A Night of Espionage and Intrigue

I helped put together an Espionage Soirée with Mr. Daniel Alexander last night. We had a classy buffet of hors d'oeurves and a martini-ready bar. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of people that showed up in costume. There were villains, spies, femme fatales, classy dames, and evil henchmen. I was also pleased with the variety of guests coming from different majors, not just hailing from building seven (the art nerds). We were seeking to top our Argyle & Cupcakes party and I think it greatly surpassed that. Thank you so much to everyone that came, you all looked fabulous!

L'Année Deuxième

It's my Junior Year at RIT, second as a transfer photo student. I now live in a house with five other illustrators (technically, one of them is in Film & Animation), and people still think I'm an illustrator as well. I've made some recent updates to my photo section from last year’s projects. But just you wait, there's more to come. I've added a couple links to my ridiculously talented friends’ websites, Carly Schonberg and Jonghyup Son.

I've also started working at the Photo Cage so that had to be added to my résumé as well. Working there has given me so much more exposure to equiptment than I ever thought possible. Well, I knew that was one of the advantages but I had no idea how much RIT actually had to offer. For instance, I got to handle the digital Leica M8 for the first time. Also, never pull a plug out of a lighting battery before shutting it off. Bad idea. Good thing to know when assisting.

I recently had to say goodbye to my PowerBook. It's about two years old now so it’s done for good. But I was reunited with my hard drive, which is not gone for good. It just liked to pick it’s own time to start working. Although I intended on adding some more SportsZone posters to the design section, but unfortunately those were saved on my now defunct computer. So that pretty much explained my lack of updates for the past few months.

And just another side note: Once again I have been denied taking a French course, which is my minor. I haven't taken it since last winter. Thankfully I had about four years of it from high school and plenty of books to study from on my bookshelf. So I've been watching movies either dubbed in French or with subtitles. Did you know that Chicago has a French soundtrack as well? I never knew. Very bizarre watching Catherine Zeta Jones singing in someone else’s voice. I’m also trying to convince my aunt, who lives in Paris, to let me come stay with her for a week or so for my winter break. We’ll see how that goes.

Snow in Spring

Regardless of what is outside my window, I still anticipate the Spring and the inspiration that will drive from it. We dove in head–first into Spring Quarter and I love my current Photo 3 teacher, Joe Z. He has a great sense of humor, he enforces time-management (which I desperately need), and he also teaches the Fashion Photography course. I don't know if it was the depressing winter or the frustration with a new medium, but I feel a lot more motivated to start projects this quarter. Right off the bat Joe gave us a complete detailed syllabus for us to plan ahead. Excellent.

In the next few weeks I hope to get some newer work up from the past few quarters. It'll be long and arduous but I'll be killing two birds with one stone by self–promotion and getting my final together for Photo 3, which is a complete digital portfolio.

I feel like I have a good, strong start to the quarter and I hope it doesn't slow down.

When the Ends Justify the Means

A while ago I had an interview with Tony Sahadeo, the director of admissions at The New England School of Photography. Unfortunately, even though I was accepted there I opted for my first choice, RIT. But I wanted to note a great quote that he told me:

Digital photography is akin to cooking. You can spend all day baking and preparing food, cook on a stove — a gas stove, even — and have a wonderful, accomplished result. Or you can pop it in the microwave and push a bunch of buttons. In the end, the result is what you put into it.

The Beginning

A few days ago I was accepted into the Advertising Photography program at Rochester Institute of Technology for this upcoming fall. Of course I'm absolutely ecstatic! RIT has the best photo program in the country and I'm absolutely honored to be a part of it. I'm incredibly relieved as well. Ever since January my future plans have been up in the air and they all depended on whether or not I would get in: if I should get an apartment; if I should apply for a full-time job; if I should apply for a short-term internship; if I should buy a new car.

On the other hand I have a wonderful job with Sage Systems at the moment and I'm afraid it might come to an end prematurely. I had planned on staying with them until November and going to school for the Winter term, but unfortunately the photography program doesn't work that way at RIT. I'm honestly disappointed that I might have to leave, the last three months have been great there and I love my boss. But I guess this is one of those rare moments where my motivation works against me.