When I was in my senior year in college I took photography as a free elective. It required us to take pictures with a manual camera and learn how to use the darkroom and develop our pictures ourselves. The culminating event was an exhibit where the judges would award the best in 10 categories: architecture, nature, action, ensemble, among some of them. Out of that 10, I got 4.
The funny thing is, I never really learned how to use the black box. The lab technician always did my films for me. I also usually took pictures using the wrong degree of lighting so I’d do the developing in a completely different way from what was taught. And even if I hardly did things by the book, the pictures turned out pretty ok :)
I wish I could do photography again, this learning everything and appreciating every moment of it. Maybe there are some classes in UP that I can take. Who knows?


