I am now three-ish weeks into my spring 2019 semester! I started my semester in the middle of the week, so by now I have been to all my classes and here is what I think of them so far!
Astronomy II + Lab
I am not a science person, but I still have general education requirements. Initially, I was registered for a Marine Science class, but it was weird. That class would have been six hours on Saturdays for half of the semester, with a field trip at the end that interfered with my spring break. Over the Christmas break, I realized I really did not want to do that, so I dropped it and switched into Astronomy II. I took Astronomy I, the prerequisite, last spring and really enjoyed it, and it just worked out that the second course is only offered in the spring and the lecture times and lab all fit into my schedule.
The professor is the same one I had for Astronomy I, and he teaches both the lecture and the lab. We're going to be going through the second half of the textbook we used in Astronomy I, covering topics like galaxy formation, black holes, and the formation of the universe. As far as science goes, I think that all sounds pretty interesting!
Studio Photography
I was really looking forward to this class because I'm excited to get more knowledge about studio photography and lighting setups. I've also heard great things about the professor, who I have not had a class with yet. Our first session was pretty relaxed, we got to know the professor and classmates a bit and I share the class with some of the same people from last semester, so I'm more comfortable with them.
The professor seems like a really interesting person, he isn't too much older than his students, but he really knows his stuff and is a working professional along with being a professor, so I'm looking forward to learning from him.
A huge part of commercial photography is studio work, so it is so important for me to take this class and get this work into my portfolio (and up on the website at some point!).
The only problem I predict is that. . .I'm not the best about photographing people. This will be a very portraiture-focused class and while I know I CAN take photos of people and I've had some turn out pretty well. . . the anxiety I feel leading up to portraiture shoots has me looking for any way out of the situation. In this case, the only way to fix this is to just do it, and do it again and again and again and at some point, I won't be as nervous anymore.
Intermediate Design
This class is with a professor I had last semester and really enjoyed. He taught a different subject last year, but a new one will be refreshing. Intermediate Design is going to build on all the fundamental classes I have already taken, which will grow my skills in Adobe programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. The professor is planning for four projects this semester, and I hope we get to all of them because they sound great. This semester I'm aiming to nail down my graphic design style so all the work I produce from here on out looks somewhat cohesive (If you go look at the Design tab on the website, I don't think all my work looks cohesive. Please let me know if you think it does!). A challenge I will have is that I love minimal design, which makes things difficult because I will have to communicate more with less elements. I'm planning to update my website with all my projects as I complete them, so keep an eye out for that!
Intermediate Commercial Photography
This class is taught by a professor that I have had before, he's the department head of the whole photography program, he knows his stuff and he truly cares about all of his students. In Fundamental Commercial Photography, the foundation was finding what we liked and were inspired by, and implementing those observations into our own work through self-assigned projects over the course of the semester. That fundamental class helped me nail down my photography style, which I will be honing over the course of this semester.
This class will lean towards editorial photography, which is under the big umbrella of commercial photography, but it isn't capturing reality like photojournalism or going super conceptual like fine art photography can. Editorial is a hybrid, normally you'll find it in magazines or other print publications. It's not trying to explicitly sell you something, but the concepts that go into editorial photography make you want to buy the thing, if that makes sense. This all might be completely wrong, I've only been to the class once so give me a little grace!
That's how my time is being spent this semester! All of these classes are going to challenge me in different ways and I know I'll come out of it as a better designer and photographer, having made work I'm proud of. I'm very busy already but I do truly enjoy the work.
Thank you for reading!
xx, Hannah
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