he jumped I took pictures of him in the air above the ditch. He must have jumped 10 times between my boyfriend and I trying to capture the perfect moment of him in the air. After looking through all 40-50 pictures I had taken, I captured the perfect one.

With some editing in Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop, I gave the image an HDR look. I created two duplicates of the image in Adobe Lightroom and brightened the exposure in one and decreased the exposure in the other. I then took all three images to Adobe Photoshop and created an HDR. Even though it’s not a true HDR, with 3 images coming out of the camera to create it, I still think it turned out really good.

The rest of the trip was pretty great but this picture made it all worthwhile.

Technical Info: Canon EOS Rebel T3, 18-55mm at 18mm, ISO 100, f/10 @ 1/4000 of a second, basic post processing.

About the Photographer:
My name is Colby Rycus and I am currently a sophomore at Northern Arizona University studying Criminal Justice and Photography. I’m not quite sure what I would like to do as a career, but I certainly hope that photography stays part of my life. I have been a photographer for about two years now and love every minute it! I love to capture moments in people’s lives so they can have something to look back at. My camera of choice is a Canon EOS T3 with my 18-55mm lens. I hope to get many more lenses in the future.

Behind the Image: NAU Guest Blogger – Karen Renner

Guest Blogger, Making the Image 7 Responses »

Apr 182013

Photograph copyright Karen Renner

Art as Serendipity – Karen J. Renner
I became an English professor because I love words. But about a year ago, I realized I was starting to hate them just a little. I spend my days reading and writing about American literature or popular culture—especially horror and the gothic—or teaching my students at Northern Arizona University to do so. Words follow me everywhere, dogging me like my own shadow.

So I turned to images. I began taking photography classes at NAU to become a better landscape photographer. After all, one of the reasons I moved to Flagstaff was its proximity to some of the most spectacular national parks in the country. After visiting just a few, I realized I wanted to do more than simply snap some shots to document my travels and earn the envy of my friends on Facebook. I wanted to capture the spirit of the land, the peace it brought my mind and soul, the humility I felt when facing its grand vistas.

Yeah, that didn’t work out so well.

Turns out I have little talent for landscape photography. My photographs aren’t necessarily bad just boring.

Facing a final project in my introduction to photography class, I panicked. I was supposed to submit four images based on a central theme of my choice, and I had not one iota of inspiration. Stumped, I did what I always do to procrastinate: I watched a horror movie. In the middle of the film, I became particularly disturbed by a moment when the ghost of a woman’s dead husband suddenly appears behind her. The scene is shot with such a shallow depth of field that all you can see is a blur of colors roughly resembling a screaming face. I paused the film and stared at the screen, trying to figure out why the composition of the scene was so disconcerting. That’s when I discovered my true passion: horror photography.

Well, not “horror” photography exactly: I have no interest in gore. But I am obsessed with what scares us. Terror, the uncanny, the gothic. These are subjects I teach, know, and love. Photography just provides me another way of approaching these concepts.

My final project consisted of four photographs of creepy dolls. Here is one of them.

The photograph was taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T3, with an 18-55 mm lens. I positioned the dolls’ heads on a piece of black velvet and used the overhead light in my living room and the following settings on my camera: ISO 400, an f-stop of 5.6, and a shutter speed of five seconds. The only post processing I did was to blacken out the foreground—a lot of dust and debris showed up in the original image—and cover up a bald spot in the doll’s hair.

It turns out that photography is not so very different from writing in one very important way: you discover what you are doing in the process of actually doing it. Sure, you can plan ahead, gather materials, visualize the image you want to produce. Ditto with writing: you collect sources, read and research, scribble down a proposed argument, write an outline. But it’s not until you are knee-deep in the process that you stumble upon the really good stuff.

