Hallmark Institute Rocks!

So we are back in the OC! What a wild and crazy trip March ended up being.

Here is an image of us with the students at Hallmark Institute of Photography. What a facility! When I was at Hallmark, we had about 90 students, did all retouching with brushes and paint, spent all of our time in a 20 station darkroom, and we had one computer with Photoshop 1.5 that the instructors would pull out at the Open House to impress our parents...now there is a brand new facility which has a computer lab of about 250 stations!!!

The work that the students create is just amazing! And some of the students we met just SHINE! Not to mention the drive to the school on an early March morning is the most beautiful experience...I miss New England on a snow morning!!!...although Bleu, as the California driver...was not happy seeing the thermometer hit 32 Degrees Freezing as we drove on wet backroads... :)

Little known facts about my experience at HIP.... I graduated with Joe Chen of Chicago. He and I got the highest awards with our portfolio. His was all styled after Monte Zuckers work (who?.. :) . I also graduated with Rio Martinez, Anne Duffy, and Tammiann Trudel...all who I have lost touch with...(if you are reading this, give me a call!)

We were the first class in Building 2, which was the back part of the building that Hallmark Imaging is out of....I lived in an apartment on High Street in Greenfield Mass. It was near the Poet's Seat Tower...I shot with a Bronica Medium Format Camera...I met Arnold Newman and Robert Farber at the 20th anniversary celebration. I also met Skip Cohen, President of WPPI. He was at that time the president of Hasselblad. What a nice guy he was, he helped me get a job with Clay Blackmore and Monte Zucker even though I was a Bronican... (I purchased a Hasselblad as soon as I started working with Clay!)