I know I haven’t been posting for a while, but I’m still here.  I haven’t been eaten by a bear or anything.  After the first two weeks, I decide I needed to make a change to my Internet and phone plan.  I no longer have an Internet connection at home besides the one on my phone.  I’ll be using free wifi hotspots for my Internet needs.  In addition, I was rebuilding my computer last week (Verizon wireless really screwed up the networking) so I didn’t have everything installed that I needed to blog frequently.  Everything is up-to-date now so you should start to see an increase in posts again.

I will also be uploading some new pics to my Flickr account soon so stay tuned.

It snowed today in Missoula.  Snowed!  Can you believe it?  We’re not even at that high of an elevation.   It’s crazy.  Thankfully, it’s suppose to be in the 70’s by the weekend.  Highs in the 40’s today and tomorrow though, with rain.  Yuck.

Yesterday, was a long day of classes, but I learned a lot.  In the morning, the discussion was primarily about metering modes.  I have to admit, that’s not something I knew much about.  I knew there were different modes I could use, but that’s pretty much it.  I didn’t know what the differences were between them.  Now I know all about it and I’ve discovered I’ve been using the wrong one all this time.  I’ve been using the one that is probably the most inaccurate in most situations.  Oh, well. Now I know.

My second class yesterday was Lighting with Allison Leach (who I talked about in a previous post).  We basically discussed the different types of light and began talking about how to control it.  She showed us a pretty cool trick for estimating the number of stops of light between a well lit area and a low light area, such as full sunlight versus the shade.  You use your camera to meter off your hand while standing in the sun and then meter again off your hand while standing in the shade.  The difference between the two will give you the range of light in your photo.  Anything over about 5 stops will be too great of range for your camera to record properly and you’ll have to use some sort of light modifier (scrim/diffuser or reflector) to try and reduce the overall range.  It’s a pretty nice trick.

Today, I had a 4 hour class discussing nothing except lenses.  And that was probably too short.  It’s amazing how many things you have to consider when buying one.  There were a lot of lens characteristics I never really thought about in the past, but can make a big difference.  Unfortunately, a lot of it comes down to what type of shooting you will be doing before you can know which characteristics are the most important and which you can get by without.  It’s almost like the more you know, the harder the decision becomes.  But, the more you know, the more likely you are to save some serious cash by avoiding the lenses that are more than you really need.  Right now, I think I have all the lenses I really need, but I’m sure that will change by the end of the summer.

The rest of the day was spent working in Lightroom.   Most of that was a review for me since I’ve been using it for over year already.  But, they covered some best practices that I wasn’t following so some good came from it.

My schedule gets progressively lighter the rest of the week so I might actually have a chance to go do some shooting outside of class.

Well, week one of the Summer Intensive course at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography is officially finished.  Honestly, it felt much longer than a week.  I don’t know if it’s because we have classes six days a week or the length of each class period (typically 4 hours) or a combination of both, but I feel like I’ve been here for a couple weeks already.  They weren’t kidding when they named it Summer Intensive.  (Although, the summer part needs work.  High’s in the 50’s, lows in the low 40’s.  That’s not summer weather, even in Montana).

The beginning of the week was mainly about preparation.  We covered the basics of what type of equipment would be needed and where to get more (at a discount).  They made sure everyone’s computer was set up properly with the required software.  The covered where to shoot in Montana and how to not get eaten by a bear. :)  And they spent some time getting to know each of us and helping us get to know one another.

And that was just the first day of classes.

As the week progressed, we started covering the basics of photography: shutter speed and aperture.  We covered how to control them in the camera and how they relate and affect the final image.  Most of it was a review for me, but I picked up a few tidbits along the way, such as where to set your focus when shooting a picture with a large depth of field.  They encouraged those of us that were familiar with these concepts to start shooting in manual mode to really drive home the relationship between the two.   When shooting in Av or Tv modes (that’s Canon terminology), it’s easy to ignore what adjustments the camera makes for you.  I found that shooting in Manual in a controlled environment (i.e. indoors) isn’t that difficult, but in a variable environment (such as outdoors on a partially cloudy day) it gets much tougher.  The light keeps changing so if you’re not quick enough between setting the right exposure and composing you shot, you may have to start all over.  It can get really frustrating.  But, I’m working on it.

Tomorrow is a day off so a bunch of us are going on a little trip to a nearby ghost town to, of course, take some pictures.  I’ve never been to a ghost town so it should be interesting.   I’m sure you’ll get to see some results if you follow my Flickr stream.

Now for the really good news…I got my 5D back!!!  The shop where I took it to be fixed was able to do it in house and didn’t have to send it out to Canon.  If they would have sent it, it probably wouldn’t have been ready for 3-5 weeks.  That would of sucked.  But, I’m happy now because I have it back and the repair was only $130.  I was expecting much higher.

Finally, I ran a couple of times this week…or tried to.  Either I got out of shape really quickly or the move from an elevation of ~1500ft to 3300ft has a bigger effect than I would have thought.  The first time, I was sucking wind after about 6 blocks!  That’s pathetic.  I probably only ran about a mile and half before I just walked home.  The second time I probably went closer to two and ran the whole way.  I feel like such a wuss.  It’s been a long time since I haven’t been able to run at least three miles.

Well, that about sums it up from Montana.

