New Wednesday Ambassador Introduction

Hello everyone.

I just wanted to use this first post as an introduction. My name is Denzil Ernstzen and I am going to be the your new Ambassador Wednesday for the next year. I appreciate the opportunity and I hope you get some really great information from these blogs.

My background is as a financial controller. I got my first two degrees in South Africa. My first was in education, a bachelors in Physical Education. I really did not want to teach at that early stage of my life, so I decided to go into the retail industry. While working in a grocery store as a shelf packer I got my Quantitative Management degree. Basically a degree working with numbers. I then spent the next 10 years working for a large hotel chain in South Africa installing inventory control systems for all their food and beverage outlets. I got to travel the country and the world before I met my wife and decided to emigrate to the United States.

I have being here for about 9 years now and we have lived in Fort Worth Texas,  Charlottesville Virginia and now we are back to New England from where we started. I have two beautiful, active, energetic and inquisitive boys who keep me busy as my full-time day job. I also work part-time, three nights a week and recently, “about 2 years ago”, I also started my own Wedding and Portrait business. You can find my listing at http://ernstzenphotography.com

As you can see I am a busy person and I still have to make sure I get all my course work done as well.

I know what it feels like when we get started and having being new once, I know what it feels like trying to navigate through all the different requirements for class postings,lighting, shooting, finding models and believe it or not, thinking about what your final portfolio is going to look like towards the end of your degree. And you have to all of this while still making sure life happens around you.

So if you are just starting your Associates or Bachelors, one thing I can give you right now is to you start thinking about what your genre would eventually be. I just finished Portfolio Exploration PH341, and I thought I had enough photographs and that I knew which direction I wanted to go;  I was not even in the same ballpark. We will get into more of that much later.

Well don’t let me scare you because I want you to come back and I want you to recommend me to everybody in your class. This is a great place to get information and share your photographs. Let me know if you want feedback or what we can help with?  I love communicating with students and to those who know me from my interaction in class they can vouch for me when I say that I will respond to any comment or question you might have. I am here to help. If I do not know the answer I will find it for you and you will get a response. So feel free to ask me anything.

Here are two photographs that I took in my first few months after starting my course. They were both from my first portrait class. The first is me having fun with my son as I was trying to figure out how to work a remote control for my camera and the the second is a self portrait. It is a rather serious portrait because I tried to mimic the front cover of the Times magazine.

It had a portrait of the late Steve Jobs on the front cover. I know it is a very serious portrait, but the fun story is that I had to figure out how to operate my remote for the camera, position the lens so I was not chopped off at the head and then when I readjusted, at the neck. I had to get my lighting correct with my strobes (as I am sure many of you can vouch) it is not easy when you are working on your own. Oh, I almost forgot, the strobe reflection in the glass lens. How do you cut that out? I will let you know in another blog post.

I like these because you remember the first photographs and the stories behind them about when you took them and what you were doing  when you get started with your course. I was excited and enthusiastic and these are the same images that drive me today. I want to make them better. I want to become a better photographer.  Everyday I want to learn something new. So don't delete your bad photographs. Use them as your inspiration and I guarantee you will get better every single day, if you just keep on shooting.

Father and son.

(© Photographs by Denzil Ernstzen)

So keep on shooting.

Denzil

Sunday Spotlight On: Selfie Sunday

You don’t have to be a teenager, young adult, college student or celebrity to take a great selfie. Selfies has become a household name in almost every corner of the world. It has now become common to let people know what you are doing, what you are wearing and whom you are hanging out with in the world of social media. It has also become so popular that it named Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year in 2013.

For photographers, we sometimes need to take a great photograph of ourselves for our business. After all we are suppose to be the subject matter experts in this field and it is expected that we can capture ourselves as we capture others. I will admit that I am the kind of photographer who would rather be behind the lens rather than in front of the lens. While taking Creative Concepts here at AIO, we were to create a series of images that represents who we are as photographers. We’d all like to identify ourselves with the things that we are strong in, but taking off the layers and exposing our weakness as well takes a lot of strength and willpower.

If I have ever taken a class with you, then some of you may know that my heart is with photojournalism and documentary photography. I love to document anything and everything that deals with women. For my series of images in Creative Concepts, I exposed the darkness in my life dealing with my PTSD, sexual assault and my fear of abandonment. This was a hard series to shoot technically and mentally but I had no choice but to push through and come up with something that represented who I am as a photographer and what I like to shoot. In the end I loved the challenge and gave it my all. 

Quiana P Jackson. Meditation, 2014.

Quiana P Jackson. Motion, 2014. 

My challenge to the students here at the AIO is to capture not only the things that make you strong photographers, but the things that weakens you as well. For some of us it is shyness, nervousness, insecurities, etc and can be seen in a single photograph or an entire series. In order to progress as a strong photographer we have to conquer those things that holds us back from being able to capture the world as we see it. I will state that not everyone will have a "emotional" selfie, some may be funny, serious or very professional head shots. No matter what the driving force behind it is, just make it a good one. 

I am your Sunday Funday Ambassador. 

Happy Shooting! 

Work Cited:

“Oxford Word Of The Year 2013.” Huffington Post. 19 November 2013. Web. 15 March 2014.

Creative Self-Portraits

Happy Sunday Everyone! We all made it through another long and busy week. I think I mentioned somewhere that my current class is Photographic Design. Honestly when I started the class, I wasn't sure what to expect. The information on it really didn't go into great detail. We just hit the end of week 2 and class is just cruising by, I wanted to talk a little about one of the assignments this past week: Creative Self-Portraits. This assignment took a lot of thought and serious reflection on my part. I mean you have to think about who you are and what makes you, you.. Keeping in mind that you, cant necessarily be in the photo itself. That means no putting it on the tripod and taking a full face shot. You can have body parts in the photograph, but not your face.. Sounds difficult.. Slightly, but if you really think about it, the ideas will come streaming out.. Don't forget to jot them down so you don't forget..

I did some research and found some really amazing photos taken by some very talented photographers. That just added to the motion in my head. So I pose this question to all of you out there hopefully reading this blog.. What do you think makes a great or outstanding creative self-portrait and how far would you go to take one that will really make an outstanding impression.

Below are a few that I took this past week. Please feel free to leave feedback... We all LOVE feedback.

 Photos by Wayne Salat

                                                                    Photos by Wayne Salat

 Photos by Wayne Salat

                                                                                           Photos by Wayne Salat

Enjoy Your Sunday and Photograph Something Everyday!

Sunday Ambassador~ Wayne