The dreaded DEADLINE!

Yes you have guessed it! It is indeed that time again when an application form is due. I have in my almost three years at Rhodes University filled in more application forms for one course than is needed to purchase a gun or adopt a baby!! Seriously though these forms are not good for my stress levels. Just take a look at Hammy here.....I know exactly how he feels. It is the way I look and feel after a portfolio deadline or when a application is due.

I have just handed in my application form for my Journalism and Media Studies 4 course specialising in photojourn so keep your fingers crossed for me.

National Arts Festival in Grahamstown

Those of you that read my blog when I do publish will know that I live in Grahamstown and attend Rhodes University. But one of the best things about Grahamstown is that it is home to the National Arts Festival! which means that every June/July Grahamstown is over taken by the arts of SA and even some international shows. And wait it gets better.......as a journalism student at Rhodes University I get the chance to work for CUEPIX a photo agency that runs during the festival and takes photos of all the shows that are on the festival programme!! Which is AMAZING! I worked for a sum total of 10 days that felt like months as my days were jam packed heading from show to show! I photographed over 32 shows!!! And managed to catch a cold but I truly had a fantastic time and am so grateful to have been afforded the opportunity to work during festival.
Not only did I get a press pass that got me into shows for free but I got to meet so many cool people like musicians, actors, directors, artists!

So watch this space as I will soon be putting up some of my photos and writing a bit about the shows that I attended.

Up early ......what to do?

Here are some more of my early morning 'what to do when you are waiting around for people to arrive'. I really like them as they have much more colour than I saw in the morning, and I didn't even have to photoshop them. I like them just the way they are :) What do you all think?

Rhodes University in the morning

So the other morning I set off all determined to meet the Photosoc (Photography Society) for sunrise photography and guess what no one showed up!!!! hahahahaha! So I got out of bed and waited in the dark for 40 min and no one turned up! oh well at least I got some cool shots! You live you learn hey :)

Classy Colours Rocks!!!!

In my last post I mentioned the radio show that I am involved in as part of my radio course in journalism. Well I'm in the Classy Colours team and we ROCK! here is our marketing poster which will be put up all over campus on Monday!
Anyone out there listen to RMR? If you do make sure that you tune in for your show on Friday 5 June at 9:00!!!!! Thanks to the team Sizwe, Sarah, Kate, Jane, Kirstin and Simnie for all their hard work and a great posters!!

The Daddy's Rich Kids show is another one of the second year journ shows that a good friend of mine is doing. I helped them with their poster by taking the photo's, which if I might add came out great as well!

Elections 2009

Rhodes students up before 7am on a public holiday now that is not something that you see everyday! But as most of you well know today is no ordinary day.... it is ELECTION DAY 2009.
Voters all around South Africa will today exercise their democratic right to place an X next to the party of their choice.
So at 6:30 this morning I dragged my lazy bum out from under the warm covers and headed down to the Rhodes Drama Department to vote. As it turns out I was not the only student who had the same idea about voting early as there was already a sizable queue! The queue was buzzing with the chatter of friends and one keen student even brought along his guitar to keep boredom at bay. After waiting almost an hour and a half I finally put an X in the appropriate box and walked out feeling like one of the people that make our country democractic. It felt good!
And to put the cherry on the top I was informed by a police officer that Wimpy is giving all voters a free cup of coffee!!!! WOW now that is what I'm talking about!!! Students LOVE free stuff! So off my friends and I went to Wimpy to fulfill our daily caffine requirement free of charge.
Now this is what I call a good day!

Police keep a watchful eye over the queue of voters outside the Rhodes Drama Department voting station. Picture by: TARRYN LIDDELL

The atmosphere was festive as Rhodes students queued to place their votes in Grahamstown. Picture by: TARRYN LIDDELL

