Photography Certificate Complete Brings New Self Assignment
Nov 27
posted by Steven Erat in
Learning, Photos
| 5 Comments
This week concludes my program at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts in Waltham. 
It's been an exciting year and half as I pursued the Certificate of Professional Photography, attending class two nights and every other Saturday for the entire duration. The end of my studies brings with it the start of a professional vocation as a photographer, albiet part-time for now. I feel that the program at CDIA fully prepared me for this new path, and I've emerged confident and skillful, and ready to take on new imaging challenges. 
As I immersed myself in photography technique I owe additional thanks to some "virtual mentors", especially David Hobby ("The Strobist") for his extremely helpful blog entries and DVD tutorial, Joe McNally for his helpful blog and online training, and Zack Arias for his online tutorials as well. (I just started following Ryan Brenizer's blog as a valuable resource, too.)
For the graduation ceremony, to be held in January at CDIA, I will be able to submit 4 framed images for display among all the images from my class. Many students submit work done during their time as students, but I would like to use this opportunity to challenge myself with a new project, specifically for the graduation show. 
In this project, I want to exercise the best of all the strengths that I've gained by producing a collection of 4 environmental portraits done in the style of photographers I wish to emulate such as Joel Grimes and Tim Tadder, such that the portraits have a coherent theme and lighting style to bind them together. I've decided to call this first self assignment: Alchemy: Series One, a series having portraits that integrate the four natural elements, Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. More on this assignment later when its complete.
For now, I spent part of Thanksgiving in the garage practicing the technique and exercising all the moving parts. 
#1 by Rob Brooks-Bilson on 11/28/08 - 6:43 PM
#2 by Shawn Read on 12/2/08 - 11:51 PM
#3 by Steven Erat on 12/3/08 - 12:21 AM
I`m finding my niche and defining my style, and one key component of my style is that I specialize in retouching. For that reason, I feel that I no longer want to share my work until I`ve "done my thing" to it. The result is that my Flickr stream has rather dried up because I`m publishing only high quality results rather than slathering my stream with every single image I take.
Earlier I was toying with a business name, Vane Street, but I`ve decided that it brought no positive reactions but only quizzical ones at best, so I`ll be sticking with Steven Erat Photography where my name (and therefore my style) is my brand. I`ll continue posting occassionally on Flickr, but when my professional portfolio website launches I`ll use that the primary portal from which to share new work.
Shawn, I may just see you around as I`m considering taking the Graphic Design certificate program late next year to complement my experience in Photography and Web Development.
#4 by Shawn Read on 12/3/08 - 11:14 PM
#5 by Steven Erat on 12/10/08 - 1:26 PM
Thanks for the link to your website. I look forward to exploring your work.