I guess this means that art takes a lot of good luck. Perhaps that seems disheartening because it suggests we have little control over it. At the same time, I believe art is a serendipity that we invite simply by showing up, either with a pen or with a camera. Had I not allowed my passion for horror to become an academic interest (an act that still shocks the Shakespeareans), had I not enrolled in a photography class, had I not spent several hours figuring out how to photograph these doll heads—had I not, in other words, shown up—this photograph would not exist, and I can say that my life, at least, is the better for it.

So show up. As often as you can.

About the Photographer:
Karen J. Renner teaches American literature and popular culture at Northern Arizona University She likes taking pictures of creepy toys as long as they promise not to run around at night and writing about the ways stories shape our perceptions, preferably scary stories. (Her last two essays examined constructions of masculinity in ghost-hunting reality television shows and portrayals of parenthood in antichrist-as-child films.) Her website www.allotherprioritiesrescinded.wordpress.com is currently under construction, but she’d love you to take a look anyway and maybe leave a comment or send her a message.

Behind the Image: NAU Guest Blogger – Jordan Patton

Guest Blogger, Making the Image 5 Responses »

Apr 172013

Photograph copyright Jordan Patton

This is the time of year that everything turns beautiful and fresh. Everything in this world is starting its new cycle called “spring.” Most people get to enjoy the beauty that they are the pollen bearers, a.k.a. the flower. They are a delicate gorgeous thing, but for me, they are tormentors. Don’t get me wrong, I love flowers, they are all so different in so many ways. But for the second quarter of the year they make me miserable. So I thought why not enjoy their beauty in a protected, slightly destructive way? That’s when I came up with the idea to do a photography shoot with roses on fire. In this unconventional way, I will finally be able to enjoy the beauty of a flower.

To do this I set up a little studio in my garage, that I made fire proof and had a fire extinguisher handy. That was the easy part, setting up the studio early in the morning with my camera tethered to my computer and setting up the flash just right to light up the flower in the dimly light garage. The hard part of taking this image is getting the fire to show up bright and vivid. You have to set the shutter speed to a little more than a second to get the most vivid color of the flame. With the movement of the fire it was hard to keep the flower in a sharp focus, that’s why I used the flash to help light the subject. By using both of these light sources I was able to keep my ISO at a hundred, so no grain in my photograph. Even though you cannot see it, I did put up a background behind the flower. I used an 8” x 12” piece of sheet metal. That way the light would bounce off the metal and light up the back of the rose. The only editing I did after I took the photograph was to crop the image and bring out the color just a little bit. Now, the flower photograph that I have chosen is engulfed in flame, even though the petals are not yet burning. This was snapped at the exact moment when the acetone on the flower was lit on fire, so it kept the flower in pristine condition. With this set up I was able to enjoy their beauty for a whole five minutes, without a single sneeze.

About the Photographer:
My name is Jordan K. Patton and I am a local from Las Vegas, NV. I’ve been interested in photography ever since I was little, but it wasn’t until High School that I started taking photography classes. That is where I was further inspired by my Photography Teacher, Mr. John Mroz. From then on it has been an unyielding passion. Since then I have gotten my Associates of Arts degree in The College of Southern Nevada, and I am currently earning my Bachelors in Photography. My style is simple, but I never stop trying to capture the simple thing in extraordinary ways.

Behind the Image: NAU Guest Blogger – Shelby Irons

Guest Blogger, Making the Image 2 Responses »

Apr 172013

Photograph copyright Shelby Irons

This image was a wonderful accident. I was leaving on a cruise ship to Venice, Italy that started out from a port in Miami, Florida. I was on the top deck hanging out with my family and enjoying the beautiful day. As the ship started leaving we passed all of these industrial cargo ships that were not much to look at. I happened to head to the other side of the deck on the top floor to get a cooler view and stumbled upon something pretty awesome. From that view, you could see the beach and the entire strip of Miami. It was filled with a ton of people enjoying the sunny day and the water was a wonderful shade of bright blue. In that moment, I decided it needed to be photographed! I ran back down to my room to get my camera and realized that our balcony had an even better view of the beach that was a little bit closer.

