first week is in the bag (finally)

I can't believe how slow this week's been. Though my classes are all really cool and I'm more in love with photography and my school than ever, I still felt as though every day just drrrrraaaaaaaggged.

So far I love all my courses, especially Creativity in Photography (which is on Wednesday mornings and is taught by the head of the Photography studio, Peter Gross--who's a really cool, funny guy. I'm into photography as an art-form: less literal and more creative and experimental and I'm really looking forward to taking it further and trying out some of the concepts that I've seen on Flickr.

On Thursday we did photography using pinhole cameras (we started the project in Photo History and then it carried over into Film and Darkroom Techniques). My favourite photo is of the school (the camera was on the deck of the soldiers' barracks). Only thing is, there's a big black hole in the front yard of NBCCD. Yikes. Karen Ruet scanned our best shots (including inverting them because what you get when you use a pinhole camera is a negative) and once it's transferred to my account I'm going to suck mine into Photoshop and lighten it because when I look at that photo my eye is immediately drawn to the black hole.

Yesterday morning I had Photoshop: Tools and Techniques, which is taught by Drew Gilbert (he also teaches Film and Darkroom Techniques). He said it's going to be really intense, but I don't mind: I got through last year, and if I can get through the first semester of FVA, I can handle anything. Hit me with your best shot Drew.

Bonus: I learned that Photoshop CS4 (which is what the school computers are running) has the DNG Converter built into the program--it isn't separate the way it is in CS2 (which is what I was running on my computer before I upgraded this summer). YYYIIPPPEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now dealing with RAW photos will actually be (wait for it) fun! (And if you have no idea as to what I'm talking about, RAW is a way of formatting images in a digital camera--JPEG is another--but unlike JPEGs, RAW photos don't lose any data as they're edited and whipped into shape. However, you need a special program to convert the file so that it's readable by a program like Photoshop and that's where the DNG Converter comes in.)

I still have one more class that's new (I'm taking seven this term): Communication for Visual Artists, which is on Monday morning.

I've been thinking a lot about the differences between this time last year and now. Last year I freaked when I got my first assignment (a one-page reaction paper) in Communication and Student Success. I considered a page (double-spaced, twelve-point Times New Roman) to be A LOT. But when I got my first writing assignment this week (a two-hundred-to-three-hundred-word journal entry on my biggest fear as I start the diploma program), I took one look at it and thought, "that's nothing" (I had it done in about forty-five minutes). What a difference a year makes...

Throughout the week I've been visiting old classrooms and saying "hi" to last year's teachers. I still have one thing to do, however: tell my FVA academic advisor, Adam (remember him?) about the near-nostalgia I feel for FVA (though not for the workload of first semester) and the admiration I feel towards the FVA class of 2011. I know what they're going through, having experienced it myself. Some will make it and graduate, others will drop out. But they will all come away with a mountain of experience. Go FVAs!

I saw Eat, Pray, Love last night. It's an okay movie--it's fun, the parts in Italy almost made me swoon (I think I saw Santa Maria Sopra Minerva and she went to one of my favourite pizzerias in Naples), and it stars Julia Roberts. 'Nuff said.