Yellowstone Academy Photo Class Recap and End of Year Show

As some of y'all know, I work with some of the 6th graders from Yellowstone Academy on Wednesday afternoons.  Several years ago, I began a photo class for their after school program.  For the first two years we did the class only in the spring.  However, this year the class lasted all year long!  It has been great, the kids have learned a lot, and taken some great photos.  I'm really proud of them.  I decided this past summer that I wanted them to be thinking more about their photos.  The previous two years we used Olympus point and shoot 35mm film cameras.  These worked great, especially for the age of the students at that time (they were in 4th and 5th grade during those two years).  However, last year students were spending too much time running around, holding their camera up high and just taking thoughtless photos.  I was not very happy with that.  Therefore, I decided they were getting old enough this school year (6th grade) to learn how to use a REAL camera...a true, FULLY MANUAL 35mm camera.  So I searched ebay for a couple months this summer, putting together a nice collection of used Pentax K-1000 camera (a classic, workhorse student camera).

A little background on Yellowstone and my history with the school.  Yellowstone Academy is a private Christian school serving underprivileged children of Houston (please click on the link and visit their website to really learn about the school and the students they serve).  It is an amazing place, with wonderful teachers and a strong sense of community.  Students get two meals a day there (for some, this is the only food they see all day!).  Most importantly, though, they are in a supportive environment, surrounded by people who want to see these awesome kids succeed!  I have been blessed to work with the school since my senior year in high school, when my high school's "Outreach" program sent me there.  During college I would return when I could (though not often enough).  However, my senior year in college I had an opportunity to create this after school photo class, and use it as one of my final projects in art school.  Thankfully, Yellowstone was willing to work with me, and allow me to teach their oldest group of students, who at the time were 4th graders.  Everything went great, and since moving back to Houston we've decided to keep it up.  It has been a wonderful experience, and I always look forward to what the kids can produce!

So, back to this year's class!  I decided, "No more, easy, thoughtless photos!"  I wanted my students to have to think about the photos they were taking, to OWN their photography.  Therefore, we were going to have to learn to use good old, fully manual cameras!  We spent the entire first semester of school learning how to use the cameras.  We talked about how to control them mechanically, and we also discussed things like perspective, depth of field, and the ability of photos to tell a story.  At the end of the first semester, all of my students took a test to determine if they had earned the right to have their beautiful, fully manual Pentax K-1000.  I nervously handed out the tests, got them back and graded them.  EVERYONE PASSED!  Hooray!  Now we could actually begin taking photos, and getting into projects.  Christmas break began, and I prayed that everything we learned from the first semester would not be forgotten over the break!

When we returned for the second semester, we did a quick review, and began on projects.  The students looked at their beautiful new cameras, and were like, "Huh?  How old are these things!  They must be from like the 70s or something?!?"  They wanted to know where the digital cameras were.  I assured them that these were great cameras, and that if used correctly, they would take photos as good or better than digital cameras.  So we began some different projects, photographing portraits, color, action, and self portraits.  Most of the time the students didn't completely follow the projects.  Most of my students enjoy photographing people the most.  But that is fine by me.

I've learned a lot this past semester, how to teach this group, and how to interact with them.  They are a great group, and I've had a lot of fun with them.  I'm excited about the photos they've produced, and would like to share some below.  We are going to hang a show in the school for the last week of school, and these are the photos that my students have chosen to be in the show.  Three of my students haven't chosen their work yet, and so hopefully they'll have the chance to this afternoon.  I hope you enjoy the work!

Photographer: Melquisha

Photographer: Melquisha

Photographer: Makayla (Self Portrait Project...what a cool idea)

Photographer:Makayla

Photographer: Blossom

Photographer: Blossom (I'm really excited about this photo.  Blossom told me that she also likes to write, and I thought this would be such a cool photo to write about.  I've encouraged her to write a narrative, or poem, or whatever she'd like, using this photo as a basis.  I'm looking forward to seeing what she comes up with!)

Photographer: Roneisha

Photographer: Roneisha

Photographer: Shundell

Photographer: Shundell

I'll post my remaining three students photographs for the show once they choose their two favorites.