I started messing around with my manual settings and kept taking various shots with several different shutter speeds. I wanted to have a pretty quick shutter speed in order to capture all of the different people at the beach. Then, I adjusted my ISO because I wanted to be able to have details of the building and the beach but still capture the clarity of the water and the sky. Since it was so bright out, I kept my Aperture at F/26, and that seemed to work perfectly. After having the settings that I was satisfied with, I zoomed in and out and trying different angles of the beach. Finally, I found what I was really looking for. I was able to capture a balance of the buildings, the boardwalk, and the entire strip of the beach in the image as well. I did not even have to do much post production on this photo; the colors of the water spoke for itself! I was very proud of myself for feeling more confident with my manual settings. Trying to capture this image also taught me to be aware of my surroundings. As a photographer, I want to always keep trying to find that great angle by moving around. Sometimes it will just stumble upon you and sometimes you will really have to go the extra mile to successfully capture that perfect image.

About the Photographer:
My name is Shelby Rae Irons. I am a 21 year old day-dreamer, traveler, animal lover, and passionate photographer. Currently, I attend school at Northern Arizona University in the pines of Flagstaff, Arizona. I am pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management with a minor in Photography. I consider myself a huge people person. Being around others is when I am usually most content. My family is very important to me; they are what inspire me to do my best. I picked up a camera about 10 years ago and haven’t been able to put it down since. Photography helps me escape and is like a blank canvas that allows me to create whatever my mind dreams of. I try to captivate moments that make me happy to be alive; taking pictures of anything from trees to beer bottles but mostly people. I hope to continue to pursue photography for as long as I live. Please check out my website www.shelbyraephoto.com

Behind the Image: NAU Guest Blogger – Kennan Turner

Guest Blogger, Making the Image 4 Responses »

Apr 162013

Photograph copyright Keenan Turner

This is my photo of Swedish House Mafia at Ultra Music Festival in Miami. About 3 or 4 years ago when I started concert photography, this group began to raise my interests in dance music. Due to my lack of prior dance music experience, and their euphoric tracks, they instantly became my favorite DJs. In the beginning when I was shooting smaller shows to make a name for myself, although I often dreamt about shooting a group like Swedish House Mafia. Artists like this are often known for their amazing production value for live shows that just make photos look spectacular. About 6 months ago Swedish House Mafia announced that they were breaking up as a group, and that Ultra in Miami would be their last show ever. When I found out I would be shooting this festival in Miami, aside from being overjoyed, I was excited to send them off in the very best possible way I could, by getting incredible photos.

One thing about Swedish House Mafia that is different than most DJs is that they consist of 3 separate DJ’s. Going into this show I knew that the photo I wanted was the silhouette of the three of them on their podium with the white smoke in the background. (An iconic symbol of Swedish House Mafia’s 3 year monopoly on dance music) For this photo, I underexposed the image a couple stops to ensure the silhouette feature because there is so little light between me and the DJs that it looks blown-out if I would have exposed for the faces. I used a Canon 7d with a 70-200,f/2.8 lens and this photo was shot at f/4, 1/1250th and 800 ISO at 180mm. I stood in the pit area for this photo since we were allowed to be there for the first 15 minutes of each set and when I saw the lights in front dim, and the smoke and white light behind them, I knew my opportunity was flashing before my eyes.(Literally, these light shows are crazy). I was excited I got the shot, but then when I went back to look at it, I realized I captured so much more. The guy in the middle is taking his headphones off which adds some extra shape, and the guy on our left is “swooshing” his hair which adds some more shape and together make the composition a little more interesting. This photo is so special to me because it has so much meaning. The fact that I shot Swedish House Mafia’s last show is, for me, a testament to hard work because 3 years ago I was looking up to groups like this thinking, “One day…”. I worked hard to become the photographer that I am now and had to put up with a lot in order to get to this point. By no means am I trying to pronounce myself an accomplished photographer yet, but it has given me tremendous confidence to be able to accomplish something that just years ago, seemed next to impossible. I think this is the ideal image to represent Swedish House Mafia’s reign on dance music and the fact that this is one of the last images ever captured of the super group is somewhat eerie. To me, an image like this in 20 years will represent a generation the same way one of the last photos ever taken of The Beatles does now only maybe not to the same degree.

