Graduation #1: Brooke Graduates from Photography Class

Hey y'all -

We've had a lot of graduations in our family this week. I spent the week at an immersive photography school here in Missoula, where I got to go on field shoots and hear lectures and attend critiques with an amazing instructor. Your dad graduated from the Air Force's Air Operations Command School at Hulbert Field in Florida. And Laney graduated from preschool. So we're going to take these one at a time.

First, I fulfilled a year-long dream of taking the Intermediate class at the Rocky Mountain School of Photography. A special thanks to those of you who donated to the tuition fund last year on my birthday, or Mother's Day or Christmas or Bastille Day or any other holiday that presented itself since I first got the idea in my head.

It was just - short of weddings and births and the obvious milestones - the greatest week of my life. I don't even know if I came out of it a better photographer, so much as I now have the tools to practice and produce the pictures I want in the right way. It was like starting over from scratch. And as a busy mom, there was something so luxurious about having the time to sit and take fifty exposures of the same thing until I figured out how to shoot it correctly. For years, I'd let the camera do at least half of the thinking for me, and just crossed my fingers that I'd get lucky with the final product. I may never use these skills beyond sharing my images here with you, but as I get older, I'm finding there's a unique thrill in becoming good at something.

Field shoot - St. Ignatius Mission

Tried to hide from my instructor so I could fail by myself in peace, but he found me. 

The Sweet Palace, Philipsburg, MT: shooting "family portraits" of gummy bears, just cause I can. 

There was a man in the class who looked SO familiar to me, but I couldn't figure out why... It drove me crazy until the 4th day of class, when I figured out he was the actor who played Neidermeyer in "Animal House." Incredibly nice man.

So here are some of the pictures I took this past week:

St. Ignatius Mission

I told the class this was my version of wildlife photography...lie down on the ground and wait for them to come to you. 

Ninepipes Wildlife Management Area

Gumball at the candy store. I held up a piece of red cellophane wrapping paper behind it, and lit it with the flashlight on my iPhone. 

Mary and her boy

Rattlesnake Creek

House, Philipsburg, MT

Succulent. (I wrapped the base of the plant in an old orange T-shirt to get that glow). 

Interior, St. Ignatius Mission

The confessional

The Wilma Building, downtown Missoula

I saw this guy and whispered, "Hey, Mr, Bird. I don't have the right lens on my camera to take a picture of you, so I'm going to reach into my bag very slowly and see if I can get the right set-up together, and while I do that, I'm going to need you to just sit right there and be patient." And he was. I'm sure that's just how Audubon worked. 

Sunrise shoot - Maclay Flats, Missoula, MT

Sunrise shoot - Maclay Flats, Missoula, MT (The only time I will ever get up at 4:30am on purpose)

Walking through downtown, looking for an original idea for my night shoot, I came across a group of teens practicing their fire dancing and asked them if I could shoot their practice. 

10-second exposure of a 16 year-old twirling a fire stick

3-sec handheld exposure to make an abstract.

The watchers, Philipsburg, MT

Thanks to your dad for getting you ready every morning, and for Grandma Sue picking you up every afternoon so I could go do something that made me so happy.

Love,
Mom