Hallmark Institute of Photography Graduation

Let me step back in time a bit.....

September 29, 2008. First correspondence from Hallmark's Director of Admissions.
September 21, 2009. One year later. Made the decision to actualize my desire to attend photog. school.  
     Schedule interview. Prepare body of work to show them.
November 9, 2009. Interview at Hallmark.
November 20, 2009. Enrollment agreement sent. It's real.
June 11, 2010. Last day at my job.
June 19, 2010. Leave for Hong Kong for 4 weeks.
July 5, 2010. Leave Hong Kong a week earlier than expected b/c of ruptured discs in my back.
August 30, 2010. Move to MA for the start of school.
September 8, 2010. Orientation begins at Hallmark.

................time passes................

10 long months of intense training toward becoming a photographer.

Lots of assignments fulfilled in order to show proof of technical skills learned.

Friends met.

Batches of chocolate chip cookies made for friends and staff as a pick-me-up.

Seasons that changed.

Lots of snow. A record-breaking 2 snow days for Hallmark.

Spring finallllly comes.

June 1, 2011. Portfolio of images turned in.
       Watch this video that Hallmark posted about turning in our portfolios.

June 6, 2011. Portfolio review. I pass....phew!

        

June 24, 2011. Graduation Day. Some new (town) friends come to show their support. Mom and Dad are up from NJ for the special day. I walk across another stage and also find out that my portfolio awards me the distinction of being in the top 10% of my class.

June 25, 2011. My belongings are packed and we make the trek back to NJ.

Here are some pictures from Graduation. Mom took almost all these pics, as I wanted to be in them. She did pretty well, given that I had the camera on manual the whole time.

Ice Sculpture at the entrance of the auditorium

Ron and Fran, locals who became like grandparents
while I was in town

Roomies Julie (left) and Heidi (middle)

ML and me (ML and I shared meals together throughout
my time at Hallmark. What a blessing she's been.)

Mom and Dad showing their support, in more ways than one

My dear friend Jeff - a classmate at school with me.

President of Hallmark, George Rosa, and me

Featured Work

My work is currently being featured on the Hallmark homepage.

The below is a screenshot of what it looks like (click on it to see it larger):



If you'll notice in the middle of the page is also a "What's Happening" summary; Hallmark does a write-up each week about what's going on...and a picture of me is featured as I find out my portfolio is accepted. I know you can only read a brief portion of it on the first screenshot (above), so I took another one of the entire written piece (below).



It's always exciting to have your work be viewed in ways different than what you'd imagine.

Thanks Hallmark!

It's Movie Time!!!

If you want another (cooler) perspective of my year-end portfolio, check out this video I put together.

Sarah's Year End Portfolio

Throughout the final weeks of school, we have been learning Final Cut Pro (a video editing software) with Dennis O'Clair. He was so helpful in putting the touches on my video slideshow.

It is such an accomplishment (albeit small) to put this together and see my images in a whole new way.

Enjoy!!

My Final Portfolio - Part TWO

Here are the remaining pictures:

My Final Portfolio - Part ONE

Without any further delay, these are my final portfolio images...

There are so many stories of those whom I met...the people who allowed me to photograph them, the friends I met along the way, and the expressions on the faces that leave me with impressions for a lifetime.

I am so happy to have passed my review and grateful for the critique I got from 4 amazing photographers: Lois Greenfield, Grant Peterson, Matthew Jordan Smith, and also Gregory Heisler, one of our instructors who sat on the panel (but didn't score us).

Here are the first 15:































to be continued in the next post....

Portfolio Review is TOMORROW!!

The past few weeks have flown by. It's been a combination of preparing my portfolio to be submitted on June 1, photographing a wedding 4 hours away - the weekend before the portfolio was due, and thinking about what's next after school.

I am happy to report that all of my prints and digital files were submitted on Wednesday and tomorrow is the day when I find out if all of my hard work and experiences this year have paid off. Tomorrow my work gets seen by 4 panelists, three of whom will be scoring my work and determining if I hear the words...."Portfolio accepted" OR "Portfolio not yet accepted". Of course, I hope it's the former, but it's been an interesting two days of portfolio review already and I'm trying not to get excited.

A lot of people have been asking what the review looks like....how it goes....and so I found 2 good videos on YouTube documenting the experience for alums who went through this process...

Check these out....

Hallmark Portfolio Review: Sarah Frie

Hallmark Review (overview)

Crazy, huh? Did you watch them both? Yea, give or take some minor changes, that's what I'll be going through tomorrow sometime between 9am-5pm.

I am having a friend video my review, so I can show you what mine is actually like. It will be nowhere near what this one looks like, but you'll get the idea.

And there is still much to do. I am assisting a photographer next weekend for a wedding. We have a video to create, edit and submit by June 16th, and on top of all that, we still have classes, field trips and preparations for graduation on the 24th.

So my mom will be making her way up here tonight, so she can be there tomorrow. I'm hoping we can head to the Yankee Candle Flagship store, as I've waited all year to go with her. And then I will be packing up my room and making plans to head back to NJ for at least the month of July. It's going to be busy, with a wedding I am, two weddings I am photographing, and a few other events taking place that will surely keep me busy.

I'll post the outcome of tomorrow as soon as I can get on a computer and do so....