How about some more ... ed-ja-macation

[DWessel]

So last semester's independent study on creating digital negatives for use in analog photographic printing went pretty well. Didn't quite get to using the technique in combination with alternative processes like cyanotype, Vandyke Brown or platinum/palladium. But I'll probably start that on my own some time soon. (Still clearing brush at the new house to make the insurance company happy.)

Next semester it is large format photography. This is using a 4x5 view camera. Sounds like there will be flexibility in the class to possibly use some digital techniques as well. Don't think they have digital backs for their 4x5's though. After all, it is the local community college. However, the interim head of the department at Grossmont College gave me a tour of their facilities. They were very impressive and extremely well thought out. I look forward to the fall.

[DonSchap]

Next semester it is large format photography. This is using a 4x5 view camera. Sounds like there will be flexibility in the class to possibly use some digital techniques as well. Don't think they have digital backs for their 4x5's though. After all, it is the local community college. However, the interim head of the department at Grossmont College gave me a tour of their facilities. They were very impressive and extremely well thought out. I look forward to the fall.

I am finding, in review, that the local community college was far more interested in its photography program (not even a degree'd one) than the four-year Fine Arts School was. I am speaking as a skeptical student only and not a professor of art, but I am relatively certain that the "powers-that-be" simply are not as concerned with the quality and content of education than they are the revenue it represents. Personally, I find that attitude abhorrent and rather typical of these larger, for-profit institutions. I have, time and again, tried to address this problem with various members of the academic and professional support staff, at the institution I am attending, and have been subsequently told that they simply are not interested in investing the time or resource$ into improving the specific aspects of "real" and competent digital photography. If it does not originate from the corporate structure, the idea or remedy simply does not exist.

A lot of good instructors have realized this little shortfall and have left the school, because they are not accepting this corporate balderdash and false premise. I figure that's pretty committed to a better program and I respect that kind of bravery, especially in this rather extreme hiring cycle. Others who insist that the students preform a "real" level of photographic projects have been relegated to menial teaching capacities because of their commitment to a better "educational product," in a time where competition and excellence are on the decline. This "everybody's a winner!" progressive mindset is simply whittling done the base to mediocrity. It is embarrassing and I will not put my stamp of approval on it.

[DWessel]

I am finding, in review, that the local community college was far more interested in its photography program (not even a degree'd one) than the four-year Fine Arts School was. I am speaking as a skeptical student only and not a professor of art, but I am relatively certain that the "powers-that-be" simply are not as concerned with the quality and content of education than they are the revenue it represents. Personally, I find that attitude abhorrent and rather typical of these larger, for-profit institutions. ...
A lot of good instructors have realized this little shortfall and have left the school, because they are not accepting this corporate balderdash and false premise. I figure that's pretty committed to a better program and I respect that kind of bravery, especially in this rather extreme hiring cycle. Others who insist that the students preform a "real" level of photographic projects have been relegated to menial teaching capacities because of their commitment to a better "educational product," in a time where competition and excellence are on the decline. This "everybody's a winner!" progressive mindset is simply whittling done the base to mediocrity. It is embarrassing and I will not put my stamp of approval on it.

I think that most community college instructors are there because they love the subject matter and they love teaching. If they were in it for the $$$, they would be elsewhere.

As for for-profit schools, I think it is a mixed bag. There are certainly some institutions that operate for the profit and not really the student's education. I personally went to a for-profit law school and found the school cared about education as did the teachers who were very accessable.

By comparison, my undergrad was at the University of California at San Diego. The faculty was full of top notch, head of their field researchers. But when it came to teaching students, a lot of them were bad. Not because they didn't know their stuff, which they clearly did. They either didn't really care to be teaching (they'd rather be in their lab) or they were so far advanced in their field, they had a hard time relating to students who were learing something new. That said, I still had some really great professors who loved teaching, were good at it, and were accessible. My only regret is that I was still young and did not fully appreciate some of the opportunities presented to me by these great teachers.

[Peekayoh]

We talked about backup a couple of pages back
It's a bit late but I still thought I would share my solution with you.



This is a StarTech eSATA dual drive enclosure ( S352U2RER )
I have 2x 2TB drives in a mirrored array. and you can just slide out for sticking in a fireproof safe.

[DonSchap]

Thanks for sharing that, Peter. Very smart and solid solution to data loss and recovery.

On almost a weekly basis we get some student or another complaining of data loss and their poor planning for it. I mean, admittedly, we all occasionally get caught with our "data pants" at half-mast. That's the nature of the medium. The idea is to try and mitigate against it and keep that data safe, or at the very least, recoverable. Try as we might, low-tech solutions rarely allow for quantity duplication, high-tech ones allow for mass duplication, but make for questionable presentation. Best to have both, I would surmise. Then again, space requirements and environmental considerations can be problematic for low-tech solution. Museums fight with this on a continual basis.

So what to do? Live with it, for most part, and hope for the best, I would presume. How about producing the low-tech image when needed and abandoning the constant presentation level? Sounds annoying presumptuous that you will have immediate, quality-level printing capabilities, doesn't it? Is it just me, or does anyone else find this conundrum a challenge?

[Peekayoh]

Don, you lost me a bit there.
Are you meaning keeping and storing different res files?

[DonSchap]

Low-tech is actual printed paper, where it requires no power to see what you have, other than natural light.

High-tech would be anything that would require a power source of some type to present the image for review or copy.

Does that clear it up?

[kgosden]

A little off topic, but is that old school calculator next to the RAID a part of the solution? I am hpoing you don't feel the need to manually verify file checksums with it

[Rooz]

We talked about backup a couple of pages back
It's a bit late but I still thought I would share my solution with you.


This is a StarTech eSATA dual drive enclosure ( S352U2RER )
I have 2x 2TB drives in a mirrored array. and you can just slide out for sticking in a fireproof safe.

yeah i use QNAP which is quite similar. i love it, never looked back after kiwi recommended it to me a few months ago. it sits in the garage unseen, unheard and just works. of equal relevance is the type of backup software.

[DonSchap]

I found the ioSafe 2GB unit for $233 and decided to go that route for the time being. Admittedly, it is just one drive, but it will make a safe tertiary drive, accessed only once a week. I just cannot dump a lot of change in more of the system, until I can get the business launched.

These are some very strange times, indeed, in this country. You do not know which politician to blame, as they are all in it for something other than the benefit of the country. We get what we vote for... and we have chosen poorly - past & present.

Anyway... school has begun and I am hunting for a couple of female models to compliment the quarter, nicely.