A tribute to my loving grandmother, Tutu

My grandmother, called Tutu by all her grandchildren, passed away on Sunday morning after a long and courageous battle with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease).  Tutu was a beautiful, loving and spirited woman, and our family will miss her dearly.  However, we are grateful that she is now with her Maker, and no longer has to struggle to breathe!

About three weeks ago, after having spent three and a half months in the hospital, Tutu decided that she was too tired to continue fighting COPD.  She had battled it for over five years, and decided that she was ready to move on.  She moved to Houston Hospice, and was under the most wonderful and gracious care.  The nurses and doctors at Houston Hospice did such a beautiful job serving her and my family, and attended to Tutu’s every need.  We are so grateful for the care she was given, and that she was able to leave us in such a beautiful place.

Tutu was never one to get down, and always met life’s struggles with courage and great spirit.  She twice overcame breast cancer, and even through her battle with COPD, she never complained.  She always kept a positive attitude, and loved all those around her with her whole heart.  Tutu loved having a good time, and she made sure to carry that spirit with her until the very last days of her life.  After checking into hospice, it didn’t take but a couple hours before Tutu had requested a martini (a long time favorite drink) to be made by her favorite bar tender, Kani (the grandchildren name for her husband).  We spent the next several days having “parties” with Tutu.  She brought together our entire family these past weeks in hospice, and we were given the great gift of celebrating her beautiful life together.  She set an incredible example and continued to teach me about life, all the way up to her passing over the weekend.

I have so many wonderful and loving memories of my grandmother, and I am so grateful for the many years I was blessed with her presence.  I am going to miss her very much.  However, I am extremely grateful that she is now in peace, in the full presence of Jesus Christ.

I’ve decided to post a couple photos that I’ve taken over the years in honor of Tutu.  The first photo is a landscape that I took in Montana in the summer of 2005.  Tutu had just been diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time, and we didn’t know what was going to happen.  I went out to photograph one evening, and was thinking a lot about Tutu.  I looked up and saw this beautiful moment, where the sun was setting over a hill.  It was so heavenly, and a great peace overcame me.  I exposed the film just as the sun was going behind the hill.  I named the print “Tutu’s Hill,” when I got home and printed it later that summer.

Tutu's Hill-Summer 2005

This next photo I took a couple months ago in my parent’s home.  Tutu had to spend a lot of time in the hospital between December and March.  While she was there, my mom was washing her clothes and gowns.  I was walking through their house one morning when I saw this scene.  There was a quiet beauty to the moment, soft and sweet.  While there is a certain sadness to this scene, an obvious emptiness to the hanging robes, I don’t feel that it is overpowering.  As soon as I notice that the hanging robes are alone, without their adorner, the soft and gentle light from the window warms the scene, and takes my soul to a peaceful place.  I consider this to be my last portrait of Tutu.  She did not really like to be photographed during her struggle with COPD, as the medicines she was on made her gain some wait and caused her skin to be very fragile.  I am grateful that this photo appeared, and for the beauty and peace that it represents to me.

Thank you, Tutu, for all of the love you poured into my life, and into our family.

April...the month to bring my blog back to life!

Well, I've been neglecting my blog for way too long now!  Life and work have been so busy, I've had a hard time finding time to sit down and post my photos and to write a little bit.  But I've got a LOT of work to post!  Weddings, bridal portraits, engagement portraits, personal work, and sorority rush/senior portraits...it's been busy, and I can't wait to share everything with y'all.

March was a wonderful month...so busy, but great.  I can't believe April is half way over already.  I'm looking forward to Anna and Luke's and Kate and Garner's weddings coming up in May!

I've begun some commercial real estate photography for a local business called MC Management, and am enjoying that project.  One of their properties is located in downtown, and has rooftop access, and a really neat, old, beat up storage house (used to be an old boxing gym).  Last week a friend of mine, Troy (who also assists me) and I went up to the roof top of one of their buildings, and play around with some lighting.  It was a beautiful night, and I had a great time doing something a little different.  We had to work quick...we only had about 15 minutes of good light to share!  But it was great.

Here are some of the photos from that evening...

Like I said, I've got a lot of posting to catch up on.  Bridal portraits and engagement portraits from January and February, weddings from March, sorority rush portraits from a couple weeks ago...its all coming!