2009-12-20 Update: You need some negativity in your life to balance out the positivity, so be careful so as not to reframe all your negativity.

At the college, we have a ritual each semester where we have to evaluate our professors. Student feedback, or so it’s called.

There are 14 categories, including things like “gives examples,” “answers questions,” and “is fair.” You can rate 1 to 5 on each.

This seems like a negative thing, because you have to rate your professor’s performance objectively. You have to decide how he’s done, evaluate him in many categories, and then write suggestions (most people don’t do this). It’s a big responsibility, because college administrators will be judging his merits, worthiness, and teaching ability based on your report.

But in my reality, this isn’t the case at all. If you have a bad teacher, and you give him all 1’s on his evaluation, do you know what happens? He gets worse. Usually it’s quite noticeable. The next class day he will be all flustered and confused. He will say things that make no sense. The grade you’ve given him will be confirmed.

If you give him 5’s, on the other hand, he will become far better. The …

... CONTINUE READING

A girl named Lyric, holding up a print of Fiery Hearts, which represents her heart. Don’t hurt her! She’s fragile like the glass in that picture frame.

I always try to get my models to look down with eyes up toward the camera, or toward the side… it’s a much more interesting pose than a dead-on stare. That worked well here.

I took out her nose ring, part of a tattoo, and some of her clothes. The photo is much more appealing that way.

The framed picture didn’t turn out good to start, because it was mostly a blue reflection of the sky. I burned it in quite a bit and took out the blue, so it looks great now. The other big change on this was selective color; I took out all colors except in the red channel, which puts emphasis on her and the picture, makes the background black and white, and makes her skin a bit weird looking. But in a good way.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 28-135mm, 1/500, F5.6, 75mm, ISO400, 2008-11-07T11:42:05-05, 20081107-164205rxt

Download the high-res JPEG or download the source image (Canon Rebel XTi RAW file).

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Credit me as Richard X. Thripp and link here.

You can use the model’s likeness for anything not defamatory. You are one of my “licencees.”

The last shot from my adventure with Sarah, and the most artsy. We went to the college theater, where they have a meshed window that makes patterns of light like this on the wall. I had her sit on the carpet so the light was right on her cheek, and told her to look down like she was thinking, and that’s how we got this.

I’m proud of her; she was quite shy and this was her first time modeling, but she let go of her shyness and let her spirit shine through. I think there’s a bit of shyness in this photo, but it works.

At first she thought she wasn’t “photogenic.” That’s a limiting belief. It’s like saying you’re not lingual or musical or logical. You are photogenic; you just have to start thinking of the camera as your friend rather than a deadly weapon.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/60, F2.5, 50mm, ISO400, 2008-10-01T13:31:17-04, 20081001-173117rxt

Through the eyes of a dog. This is my aunt’s dog named Joseph; I set the camera on the carpet and snapped this of him staring at it. I was lucky to get his eyes in focus. He looks sad and thoughtful.

I edited some dirt away from his eyes, darkened the corners, and added contrast.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/25, F2.5, 50mm, ISO400, 2008-06-26T15:37:03-04, 20080626-193703rxt

Download the high-res JPEG or download the source image (Canon Rebel XTi RAW file).

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Credit me as Richard X. Thripp and link here.