About the Photographer:
My name is Keenan Turner and I am a photographer originally from Vancouver, Canada and was raised in Scottsdale, Arizona. I am interested in many genres of photography but I think fell in love with concert photography at a young age because I immediately saw an opportunity to go to concerts for free. I now shoot for a dance music website, Techibeats.com, and Arizona’s largest dance promoter, Relentless Beats. I have shot large artists in every genre from Slightly Stoopid to Tyga to Swedish House Mafia, Avicii, Tiesto, and many, many more. About 4 years ago I started my photography company, MDK Media and have shot many concerts, portraits, parties, for a wide variety of clientele. I draw my inspiration from many photographers and images throughout the internet and strive to create images with such tremendous energy that they almost just leap off the page.

Behind the Image: NAU Guest Blogger – Jenna Lyter

Guest Blogger, Making the Image 4 Responses »

Apr 162013

“Scattered in Place” – photograph copyright Jenna Lyter

“Scattered in Place” by Jenna Lyter
Normally when I take a photo of an object, I like to move things around until I feel they are in the right place. To me, the best part of this picture is that each leaf on the mossy rock is a different color, giving it a nice variety. The even better part is the fact that I didn’t put them there—it was all thanks to good old Mother Nature.

I hiked down in West Fork a few months ago, and brought my camera along for a landscape assignment I was given in class. Since landscapes are my least favorite to photograph, I wasn’t’ exactly jumping for joy. Although I pride myself on being organized and focused, once I get that DSLR in my hand, all of that so-called focus goes right out the window. I took one landscape picture and dozens of close-ups of other subjects I found to be much more intriguing: streams, rocks, tree trunks, flower, basically anything besides landscapes. This is nothing new for me, and I usually find that my best images are the unexpected ones. For this particular photo, I used a Canon Rebel t3i set at ISO 400, 18-55mm lens at 34mm, F/4.5, 1/50 second. When I came across this particular rock, I snapped a single photo and moved on; out of sight out of mind.

It wasn’t until I got into Lightroom that I realized how special this picture actually was. I boosted the vibrancy and contrast a bit, threw a vignette on, and there it was: the best picture I took on the entire hike. Vignettes hold a special place in my creative heart, and I tend to put them on most of my images—this one seemed to benefit from the heavier vignette in my eyes. Now this is highly unusual for me, as my favorite part of photography is often altering images until they look different than reality using wide-angle lenses, extreme close ups, and color selections. Sometimes though, all that fuss isn’t needed; sometimes less really is more. This image evokes a sort of calm and serenity in mind, especially when I think back to how peaceful the scene actually was: the early morning sunlight slowly streaming through the trees, hardly any hikers on the trail yet, and nothing but the sound of water trickling over rocks in the nearby stream. As photographers, we may think we know where props should be placed and light should be directed, but sometimes—as this image shows—nature knows best.

About the Photographer:
Although video is what I primarily use my beloved DSLR for, photography is becoming a close second. Cameras are a part of my everyday life between my film production major and my work as a videographer, but it wasn’t until last year that I declared a minor—and a passion—for photography. Being able to tell a story or communicate an emotion through a single image or video fascinates me, and I love being able to alter reality with a specific color selection, crop, or camera angle. Last year I began taking senior pictures for graduating seniors, and turned it into a side project called J. Lyter Photography & Video, which has allowed me to expand my audience through social media. In the future, I hope to be working professionally with both video and photography, and as long as I have a camera in my hand, I know I’ll be happy.

