Seattle : August 2003

Well, I’ll be a silly hopeful photography student! My local community college allowed me to register for a course without informing me of some important restrictions. Like the fact that the head of the photography department thinks manual cameras are the only way to take a good picture, so my Nikon N65 just won’t cut it. A line in the course requirements that reads: Manual SLR camera required would have been helpful.

After sitting through two solid hours of the department head/instructor’s self-important lecture (“I used to be a hippie so I don’t believe in paper towels in my lab. Every time I look at one I see a tree.” So which is worse…paper towels, which eventually break down, or nasty photography chemicals that go right into the water supply?), I discovered that I can’t take the class because I can’t adjust the ISO setting on my camera.

There was definitely some steam coming out of my ears at that point. Yet I’m refreshingly happy to drop this course since I’m avoiding Mr. “I was buds with Ansel Adams.” I really don’t think I could take 14 weeks of the guy who’s solely responsible for instituting the campus-wide ban on cellphones in the classroom.