Camosun Bound

A few weeks ago, my friend Dave Wallace, of Innovate Imageworks and recent Creating a Hit: 8 Hour Challenge recognition, invited fellow photographer Jon-Mark Wiltshire and I to speak at Camosun College’s Applied Communication Program. This 2-year program has a special place in my heart; I started the program in September 2007, got engaged in December 2007, got married in August 2008 (between the program’s 1st and 2nd year, during my summer internship at Village 900), and graduated from the program in April 2009!

When I graduated from high school, I took a step back from education for couple of years to figure out what I wanted to do with my life; during that time away from school, I heard about the Applied Communication Program, sent in my application, and spent just over a year on the program’s waiting before starting classes. It was a fabulous experience, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an education that will let them try their hand at several areas of media and communications! As a media generalist program, the courses include radio, video, writing, graphic design, and photography. It was during my last semester of this program that I really decided to pursue photography as my major project for graduation; I scheduled a ton of photography sessions with my friends and family and immersed myself with as many online courses as I could to learn the ins and outs of Adobe Photoshop. Since then, my life has been a great adventure of meeting wonderful people and photographing their love, weddings, and families!

Nearly two years, a few conversations, and some last-minute planning later, last Thursday finally came and I found myself back in Seminar class—only this time, I wasn’t somewhere amongst the forty-some-odd students, filling out a speaker evaluation form—I was one of the speakers! I really enjoyed the questions that came up and the opportunity to share how my business started (and how it has grown!), what equipment I photograph with, how I use social media in relation to my small business, and useful tips for aspiring photographers looking to gain experience as an assistant or second photographer.

Thanks again to Dave Wallace for inviting me to be a speaker, to Jon-Mark Wiltshire for being a great co-speaker, and to ACP Classes 38 & 39 for listening (and extra thanks to those of you who’ve already connected with me on Twitter)!

Photo credit for the above photo: Jon-Mark Wiltshire

True to ACP Seminar form, speakers are given an ACP mug with a logo designed by one of the students currently taking the program. I’m not sure who designed this one (if you know, please send me a note so I can give credit), but I’m happy to see it join my mug shelf! Thank you!