shooting, shooting, shooting

Yay!  Creativity has struck and I have been at it for a few days now!  There's nothing like art flowing through your veins again.  There has been a warm kick in North Dakota and I think it has encouraged us all to get out of the house and enjoy the clear blue skies and bright sunshine. 

As you all know, I am in art school and have been taking photography courses.  This term I am taking an image management class that is all about how to keep your files organized.  In the past, I must say, I have not been the best at this.  I tend to label folders and hodge-podge the rest.  I am learning to use Photoshop Lightroom and the more I use it, the more I like it.  It's a little complicated at first - especially if you are used to programs like Picasa, but it can do some pretty amazing things.  For instance, did you know Lr lets you key word your images?  Yep, you can add as many keywords as you want and later if you are looking for all the pictures of one of your kids, you can find them in a snap.  Also, you can color code your images, add star ratings, flag, and even add them to a quick set.  In addition, you can make simple or more in depth adjustments to your photos all at once.  It's great!  Oh - and Lr 3 was just released and Adobe is letting people try it out for free!

Okay, so enough of selling you all on Lr.  Now to the art.  I selected four categories for this class that I thought would stretch me and make me think outside of the box.  Great idea right?  Yeah I thought so too, but now I'm not so sure.  I spent the last two days out and about in downtown Grand Forks shooting for:  color, texture, line, and architecture.  I thought that there would be a lot of crossover activity and that I would be able to use some images for more than one category.  Turns out I can, but I still have to submit at least 40 usable images.  Sheesh!  I found out that architecture is pretty difficult to shoot.  At first, I had leaning buildings, blown out skies, and uninteresting shots.  It took some work, but I think I might be on my way.  One thing that concerns me though is that there really aren't a whole lot of interesting buildings in GF.  I hope I didn't use up all the buildings in the first week's assignment!

My homework is turned in and now I await the critiques of my professor and peers.  In the meantime, check out my photos on my Flickr page and leave a comment!  Cheers!