Digital Photography - Durham College

Mainly you have to be a people person, you
have to be able to make people comfortable, you have to be able to put yourself out there
to get the results that you want. And it's very much the same with photography:
you have to be able to make your subject comfortable in front of the camera, maybe get them out
of their comfort zone. You have to be able to contact people, be
able to write releases, to be able to organize all of your photo shoot. I was mainly a concert photographer in Toronto;
I thought that was going to be my life goal.

Coming into this year, I realized, well no,
that's not really what I want to be doing any more. I want to be doing portraits. I want to be
doing fashion editorials. When I first got my schedule for courses,
I was a little shocked, I got a lighting course, I thought that would be not as interesting
as the photography class, but to my surprise, I found the lighting class to be one of the
most fun and intreesting classes to take.

All the assignments were a blast. It's just a great environment to be in. And the faculty are really helpful. The faculty want you to succeed.

My professors and the assignments they were
giving us really allowed me to push myself, and some of my teachers actually immersed
me. I found my eyes watering when looking at some
of the work they were doing and I wanted to be at their level. I would just say to a student who's coming
to the digital photography program at Durham College, to really take advantage of the people
in your program, you classmates, those are going to be your network when you leave, those
are going to be the people, you keep in contact with if you rent out a studio space. If you're having problems, you borrow each
other's equipment, you help each other out.

Take advantage of your professors with their
experience, ask them questions, ask them if they need second shooters, ask if they need
help on projects. They know where you're coming from, and you
need that experience. Some studios aren't going to let you in the
door without that experience. So if you can take advantage of all the facets
that the College has, the studio time Even if you don't have an assignment, go in
and shoot with your friends, just play around with the lights.

It'll really benefit you and help you out. Durham College has helped me succeed greater
than I expected. I was really nervous about coming to college;
after the first two weeks, I fell in love with the school. It's a great atmosphere here, and it really
promotes success.

The teachers are great, and they are offering
help all the time. No-one wants to see you fail here, and so
everyone wants to help you succeed. Your classmates are going to be your best
models and your best friends during the year, because you're going to have to use them for
so many things. It's just like a great environment to be in..