I think in order to be a good teacher, it’s important to be a constant learner. I’ve taught quite a few classes on film processing now and my teaching process has become a welled honed routine. I open with the chemistry of film, follow with the chemistry of developing and end with the practical component of spooling, mixing chemistry and developing. It’s a pretty straightforward class that enables the pupil to gain a level of control over the photographic process that they previously didn’t have. The repetition has also given me much control over the content, perhaps to the extent where some of it becomes repetitive and bland to me…
One thing that never gets dry is the diversity of my students. Their varied interests, backgrounds, professions et al. enrich them with different strains of curiosity. What’s more, is the varied modes of expressing this curiosity. Some students really smash you with questions, whilst some remain silent, yet answer all questions that you pose on them. This dichotomy is fiercely satisfying.
Another aspect that’s satisfying is learning from my students. Admittedly, I’m not particularly skilled in technology, especially smartphones. With that said, one of my students Chris (and now an intern at RD) showed me a cool trick to use your camera phone as a positive loupe!
In order to do this you must first have a smart phone. Most people have an iPhone so I’ll go through how to do it on that.
First open your phones settings and find and enter the accessibility sub menu then find display accomodations then toggle invert!
If you use smart invert it increases your IQ by 4.20% – FACT.
After this open your camera and voila – you have a super cool inverted loupe! The only downside is that if you take a photo it will not be inverted (as the screen is only inverted, not the camera). In order to invert the actual image when your phone is in normal mode you’ll have to invert the image in an editor!
Keep shooting film and see you next time!
BJ