Graduation Day!

Today marked the final ritual for my B.A. in Photography from the School of Film & Photography from Montana State University - graduation! This was me earlier today, waiting to "walk the line". It was actually pretty fun to sit and chat with my friends while waiting for the ceremony to start and the the final handing over of the degree (cover) was a nice bit of closure for the past four years. The real degree will apparently be in the mail at some point in the future. :)

I Heart America Exhibit

Yesterday morning, I woke up feeling pretty bad and with my throat feeling all swollen and sore. I set up my panels for the one night only MSU Senior Photography Thesis Show and then headed home to rest. Throughout the afternoon, I just started feeling worse and worse. I knew I wouldn't be able to stand there and talk to people about my work so I had to make the decision to stay home. Major bummer! My husband even went to break down the exhibit for me last night since I ended up in bed around 9:15. So, last night was the final time my work was exhibited as a student, and I wasn't even there to enjoy it! I'm hoping to feel better by the end of the week so I can attend graduation and feel the closure I'm hoping for. :)

Finished!

As of 4:15 this afternoon, I have officially completed all of the formal requirements for my B.A. degree in photography! After four more years of school, off and on self-doubt as to my ability to pursue this passion, and lots and lots of hours spent in both the black & white darkroom and the digital lab, I'm happy to see the end of this phase of my life.

Being in an academic environment for photography is so much different than just chatting with friends who like photography. There are both good and bad things about the academic environment, but overall I am extremely glad to have made the decision to get a degree in photography rather than simply self-teaching. Although the second option is more than sufficient for some, spending four years studying and practicing photography in a formal environment has been very beneficial for me. Now that I will not have regular formal critiques for my work, I will need to work to find similar constructive and honest feedback. I want to make sure I continue to push myself just as much as I have in the past four years. When I look back at my work from four years ago and compare it to my current work, the improvements I have made are glaringly obvious. I hope and pray that in four more years I can look back and say the same.

I Heart America

( © 2010 Leslie McDaniel)

At last...my project focusing on Americana has been edited down and is ready for showing! The project took a bit of a turn, which I kind of expected, from where I started. The work is now a collection of images that represents my personal homage to the iconography of mid-century Americana. Although the project is considered "completed" for my senior project, I do consider it a work in progress since it's something I would like to continue. The images that "made the cut" so to speak are different than most of the images I have put on the blog so far, so if you should come by the Montana State University Senior Photography Exhibition on Monday, May 3 at the Emerson Cultural Center in Bozeman, MT to check out the complete work!

Made to Stick & Starting a Revolution with Seth Godin

I recently finished reading the book Made To Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath & Dan Heath. I'm not sure what made me pick up this book at the library, but I know I've always been fascinated with how to best communicate my ideas so that people will actually remember them. I can trace my initial inclination to become a teacher to this desire - to communicate ideas of importance in a creative way. I believe my desire to photograph also comes from this basic interest in communication. I'm always on the lookout for the best way to communicate what I'm passionate about in the hopes that my work might make a difference.

I must say that my interest in reading non-fiction was pretty much zero until about 3-4 years ago when I read Fast Food Nation. Anyway, Made to Stick was an awesome non-fiction read. It's full of great stories of how ordinary people have made their ideas or products "stick" (most of which you will be familiar with but may not know the back-story). As the book jacket says, "In this book, you'll learn the six key qualities of an idea that is made to stick." Check it out if you have time.

On another note, I just came across a post on Tasra Mar's blog with a Seth Godin video embedded. It's a TED talk about starting a revolution. It actually touches on a few of the same ideas that were in the book, such as telling stories to the audience who may be interested in your idea or product. It's about 17 minutes long, but it's well worth it. Here's the link to Tasra's blog post with the video: Starting A Revolution

Route 66

I recently completed a pretty long road trip, a small part of which was spent on Route 66. I've often "reminisced" about this place that I've never seen. As with most things, when I finally see something that I've heard about or thought about all my life, it didn't exactly measure up to my expectations. Here's just one of the anomalies I came across on my way to Flagstaff, AZ. I typically name my image files with something that is in the photograph...this one I simply named "Strange":

I'm a guest blogger today...

I was recently contacted by Skin Cohen who runs Marketing Essentials International, a marketing consulting blog for the photography industry. I "met" Skip through Twitter. Although the jury is still out (as far as I'm concerned) as to the value of Twitter for me, I have met some people I would never have had the opportunity to come across by networking through Twitter. Skip saw something I posted, checked out my website, then contacted me about being a guest blogger on his blog. Our phone conversation focused on the importance of maintaining personal projects, so I geared my post towards that along with how it intertwines with where I'm at in my life. Check out Skip's blog (and my post from today) by clicking the title of this post. Thanks!