Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Day 3! Whoohoo. Most of us still exist in a non-slap-happy state.

So far this week we have covered the basics of photography and worked on implementing what we have learned into the pictures we take. It has been great to learn to think, as we take pictures, of these rules and techniques that will make a good picture into an excellent one. But today, we got a little more specific and studied portraiture. This was great for me, because I have never really done anything like that before: I learned a lot. One of the amazingly great things about these IPS courses is that you get to have real live professional photographers critique your work and help you improve personally, as opposed to just helping the group in general.

The greatest thing for me so far this week has been to see God at work in my life. When I arrived at this course, I was into photography for myself”for my own personal gain. However, after talking to some fellow students and hearing some of the first-class teaching here, I realized that God has given me a gift in photography, He has given me the equipment to do it, He has allowed me to come to this incredible course, and He has done if for a purpose. If I'm keeping what He has given me to myself, I'm a pretty useless person to Him. In reality, none of these blessings are mine anyway. I need to be yielded to Him. He needs to be in control of my camera, my abilities, and my future, so that my work will bring glory to Him and communicate His principles to the world. I can't wait to find out more of what God has in store for me!

I still have a lot to learn about photography and a long way to go, but you have to start somewhere – and this is one awesome place to do it.

Soli Deo gloria

—Prizewinning Photography Student Michael Morgan