Hope, Support, and a 35mm fixed lens

For me, that sums up the two years it took to graduate in the photojournalism program at Loyalist College in Belleville, Ontario.

A photo from one of my first times going out and

 shooting with my D90 and 35mm fixed, trying to

 learn aperture and depth of field. Found a buggy

washed up on the side of the riverbed, practice 

makes perfect.

A Nikon D90 and a 35mm fixed lens (or the Canon equivalent) was the absolute minimum required to begin the program.

Thats how I started two years ago, but thats not how I ended it.

The D90 and 35mm fixed lens (with a broken auto-focus) is still same setup I use now, but it took a lot more than that to graduate. I guess that's kind of impressive if you think about it. Either way I hope that I can expand on that collection in the near future.

I grew up my whole life in Vernon B.C. until two years ago I decided to attend photojournalism for a reason I can't pinpoint.

I've been a soil sampler, a landscaper (on three four separate occasions with three different companies), an electrician, a tech support for Windows Vista (when it was first released), a forrest fire fighter and I even had a brief stint working at Walmart.

Not once during all those years nor during any of the years prior to those endeavours, did I see myself becoming a photographer or even a writer.

But here I am doing both, sort of.

I was never the one to pick up my dad's camera and instantly fall in love with photography. Nor did I pick up a pencil and become a natural writer. In fact, I can hardly read my own writing and my spelling is atrocious (thank goodness for email and auto-correct).

When I look at other peoples photos I think to myself, 'there is absolutely no way I am that good, and possibly never will be.'

I know it's not a good attitude to have but I'm an average photographer and an average writer.

I attended school with some phenomenal photographers, some of which are making headlines or at least bylines in the newspapers already.

In one of our classes we were told not to blog anything that might downplay ourselves. Potential employers might read our blogs and decide not to hire us.

Potential employers, please stop reading?

I know for a fact that I graduated as a mediocre photographer from my program, and I'm not hurt by it.

It may be true that I'm an average photographer and likely below average writer, but I took something more important from my time at Loyalist.

VERNON B.C. (17/4/12) - Andrew Farmer of the Kal Lakers goes for a run between Jonny Pfutzner (left) and Jarrett Illingworth (right) of the Kelowna Christian Knights during high school rugby action on Tuesday April 17. The Knights came out on top by a score of 19-14 with the game-winning try coming in the final seconds of the game.

– The first photo I had published in the Vernon Morning Star.

During my last semester, my teachers nominated me for a leadership award and I know it might not seem like a big deal but to me it is.

The way I see it, my teachers didn't see me for the camera I had in my hand, nor the photos I had on the board. I was seen for the person that I was (or hopefully was) and rewarded for that.

As I begin my career in photojournalism, that award will likely stick in my head more-so than the diploma.

My work as a photographer is only a part of the person I am, and that's why I felt I received the award.

I can only hope that the qualities that people saw in me to win an award like that are more important than the qualities that it took to graduate from the program.

After all, thats the reason I got into the program in the first place. I wanted to meet new people, tell their stories and maybe inspire a few others including myself.

I met a lot of great people at Loyalist, most of which I'm happy to call friends. Without them it would have been pretty tough to get through the program and especially the two years in Belleville.

I always told myself that Belleville was holding my creativity back. I always felt like I was just waiting to get out of there and blossom.

I'm back in Vernon now and I've completed the three week internship required to graduate and I still don't even feel like I'm budding, let alone blossoming. I guess these things just take time, and seeing as how I have more on my to-do list than taking photos and writing, I'm going to be pretty patient, at least for the time being.

It's impossible to say where my life will lead me in the next few years. It could be into the newspapers, a war zone, a third world country or somewhere/something else entirely, but I do know that I'm ready for it.
After all, I got hope, support, and a 35mm fixed lens. And those things aren't going anywhere.






For fun, here is a Multimedia piece on Slackline Montreal, a third semester project completed during our October reading week. Did some tweaks to an original edit that I wasn't happy with and only released it recently. Enjoy.