Halfway Point

So today marked the last day of Phase II. O_O WOW! It seems like just yesterday I was walking through those doors for the first time as a Hallmark student, and now we're HALFWAY DONE! Holy crap!

Come Monday we're going to get new groups, new section letters, and plenty of new assignments. We're also changing how the show is run, because instead of scheduled studio time, we're just getting open studio time to shoot in. We'll be more in control of what we shoot and when, and much more responsible for good time management. We're still going to have classes, and learn new stuff, but Phase III is where we really start bringing in our creative side. So that's pretty cool. I'm excited!!!

Today definitely was a good last day, too, because we had Rich Barnes teaching us about group portraiture. And how does he do it, but of course hands-on! xD It was great, we had at least 20 people posed in this huge "family" group shot on stage. I, of course, was there from the beginning. Rocca got pulled into it too because he decided the couch made a nice bed. xDDD It was a lot of fun, and there was groping, joking, laughing, and the likes going on. All in good fun, I promise. Jenny managed to take a picture of the final product, so as soon as I can I am getting a copy of that file. I will post it here as soon as I have it. Hehe

Rich told some great stories too. They included:
Finding a used condom under a client's couch when shooting an in-home family portrait that belonged to their son.
The old lady in the nursing home family portrait that had a seizure it seemed every time the flash went off.
The two fighting women,who were in their 40s and 50s and sisters, who came out ready to pose and one had a gouge on her head while the other had hair clumps on her.

Rich has some of the best stories, yes? xD He's a great guy, I love him.

But yeah, that was the jist of the day. So now I am preparing to head back to NY so that I can shoot my photo essay and window light this weekend. Also have to edit my high key and small product shots for Monday. There's no rest for a college student.

Also, RIP to Mizu, my Beta Fish. I found him dead this morning around 5am when we had quite the out-of-season thunderstorm. Looks like he had severe hemriging near the gills. May he rest in peace. October 20th 2007-January 11th 2008.