Sadly, breakfast was served a little bit later this morning on account of our students needing to get their bags packed and get checked out before class this morning.  Our advanced workshops go by so quickly!  We just get reconnected, everyone loosens up, and we have to wrap up!  It’s such a bummer that we have just one more long day ahead of us with these guys.

Today was spent almost entirely in the classroom working on our group stories.  While in the beginning workshop, our strategy is primarily focused on teaching students photography skills and applying those on location; in the advanced workshop, we shift our attention toward the greater workflow (shoot, edit, and deliver) and the concepts of visual storytelling.

We spend a good bit of time going over Lightroom: how to develop images, create slideshows, and deliver files.  Sounds awesome, I know.  What it means is that, by the time we go, our students should be able not only to create powerful photographs, but also understand how to use those images to tell nuanced stories, and be able to manage an assignment from concept to delivery.  Today we put that into practice.

The objective for our students today was to create a visual story, using all they’ve learned and to output a slideshow with titles/text, music, and visuals.  As groups, they reviewed their images and culled all of their photos in aggregate down from about 1000 images to just 30. The edit took them a couple of hours and then we broke for lunch.  After lunch, in our cozy little classroom, students clustered around their computers each group frantically piecing together the elements of their stories.  As the afternoon wore on and the pressure mounted the air got heavier and the room felt smaller until, at the bell, the last group started the export of their slideshow!  It was like a scene from a hacker movie!

We wrapped our day with some long goodbyes and a piece of cake.  We’ve had a great couple of days shoring up details of the continuing education plan here and there are some exciting things happening.  I’ll let Fred give you those details.  But, we feel good about leaving these guys in the hands of our local partners here and know that they’ll be doing some pretty amazing things in the coming year.  To celebrate, and ease the sadness a bit, our teaching team headed to a legendary local restaurant; El Rey del Cabrita.  If you ever find yourself in Monterrey and fancy some roasted goat, this is definitely the place!