Mid-Atlantic Ridge: SPE Atlanta

That's two road trips down, one to go. Thank goodness the next one is only two hours, I don't know if I could handle another all-night drive.

I don't have too many pictures from the actual conference, but I have plenty of the city of Atlanta and the St. Patrick's Day parade, and I still have some from New York I want to post, so those will be at the bottom of this, in that order.

I went to a slew of lectures, some more helpful than others (the one on color balancing was not so helpful, the keynote speaker the first night was super-interesting, etc). I got my most current work (the YouTube stills) reviewed by three separate reviewers--two professors and a practicing artist--and the feedback I got was mildly helpful. The last reviewer was the most enthusiastic, his names was Jamason Chen, he is a photojournalism professor from Loyola. He gave me a good many ideas for presentation, and we even got to talk a little about the concept behind the whole thing, which I didn't really do with the others.

As for the demos and workshops... I kind of already knew most of what was going on. The one lady demonstrating Adobe products was really entertaining though, so I didn't mind watching her tutorial on how to combine still and moving images in Adobe Premiere.

There was a portfolio walkthrough for anyone who brought a portfolio late one night and I was surprised how much of the work was commercial/ photojournalistic in nature. There was barely any conceptual work, you really had to sniff it out in the corners. Janie Stevens, my practicum professor, was also there, and she said that the nature of the work really depends on the region the conference is held in. The 2012 conference will be in San Francisco, so there will definitely be more conceptual work there.

The Midwest conference is actually being held in Cincinnati in October, so I will most likely go to that, now that I'm a member and all.

Things I learned on this trip:
-I MUST print some business cards/ postcards
-I will forever associate skrillex with gas stations and late-night driving
-I really should develop some sort of shorthand for quick note-taking in critiques (or just learn real shorthand)
-Lecturers really should be screened before being chosen as keynote speakers
-In relation to that, if I ever am to give a speech, I will not READ from a SCRIPT. I will talk like a human being
-I am slap-happy when tired, I don't need alcohol to act ridiculous
-TIP: hit up free sample tables several times
-People don't shake hands so often, it seems, but a firm one is always best if called for--no jellyfish hands
-Southerners really ARE that friendly! Holy crackers!
-Atlanta has like 100 streets all named some iteration of "Peachtree"
-Atlanta is skinny but super-long--we tried walking that first day. Baaad idea

This weeks is finals week, I have two critiques and a paper due, but other than that... I now have time to clean and organize my room, which is something that has needed doing since the beginning of the quarter. Ha.

SPE Atlanta photos: