Our first short week, and thank god for it! I did absolutely nothing for the long weekend and loved it! It’s great to have some time to just relax once in a while.

I purchased NHL 09 for the Xbox 360 over the weekend and I’ve gotten pretty addicted to it. I looked for my new local AHL team because the Boston Bruins games are horridly expensive… the Worcester Sharks, farm team for the NHL San Jose Sharks. Their next game is this Friday and I think I’d like to go watch them face the Albany River Rats… My new AHL home team vs. my old AHL home team. Who do I cheer for?

GO ZAMBONI!!! WOOOO ZAMBONI!! YEEEAAAAH!

So on Tuesday when we returned to school we started talking about composition and design elements for photographers. Still stuff that I already knew but we got to go out and shoot so that’s great. After lunch we met at a pond about 20 minutes east of here. It was a nice day when we got there, the sun was shining, the fish were splashing… what that’s not how it goes? Oh well… We hung out there for the day and got to go wherever we wanted and shoot. There was a father and a son kayaking and the father was teaching the son how to roll in the water so I got some nice shots of that for my story project.

As the day went on it started to get cooler and cooler and was eventually pretty cold. I sat down for a bit to just relax and look at the lake and the teacher came over and we chatted for a bit, got to get to know the teacher and ask him questions one-on-one about photography and stuff, then I headed home.

Today was a doozy though, I was kind of scared this morning, I had to drive into boston and park at the Central Square Station then ride the subway on my own for the first time to meet the class at south station. Everything went fine and I met up with the class and we headed towards China Town for some shooting. We got there and the teacher let us go out on our own.. I decided I didn’t want to be walking around China Town on my own so I stuck with a small group from the class… all I have to say is.. I’m never going to China…

We were nearing our time we had to meet the teacher and we were stopped at a corner to talk about how to get back and this one guy started talking to us about our cameras… He was crazy! It was hillarious, I’d describe it but it was really a had-to-be-there moment.

So we met up with the teacher and the rest of our class and walked up the street to the Boston commons, taking photos along the way. Most of us were trying to use the “shoot from the hip” technique where you don’t look through your camera… It’s hard! But when you get a good shot, they tend to be pretty awesome because people don’t know you’re taking they’re photo and when someone knows they’re being photographed, they act differently.

We hung out around the commons for a while then walked back to central station for lunch, hung out in the area for a little while, then we were free to head home early. As soon as I got home I grabbed my school bag and went over to the school to use the computers for some editing fun. I waited for Keith to get out of class and gave him a ride home.

And now I rest…

Yeah Yeah, I know I haven’t posted in a couple days… I must be dead right? Fear not! While passed-out I may be, alive I still am! Not too much interesting stuff has been going on lately, shooting and learning, learning and shooting.

All week in class we’ve been trying to talk about how to modify available light… though.. no light has been available… we’ll spot a brief moment of sunshine and rush out the door, only to be covered in clouds the moment we step out…We’ve discussed the practice and have seen a bit of it in action but haven’t had much time to fool around with it. Stupid rain! Speaking of rain… for lunch today Keith and I walked down to Wendy’s… Unfortunately while we were walking it started to DOWNPOUR… So we got SOAKED… We got home and changed and drove back to school so we wouldn’t get even MORE soaked.

We started our first project this week, the Faces project. I like to call it the FACES project… I don’t know why, it just seems cooler in caps. I’ve been going to the two different fire stations nearby every night to meet the crews and take their photos, some great people around here. This morning we didn’t have to go to class until 1pm so that we had all morning to work on the project. I went and hung out at the Maple Street station for the majority of the morning and they informed me that the Lexington Street station was having a big event today at… 1:30. So when I went home for lunch I called my teacher and he gave me permission to come in late…er… than I already was.

This month is Fire Prevention Month and Dominos Pizza is teaming up with the NFPA to help spread the word about fire safety. I don’t quite understand how Waltham fire is tied up in this deal but it is so I lucked out! The mayor was there, an NFPA rep was there, and a dominos rep was there. After they made an announcement to a small group of people… and a video camera… they set off in a fire truck to deliver pizzas! The fire trucks would deliver the pizza, and if the people had working fire-detectors they got their pizza for free, if not the fire department would change their batteries for them and make sure everything was working right! Pretty sweet deal! I didn’t go with them on any deliveries, I was already late and wanted to get back to class.

So that’s pretty much all that there is to tell so far. The class is a bit slow-moving but that’s my fault for knowing about the program we’re learning about already… That’ll teach me to teach myself! Next week we’ll be learning about Photoshop……………… crap……..

Click here to view more photos from this shoot.