The end of summer session is approaching and I’m feeling a bit OOF! For those of you who don’t know what OOF means – it is OUT OF FOCUS! I’ve unfortunately had the term applied to many of my images this past year. I’ve often applied it myself with an addition F at the beginning. (This program has “enriched” my vocabulary more than I care to admit.) We are to decide which concentration we will pursue in the fall by summer’s end and I am struggling with the decision.

My options are Photojournalism, Portrait Studio Management, or Commercial Photography. Each has its own appeal and I actually enjoy parts of each, based on my exposure so far. I came to the program thinking photojournalism would be my choice since it involves digging deep and finding people’s stories, it is out and about and speaks to my sense of adventure and meeting new people. But then so does portrait and even commercial. Each just takes a different perspective on the stories, people and the adventures. I’m completely lost as to what to choose. It is almost as if I’m afraid I will miss something no matter what I choose. Can I do all three?

My quandary reminded me of our selective focus assignment from the spring. We used a lens baby, which is a super cool bendable lens, to focus on one part of a scene while blurring the rest of it. I had a blast using it and was wandering all over on several occasions focusing (sometimes unsuccessfully) on all sorts of objects and blurring out their surroundings. My final products reminded me of the Impressionist paintings of Monet, which I do truly love. I do hope to successfully figure out which part of photography I need to focus on in the fall and which parts to let blur off to the edges for a time.

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