It's Over

I genuinely cannot believe that the semester is over. It feels like I was just graduating from high school yesterday. All together, my first semester of college went surprisingly well. I passed all of my classes, and I have a strong hunch that I got all As. I had some great professors along the way, too.

Since starting college, I feel I've broken out of my shell a bit. As I'm sure I've made it abundantly clear in the past, I am a massive introvert and, with that, I also hate attention. With that combo going for me, having my work critiqued in Digital I was quite terrifying at first, but forced me to become confident in my work. Even in my English 101 class I learned to be more self-assured. My professor for that class was amazing, which lead me to gain enough strength to share with her a short story I wrote that was very close to my heart. She encouraged me to submit the story to Cassandra, so I did. Before I came to Suffolk, I never would have been able to stand in front of my peers and talk about my work, let alone submit one of my personal short stories to the school literary magazine.

As corny and lame as it may be, I'm proud of myself and the progress I made this semester. I started off as a passive aggressive teen, frustrated at my parents for making me go to college, and now I'm a more bold and positive person, slightly excited to see what the next semester has in store for me. So there's that.

An Introvert in an Extroverted World

This past Thursday was my last Digital I class which means the final was due. The final project was a little intimidating, but I'd like to think I did a decently good job on it.

Throughout the whole taking photos process, all I knew is that I wanted to focus on landscapes and lines, and I went with that. I traveled across the island to Stony Brook, Port Jefferson, Greenport, and Head of the Harbor to find some pretty landscapes. Taking the photographs was the easy part, though. Deciding what they meant was the hard part.

I've never considered myself an artist. I guess I create art, but I'm not really an artist. Artist means you have some sort of creative, deep intent with your work, which I've never really had. I just take photos that I like and show them to people. 

As far as what my final means, I really don't know other than just the comfort of solitude. I am very introverted, so taking photographs that lack people and are abundant with silence satisfies me. I like landscapes because I'm not in a rush to get the perfect photo (which is very important to me). So I guess that's what my final means to me.

The Time I Got Stranded in the Middle of Nowhere While Shooting a Project

As the semester comes to a close, the due date for my Digital I final comes closer and closer. It's been quite an adventure thus far with deciding what I was going to shoot and what it was going to represent. Last weekend, I made a lot of progress towards it and got seven photographs for my final, so I only needed to get three more this weekend.
I decided to go to one of my favorite photo spots in Head of the Harbor. Since my car doesn't have four-wheel drive and the spot is super rocky and sandy, my dad drove me with his and took some photos too.
I was able to get a few shots that I liked, but was quickly losing all of my body heat, so I asked to go home. My dad and I hopped in his Ford Explorer and were ready to take off when he took out his keys and... oh no... the car key snapped in half.
Of course, we were in the middle of nowhere in Head of the Harbor, so there was a lack of cell service. So, it was freezing cold, we couldn't start the car, and we couldn't call home. It was pretty awful.
Eventually, my dad was able to find a few bars to call my mom and have her bring over the spare key, so we were saved, but it was still a slightly traumatic experience. Well, at least I got some photos for my final, so I guess it was worth it.

Lots and Lots of Landscapes

Since it was gloomy and rainy earlier in the week, I took advantage of this beautiful weekend and spent my days shooting for my final project in Digital I. On Friday, my dad and I walked around Avalon Park and down Harbor Road to Harmony Vineyards. Since my dad grew up in Head of the Harbor, he knows quite a bit about the history of the area. He spent his youth wandering the parts where we were walking, so not only did I get a few shots for my final, but I also got the chance to hear a few stories from my dad's childhood and about the history of the town.
On Saturday, I went on a drive to Greenport with my mom to get some photos of the water. We also made a stop at Crazy Beans and had a Gilmore Girls inspired lunch (coffee and fries). It was very cold, but we had a great time finding locations to shoot at and places to stop to warm up. One of those warm up locations was Burton's Bookstore, a quaint little book shop that just about made me cry in happiness. You could say it was a successful outing.

On Sunday, my parents, my brother and his girlfriend, and I went to Port Jefferson for the Charles Dickenson festival. We took a horse and carriage ride around town and saw a few carolers. Of course, it was freezing, so unfortunately we had to cut the day off early to avoid hypothermia. Before going home, though, we went down to the water and I was able to get a few more landscape photos.
It was a pretty productive weekend for me in terms of my final assignment in Digital I. Now it's time to do some work for my other classes...