Fireworks

Another July 4th and Fireworks --- here's a few pics from local celebrations

On Educating

"Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly."

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-95) English biologist and writer.

I'm not sure the reason I took on teaching. I suppose, initially I thought of it as a way to give back, mainly because some one or ones had the patience to teach me. Now, 16 years into it, I'm still not sure.

I teach photography at an advertising school in South Beach (Miami). There are initially technical things to teach---the three elements that make up exposure, what all the knobs and dials do, how to hold a camera. It's changed a bit over the years as technology has taken us from analogue to digital, film to disks or cards and darkroom to desktop. But how it works, for the most part, has remained the same.

So after the technical part is learned, there comes the critiquing. There's lighting, composition, lens selection but in the end at least for me, I learned photography by mistakes (and I've learned nearly everything that way) and having my work critiqued. Trial and error, trial by fire---however you refer to it but most things in life we learn by having first learned how not to do it. I'm a believer in failing---early and often. I love failing and I have to a certain degree learned to embrace it as the best teacher I've found. I know that the more times I try and fail, the quicker I stop trying (because really there isn't any "trying", we either do something or we don't) and I figure out how to make something happen. I think that Oscar Wilde said once some version of "nothing that's worth knowing can be taught" and Gailileo said, "You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself."

A photograph as with any type of art is subjective, one can love it and the next can hate it and another can ignore it completely. Some times they can tell you why and sometimes they can't. However, certain technical parts need to be there. 


Critiquing a students work is probably the most difficult thing. Some are great about it, and some take it personal, which it definitely is not, some will disagree with you and I don't really have a problem with that either, as long as they get the lesson.
AND I suppose I'd be lying if I said that never in my career did I think to myself that not liking my photo meant not liking me. 


I listen to critiques, I see what I can learn from them, what I can take to the next assignment. It's not personal and if you look at critiques as opportunities to transform your skills, then you will appreciate their value and be grateful (though we never REALLY get there, there is always something new to learn).

Laugh, even if you feel like crying.

 

This is a blog from February 2010 which I never posted.
                                                                                                        






February has been an active month. Time really does fly, it seems like Thanksgiving was a week or so ago and now here it is almost my birthday.

But anyway, to get on with the blog.

Darryl Strawser is a dear friend of mine. We have taught together at the Miami Ad School for nearly 11 years now. Darryl has ALS, Lou Gehrigs Disease. He's quite the exception to the rule, in more ways than one---but one is that most people don't live very long after being diagnosed with ALS. You may remember the book Tuesdays with Morrie--- Well I think Morrie lasted about three years after his diagnosis, so it's fairly extraordinary that Darryl has had it for nearly 15 years now.

But things have started to deteriorate for Darryl lately, however, I would never count him out. He's so resilient that he just keeps coming back at life over and over again. He's begun to fall down sometimes and I have been with him a few times when this has happened. Slow as it may be, he gets right back up again. Getting ready to come to work is an Olympic event for him. He has little to no use of his hands but still manages to brush his teeth, shower, shave, get his clothes on and come to school everyday--and on time. This in itself is an incredible feat.

Darryl really has a unique way of teaching---he is very funny and sarcastic at the same time. He can let students know they screwed up without killing their self esteem. His facial expressions (as seen above) say everything, before he says anything. There are people in our lives that show up to inspire us, remind us how important the little things are, and Darryl shows us that every challenge can be met with a smile and the opportunity to transform it into a lesson---for ourselves and for others.