Spring is but a few weeks away. At long last, we are emerging from winter’s dismal maw to witness warmth, joy and active creativity. But for the students of the Electronic Media course “Photographic Principles and Lighting,” the muses stop for nothing-not even a wet and icy winter. This year, members of the class developed their craft on a field trip to the Krohn Conservatory.
The “Photographic Principles and Lighting” course is, according to Adjunct Instructor Pete Bender, “designed to teach basic photographic principles, like how camera optics work, image composition, creative expression through various exposure techniques, and how lighting works both in a studio environment and on location.”
The main teaching philosophy behind this class is that pupils must learn by doing, and a field trip is the perfect outlet for such demonstration. As Instructor Bender indicates: “The goal of the field trip is to give students an opportunity to shoot their introductory assignment under the supervision of the instructors and teaching assistants of all the sections of the course.”
While the Krohn Conservatory is filled with intriguing design potentials, the Photo Principles field trip seeks to instill fundamental camera operating skills.
“We want to help students build confidence in their ability to make good exposures with their cameras while understanding what is going on to make that exposure successful,” Bender noted. Through honing technical skills, a student never has to compromise his or her creative vision. “It is important that they.understand exactly how to control the camera to get the exact photograph they had in mind before they started,” he added.
Even though winter refused to alleviate its chilling grip, the “Photographic Principles and Lighting” students braved the elements to participate in the Conservatory field trip, with some truly amazing results. Bender said, “The resulting photos my students turned in were generally well done for such an early assignment.” I
Indeed, it does not matter what season it is, or how cruel the elements may be to us, the light of artistic expression and quality pieces should burn brightly at all times of the year.