Has the storm passed or is it still coming?

I was talking to my Dad yesterday and he asked how it felt to make it through this past year. I honestly couldn't tell him. Not only was it my first year in grad school, but Lindsey and I got married in March. While married life has been great, its also still kind of on hold, since we live in two different towns. That has been the hardest part of all this. The school work has been time consuming but nothing that I couldn't handle. 

I wish I had, had more time to shoot this past year. I think most of that is my fault for not making more time for it. Trying to balance writing papers and shooting can be difficult. This next year should be different. I am leaving my position at the Missourian to become one of two Missouri Photo Workshop Fellows. I am also going to be shooting more video and some how I got myself signed up for a Rural Sociology Course. I'm pretty excited about all of it, but I want to temper that excitement with the reality of paying bills and picking up some work on the side. Along with school ending for they year, I've really started to dig into my masters project research which has already turned up some interesting problems. Those problems are helping me center in on a story so they are very good problems.

Finally since Lindz and I did get married we have planned a little mini honeymoon, in a few weeks we will be heading to Guatemala for a week. We are both looking forward to that trip, I am excited to show her around the place I loved and called home. We are having trouble deciding what to go see and do while we are there, so I think we might just wing it. 

What I am learning from my students...

This passed weeks PhotoVoice class was great! We got the upload issues from previous weeks taken care of and were able to see everyones images and spend some time talking about them. The project for last week was "life long learning." 

Each student took a very different approach to the subject, Zane (pictured above) shot a series still lifes that made a really nice essay, giving us a glimpse into what he felt would make it possible to have life long learning. (As we edit those in class, I will post the series).

After we talked for a bit, we started our photo scavenger hunt. Which was a lot of fun. We stayed with in the area of our building. The students hunted for photos finding some great shots. 20 minutes after we had started I had one student run over to me and tell me his card was full, once that little hiccup was solved he kept shooting. I felt like this was the perfect opportunity for the class to ask me any photography questions in real time and we could problem solve things out. I am happy to report back it was exactly that. 

Next weeks assignment is "Relationships." We discussed in class the types of relationships and how they can be varied and different. Sometimes I find myself explaining to much (or at least thats how it feels) then I step back and remember they are smart kids and always come back with photos and explanations to why they took a type of photo that blows me away.

A change of course...

It has been a long time since I posted. The past few months have been insane! I quite my job in Temple in July, Spent some time in El Paso relaxing and shooting a wedding, went back to Temple gathered up the apartment into boxes and move to Missouri to start grad school. Missouri is a pretty nice place, Lindsey being in Kansas City for school and me here in Columbia is given me the chance to explore two cities. Which has really turned into where to get the best beer/food hunt.

Coming back to school has been an interesting ride so far. Already diving into research and photo projects. I am one of the Assistant Directors of Photography at the Columbia Missourian, so my work load is pretty heavy. Most of my free time I spend hanging out with the dog. I always told myself I wouldn't go back to school, but here I am diving into this program.