Behind the Image: NAU Guest Blogger – Kimberly Yip

Guest Blogger, Making the Image 6 Responses »

Apr 152013

Photograph copyright Kimberly Yip

I had a wonderful opportunity to attend a private practice held only for instructors and advanced members at Northern Arizona Yoga Center in Flagstaff, AZ. Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga is the predominant form of yoga practiced at NAYC. This early rising group moved through the first and second series of Ashtanga Vinyasa using no vocal instruction. It was very inspiring and peaceful to be among this group of individuals.My goal for this practice was to portray strength, balance and flexibility through a series of images captured throughout the session.

Since the practice began before sunrise, I had to constantly change my camera settings as lighting kept changing. This pose, called Navasana, was particularly striking especially in the light that was available at that moment. This light from the sun which covered a vast portion of the room floor was only present for a short time. The timing and Wyatt’s position in the room couldn’t have been more perfect. He was facing towards the light that was entering the studio, which gave me a great sense of acceptance, power, balance and strength.

I decided to leave my Speedlight flash at home as I wanted to be as unobtrusive as possible during their private practice. This experience taught me a great deal about lighting in many different aspects.Lately, I’ve become accustomed to controlling light in a studio setting, so it was refreshing to step out of my comfort zone using light I couldn’t manipulate.

My greatest challenge during this practice was obtaining proper white balance. I began shooting with the white balance set to the color temperature of tungsten bulbs since that was the light source before sunrise. As the sun began to overcome the lighting in the room I set the white balance to daylight even though the color temperature was still too warm. If I could go back, I would have custom set the white balance to be around 3000-4000 K, which is the color temperature for sunrise and sunset with clear skies. This would have saved me a tremendous amount of time when post processing the images from this session.

This photograph was captured using a Rokinon 85mm f/1.4 prime lens on a Nikon D700 camera. I intentionally overexposed the image because Wyatt would be underexposed had I abided by what the camera thought was a proper exposure. I achieved this by shooting with a wide open aperture at f/1.4 and an ISO of 500. If I can recall accurately, I overexposed by two full stops at a shutter speed of 1/125^th of a second. I could have used a lower ISO had I slowed my shutter speed slightly, but because I was shooting with a manual focus lens and the group was moving through poses rather quickly I didn’t shoot slower than 1/125^thof a second with this lens. Since I was also shooting with really shallow depth of field, it was important for me to freeze motion and achieve sharp focus on Wyatt.

Lastly, post processing was a breeze with this photo. I adjusted the white balance, brought down highlights and blacks, boosted the contrast slightly, and cropped the image to make Wyatt more centered in the frame. I couldn’t be happier with the end result!

About the Photographer:
My name is Kim and I’ll be graduating May of 2013 with a BS in Biology and minors in Chemistry and Photography. I love that I’m able to entangle my passion for photography with the world of biology. Photographing people and wildlife will forever fuel my fascination with animal and human anatomy. Photography is also my outlet, my means of meditation. Being behind a lens silences my mind and makes me be present. It’s important for me to continually challenge myself in becoming a better photographer, and I will always strive to capture emotion and form while representing subjects realistically.

Introducing the NAU Photography Students “Behind the Image: Guest Blogger” Project!

Guest Blogger, Making the Image 39 Responses »

Apr 152013

Introducing the 35 NAU students who will act as Guest Bloggers on this blog starting today through early May: (In alphabetical order, all thumbnails/photos copyright their respective owners)
First row (left to right): Evan Atwood, Tiffany Bociung-Bodtke, Heather Brick, Alyssa Burkett, Niko Chaffin, James Dean, and Anthony DeAngelo
Second row (l to r): McKenna Edwards, Sherese French, Daniel Garcia, Alex Gaynor, Mark Goodger, Tom Heger, and Shelby Irons
Third row (l to r): Rebecca Kooima, Emily Larsen, Kristyn Lechwar, Jenna Lyter, Clark Malcolm, Grant Masters, and Christine McCully
Fourth row (l to r): Marissa Molloy, Takashi Okunda, Jordan Patton, Jennifer Radke, Amanda Ray, Karen Renner, and Colby Rycus
Fifth row (l to r): Stephanie Sherban, Jessica Silvius, Quinn Tucker, Keenan Turner, Tracy Valgento, Margaret Whittaker, and Kimberly Yip

