Showing posts with label last post. Show all posts
Showing posts with label last post. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

A Tout Le Monde, Farewell


Stanley, Winston. Trapped. 2014


Greetings fellow shooters! Tuesday Ambassador Stanley here introducing you to my last Tuesday as an Ambassador here for the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. The past few weeks have been a mental and emotional roller coaster ride for me which resulted in missing posts, however, this may be a ride I will never forget. Now I am not leaving just yet as I still a have a few more classes to go before graduation, if everything pans out that way, but you should still see my presence on PSPN from time to time. I feel that I need to step down as Ambassador so I can open the door for another passionate, aspiring photographer who loves to write and is able to keep up with each and every week.

Do not get me wrong though, I love taking photos of just about anything and everything that presents itself to me because there is nothing like capping a perfectly timed photo. If you do not feel a rush of something going through your body after capturing a photo where you know that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity, then you may be pursuing the wrong profession. If you feel like it is a hassle to go out and shoot for an assignment, even with one camera and nothing else, again, you may be pursuing the wrong profession. Why am I writing this you ask? Because I know there are some individuals out there, judging by their pictures, that indicates to me that they are not putting in the same amount of effort in their assignments with no explanation as to how or why the shoot went the way it did. Case in point, think about what you truly want to pursue in your life whether it is taking pictures, 3D animation, architecture, plumbing or maybe you just want to be a police officer. Whatever it is that “floats your boat” pursue it and do not let it go no matter how difficult the assignment, course or even instructor is.

Some tidbits before I sign off for all of you newcomers and newbies who are enrolled here at the AIPOD and that is to check every little piece of information within your courses at the start of the course; Course Home, “Readings and Assignments,” Academic Expectations, Academic Resource, Syllabus even any questions that are asked of your professor is great to read as well. Reason being is so that you are not in shock and awe when you come to find out that there is an assignment due today that needed a few days of work. Be mindful of the day rate when turning in late work, but in fact you should not be turning stuff in late to begin with. Once you get in the groove of how each first week of class pans out you will come to find that most of the information that I pointed out to you will usually be the same for every class, so you will soon figure out what you should read and what you have already read. And always, thanks for reading.

Stanley, Winston. Set Free. 2014


- Tues. Amb. Stanley

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

My Last "Top 5" List

Greetings, welcome to another Terrific Tuesday!

This will probably be my last blog as a student of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online Division as I will be finishing my studies sometime this week!  Your Saturday Student Ambassador, Deva Mayorga-Malone and myself are doing our last presentation for our Portfolio on Wednesday and after that...we are graduates!

My name is Roberto Luis Gonzalez and I have been the ambassador for Tuesdays since the program began back in June of 2013.  It has been a great experience and I hope we have been able to provide some useful information here and there for our classmates and for those that are beginning the great journey in the field of photography.

I have decided to go back in time and share some of my classroom experiences in the form of "Top Lists", but this one will be a more personal one, so here we go!

Top 5 professors that I will always remember (learned a lot from them!):

1. Traeton Garl (PH 435 Fashion/Figure Photography) - After his first critique I felt like an amateur, but he brought out the best of me and from then on, my style was more defined and my vision clearer!
2. Maki Kawakita (PH 136 Lighting and PH323 Portraiture II) - Tough critiques all the time, elevated my technical aspects every single time.
3. Jill Mott (PH 342 Photo Essay) - I had other classes with her, but this one was a nightmare for me as I was never able to grasp the concept, her direction sometimes confused me and it was not until the end that I was able to see the big picture!
4. Damon Sauer - Once, I took two classes at the same time with him, I ended up posting assignments on the wrong thread in more than one occasion, he was always patient with me and encouraging.
5. Douglas Barkey - My last professor for my last class, had other ones with him but we never forget the last class and the last instructor.

Top 5 Photography classes that were difficult for me:

1. Marketing (PH 343) - A lot of reading, research, writing, exploring, re-doing, posting and re-posting while working two other jobs.
2. Business of Photography II (PH 332) - See above.
3. Digital Image Illustration (PH 134) - I remembered this one as the introduction to Photoshop, over 700 pages of information to be done in 5.5 weeks!
4. Portraiture II (PH 323) The concept of environmental portraits was a little weird for me at the time.
5. Photo Essay (PH 342) - For the longest time I kept thinking of photo story meets editorial photography and had the child of Photo Essay.  The concept and the timing of performing the assignments was not a good one for me!

Top 5 Personal Favorite Photography classes:

1. Studio Photography (PH 212) - New equipment to play with and the class only had two other classmates.
2. Lighting (PH 136) - Tungsten lighting and white continuous lighting creating shadows and cool contrasts!
3. Digital Image Management (PH 134) - Don't know, why but creating those contact sheets and learning about the management of images was something that stuck with me for a long time!
4. E-folio (PH 431) - Along with all the other portfolio classes, this was fun because I was able to start creating and establishing my website.
5. Thesis (PH 420) - This was one of those classes were I stepped out of my comfort zone and created a series on Boudoir photography.  This class was done around May 2013, and word of mouth since then has enabled me to make some profit in this genre.

5 Concepts that were "Easy to think about them, harder to accomplish" in no particular order:

1. Abandoned House Project - PH 412 Project Development
2. Gothic Magician - PH 323 Portraiture II
3. "Naughty and Nice" - PH 420 Thesis
4. The Retirement of Criska - PH 223 Magazine Photography
5. "The Duct Tape Dress" - PH 435 Location Photography

"Naughty & Nice" Photos by Roberto Gonzalez

"Gothic Magician"  Photo by Roberto Gonzalez


Abandoned House Project. Photo by Roberto Gonzalez














"The Retirement of Criska" Cover of Magazine Project


    























       Top 5 "I can't believe I actually enjoyed this class!" Surprise courses:
                               
1. ART 2100 The Afterlife in the History of Art - I had no idea what the class was about, but toward the end I was wishing it was a longer course!
2. FND 110 Drawing - Not part of the curriculum anymore but it was a good inspiring class that created a different perspective of how I saw objects in the open and in a studio.
3. ENG 2500 World Literature - The readings were extremely interesting!
4. BIO 2010 Nutrition - I learned a lot and still using the information I gathered from the class.
5. ART 1020 & 1030 - Art history course that helped with the photography history courses!

Classmates that I shared the most classes with, those in bold are part of my last course: 

Joe Mohn - "Keep On Firing" will always be tops in inspirational phrases.
Connie Rohne, Deva Mayorga-Malone, Doris Long, Rebecca "Peka" Simmons
Carolyn Lloyd, Lisa Bandy, Danielle Snider, Karen Sorby-Wirth, George Reis
Scotty McIntosh, Michael Barath, Ashleigh Shaeffer, Autumm Ginetti.

This has been a great experience and the learning that I have acquired is something that I will take with me forever, where ever life sends my way, I will be ready!

Thank you to all the professors and faculty for inspiring, pushing me while at the same time being patient adn always helping!

Thank you for all classmates that were part of my photographic journey, your critiques, comments and help was instrumental in finishing my studies!

In the words of our friend Joe Mohn, KEEP ON FIRING!!!

This is your Tuesday Ambassador, Roberto Gonzalez, wishing you a great pixel filled day!

Until we meet again, goodbye!!!