Inspiration amidst the nervousness

A deep sigh of relief and I can literally feel the weight on my shoulders lessen. My JMS2 application has been handed in and I have officially finished my last essay of the year (not including exams of course). It would seem as if things are coming to close, which is brilliant in a way and not so brilliant in another. Although the stress of getting my JMS2 application done is now over the nervousness of whether I will get accepted has begun. This nervousness is made even worse when I think that I still need to write my final Journalism and Media Studies exam on the 12th November and wait until late December to early January to hear if I made it. The silver lining of the situation otherwise known as the brilliant side is that JMS1 is practically over and I am one step closer to getting to photojournalism. I got so excited on Monday after I handed in my application and took a walk around the Journalism and Media Studies building as it is filled with work by old and current journalism students. “This is what I will be doing in a few years time” I thought. The whole building inspires with its colourful décor and interactive layout. When I saw the T.V and radio studio I just wanted to go and play around. Then there are of course all of the labs, one for design, for radio, for writing and who could forget the photo lab. I saw this last door and just stared. You need an initialised student card to be able to get into the lab so I could not go in and check it out even though I was dying to. But at least as I left the Journalism building I was filled with hope and more determination than before. Now it’s just a matter of keeping my head down until the exam and then waiting…

Light Painting

One of the most fun things that I have learnt to do with my camera since starting my self-study of photography has been light painting. Most people are unfamiliar with this technique but it has been by far one of the most interactive and fun techniques I have learnt. The setting for light painting can be anywhere as long as it is dark as you either need to take the shots at night outside or in a dark room. Then you need a light source, which can be anything ranging from a torch to a candle. Now if you have a camera like I do that didn’t exactly come off the ark but it is also not a NASA creation then you will probably require someone to help you. You will also need a tripod in order to reduce camera shake as you will need to keep the shutter of your camera open for as long as possible. My friend and I went to the fountain here at Rhodes University as we thought it would be a cool setting and dark enough to take the shot. I set up the tripod, set the mode onto ‘bulb’ under the manual mode and we were all set. My loyal and helpful friend who gave of her precious time to venture out into the cold with me was the light painter. In other words she was the one that stood in front of the camera and wrote in the sky with the torch when I said ‘go’. The trick we found was to move quickly and point the light towards the camera and not on the ground as the camera shutter does not stay open long and it needs to pick up the light. Simple huh? Which is why it was so much fun! The results look awesome and it is so easy to do. I recommend that you all give it a try.
Happy shooting!

The Rat Race

To have your future hang in the balance of a motivational letter...how would you feel?

Well this is the situation that I currently find myself in as I am applying for a place in Journalism and Media Studies 2 (JMS2). With the application due tomorrow my nerves are fried, my fingernails nonexistent and my hair starting to grey! Journalism was the biggest reason that I came to study at Rhodes University. I gave up a career in London to come back to South Africa and take a chance on my dream of becoming a photojournalist. Failure to get into JMS2 is therefore not an option, but unfortunately that does not stop the debilitating feeling of nervousness that I am experiencing. I’m staring at a blank screen wondering how you translate your feelings into golden words that will completely win over the selection committee. I wish there was a secret password or a magic wand that I could wave to ensure that I get though. It is so strange how all my friends that do not take journalism think that I am being overly dramatic and have nothing to worry about. My grades are good; I have all the necessary things like my shadow week report etc and I have participated in a student newspaper so why would I not get in. They don’t seem to get how stressful the whole process is and how my future at Rhodes actually hangs in the balance of whether I get into JMS2.

While chatting to a third year JMS student at lunch today, who has just applied for fourth year, I realised that I will be this stressed and nervous at this time every year as you apply for JMS every year. It is the only course at Rhodes that is an absolute rat race, for a lack of another way to put it. So I guess all that’s left for me to do is put on my running shoes and get on in there and face the blank screen.

Wish me luck!

Time is a strange thing...

Time is a strange thing that at Rhodes can be experienced in many different ways. Sometimes there never seems to be enough time. I constantly see people rushing off to the next thing they have to do as our lives revolve around schedules of work. We don’t even eat when we are hungry or sleep when we are tired but rather only do these things when our schedules permit them. This seems like a crazy notion but it is in fact the honest to goodness truth. Then there are those moments when time seems to be endless. They usually occur during a particularly boring lecture or when you are particularly tired from either pulling an all-nighter or going out. You stare at the clock and can swear it feels like the minute hand is ticking in reverse.
I’m sure that a lot of people at Rhodes or anywhere for that matter can relate to these ways in which time passes. But none of these forms are more contagious or destructive than procrastination. It is the sneakiest way of experiencing time as it can often happen without you even realising. For example today I returned from my ‘scheduled’ lunch to find that I had an hour to kill before my next lecture. What to do with it? Was the first thing that I thought, sleep perhaps, work on my politics essay or maybe type a blog post? By the time I have come to a decision on what to do with this extra unscheduled time I realise that so much time had passed that it no longer mattered. This is a vicious cycle called procrastination and it is possibly the worst way to spend your time especially when you do have work to complete. The only problem is that procrastination is inevitable and, depending on how you spend the time, quite fun.
So it would seem that a majority of your first year at Rhodes is spent trying to figure out the best balance or mix of rushing off, sitting still and procrastinating that best suits you. I am currently still in the process of figuring this out for myself but as you can see from the blog post that I completed in my free hour I am slowly finding the best way forward for me.

