the vortex of awesome
Sunday, August 7th, 2011Last year after Food and Light 2010 ended, my exact words were, “I’m never doing this again.”
Less than six months later, I was emailing with Diane about schedules and who our fourth team member should be. Perhaps I’m addicted to running events, but I don’t think that’s the case. What I am addicted to is running events with a great team. That’s really important to me because if I’m putting everything I’ve got into a workshop, it makes all the difference when the rest of the team is doing the same. It’s exhilarating to work with people who have great attention to detail, have deep and broad knowledge and the skills to communicate it, care most about the students and their education, are wholly without ego, and are genuinely kind and caring individuals. This year’s Food and Light workshop was exhausting, but gratifyingly so because my team was pretty much the best you could ever hope for and then some.
dream team at frasca for dream dinner: todd, diane, and matt
Maybe I feel strongly about teaching because of my experiences in academia. The most popular professors were the ones who “entertained” students, but those were rarely the professors from whom we learned much. Jeremy (a professor himself, and a damn fine teacher) calls the entertainers “candy” because they make you feel good about yourself without actually having taught anything. We’re not about candy here, we’re about something heartier and healthier: true learning. True learning requires hard work, but hard work can be fun and more importantly it can be rewarding in a way that candy can never be. True learning is empowering and it gives a person the confidence to continue to learn and improve beyond the classroom or workshop.
A good instructor is a gift (as are good friends). Just look at these gifts!
matt presents on lighting
todd works one-on-one with an attendee
diane shows what she captured to a group
There’s the other half of the equation, and that is the student. The student cannot be a passive blob hoping to absorb knowledge and skills through sound and light alone. Regurgitation is not learning. Merely being present is not learning. We engaged our participants. We tried to make concepts accessible through tangible examples they could relate to. We crammed SO MUCH information into two days and yet most of our attendees drank it up and eagerly asked for more. This group was incredible. They asked questions when they didn’t understand. They opened themselves up in front of complete strangers to expose what they didn’t know and committed to growing as photographers, as artists, as people. That takes courage, dedication. Several have said they felt vulnerable and yet they were all so encouraging to one another. They worked hard, really hard. But they still found time to laugh, make friends, and enjoy themselves.
Most of all they were delightful, fun, and genuinely warm people.
everyone is paying attention to matt’s presentation
gathering around diane’s styling demo
manisha and diane tackle indian lentils and beans
**Jump for more butter**
