NYC Adventures:: Day Two

So after we got home from Day One in NYC, I drove home to my parents house in NJ. The following morning I boarded a train heading for NYC -- this time to see friends from photography school. I met up with Rikki and our adventures began. We walked, and walked, and walked some more. After we ran a quick errand, we headed toward the Subway, making our way toward the East Village for lunch with our friend Jeff. We walked through the famous Washington Square Park, where one of my favorite movies was filmed, in part [August Rush].

(all photos were taken with my iPhone;
many were cropped to post on Instagram; follow me @saz810)

And the person feeding the birds reminded me of Mary Poppins, another of my favorite movies -- "Feed the birds, tuppence a bag..."

We met up with Jeff.....

...and he took us to this place called S'Mac...where they serve only macaroni and cheese.

After we left Jeff, Rikki and I decided we were simply going to walk around. Since I don't often get down toward the area we were in, we made our way to Soho, Little Italy, and Chinatown. While in Soho, we stopped at Harney & Sons and sampled some tea (my favorite is Paris), and I think I got Rikki hooked; we each left with a tin of it.

 Then we fell in love with the sidewalk restaurants and the charm that each had:

And finally, we made our way to Chinatown, stopping to see the fresh fish market, the fruits and veggies, and Rikki experienced her first bubble tea at Chatime:

We made our way back into the Subway and I took a few pics along the way:

Trump Soho

One World Trade Center

We met up with Chris - another friend from photography school - and went to dinner at Outback. Nothing says a good dinner like a bloomin' onion. We made a stop at Starbucks before I walked back up to Penn Station to get my train back home.

What a whirlwind two days, but oh, what fun I had!! I can't wait to head there again in a few months.

Hallmark: Featured Work

In June I graduated from Hallmark Institute of Photography. Every few weeks, Hallmark changes images on their website and features work of its most recent students. It's been encouraging to see my work featured on there a few times, like here and here. And just today I went on and saw another of my pictures on the homepage:

It's a teaset I talked about here just about a year ago. It still is one of my more favorite shots from the commercial studio.

And yesterday I got an email from a staff member at Hallmark informing me that some of my images are in the new Hallmark 2012-2013 catalog; a copy is coming in the mail soon. How exciting!

Phase 3 Critique

Today I had my Phase 3 critique.

Here's the play-by-play:

You are instructed to go into the auditorium and sit in a specific chair to wait for your individual time. Then one of the instructors comes out to "escort" you to the viewing room. You are told where to sit, and greeted by the faces of 4 people - the head guy in portrait (Rich), the head guy in commercial (Dick), one of the design instructors (Joan) and the woman in charge of all academic areas (Lisa). They are both looking at their computers and looking at the images displayed in a lightbox in front of them. First Lisa talks about the career business plan, noting different pieces that are good and areas that could use improvement. She also reviews what I hope to do and where I hope to be doing it - both to confirm with me and to inform the other instructors of my plans.

Then Rich looks at the portrait work and critiques on the things that need improvement. Dick does the same for the commercial work. Joan then goes over the ad, brochure and product shots, and finally it's wrapped up by an overall summary of the work that has been turned in.

Since I had shown my work to Rich and Dick, they didn't have much to say, since the advice they gave was listened to and the things changed that they recommended. They gave me some suggestions, which will be below.

At the end, a grade sheet is printed with both the grade for your career business plan (worth a fake $50,000) and then the pictures themselves (also worth a fake $50,000).

And.....drum roll please....

I got $50,000 on both, for a whopping $100,000...a perfect score! Now if only they were real dollars!
Here's a pic of the grading sheet for my pictures.



Then your pictures are snatched up, your photos handed back to you, your career business plan handed back, and again Rich escorts you back to your "exit".

I was so pleased with the work I did. In all honesty, they did give me some advice...they say I am good with the technical and getting the assignments done, but they want to see more creativity and more of ME in my pictures. I GET it.....because I've felt that way for the past few months. I feel like I am stuck with the expected, and not taking the pictures that really please me. I am so concerned with making sure my lighting is right, that I took a picture of the white balance and color checker, and that the eyes are in focus. It's been draining simply remembering all that...and then being happy with the shot is obviously key.

