VCU Sophmore Year

Sophomore year was spent in a lot of classes learning about techniques, different types of film, and learning about other photographers in order to learn from them. The hardest thing to learn as an artist is “it’s all been done” (like the Barenaked Ladies song). I played with high-contrast film, which allowed me to explore and learn about silhouettes. and infrared film, with which I took some beautiful landscapes (before then I really had no interest in shooting them). I took some studio classes and had a lot of fun with lights and sets. I even took an extra course over two days on how to set up lights and equipment (an assistant photographer boot camp). Here I learned what it takes to break into the business. I did a few small projects playing with lighting (including flash photography) and spent a lot of time walking around photographing people and places. I did a series on bridges and met a lot of different types of people, including Native American’s at a Pow Wow. I also did a little part time work for a small local magazine trying to get off the ground. This was also the year I officially started my own photography business photographing events (I photographed a retirement party and took some modeling photos). At this point, I knew I wanted to photography people, but wasn’t exactly sure where my business was going to go.  I spent the year just learning, exploring and enjoying it.