Friday, December 31, 2010

A Look Back at 2010


It is December 31st, 2010.  Lots has happened with me this past year.  I have met many good people and experienced many new things.  I am one step closer to finally finishing my long track of formal education.  As I look into 2011, I sit here and wonder what things made me a better photographer, student, and person this past year.  

I remember leaving 2009 with uncertainty about my future and mostly my families future.  My father at the end of the year packed up his belongings and moved out of his only job he knew for so many years.  He, like many other Americans, found himself unemployed.  What does this mean for my dad, who put his whole life into a job that disappeared in a matter of months, and what does this mean for my family.  I wanted to document this change my father went through and photography gave me the means of telling his story.


I managed to get a summer internship at the News-Herald this year.  My 12 weeks taught me what it is like working as a professional photographer and the daily struggles of newspapers.  I photographed as much as I could and learned very valuable lessons from a first internship.  I learned what to do and not what to do.  It gave me a sense of what working for a newspaper is like, something I might be interested in pursuing later.  




This year I was accepted into the Eddie Adams Workshop XXIII.  This was a big stepping stone for me in my career as a photographer.  I had the opportunity to work with the best in the industry.  I met many great photographers and saw all their work.  I met 99 other students of the workshop that had the same struggles and outlooks as I did.  It was amazing to see 100 talented students tackling their own story in a short amount of time.  I learned valuable things that I can apply to my own photography from listening to others and seeing such a vast amount of work.  I will always remember my experience at the workshop.


Like every other photography student out there, I entered into the College Photographer of Year contest.  This is a contest for college students to get their name out there and to show what they have been doing this past year.  It also sets the benchmark for college students in their own work.  I was happy to see one my photographs from this year made it into the Sports Feature category as a finalist.  I was awarded an Award of Excellence for my picture below.  My story I did on my father also made it into the Quarter-finals of the Domestic Picture Story category.


As 2011 is only hours away, I find myself looking back at 2010 as only the beginning of a lifelong career as a photographer.  I learned valuable lessons from various professors, professionals, students, and my subjects.  2011 will bring a close to my 21 years of schooling and the beginning of my life.


Thank you everyone for following this blog this year.  I am currently finishing up work on a new website and blog which will hopefully be released in the coming weeks.

Chris

Extra pictures I enjoyed from 2010......







Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone.  A shot from tonights candlelight service at church.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Kaitlyn

Here is a photo from a recent shoot I had with Kaitlyn.  I used a window as a background and lit her with one flash through a softbox.

Friday, December 10, 2010

I had an itch to shoot.

Since my good friend at RIT, Michael Conti, left school to pursue a winter/spring internship, I have taken his place as Photo Editor at Reporter Magazine.  I have had only a few weeks on the job and enjoy it so far.  I thought it was time for me to go out and shoot something, so I photographed a woman's basketball game tonight.  RIT beat Elmira 72-57 in the Empire 8 Season opener.




Monday, December 6, 2010

Winter is here.

Been doing lots of preparation but not a whole lot of shooting.  I am preparing for a documentary film and a community news magazine class.  I am planning an economic story, finishing up my night riders story, and starting a few other projects.  Other then that, it is just applying to internships and finding more stories until I graduate in the spring.  Here is a photograph I took today that looked interesting.