When photographer Paul Mobley set out to capture the soul of our country’s farm communities, he encountered an enduring rural culture that remains rooted in the principles of tradition, family, integrity and hard work. Traveling across the country from Tennessee to Montana, Mobley and his camera were welcomed time and again into the homes of over two hundred farm families, who graciously shared their personal histories and private thoughts, along with the fruits of their labor. Visit after visit, Mobley came to know the independent farmer’s spirit from both behind the lens and across the dinner table.

You should definitely click on his name above to check out his website! His work is awesome!

Click here if you don’t see a gallery below.

 

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Paul Mobley Portraits

Oh, which reminds me, I’ve been spending A LOT of time in photoshop lately. I’m learning some really great techniques for tweaking my images and making them look the absolute best. My standards are getting higher, which is exactly why I needed school. I’m actually having a good time retouching my work. I never liked the tedious process of professional retouching but now I’m enjoying it. I’m looking forward to what my panel has to say about it.

I’ve also learned a lot about lighting. The first few weeks of this quarter were pretty rough as I fiddled with the power packs and lights and various modifiers and light stands and backdrops etc… It’s a lot to take in and my images were coming out pretty bad. However, I was able to get better and with a modest amount of reshooting I was able to nail my assignments and I had fun doing it.

Photoshop and Lighting are both really important elements, but the thing I’ve really gotten from this quarter is that now, I can pick up a magazine, flip to a picture, and I understand what it takes to get that shot. I may not know every trick of lighting or styling, but I have a good understanding of how to approach it like a pro. The idea that nothing is luck, it’s all planned out and executed with control and precision.

I’ve also been shooting some stuff for some of the design and art direction students. I hope to post up some of the finished work in the coming weeks. It should be cool to see my photos in the ad campaigns!

One thing I noticed about this quarter though is that I’ve barely shot anything that wasn’t related to school work. I wanted to drop in a photo or two on this post, but couldn’t even find anything good enough that wasn’t something for school. I’m ok with that for now, but I hope that isn’t a sign of things to come. I want to keep photography as a hobby too!

Anyway, I gotta get to bed, as I have a meeting in about 6 hours. I can’t wait to post my photos next week!

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2nd Quarter Studio Week

Each session lasts for 20 minutes with interactive dialogue about each photo. The panelists may or may not know much about your assignment so we have to present each work as if they have no knowledge about why we are presenting it. I felt really good about my photography going into the panel but no so good about my other artwork. I’m no illustrator. I got the hint from one of the staff members running the critique panel schedule to present and talk about my photography first since I’m a photography major. So I ended up taking the entire 20 minutes on photos. Then when the staff member walked in and said “Time’s up”, that’s when I whipped out my artwork, showed it off really fast, and then thanked the panel for their time. The whole thing zipped by faster than I could have imagined and then I was done.

They seemed to enjoy my work and most of my concepts, but they did have a few quibbles with each picture. I agreed with most of their thoughts, but not all. One picture, my favorite from the bunch, they said was the best they had seen for that particular assignment. Thinking back on it now, I don’t really remember a bunch of what they said. But fortunately they make notes and once I go back for the second quarter I will get lots of written feedback from each panelist.

So now that it’s done what are my thoughts? I feel like I did good work. I feel like I fulfilled the goals of each assignment. I did not feel particularly challenged by the assignments and felt my workload was rather light. I’ve heard that the workload really picks up around the third quarter of school. I feel that I really gained some confidence in my ability to execute the shot. I felt that my instructors could have done the courses differently so that we could have learned more. That last sentence has a careful phrasing, because I’m not intending to criticize my instructors, I just feel that there were several times along the way that we could have gotten a lot more education under out belt if their approach were different. But also this school is really about giving the students a direction and it’s up to each student to figure out how fast and how far they want to go.

On another note, I spent lots of my time helping out other students with assignments and I even taught a digital work flow seminar for my fellow photography students. Many of the design students at the school need various photos for their projects so I was often called upon for that. For example, my roommate just asked me to shoot a product shot showcasing the labeling he created for a brand of vitamins. Another student had me shoot a series of shots of tubing that she was going to use on a series of book covers. I enjoy doing it because it’s very real world commercial work. I have to figure out what the client wants, then give them something that hopefully exceeds their expectations, usually with a very quick turnaround and an extremely limited budget.

So, overall, I feel like I learned a great deal about what it’s like to be a commercial photographer and I had an excellent quarter.

My first quarter portfolio is on my website at http://www.kendrickdisch.com/blog/photos/portfolio-center/. Comments welcome.

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First Quarter critique at Portfolio Center

It is a good fit and I can tell I’m going to learn a lot. I spent a few minutes today looking over the work from the last quarter photography students and am just very impressed with the caliber of content being created. I’m excited!

I like Atlanta too. I haven’t explored much yet but I’m finding my way around.

I’m not going to post my photography work here yet because everything I’ve shot so far is terrible. Yes, I said it. Terrible. And that’s okay. I’m trying new things. I imagine my photos are going to suck for awhile, but then later on the new techniques, the new ideas, the new vision will all click with the shutter of my camera and beautiful, amazing photos will appear on the blog! Ha! That’s what I’ve been told anyway.

The picture above is part of an assignment we had on the first day of class. It started with a scavenger hunt around campus to help us get familiar with a few things, then we took the items we gathered, had just a few moments to arrange them into a design (“good” was the only criteria for the design). Then the teacher went around the room and interpreted our designs and matched it to the way we think and work. It was actually very interesting. My design was praised by my instructor and respected by my peers. Maybe I’ll do OK with this art thing after all!

Like I said before, there isn’t much time for blogging, so don’t expect many updates for awhile!

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Week 1 in Atlanta