Showing posts with label cartoon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cartoon. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Are we going fast or slow in this course?

Hello everyone and welcome to another Terrific Tuesday!

If you started classes at about the same time I started blogging (is that a word!) then you should be in your week five or so, looking ahead toward the end of the class… so you can start all over again with the next on most of the time the next day!  People have asked me before “how do you do it?” after all I am working full time, working part time and going to school full time.  My answer is simple: stamina and perseverance!

When I first started with the classes it seemed that everything was going at such a fast pace that I felt that I had to run from day one just to catch up with the fear of being left behind.  After three years, now it feels like time has stopped moving as fast and that everything is where it is supposed to be.

By this time you might be saying: “who is he kidding, I can barely keep up with the course!”

Others might be saying: “this guy is crazy, we will never be able to perceive that classes are that slow!”

I am here to tell you that someday you will look back at this blog and say that I was right!  If you are wondering how I got where I am today, I will tell you that there are three things that helped me through the hard times in this race to the finish line, also known as graduation with a diploma.


The first one is time management, be sure that you keep track of everything that is going on in the classes you are taking and plan ahead accordingly.  If Monday is day one of the week and you have a shooting assignment due on Saturday, don’t wait until that day to start shooting, more often than not there will be some problems that need to be dealt with before you get to the shooting.  If you have a paper for another class due on the same day, start your research as soon as possible.  Also, remember that the last week is a short one and some classes have final projects that need to be turned in before the course ends.  Once you know what is going on during that week, plan your time to get everything done taking into consideration everything you learned in your previous classes.

My second area that helped me during my studies is patience.  Don’t laugh, you need to have patience to deal with everything that is thrown your way and perseverance to get everything done.

The last thing is developing a strong will and foresight of everything you are going to do in the future, that way you can plan ahead and use your time management skills accordingly.  Some classes are required in order to tackle the next ones, go into the library and see all the courses that are required for your degree.  You can actually open the information for each one of them and see the topical outlines for each class, so you can prepare yourself for what is coming your way!

That is all I got, do you agree?  Do you have any secrets that assist you throughout the studies that you might want to share with others?  Go ahead and write them down and share them here.

Until later then, I leave you with some humor to keep your spirits and your tickle bone tuned!

Have a great Tuesday!

Tuesday Ambassador.


Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Where is that picture?!?

Where is that picture?!?

          This is the situation: you have finished your photography assignment and the Art Director approaches you and says: “Hey, I love your pictures and the way you frame them, I liked one specific image you did for me last year about this time, the one with the red flowers along the river bank, can you get me another copy in about one hour.  I will use that picture to get you another job”.

          If you have made a habit of tagging your images with keywords, then you should have no problems finding that image…however, if haven’t then what are you going to do to find that specific image?
Keywords are a way that photographers can tag images for reference in finding them later on.  As a photography student you probably will be accumulating images at an alarming rate as every single assignment would have a minimum of 30-40 images to be posted.  To get that amount of images, you probably have taken about twice every single time in order to select the best ones.  Entering my fourth year of studies at the AiO, I have accumulated over 15,000 images during that time, not all of them for classes, but still that is a lot of images!

          It would be a good idea (if you haven’t done it yet) to start using keywords with all your images and projects.  We all use Lightroom, and with this program, keywording your images is painless.  So, there are several things that you can do to make your life easier with the use of keywords:

1.      You can assign the keyword during import, that way as you download the images, they are tagged with the words selected for that specific download.  If you forget to do it during import, you can still do in the library mode.

2.      When assigning key words, use those that are relevant to the images.  If you take a portrait of a family on location, you can use the location, names, date, background, and/or
anything that will go along with the picture.

3.      Variety is key, the more words you use the chances to find that specific image is higher.

4.      Later on you can search the entire library by simply typing the word.
Want to read more about this, then click here.

How about an exercise (no it is not graded) to demonstrate what I am talking about.  What key words would you use with the following image?




          The keywords I used were: Zilker (location), water, lily, pink, lily pad, single, side view.  Of course, that means that I have more and that I needed to be precise (I have 450 images of water lilies). If you used any of the above words, then you are ready to start using keywords, if you already are using them, then keep up the good work!

Let me share a cartoon that reminded me that there is always a bright side to small incidents that can happen to us from time to time, and yes, this has happened to me!



Until later, drop me a line,


Tuesday Ambassador