Photo usefulness

Today in photo class:

RECIPROCITY means THE TENDENCY OF FILM TO REACT A CERTAIN WAY WHEN EXPOSED TO LIGHT.

RECIPROCITY FAILURE means WHEN FILM DOES NOT REACT THAT WAY WHEN EXPOSED TO LIGHT. (As in very long exposures, etc.)

RECIPROCITY COMPENSATION means WHATEVER IT IS YOU DO TO AVOID RECIPROCITY FAILURE. (In the case of long exposures, you make the exposures even longer, for example.)

No one has ever really explained it to me before. I've been in college for three years and in photo classes since my sophomore year of high school. Admittedly I could have just toddled off and asked the internet, but honestly, I will remember what Janie Stevens calmly explains to me much, much longer than what I read off of Yahoo answers at 2 am.

BZNSS

So in the post about SPE I mentioned business cards and how I really should get some printed. Well, since I don't have the time to get them printed in time for SPACE, I just went ahead and made some. The front I simply made in Word, on a label template, and then I glued that computer paper to Bristol board and cut them all out. I drew on the back of each one, so they're more like artist trading cards than business cards. I only have 20 but I'm planning on only handing them out to people I really want to keep contact with anyway.

I just scanned them because some of them I really liked. I couldn't decide on a theme so I went with a few cards per.

I think I'm most fond of the dancing girl, I might use one of those when I get "real" ones printed. I'm least fond of the faces, the idea was cuter than the result. Oh well.

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:

Laura Fisher checks her email at the conference hotel (check out her iPhone photos on her blog).

Kilts are pretty much awesome.

Knights! On horses!

The flatiron building. Same name, different city.

From left to right: Janie Stevens, Danielle Koval, Jacob Riddle, Caitlin Robinson, Laura Fisher.

So I did.

Fancy-dan men's shoes.

All the free film I got: some 100 TMAX, one 120 color film, one fujichrome slide film, some VC and NC Kodak Portra... awesome.

NYC photos:

Oh, hey there, other flatiron building.

Awesome installation at the Met by Katrin Sigurdadottir.

I Do What I Can

to make my mother laugh.

How to: tell a joke. (This is like the Pirates' Code--guidelines rather than actual rules.)

-make sure you remember the punchline before you open your mouth.
-if the joke calls for it, do the voices.
-practice keeping a straight face. Or at least keeping your laughter to an intelligible level, so your audience doesn't have to sit there and wonder if you're going to pass out before they get to hear the punchline.
-remember: bad popsicle stick jokes are excellent!
-if you're going to tell a Helen Keller joke (or any joke within the category of "oh-my-god-why-am-i-laughing-this-is-so-bad"), make sure you know your audience.

Here are some standup comedians to keep in mind: Eddie Izzard, Dave Allen, Chelsea Handler, and Danny Bhoy.

There are more, obviously, but those are the ones I've nearly peed myself laughing at. Well, them, and Hasse och Tage (in Swedish only, sadly).

How to Intaglio II

How to Intaglio I