1 post tagged “pcnw”

I'm taking Black & White 1 at Photographic Center Northwest this quarter.  I did a lot of film photography around 2002-2003, especially during a time period when I was unemployed, but when I started working regularly again, I fell off that truck and have only been shooting digital the last few years.  I used to rent darkroom time at PCNW, and I knew about their courses.  They are pricey, but very very good.  I've been wanting to take a course for a while, and for some reason I just got motivated to do it now.  There are 3 courses in the B&W series, and I plan to take all of them, so I would finish up about May, just in time for my trip to the UK.

I love film photography, and I think it presents a very different quality from digital.  I'm not a purist - I think they both have their purpose.  But somehow I feel more artistic when I'm working on film. 

My camera is a Minolta X-700 (35mm, manual focus) that I bought in 1985 when I was in college.  It's a great camera, and it's still recommended on photography forums as an inexpensive and good manual camera.  It's very affordable to buy lenses for it on eBay, also.  Anyway, I'm very happy with it.

I could have gone straight to B&W2, because my previous instruction and self-teaching has covered everything that's covered in B&W1, but I really wanted to get the systematic, structured learning from someone who really knows what they're talking about.  The assignments are rather constrained, which is good for me, as it gives me direction and motivation.  The first assignment was to do a series of 3 photograms.

Class #2 was last night, and everyone posted their photograms, and we talked about them as a group.  There were a lot of different interpretations, and the vast majority of them were quite interesting and creative.  Mine got some good comments too, which made me feel good.

Work has been really boring lately, so it's great to have something that makes me feel like I'm using my brain and my talents and getting recognition for it.