So I am hopeful that I can take some pictures that really reflect me....and I don't quite know how to do that...I just wish I were feeling free to just take pictures. I know it almost sounds silly, but I feel like I've been stuck taking the procedures for face value and not putting my heart into them - not getting the emotions of those whom I am photographing.

Now I need to get my rear in gear and get these personal submissions going. I have 2 of the 8 pictures completely done. They just need to be printed. I am getting together with a couple on Friday morning and staging a mock wedding. Well, wedding portraits. I am excited for that. I hope they turn out great.

After I left school, I went to the grocery store and got a few things....got some chicken to make my yummy Spiede sauce chicken tonight, plus some ingredients to make a trail mix - so excited - and also some asian apples, bananas, and apricots. Ooh, I am so excited to eat all my yummy food.

BUT then, to my surprise, I had not one, but TWO pieces of mail waiting for me ....a letter and a small package.

The letter....



...was from one of my best friends. After having such a wonderful day, the words of the card became that much more meaningful. She wrote and said, "....Hoping you are having a really great day today." Well yes, my friend, I AM!!!

THEN...the package contained a letter with some pictures of some dear friends and me....plus some earl grey tea (my FAV) and some seasoned oyster crackers. It is a recipe that my mom's godmother used to make...and now my friend Liz makes them and periodically sends them to me.





Thanks, Liz, for being a constant cheerleader of my efforts at school. You are a blessing.

So it's been a wonderful day! Tomorrow I have a Digital Imaging class and Event Photography class in the morning, then 4 hours of Business Communications in the afternoon. We are presenting on photographers who are having a significance in photography. My group chose to research Brad Guice, whose work you MUST check out, if you haven't already seen it. We presented last week and the presentation went very well. So now we can sit back and relax, and not be anxious that maybe our group will go, or maybe we won't.

Thanks to all of you who have been encouraging me in this journey called Hallmark. You EACH have made an impact on my life.
I appreciate you.

My Weekend, day by day (Friday)

So on Friday after the photo review of the images in my last post, my roommate Julie and I headed to Holyoke (about 40 minutes away) for this kickoff for a breast cancer walk that took place on Sunday. Western Massachusetts started this organization called Rays of Hope to raise awareness of breast cancer. Julie has been doing the walk for some 11 years, not thinking that she herself would be diagnosed with breast cancer last year. She is a SURVIVOR and an encouragement to me of someone who has determination and strength. Go Julie!

So we went to this dinner and then (a very soon-in-the-future-post) did the walk on Sunday. Here's the link to Rays of Hope if you wish to check this fantastic organization out. I'll be writing further details about the walk itself in the Sunday post.

Rays of Hope

Afterward, we went to the Holyoke Mall, one of the bigger malls in the area. I had a few places I wanted to go, and along the way we saw this store called Teavana. In February singer/songwriter Shawn McDonald talked to me about this place, but I never got to go.

Check out Teavana here.

So we walked in and of course I was hooked. I'm not a coffee drinker, but definitely love my tea, so to smell all the teas and see all the lovely teapots, I was like a kid in the candy store. The salesman was soooo good that I bought a teapot and cups and little things to set the cups on...and I am so proud of my little teaset.

Here's the teapot I got:



Isn't it just so cute? And these are the little accessories I got to go with it:

I got cups:




and little coaster and leaves to stick the cups on:



Of course my little set matches. The different cups sit on different colored coasters which all sit on green leaves.
The dragonfly (in Chinese) symbolizes new beginnings, and I am indeed experiencing a new beginning with photog. school, and it was just so stinkin' cute :)

We ended up in the store for over an hour, talking away with the people who worked there. They both knew of Hallmark and turns out the manager on duty's husband worked at Hallmark for a few years. Small world! He was actually in the mall, so we got to meet him and chat for a few minutes about what we were learning.

Saturday's post coming soon......