EPKPhoto's Tidbits

Thus ends an era…I just got out of what is likely my last class at RIT. It has been a great run, and so many cool things lie ahead. Here's to hoping for a fulfilling career and long life ahead!

On Tuesday, February 3rd, I led a session on how to "Take Great Product Photos" in the Idea Factory at RIT.  The workshop was part of an Innovation Session — a series of sessions and workshops organized by one of my classes, Social Networks in Action.  The session went pretty well, and I got to meet several interesting entrepreneurs from the Rochester community.  My advice to the attendees mainly focused on composition and lighting techniques to easily improve their product photos.  Check out some photos and comments about the event on our class blog!

This past quarter, I worked with a group of students to organize the annual RIT School of Photo Arts and Sciences Holiday Auction.  I was one of three leaders in the group that solicited for donations, organized volunteers, and conducted the event.  It ended up being a great success and brought in around $7400 to be split among two student organizations and a local charity, the Rochester Community Darkroom.  RIT's college newspaper, Reporter, ran an article about the event.  I was quoted in it, so be sure to give the article a read.

What better way to celebrate the snow that was falling today in Rochester than by posting some photos of nice and sunny San Antonio?  That's what I'm doing, so go check out the photos I took while travelling to this year's NCHC conference in San Antonio.  None of the photos are of the actual conference, but we did get a very good response from our presentations.  The lot of us presented on aspects of RIT's Honors Program including orientation, colloquium, communications strategy, and communications tools and technology.

I've been in San Antonio for the past day and a half at this year's NCHC conference. I'm presenting with the RIT Honors Program. We haven't seen much of the city other than the Riverwalk and the Alamo, but from what I've heard, that's all that matters. We're traveling back to frigid Rochester tonight, so I have to go enjoy this 80 degree weather some more! Attached is a photo from our hotel room.

Yet another year at RIT has come to an end.  After an adventurous time storing furniture in Rochester and loading my car to its brim, my Dad and I are on our way back home to Virginia.  Overall, my third year at RIT was an excellent one.  Now that summer is about to begin, I am ramping up for a 10 week experience working for the FBI.  In about a week, I will be moving again to Alexandria, VA.  From there I will be able to commute to FBI headquarters in DC and the FBI Laboratory in Quantico.  I am truly looking forward to this experience working for another goverment agency, which may eventually turn into a career.

I also have quite a few personal projects planned for the summer.  I want to make a couple of my web development projects publicly accessible, do some more remote work for NASA and the RIT Honors Program, experiment with all sorts of things on my Linux servers, and better develop my photo printing skills and choice of inkjet papers.

If you had not guessed, I returned safely from my 10 day spring break leadership trip to four cities in Europe.  I have been editing my photos from the trip as I have had the chance.  Sorry for the delay, but to say the least I've had a lot going on lately ;-).  As I finish them, I am posting the photos in this gallery: CIAS Honors in Europe.  Right now, the first 2 days worth are there for your viewing pleasure.  Eventually, I hope to leverage the functionality of my hand-coded gallery system to include tags or descriptions under most of the images to give you an idea of what we saw.  The trip was amazing, so keep checking back for new photos to be added!

At the request of members of the RIT Honors Publicity Committee, I put together a little write-up about myself a few days ago.  I had enough fun constructing the article that I'm posting it here for others to read.  It is a nice exercise to write about yourself every now and then.  Enjoy:

So there's this guy named Eric P. Kerby.  Some of you know him as that third year honors student who is a VP on council and makes the honors website tick.  A few more of you will know him as that CIAS photo tech student with a camera at honors events.  So for those of you who want to know more about this tall, red-haired chap, read on.

Eric is one of those nutty art students who studies Imaging and Photographic Technology and somehow ends up with a Bachelor of Science degree.  In his freshman year at RIT, he began working for ITS to support Macs on campus.  He still holds this job and has a knack at making an ailing Mac feel top notch.  Last summer he went down south to Hampton, Virginia to be close to home and work at NASA Langley Research Center.  Hundreds of photos and a dynamic website later, he returned to RIT to mentor incoming freshmen.  In his spare time, Kerby tends to stay busy with way too much web programming.  He loves to surround himself with technology that he uses in innovative ways.  Somewhere in there he finds time to keep his various Linux servers running at their best, especially the one that drives his website, epkphoto.com.  These days you can often find him in his Perkins apartment following the latest environmental issues (you should read his senior high school speech lambasting corn-based ethanol) and listening to podcasts and country music.

Last night I posted 42 of the photos I took at this year's Honors Ski Trip.  Every year, the RIT Honors Activities Committee plans a day trip to the Bristol Mountain Ski Resort.  Thankfully I came back unscathed despite my somewhat comical trips down a couple of the runs at Bristol.  I only took photos for a few minutes on the trip.  The rest of the time I was skiing or trying (ie., failing) to capture some decent video.  I continue to have an appreciation for skilled videographers as I stick to the art of still photography.  Enjoy the photos!

Another gallery on the site: photos from National Portfolio Day 2007 at RIT. This past Saturday a group of us CIAS Honors students sold concessions at the event that garners hundreds of visitors from high schools in the western New York for portfolio reviews. Our honors group was selling food, drinks, and candy to raise money for a trip to several cities in Europe this coming spring. We plan on visiting any alumni we can and studying culture and architecture in Prague, Krakow, and Budapest. In the meantime, it's exam week here at RIT. In just a few more days I'll be heading home for the Fall/Thanksgiving break. It has been a busy quarter, and I have plenty planned for the break…so not much will change 🙂