Today was a pretty long day in classes, 9am-9pm.  So far, the past two days of classes have been more or less an introduction into equipment: what’s available, staff recommendations, pros, cons, etc.  We also spent some time today setting up student computers.  Mine, of course, was already set up and ready to go. :)  Also today, they had representatives from Bogen and B&H Photo come in and talk.  The B&H rep talked to us about their history and covered their new student program that gives us substantial discounts on many (not all, unfortunately) items in their store.  Then, the Bogen rep showed us an impressive line-up of Manfrotto and Gitzo  tripods and later, Kato bags.  The carbon fiber Gitzo tripods are really impressive and so light.  I’d love to get one, but the price for those things is staggering.  I think I’ll be keeping my Manfrotto aluminum tripod for a while.  The Kato bags are pretty sweet, but I’ve got so many bags and cases already, I can’t really justify more.

The finale for the day was a presentation by Allison Leach.  If you’re not familiar with her, you probably are with her work.  Her photos have appeared in all the major magazines such as People, Men’s Health, Esquire, Vanity Fair, etc.  The list goes on an on.  She showed us some of her work and gave a detailed presentation on what its like being an editorial photographer. (Editorial photographers shoot the pictures that accompany articles or advertisements in magazines.) She also gave us some funny antidotes about working with celebrities.  It was really interesting, but thoroughly convinced me that I have no interest in that type of work.  Allison, by the way, will be our instructor for our Lighting class this summer, which I think is pretty awesome.  Nothing like learning from an accomplished working pro.

Today was the opening orientation at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography.  For the Summer Intensive (SI) portion of the program, there are 101 students, 61 female and 40 male.  The age range goes from 18 years to 69 years old.  I wouldn’t say there’s really any age group that really dominates.  There seems to be a pretty even mix.  They told us that in past years there were far more of the younger crowd and less of the older students.  Also, in previous years the female to male ratio used to be closer to 80/20.  So it seems their demographic is shifting.

They broke us up into six groups for the summer.  Each group has around 16-17 students.  Each group attends the various lectures and labs at different times.  Although, they do double up the groups for many of the lectures.   Some days, we’ll be in lectures and labs all day.  Other days, we might only have a couple hours worth.  It varies quite a bit.  I imagine the days without lectures, we’ll be out shooting on our own for assignments.  Most lectures/labs are held from 9am-1pm, 2pm-6pm, and 7pm-9pm.  Some days I’ll only be there for one (or only part of) a section.  Other days, I may have to be there for all three (so 9am-9pm, yikes!!!).  There’s a couple of labs on the schedule that go to 11pm as well, so there could be some very long days in my future.

We didn’t have any lectures today.  It was all about getting to know the staff and teachers and getting to know your fellow classmates.  It was interesting to see where everyone came from and what career paths they left behind to come here.  We have classmates from several countries including Canada, UK, Finland, Denmark, and Australia so my two day drive doesn’t seem so bad anymore.  Some people had been planning this for years.  Others found out last week that they were coming (they were on a waiting list).

Everyone seemed really friendly, excited, and a little scared/nervous.  I think everyone is wondering how they compare skill-wise to everyone else.  I know I am.  But, I don’t think it will matter much once we get going.  I’m pretty excited to begin.  But, I’m also a little nervous about the intensity of it all.  We’ll be covering a lot in the twelve weeks.  But, I remember always feeling the same way at the beginning of each semester in college when we’d were given the class syllabus.  It always seemed like there was no way I’d be able to get it all done.  And then at the end of the semester, I’d look back and realize it wasn’t as bad as I thought.  I keep telling myself this will be the same.  I’ve almost got myself convinced.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a vast majority of Mac users in my group.  I’m heavily outnumbered.  I’d guess at least 90% of the group said they used Macs.  In case you aren’t aware, I’m not much of an Apple fan in general.  But, I will not be converted!  On the plus side, it seemed like their were more Canon shooters in my group than Nikon shooters so I won’t be a total outcast.

We finished the day with a discussion on where to shoot around Montana.  I heard about some really great day trips around the area, so if you are ever planning making a trip out here someday, I can give you some tips.  They covered the Missoula area as well as Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks.  I can’t wait to visit some of the spots.

On to SI Day 2!

I arrived in Missoula, safe and sound, on Thursday night after two very long days of driving.  I left Chippewa Falls at around 11:30am CDT on Wednesday morning and arrived in Rapid City, SD at 9:30pm MDT for a total of 11 1/2 hours (with the time zone change) behind the wheel.  After spending the night, I left Rapid City Thursday morning at 7:30am and arrived in Missoula at 7pm, completing my second 11 1/2 hour day behind the wheel.  I believe that’s about my limit.  I was pretty exhausted.

The drive from Wisconsin to Western South Dakota is one of the most boring drives ever.  There really is nothing to see until you reach the Badlands (and it was dark by the time I got there).  I’ve done this drive several times when visiting my brother and his family in Rapid City, which makes it all the more boring.  What little there is to see, I’ve already seen before.

The drive from Rapid City to Missoula, on the other hand, is incredible.  It starts in the Black Hills, briefly degenerates to open grasslands, but then jumps into one mountain range after another.  It just keeps getting better.  Even though I was tired from the previous day, I still really enjoyed it.  I tried to take pictures while I drove (not that safe, I know, but there was very little traffic and I shot everything one-handed without looking through the viewfinder) and I ended up with a few really nice ones.  This is my favorite:

You can view the rest in my Flickr stream starting here.