A Tornado in Grahamstown?

As a first year at Rhodes University in Grahamstown I have heard the stories about how the town can experience all four seasons in one day but had always dismissed them as an urban legend. I did this because I only live roughly two hours away in King Williams Town and I could not believe that the weather here could be so different to my home. Well I have been proven wrong in a major way not only have I experienced the four season day first hand but on Wednesday 8th October a mini-tornado struck Grahamstown. And no you do not have to check your eyes or adjust your screen I did indeed say a mini-tornado. According to the official reports from the Herald

“A killer storm of gale- force gusts, hail, flash floods and lightning cut a swathe of destruction across the Eastern Cape yesterday, leaving a woman drowned and 65 people homeless”. http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/news/n01_09102008.htm

I did not see the mini-tornado myself but did manage to get caught in the hail storm, which for the record was not pleasant. Students could be seen making a mad dash for cover as the rain poured down swiftly followed by the hail. For the people who experienced the mini-tornado first hand it must have been a scary sight as most would have never seen a tornado before. I would imagine that many people were clicking their red heels together hoping to get home. Wednesday 8th October was the last straw for me and I am now a fully converted believer in the bizarre weather in Grahamstown. Who knows what could be coming next maybe snow or floods? All I know is that I plan to keep my eyes on the sky and have an escape plan in mind.

The Ice-cream Run

If there is one thing that any ice-cream lover needs to know in order to survive at Rhodes it is the Steers Ice Cream Run! At almost anytime of day and sometimes well into the night no matter how cold the weather students can be seen taking a stroll to the local Steers for some of the best ice-creams in town. I have myself just tonight been on an ice-cream run with the girls. It resulted from a spontaneous decision after supper that ice-cream was to be devoured at the anointed hour of 20:30. So off we went in the cold to fill our bellies with the ice-creamy goodness for no particular reason but to get out with your friends for some fresh air and if a tasty frozen treat happens to be involved – bonus!
I suspect that as summer starts to kick off (today was a brilliant warm day) and the Grahamstown cold begins to release its icy grip that these ice-cream runs will become more frequent. Which is great for my stomach that loves ice-cream but not so good for my body which enjoys to store the said ice-cream in all my love handles. At this point I think it would be wise to…..increase the number of times I go to the gym. Bet you though I was going to give up the ice-cream didn’t you. No such luck I’m afraid the ice-cream is too good and the ice-cream runs just too much fun.

Happy Eating!

Welcome

Welcome to my humble blog.

I’m afraid as you can see it is a work in progress but I promise you as soon as I find a uber geek to help me I will pimp it out for you all. So for now you will have to put up with my minimalistic amateur attempts.

For all of you out there reading this who do not know me. My name is Tarryn but you can all call me Savy (it’s a long story involving Pirates of the Caribbean and lots of beer). I am a Journalism and Media Studies student at Rhodes University in South Africa. I live in a mud hut and have a lion for a pet! Hehehe only jokes! I am in fact a regular student living in residence and working my ass off to make it into the 2nd year of Journalism so that I can study photojournalism.
You may be wondering why I would call my blog ‘Drawing Life with Light’ well the word “photography” based on the Greek φώς (phos) "light" + γραφίς (graphis) "stylus", "paintbrush" or γραφή (graphê) "drawing", together meaning "drawing with light." Hence my love for photography resulted in drawing life with light.

Photography is not the only thing that interests me. I also enjoy painting, politics, music, learning about ancient civilizations and people. Yes, people. I am fascinated by people: how we differ, how we think and why we do the things we do. So stick around and visit every so often to have a read and find out how life as a student is going and what it happening in the little old town of Grahamstown.