I’ve been out for a little while.

January 4th, 2012 by David Weaver No comments »

I’ve been out for a little while.

I had my left hip replaced.  I’ve been having issues with it for a few months and it finally became very painful on a regular basis.

Here is what they took out.

The head of my left femur. Photo: Dr. Eugene Schoch III

I’m doing much better.  I am taking one class in the Spring Semester.  It’s a non-thesis class as I’m not sure how well I can shoot for class and recover and work and all that must be done in life.

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Fall-2011

December 12th, 2011 by David Weaver No comments »

I really owe some time back in this blog.  The Fall Semester was pretty crushing.  My Mom passed away and after that happened nothing I did really seemed to matter for many weeks.   I took two classes this Fall and I passed both of them with A grades.  Well, an A- in one of the classes.  If I wasn’t such a proficient and experienced shooter I would have likely pulled out a C or just failed the classes.

Life happens to us regardless of what we want to occur.

If you are a student and life happens to you make sure to let everyone impacted know about it.  I told both of my instructors who gave me added time.  They didn’t have to do this. The death of a parent is something we all go through at some point.  Their sympathy as well as the extra time they gave me to complete assignments really helped me complete my classes.

It helps to be very active and participatory in class from the start because it sets a personal standard for you and demonstrates your capabilities, willingness and eagerness to be successful.  Don’t let your abilities in photography get in the way of your enthusiasm in a class. Don’t deny your abilities, just don’t rest upon them.

At my Mom’s funeral I said, no matter how much she cared for us we were never able to pay it back to her.  This is how families and life operate.  While, I can never pay back my mom for all the wonderful experiences she provided I can pay that forward into what I do in life.

The teachers at AAU provided great help and support this semester and I’ll pay that assistance forward as well.

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Posted in Courses, General Comments, PH 623: Portraiture, PH 801: Group Direct Study - Concept and Image

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Post MPR classes

November 4th, 2011 by David Weaver No comments »

Passing the MPR is a big deal.

A wonderful aspect of the AAU system is that they admit everyone that has the basic requirements for enrollment.  Getting into other institutions requires jumping over the hurdles and the high bars that those other places put up between you and a seat in the first class.  That technique has been a foundation pillar in traditional American higher education since its inception.  This follows a long line of traditional European educational admission framework as well.

What AAU does is create easy entrance and hard exit. The exit is successful completion of the program.  I’ve heard that around 10% of those that enter this program actually complete it and EARN an MFA – Photography degree.

The MPR is a screening process.  If you pass you are a member of a more select and qualified group of graduate students.  It really does show when you take post-MPR courses.

Post MPR students in classes stand out.  There exists a spread of talent and ability in this group but it is nowhere near as wide as found the general pre-MPR student group.  For assorted reasons, some students don’t go beyond the MPR.   I have some posts on personal responsibility and taking charge of your own success at AAU.  Not everyone is cut out for the advanced rigor of the program.

When I take classes with pre-MPR students I can generally spot my post-MPR classmates.  There writing and ability to discuss, critique, and offer suggestions about their work and the work of their peers is better than the work done by most pre-MPR students.

We are better students that are more intellectually prepared and focused because we passed the MPR gauntlet.   Our experiences should be shared with others to help them develop and become solid MPR candidates.

Some classes have MPR as a prerequisite.  These classes maintain a higher level of discourse, individual work ethic, and basically better art.

In all the AAU material I can’t find any place that says the experiences and quality of work students do in the program is extremely wide.  If you feel frustrated that you are not being challenged enough and some of your classmates don’t put forth quality visual work and solid discussions, don’t worry.  You are ahead of the curve and the curve will get closer to you after you pass the Mid-Point Review.

Classes are simply better because I did my MPR work and passed.


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My Mid Point Review and the Fire Alarm

October 5th, 2011 by David Weaver 2 comments »

I passed my MPR.  During the online portion of the presentation the fire alarms went off in the AAU Building.  They evacuated for 10 minutes.

It did shorten my presentation time but I had a concise presentation so…no big deal.

I passed.  More on this later.  Yes I know I’m behind in postings.  It’s been a crazy Summer and Fall is even crazier.

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Posted in Courses, Mid-Point Review (MPR)

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Reaching Objectives and Milestones

October 1st, 2011 by David Weaver No comments »

It’s important to set reachable goals and create milestones.   It is also important to practice everyday, not as if it were a regular job, but because it is a regular job.  The discipline of practice (and of perfect practice according to Tharp) is crucial to creative development and the creative process.  Working toward goals and objectives is a motivation for practice when self-motivation gets low.

I wanted to get my MFA for many reasons.  One of the milestone along the path to completion was to get back to the classroom.  I really want to teach photography and business skills to artists.  I already have my MBA, from the University of Texas at Austin, and getting my MFA would allow me to do what I’m good at, do what I want to do, and develop into other areas I have yet to deeply explore.  Once I complete my MFA, I will be a full dual-degreed MFA/MBA.   That give me a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

It is important to get into the classroom before I complete my MFA.  While I have 4+ years of university teaching experience, it is experience in business areas.  In order for me to be as successful as possible in getting a job at a small arts or liberal arts college after my MFA graduation I need to have some experience in teaching art.

After many months, if not years, I have landed a position as an adjunct lecturer at the Art Institute of Austin.  I am teaching both business courses as well as classes in various photographic subjects.  Right now it is only 1-2 classes per term.

The message here is we can be successful if we are driven to success, create realistic goals, and work hard to reach them.  The time I’ve spent so far at AAU is starting to return on my investment.


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Posted in General Comments, Jobs & Career

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Highly Rewarding – Review of PH 655: Digital Montage

June 24th, 2011 by David Weaver No comments »


One of the images from my final in Digital Montage



It’s been a busy Spring semester and I have a few minutes to think about this class.  I originally took this class based on the strength of the instructor, Shannon Ayres, and Iwas not disappointed.

Montage/collage is a huge area.

Most students attempted photo-realistic works and the results were generally fair – this probably lead to fair grades.  The best work from another student, IMHO, was down by embracing the subject and then creating non-realistic narrative works.  This makes the collage/montage work more sculptural .  It is the synergistic blending, shaping, and molding of photographic images into something else that montage and collage seems to be all about.  For my final project in this class I used a scanner as the only photographic input device and I liked that I didn’t have to break out my regular camera gear.  Staying away from my camera also opened up more creativity as I didn’t feel I was locked into a certain workflow or routine.

The pedagogy of this class follows many of the other studio classes at AAU.  You learn an overview of the subject, then you work through a variety of exercises to hone technical proficiency which takes you to the mid-term.  The for the remainder of the class you work on a project which merges the classroom teaching and your personal artistic vision as developed within the subject.

This class emphasized that one’s art is very personal and if you are true to working on things important to you the works speak with more power and personality.  That’s an important lesson to learn and it happened to occur in this class.

Things I would change or improve about the course:

Often a citation from a larger work is cited in a lesson and the larger full citation isn’t made available.  I don’t like that practice as it is so easy to misinterpret what the cited author was really trying to say.  I would like to see much more supplemental reading in this class.

One of Katrin Eismann’s books is considered required in this class yet it is rarely referred to in instruction and reading.  What a shame as her books on Photoshop techniques are some of the best on the bookshelf.  I’d like to see more exercises done pass/fail based on various chapters and section in her book.  I think a lot learning could come from refreshing and learning new Photoshop skills.

Essentially, I am asking for more work!

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Posted in Courses, GS 655: Digital Montage, Review

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