I am a photographic scholar sustained by a journey of working in a variety of commercial and photo education work environments during the past thirty years, and my path is fortunate to have coincided with photography's incredible paradigm shift from traditional films, to digital imaging technologies. This has nourished my career with a depth of experience I'm eager to share with students via assignments in beginning-, intermediate-, and advance-level courses.
I favor the instructional model of an occupational program because it enables students to get their hands on things, take risks, make mistakes, and as a result produce a deeper understanding of how to construct images. I can point to the years spent in the commercial sector, solving a wide range of visual problems, as to the reason why I value this method. The lighting classes I teach require students to work in groups of three, due in part to facility space, but also because it simulates a real-world studio workflow. Although I presume that they learn from my images and demonstrations when describing assignment objectives, students clearly learn from each other too. They witness various methods of problem solving, voice and express preferred [different] styles of learning, commiserate when confused, but can ultimately garner understanding and retention through it all.
One of the greatest challenges I face is keeping technology in check so that it does not overshadow creativity and/or personal vision. I like to emphasize that good technique unleashes creativity, and that the technical devices are merely tools, and although marvelous, they cannot do the work for us, resolve poorly executed original data, nor be a substitute for personal vision. Contemporary photo education demands excellent quantity and quality of instructional units and learning outcomes to offer students comparisons, create solid technical proficiencies and workflow strategies, and lead them to a secure sense of being visually literate.
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