Its’ been a busy Summer, between working (very) full-time for myself and shooting lots, taking on even more work with a busy part-time job, traveling to Midas, Nevada to spend time shooting, teaching and planning more future workshops…whew.
Yes, I need to organize them!
I ordered all my books for my 2 classes last week and 3/5ths of them have arrived. The printer is working great, monitor is calibrated (as usual) and finances are in place for 2 classes. All that is left is to clear off some table space and give the studio a second Spring cleaning!
Here is where I buy my books:
Amazon – they are fabulous for providing textbooks and other photobooks at a very reasonable price. They also offer an extensive network of resellers. I buy used books all the time via Amazon.
Half.com – a great place that offers books on the cheap and also has a good reseller network.
I also use FatWallet and Bing Shopping to add a few pennies to my paypal account by checking for book deals there first.
Locally I find that Half Price Books is quite hit-or-miss for texts but I do try to stop in there first to see if I can find bargains – which I have!
What’s that!? The instructor wants the 34th edition of the book and it costs $200 but the 33rd edition is available for 3 bucks? I’ve found that my instructors are pretty reasonable about using the current or near-current edition. Often the editions don’t change a lot. If the book is updated every 2-3 years then the older edition works for me. If the last edition was 10 years ago then I’ll get the newest version.
Don’t forget about classmates. That’s right! Even if you are doing (most) of this online there is a good chance that your fellow classmates have a book you need and you have a book they need. Media mail is cheap and swapping books is a very effective way to save money and a way to know your classmates.
One more note about photography books. This program is allowing me to add a lot of photo books to an existing collection of art and photography books. I have found that all but a few of my business (MBA) books are outdated or basically worthless and have made there way to the recycle bin or to Goodwill, yet I cherish and re-read photo books periodically and have no desire to get rid of any of them. I wonder if that says anything about studying photography or business? 
Fall-2011
December 12th, 2011I 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
Tags: class death of a parent Don eagerness extra time Fall fall semester life mom semester shooter time willingness