So, at some point after I took a
workshop with Spencer Lum in
July, I was supposed to write some diatribe about how it changed me, etc. etc. But the truth is, it's hard to be changed. I think we tend to walk away from life experiences like that one inspired, challenged and
pumped and as time goes by, you settle back into who you always were. Maybe you get to grow just a teeny, tiny bit. Maybe not. I came away from the workshop absolutely jazzed to do personal projects. Total number of personal projects even started since then: 0. It is what it is.
I can say that I positively loved spending a week on the street, camera in hand. I so rarely push myself to really, truly get out there and work for myself. This workshop gave me that impetus and even though I haven't carried it on into my day-to-day life (road to hell paved with good intentions and all), it sure was great to have that week. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
So without too much further musing, here are my final selections from the workshop. You can also check out rejection sets
one and
two if you're so inclined. This first image I took sort of on a whim as I was walking back to my hotel from one of the twice-daily critiques (it may have been the third one - I don't remember).
Spencer liked this image, and he flat rejected every single other image I had produced for critique (see my previous blog posts for those - my blog I can put the losers up if I want!) He encouraged me to spend some time at this particular Subway station. And that's exactly what I did - I spent the next two mornings at the station - several hours in a half a block area, looking at every possible angle. Here are the results:
And that is that. After four days of shooting and twice-daily critiques, I came away with eight total project images. I love them. And I loved working on this project. So if anyone local (or even not - if you have a couch for me!) wants to roll on some new project action, I am more than up for it. Let's take some photos.
We spent the session wandering around their neighborhood and waterfront. This was this past weekend, y'all - the one good day in the last something like two months and the last one we might see for a while. Major planning win.
And, you know, it was NYC so I had to find some graffiti to play with. "Beau" is about the best graffiti one can hope for. We had previously rejected some F-bomb graffiti.
Of course we had to rock out the Subway.
Congratulations, you guys! I'll see you in September!
