This is my last semester at Slippery Rock University, and I'm actually taking two photo classes (digital imaging and art photography). The digital imaging class is meant for beginners, and is a nice technical review for advanced/intermediate photographers. The art photography class is wonderful, but contains people who just started into photo as well as people who've been around it for quite a while (like me).

Both of these classes share a common peer: newbs. "Newbs" are the type of people who come from many different realms of beginner attitudes.

1. "Nature Newb": The Nature Newb is the arrogant prick who usually believes that "nature is the only art", the guy/girl who spends a whole weekend at a local nature reserve documenting all of the flowers and neat looking rocks within walking distance of the parking lot for said natural area. Their photos are almost always composed dead center, with little thought towards spacial separation and composition. The good side of this newb is the fact that he/she has strong ambition, and has enough of an open mind to, at least, heed advice given in critique.

2. "I like it straight from the camera" newb: This person is of the impression that photographs that come straight from the camera are fine without post processing. Some of these newbs have poor to decent understanding of how cameras work, while almost all of them have no appreciation for darkroom work, which REQUIRES post-processing. Most of them use digital cameras and are lazy for not wanting to edit the photographs.

3. "I have no freakin' clue how to use this thing, but I love taking pictures!" newb: This person isn't harmful at all, but tends to rely way too much on automatic functionality of the camera system they possess. They're easy to spot, as they come in with the camera around their neck with the mode selector on full auto, programmable, or one of various "scene" modes. Many of them obtain decent results, yet they treat photography like that of a whimsical snapshot. Halfway between the nature guy and the "straight from the camera" guy, this person has a stereotypical approach to photography, assuming that "capturing the moment" is far more important than being technically adept.

4. "The Kodak/HP/Gateway Kid" newb: This person is the one who somehow got sold on buying a piece of shit. Not only are they they ultimate combination of the aforementioned, they are also fanboys/fangirls of the garbage camera that they possess (much like a person who uses a Mac). They swear up and down that their beginner level Kodak/HP/Gateway camera is the most amazing thing ever made for photographers, until it breaks.

5. "The Old Guy" newb: This is usually one of those really cool, generally nice kind of guys who has some if not a lot of technical experience, but for some odd reason, he can't apply that technical level to the digital realm of photography. He has usually wasted tons of money on the best and latest equipment, but couldn't use google if his life depended on it. He relies on his peers for technical knowledge, but has no clue how to ask the right questions to get the answer he wants. He should've just stuck with film.

6. "The film/digital only" newb: This person has religious devotion to either of the two mediums, and has no appreciation for the opposing medium. They believe that their format of photography is the only type of photography. They both are technically/aesthetically sound in their respective fields, but their lack of respect for the opposing medium leaves them looking like an arrogant, close-minded tool.

7. "The nerd" newb: All in all, this guy is pretty cool, but he knows way too much about everything except art. They can operate any camera, tell you exactly what it is and how it works, and while they have some fun and interesting approaches based on their technical knowledge, they have no clue how to compose an image or adjust tones properly.

8. "The high contrast/solarizing/sepia tone ALWAYS" newb: This newb is just plain lazy. He/she may be technically adept and have a good eye/sense of composition, but they boost the contrast WAY too high, solarize everything, or put photoshop filters on photographs to avoid showing any amount of technical understanding. Much like the "straight from the camera" person, this person is just as prone to pulling it straight off of the camera or doing in camera editing.

Cheers to another year of newbs!

Later!