one adventure is over & the next one begins

so long missoula.  it's been fun, frustrating, exciting, depressing, joyous and mind boggling. i will miss the hot days and the warm nights. the extraordinarily friendly people. the casual way that people interact with one another. the railroad tracks and the trains. the sky. the mountains. the river. rmsp. rmsp. rmsp. reiki. elizabeth & neil & marcy & cheri & bob & eileen x 2 & dave & tony. liquid planet. angie & joanie & beth x 2 & jessica & jenn & paul & scott & rich & joanna & brad & wyatt & mica & athena & BAILEY and oh dear, iam sure that thete are more to add to this list. oh, yes forest x 2.

it may take me a very long time to digest and properly process all that i have learned, experienced and shared these past 5 months.  but i do know one thing...i would not have missed this wild ride for anything on earth and i believe that i have found my muse. at least for the now.

thanks rmps. thanks missoula. thanks pb and thanks betty.  i love you all.

2 more days until graduation

we had our final business and marketing class this morning, and i could tell that everyone was elsewhere. we worked on our mission statements and marketing strategies-all important- but after all these weeks of absorbing information, poor Mike Size was put to the test.  I got a lot of great information, some of which I will put into practice when I return home.

This afternoon, we had our last open lab.  I worked on getting a series of slides together for my presentation on Thursday morning, and then got to hang out with bailey the boxer girl for a bit.  i was overjoyed to see her, and we happily went on a jaunt around downtown while she marked and sniffed and acted oh so cute.  I sure needed that puppy infusion of love.

printed like a maniac tonight.  i was extremely happy with the results, and i think that i have enough to have an interesting show when I return home.  playing around with holga images, and this one-although not a holga-turned out really well.

tomorrow afternoon the presentations start. group a in the afternoon, then my group thursday AM and finally group c on thursday afternoon.  PB arrives that day as well!

friday we graduate and then it is all over.  or just beginning.

my last week in missoula

my last week at rmsp.  it's been a wild ride, to say the least.

these 2 images were taken with FILM on my holga.

my first (successful) attempt at a long night exposure

 the following images were from my group photo shoot at lubrecht experimental forest.  a beautiful model names stephanie made the shoot easy and fun.  thank you stephanie!

9 days and then this journey is over and the next one begins

no images to post

still in my camera.  it's been a working/school weekend as we head into a long week.  image to come. I am loving the summer weather, although it is excepted to get colder and maybe some rain.  a group of us started a blog-for members only.  we are calling it "rmsp 2010 alumni" and are hoping that the blog has a long and active life ahead of it.  it will be a place where we can share stories about our photographic experiences once we leave the rmsp bubble, a venue to ask questions, post news of the industry and other cool information.  we are keeping the blog private and have not invited all of the students to join.  we want to make it a positive, support site-and frankly-there are some people in the program who do not possess either trait.

Here was my first blog post of the site:

I am overwhelmed with all of the information that I have received this summer. Happy to be going home, but sad to be leaving wonderful new friends behind. I will miss Missoula and RMSP, and leaving will be bittersweet. I have vacillated between a myriad of emotions while at the school; confusion, excitement, frustration, loneliness, joy, in/security, acceptance and peace. This has been an extraordinary professional and personal journey and I am grateful to have shared it with so many loving, talented people. Namaste, Nancy

favorites of last weekend

signs of fall in missoula

Faces

While surfing the internet this morning, looking for photography mentors in my home area,  I stumbled upon this little gem by  Jock McDonald.

photo animation at its best

I am starting to actually like photoshop

i get confused easily & sometimes my mind can't process correctly in a linear order, but I think that I may be starting to understand and even like Photoshop.

Here is today's masterpiece:

stock images & my first montage

I just returned from a wonderful stock photography critique and talk by Forest Woodward, an RMSP teacher and accomplished stock photographer.  He critiqued a few of my images and suggested that I start with the maximum of three (as designated by Istock) and submit the following images:

 

Forest told the class what images work best of the stock agencies and how to start the submission process.  I found an instructional blog posting that addresses these issues.  Check it out!

Forest Woodward blog

a waterfall and a set of train tracks. learning amazing things from Laura Shoe.  I LOVE montages.  look for more images, coming soon.

fall, falls and friends

It is fall here in montana.  it happened all of a sudden-one day it was 90 degrees and then it was 60 and drizzly.  the air smells good, sharp and clean.  like hayfork.

I am ready to go home.  that also happened suddenly.  maybe it was the call from ann that betty fell and was in the hospital  at the vineyard.   ann also told me that peter strachan was having severe nose bleeds-which makes us think that his cancer may have returned.  sad family we have. I feel the need to be surrounded by the pups and my friends and not sleep alone anymore.  I miss my pack.

I am learning so much in AI that I can't properly process it all.  I sit in class and try to take good notes, but I wonder how much I am really absorbing.  It is all technical now-layers and masks and selections and making animation out of still images and compositing and and and...  I need to practice every day when I get home and I know that it will come to me.  I know that I think and learn differently than many people, and I know that it is going to take me longer than others to completely understand all of these concepts.  That's OK. I have plenty of time.

my mentor meeting with Neil went well on saturday.  he critiqued about 40 of my images.  I chose a variety pack so he could see what interests me.  he complimented me on my eye and style and  versatility.  we talked about where I think I may be going from here (images to greeting card companies, building up my portfolio, documentary photography).  I felt good when I left.

Skalkaho Falls

Mike Schart, Me, Angie Dombrowsky

rails & other old stuff

down by the railroad tracks.  just love it there.  missoula is a very cool town.