Graduation
In 2019, humanity was presented with a global issue. A virus that (supposedly) emanated from one bat soup entreé, had grown to the size of a global pandemic. While COVID-19 and its many different mutations still linger today, the pandemonium of the outbreak has died down. The frantic craze of sickness has been combated with vaccination after vaccination, but yet, political leaders have not found a cure for the economical sacrifices many people had to make. If you haven't guessed yet, I’m one of these people. Forfeiting money, my job, relationships, and lifestyle were all essential to facilitate growth over these 3 years. Of course, some of these decisions were involuntary. But ultimately, choosing to enroll at Mohawk College was the best decision I could’ve made.
If I talked about the struggles I faced and didn’t elaborate, you may not understand why going to school was such a tough decision. To indicate now, this post focuses on my photography and the improvement/experience I faced. Additional sprinkles of personal information and emotions are appropriate, but I hope the viewers (you) can use these blog posts to understand me better, as a person and photographer.
My journey as a photographer is briefly discussed in ‘The Photographer’ section. To reiterate, I fell in love with the ‘hobby’ through a course in secondary school, and I deem it as such because in high-school I didn't believe it was a plausible career. Consecutively, the love amounted to nothing post-secondary [2015], and continued to be a part-time hobby. Fast-forward to June 2020, you would find me employed for over 3 years at a steel factory. The benefit of this work was solely driven by the wages, all the while my mental health was driving me crazy. By this time, Covid had been active for approximately 7 months. The casualty numbers were increasing, and the amount of layoffs, off-days, and shutdowns were too. My relationship of 6 years decayed, and my job security was deteriorating fast. The things I thought were under-control started to slip away, and quickly approached the deadline for college applications. It wasn’t quite a no-brainer, even though returning to school had been on my mind for a while. I had to consider the fact I’ve dropped out of university once, and going back to school required a 2 year commitment of money, time, and lifestyle. Was I really passionate enough about photography to make it a career? And have I matured enough to stay disciplined and focused for the long-haul? Though these things remained unanswered until graduation, the only question I had to answer was…can I apply before it’s too late?
Yes. Writing this in 2022, I have the two answers I’ve been longing for, in addition to a diploma (OCD) in ‘Photography Still & Motion’ at Mohawk College. My experience at Mohawk exceeded expectations, and the heart of this blog post is to express my gratitude.
I couldn’t be more satisfied with the program. The education and structure of the program is completely comprehensive. While the faculty hold much experience in their respective fields, breaking things down to bare bones for students is no issue. Mohawk College provided a place to include all genres of photographers, and give students the right amount of tools to facilitate growth. Operating during a pandemic ,meant experiencing college in a somewhat unusual way as well. Though, I can confidently say I still enjoyed the online learning experience. Learning online was positive in my mind, for reasons such as:
less gas
no commute
hop in class anywhere/anytime
feeling ugly, face cam off
comfy clothes
asynchronous
don’t have to waste an hour driving there and back
etc.
As an older student, having the ‘college experience’ wasn’t important to me. Making the appropriate investment to go to school, I wanted to be walking out with something in return, yet what I received was much more.
What I felt in 2020 was one of the lowest I’ve ever felt, and when I didn’t have an answer to the things I was losing, I looked to school. Surviving 2 years, I worked hard to create a strong portfolio, and managed to graduate with high-caliber classmates pushing each other to be the best. The diploma I received came with great experience, I can present to any employer. Along with confidence in my capabilities, knowledge, and creative eye. I’m not sure where all this will take me, but what I can share is the journey I’m on now.
Coming from school, most of the photography is meticulous and detail oriented. The shooting sessions were slow and usually in-studio, where the end product was one final image, usually commercial. Since then, I’ve been employed in a completely different field. One that's fast-paced, involves many final images, and revolves around ‘the moment’ with fundamentals. Of course, this field is wedding photography. And with such a drastic change, I’m sure you can imagine I have a lot to say. So with that topic in mind, I hope you’ll be here for the next blog post! :)