Ahhhh, summer camp, when the freedom of each day stretches out into eternity. Summer camp is its own world of possibility, excitement, and sunscreen.

This second week of camp has seen a shift of emphasis; I spend less time demonstrating and more time on individual feedback and instruction. Most my energy gets channeled into coordinating activities and making sure both the physical machines in the classroom and the metaphorical classroom-machine are well-oiled. I want my kids to produce work they take pride in.

Here you can see us hard at work in the darkroom, developing film diligently, with our gloves on for safety.

Here, two students of mine are drying cyanotype emulsion in preparation for making a print in the UV light.

Students are hard at work in the digital lab, playing with Photoshop and Bridge. It's tough to get your head around new techniques in the darkroom and in such a complicated image editing program. They're doing remarkably well.

And this is one of my most enthusiastic film students. I've nicknamed him "rabid shutterbug." He goes through film almost as fast as I did in college.

Next week, I'll post some of my kids' work on their "themes," which range from topics such as "hard colors" and "self-portrait" to "shoes" and "fire". These are self-directed projects where kids will put together a series of images on their selected theme, eventually putting them on display in a group show next Thursday!

My hats are off to my students.