Signing Off..

Well. This end is here. For real. I was reading through some previous blog posts from my fellow classmates and the ones leading up to today's post all have titles about being almost finished, and here we are. This will be the last blog post by Prairie View's class of 2012. No pressure.
Let me begin by saying this year has absolutely FLOWN by, and there is not one part I would go back and change. Being enrolled at Prairie View and the people I've met within its walls has absolutely changed my life and I'm sure I can say the same for the rest of the students. I've made amazing friends and learned more information about photography and myself then I ever thought my brain would hold. It's hard to believe we're at the end of the school year. Exams are done, and graduation is next week. We are ready to be thrust into the "real world".
We started off the year with tons of assignments, and plenty of information to crowd in our heads. But it wasn't all work; there were several field trips and fun events for us to attend:

Grand Prix

Marine Museum

Super fun Scavenger Hunt!! (Mentos and Diet Coke...)

Aviation Museum

The Manitoba Museum

So much fun!

Christmas was soon around the corner and we had an awesome two-week break! Of course with more assignments to document the holiday season..

Even learned a little HDR...

Now well into the deep freeze, our teachers were kind enough to teach us about studio work. We learned how to set up and tear down a full studio set up and how to work all the equipment. We were also taught the artistic and creative side of course; lighting quality and direction, how to take stunning portraits and product shots, and even how to make food look better then it does in real life. Like the pictures on t.v. that make you wanna go out and chow down on that delicious looking chicken sandwich...Mmm.

I know you went to go make popcorn now before reading the rest. Yessir.  

For me, one of the most exciting and inspiring things I learned about this year was analogue photography. I always thought the dark room was a "cool place" but I never thought I'd latch on to film and hand printing as much as I did. I'm truly passionate about it and intend to build my own dark room right after school... I know a few of my peers feel the same. 

We learned about how to properly expose film and how to use an analogue camera, hand printing photographs from our negatives, developing our own film, alternative processes, developers and cameras such as sepia toning, van dyke brown, and cyanotype, developing film with coffee, range finder cameras, twin lens cameras, Holgas, Dianas, fisheye lomography, and of course my beloved Hasselblad... The noise that shutter makes could make a lion purr. Its heaven. 

Lets face it. Analogue photography IS NOT dead, and it is a beautiful thing. It will always be a part of my life.  

A few examples of my favourites...

As you can see it's been a busy year. Near the end we were juggling all of our final assignments such as creating the yearbook, making business cards, websites, and having a gallery show, as well as putting together a body of work into a book for our final analogue assignment, making our final videos, and of course working on and completing our portfolios. Oh right, and exams. And work, and life. How did we do it you ask? Well to be honest, I don't really know. We worked really, REALLY hard and we all deserve this graduation. It feels good being done, I know I speak for everyone when I say I feel accomplished and ready to fly from the nest. But at the same time its emotional for all of us, a lot of students are moving away back to their hometowns, or starting a life with their new skills elsewhere. Not going back into that building where we spent most of our time this year is a huge adjustment, but its time to say our goodbyes and move on. It is a new beginning. 

Ill finish off with a quote from one of my MOST favourite photographers, Henri Cartier-Bresson: 

"To take photographs means to recognize - simultaneously and within a fraction of a second - both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one's head, one's eye and one's heart on the same axis."

Congratulations to the class of 2012 at Prairie View Photography School. I wish you all the success and best of luck in your futures, and to the faculty staff as well. 

Andrea Boychuk
PV Diploma Student
2011-12