Posts Tagged ‘Professional Photographers of South Carolina’
Why We Go to School in the Summer
No, we didn’t flunk Phys-Ed class.
Since Wendy is a teacher and I taught for several years, you’d think that school is the last place we’d want to spend our summer. (Yes, kids, your teachers look forward to summer as much as you, and probably much, much more.) But for the last three years we’ve spent four days of each summer on the campus of USC taking classes. Why would we do this voluntarily? Because we’ve gotten to study the art of image-making with some of the best photographers in the country.
The school is The Lamarr Williamson School of Photography: an annual collection of workshops put on by the Professional Photographers of South Carolina. This year featured an amazing group of instructors including Judy Host, Lou Freeman, and Louis Tonsmeire. Wendy and I studied with Ted and Rachel Linczak of Linczak Photography, who, in addition to being spectacular photographers and educators, are a great couple to hang out with.
Wendy and I keep coming back to the Lamarr School because we truly believe that photography is an art and a craft, and that great art cannot be created consistently without hard work and study. The instructors at the Lamarr School are committed to their craft, and have spent years (usually decades) becoming masters of it–not only learning the rules, but how to obey and to break them in ways that surprise and delight the viewer.
The image above is one that Wendy and I created after Ted and Rachel sent us off with our class’s models to put into practice some of what we’d learned during our first two days of study. We were less than half way through the class and already we were seeing new ways to photograph our clients that, hopefully, will knock their friggin’ socks off.
On Wednesday, students submitted our favorite photos taken at the school for the instructors to judge and ours (the one above) won the best image award! [Insert photo of Wendy and me fist-bumping.] That felt pretty amazing, but it’s also humbling, because The Lamarr School is filled with incredibly talented students, and we were up against photos that took my breath away.
That’s the other great thing about the Lamarr School: the students. Everyone in our class was already a truly skilled photographer, but they were committed to excellence–to continual growth and to never being satisfied with “good enough”. They were also really encouraging and a lot of fun to hang around.
Because of all of this, for the foreseeable future, Wendy and I will continue to go to summer school.
Why We Go to School in the Summer
No, we didn’t flunk Phys-Ed class.
Since Wendy is a teacher and I taught for several years, you’d think that school is the last place we’d want to spend our summer. (Yes, kids, your teachers look forward to summer as much as you, and probably much, much more.) But for the last three years we’ve spent four days of each summer on the campus of USC taking classes. Why would we do this voluntarily? Because we’ve gotten to study the art of image-making with some of the best photographers in the country.
The school is The Lamarr Williamson School of Photography: an annual collection of workshops put on by the Professional Photographers of South Carolina. This year featured an amazing group of instructors including Judy Host, Lou Freeman, and Louis Tonsmeire. Wendy and I studied with Ted and Rachel Linczak of Linczak Photography, who, in addition to being spectacular photographers and educators, are a great couple to hang out with.
Wendy and I keep coming back to the Lamarr School because we truly believe that photography is an art and a craft, and that great art cannot be created consistently without hard work and study. The instructors at the Lamarr School are committed to their craft, and have spent years (usually decades) becoming masters of it–not only learning the rules, but how to obey and to break them in ways that surprise and delight the viewer.
The image above is one that Wendy and I created after Ted and Rachel sent us off with our class’s models to put into practice some of what we’d learned during our first two days of study. We were less than half way through the class and already we were seeing new ways to photograph our clients that, hopefully, will knock their friggin’ socks off.
On Wednesday, students submitted our favorite photos taken at the school for the instructors to judge and ours (the one above) won the best image award! [Insert photo of Wendy and me fist-bumping.] That felt pretty amazing, but it’s also humbling, because The Lamarr School is filled with incredibly talented students, and we were up against photos that took my breath away.
That’s the other great thing about the Lamarr School: the students. Everyone in our class was already a truly skilled photographer, but they were committed to excellence–to continual growth and to never being satisfied with “good enough”. They were also really encouraging and a lot of fun to hang around.
Because of all of this, for the foreseeable future, Wendy and I will continue to go to summer school.
Professional Photographers of South Carolina: February Midlands meet-up
A few weeks ago Wendy and I went out to 701 Whaley here in Columbia for a meeting of the Professional Photographers of South Carolina Midlands chapter. The get together was a “show up and shoot”, meaning that we, well, showed up and shot…pictures (I feel that I should clarify that for my hunting relatives and friends in law enforcement). Lee Bradshaw of One 27 Media (and one of our amazing wedding photographers) set up the meeting, so a couple of weeks before hand I emailed him and asked if they could use any models. He said that some additional models would be appreciated, so I got in touch with Michael and Katie who had recently gotten engaged and who are a stunningly beautiful couple, inside and out. Wendy and I probably hogged them for way more of the night than we should have, and I hope the other photographers there (like the talented and very sweet Stephanie Seay who we met there) didn’t mind too much.
Anyway, we put together a slide show of some of the photos we took. We hope you like it!
At one point, while I was either hogging Michael and Katie or looking over Lee’s shoulder, Wendy grabbed Megan, who also graciously agreed to pose for us that night, and got these glamorous shots…in the bathroom. Yup, for some reason that’s where they keep the really cool furniture at 701 Whaley.
Thanks to the PPofSC and to Lee for putting this together, to 701 Whaley for having us and providing a great backdrop and to our lovely models Katie, Michael, and Megan. You guys rock!