Do you ever have an idea about something but don’t know exactly where it will lead? And then once you follow your nose and chase down the idea, it turns into something so much better than you ever expected? I LOVE it when this happens! Don’t you?

Well, the Northern Arizona Photography Students “Guest Blogger” Project I am proudly kicking off today is a perfect example of this. Allow me to explain…

Last October, I had the privilege of working with Arizona Highways Photography Workshops (AHPW) volunteer extraordinaire, Amy Horn (www.horndesigns.com), during a special photography workshop at the Desert Botanical Garden. Amy and I work together frequently on various AHPW, but it had been some time since we had chatted about the exciting things going on in our lives.

As Amy, who is also a photography instructor at the Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff, caught me up on her recent activities, I was so impressed to learn about how her students’ recently offered photographic support to the Komen Foundation as a part of her NAU classes. She actively sought out the opportunity to provide her students with as much real world experience to put their school studies to practical use.

This got me thinking back to my time at the University of Michigan Business School, where we worked with real companies in the community, and I remember just how much I enjoyed those experiences. I truly feel like those projects helped get me to where I am at today. And so it got me thinking some more…

As you know, giving back and helping the photographic community is very important to me. So is the endless pursuit of continuous improvement, not just for myself as an artist, but my entire community…so…

I sent Amy an email a few days after the workshop, offering a few ideas of how either my CMS Photography or my Analemma Press publishing businesses could help provide hands-on experiences for her students. I didn’t have a clue if the ideas were something Amy – and her students – would be interested, but I couldn’t let the opportunity pass without trying.

After receiving an enthusiastic response and talking with Amy about possible partnering opportunities, we agreed to me presenting a 30-minute presentation to her Intermediate Photography (PHO285) classes, where we would introduce the “Guest Blogger: Behind the Image” assignment.

On March 7, the students received the task of “selecting a photo from this semester (can be from any class or one you already turned in) that has a story. The story should be about how and why you took this image.” Upon completion, each student’s “Behind the Image” story and photo would appear on my blog as a “Guest Blogger” post during late April and early May.

Specifically, each student was asked to write a blog for posting about:

“Why: What inspired you to create this image? What were you trying to “say” with it – what’s the visual message you wish to communicate? Adding in the thought process from a photographic perspective would also be helpful (e.g. “I used this filter because I wanted this effect.”)

How: As part of your story, you will share the technical information for the image, specifically camera brand/model, focal length lens used, ISO speed setting, aperture, shutter speed, any filters, and any special post-‐processing techniques.”

In addition, we asked the students to write in active – not passive voice – and stay within a word count of 400-800 words. Finally, we requested a 100-word bio at the end of their blog entry.

The students were not required to submit nature or outdoor-related images, as their interests varied greatly, and I feel strongly that we, as an audience, can improve our own work by reviewing and evaluating photography outside of our preferred domain.

From the assignment, we received 35 blog entries. Starting this afternoon and over the next few weeks, in no particular order, these 35 NAU Intermediate Photography students will share their personal expression with public audience via this blog – some blogging for the first time! I hope you will find, as I have, much inspiration from these students and their work!

I also invite you to participate in this educational project by reading their insights and providing your comments on their stories and photos. Help make a difference in these students’ lives! They could benefit tremendously from your encouragement, unique perspectives, and constructive feedback! So not only do we as an audience get to enjoy and learn from their insights, but they also get the opportunity to hear what you think as well! Everyone wins!

I LOVE it when this happens!

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