26/40

You: 26/40? what are we doing math for?

Me: Oh, sorry let me clear that up for you! the fraction you see as the title is the amount of weeks I have been in Winnipeg since school started. That is right I have been here with all these AMAZING people for 26 whole weeks! And now I only have 14 more weeks till graduation!

Lemme introduce myself, my name is Keely Hochstein. I am 18 years old and I am from Alberta! - now hold your horses. You're probably thinking- "Keely why the heck would you come to Winnipeg for school when you have all those amazing art schools in Alberta?".

 I'll give you the same answer I gave everyone else that I have been giving since I have arrived. I needed a fresh start and I LOVE photography and this school has everything to offer when it comes to photography along with PHENOMENAL teachers.. You could say its always been my passion and when I'm surrounded by all these wonderful people who love what I love to do also, how could you not love them too? (really who couldn't?)

Okay, to be honest I thought I was freaking amazing at photography before school. I did engagement pictures and weddings. But now I look back and am like "oh gosh. my eyes- they are burning!" I felt bad for those poor people, but with all the proper training and knowledge that I have now absorbed like a giddy child in the toy store I can look at my pictures and say "wow, I took that picture?".

I went from not understanding what an aperture is, to being able to detect what exact amount of aperture by simply looking at the picture. Seriously, I'm still impressed by my own skills.

Can you guess what aperture I used?

Film Cameras = WERE the death of me. By this I mean when I started at the school I didn't even know how to load a roll of film let alone develop and print my very own images! But it seems every film camera was against me in the first 3 months. Whether it was my lack of skill or that all the film cameras were out to get me (pretty sure it was the second one) I went through 4 film cameras trying to find one that actually worked for me and gave me actually exposures on my film. I got the hang of it eventually.

So here are some lovely images I have taken over the course of the past 6 months!

Back home in Alberta for Christmas break making my friends model for me!

Back in October/November at The Forks

Cutest Couple for a Wedding I shot in feburary!

The Match Girl image series that I turned into a book

Wedding Dress/Shoe Shot

You know when I look back on the past and think "did I ever have an "ah-ha!" moment?" I can honestly say that I haven't had just one moment in time - but several! I'll share only a couple otherwise you will be stuck here all day reading this silly blog post!

1. The most monumental moment of an 'ah-ha!" moment was when I was in my high school art class trying to find those 'perfect' pictures to recreate artistically that I had imagined in my mind. Then I thought....hey I have a camera, as long as I keep the artist composition in my head while I shoot I can't go wrong. So then, I was one of only a couple students who created all of their art pieces originally from their own photographs.

2. I think one of the biggest motivators for me is when people critique my images, to be honest every time we have a critique whether as a school group or just the small individual classes I love feedback and things thats they like about the picture and things I could've done to make it better. When this moment I have those 'ah-ha' moments and think man I can be amazing if I just kept this in my mind next time I shoot.




So you are probably thinking "Keely where do you see yourself after this program?"

You know that's a great question. To be honest I am still deciding because, now- I have been introduced to so many more options that I seriously can't really pick! I know that I love portraiture and fashion photography, always have but then I love to travel and shoot dramatic fine art pictures. Maybe I will combine all those things I love to do!  But if I had to pick somewhere that I want to be it would be shooting for some kind of a fashion magazine where the creative boundaries are limitless (hahaha maybe one day I'll be shooting for Vogue!)

Keely Hochstein

PV Diploma Student

2011-12