As I said, my name's Danielle Harris.
I'm a senior here at Mount Holyoke College.
I'm studying critical social thought in film and French.
And now film.
So my focus was in language, culture, and conflict.
So I applied for, initially, internships in public policy.
I got to the third round in a bunch of different internships,
but nothing panned out the way I wanted to.
So I had to rely on my personal networking.
A little-known fact about me is that when I was a kid,
I did hand modeling.
And one of the photographers that I worked with
was Jim Kuhn.
And so my family had remained friends with him,
remained friendly with him.
So on a whim--
I had always been interested in film and photography--
I asked if there was any chance I could work with him.
And he said, I'm not sure what you can do, but definitely.
So I went.
So what did we do about Jim Kuhn?
Jim Kuhn is an editorial and advertising photographer
and filmmaker.
He has been an independent businessman for 20 years.
He actually has a master's in European studies,
was a professor, didn't like it, left,
and started his own photography company
with no experience in photography.
Since then, he has worked with companies such as Aetna
and Reebok, and they have paid for him
to travel internationally to work
in a lot of their companies.
He started film and photography when film--
the actual medium, film--
was still the medium that we use.
So he was developing photos for everybody,
and now he's had to transfer into the digital age,
and he's transferred his skills as a photographer
to become a filmmaker.
So he's really gone through some really interesting changes
as a professional that made his knowledge really
accessible to me.
And it was really just me and him,
which facilitated a very interesting work technique.
So here's a photo of Jim Kuhn.
This was on one of our projects in East Hartford.
We were doing the tourism video.
So when I say photography and film,
automatically a lot of people think, ooh, Vogue and fashion.
We were going into factories.
We were going into people's offices.
And we were doing things for their websites.
We were doing tourism videos.
We were doing Sears catalogs.
We were doing very business-oriented
creative work, which was different
than I ever expected it to be.
It was actually incredibly creative
and incredibly enriching.
So here, what he have is that we sent this camera,
we have mics-- we use lapel mics--
and we have the whole staff for the mayor there,
and they were holding up a little iPad script app,
and they were just having her read off of it.
And my job was to put--
was always changing.
So again, here's another example of our clients.
We worked with a company called MedOptions,
which is a company that contracts physicians
into senior living facilities.
They wanted to completely redo their website,
including their videos.
So Mr. Kuhn and I worked on location.
The first thing we did was about a week before the shoot,
we went to their offices and we did location scouting.
In an office, what is location scouting?
It is going to each room and looking for a pretty window.
And then from there, looking at lighting, and looking
at how we can get the camera.
So we have a doorway just like this.
Jim was in the middle of the doorway holding his camera.
All of the lighting equipment is on the side.
And I'm talking 5-feet-by-5-feet office.
Very, very tight.
We bring in all of our equipment,
and we set up two lighting machines.
We test the microphones.
And then I sat there, and I would speak,
and I would be basically the lighting model, the test model.
In addition to setting up all of the lighting equipment,
setting up all of the sound equipment,
and being in a constant dialogue with Jim,
I started in this internship not even owning a camera.
I did not know the first thing.
And so I was constantly like, hey--
we became first name basis-- hey, Jim, what is this?
Hey, Jim, what aperture are you studying?
Hey, Jim, what are you doing?
And because it was just the two of us,
there was always this constant dialogue
that really allowed me to learn and become
very comfortable working with clients as he did.
He was very generous, and we would always walk into a shoot,
and he would say, hi, I'm Jim Kuhn.
This is Danielle, she's going to be working with me today.
So I always from the get-go had a connection with the clients.
From there, I was often working in release form.
I was in charge of making sure that the next person we're
filming is on deck.
Everything that Jim needed to have
done so he could stand behind the camera
and focus on the product.
I was just running around like a chicken with my head cut
off trying to make sure everything
was in order for him.
So part of the internship that Jim and I decided to do
was to develop my own portfolio.
As I said, I had not even owned a camera.
He gave me my first camera.
And I had never worked with editing software.
Feature model, Lacey [INAUDIBLE]..
[CHUCKLING]
So what did I have to do to--
he taught me that the main thing the clients are paying for
is an artistic eye.
Understanding what looks good to consumers.
So the only way to do that is to practice.
The first 10,000 photos, he said, will be your worst.
So what did he teach me?
He taught me about putting weight--
as in with the example of Lacey-- putting it
on the right side, because we are trained to read
from left to right.
So where do we put our focus?
At the end, on the right side.
See I broke that rule here, but I think it still looks good.
[CHUCKLING]
To have some certain depth of field.
So with these vines, it's a really cool shot
because your eye travels.
Then he was saying--
I also wrote this rule here-- you never
want to do 50/50 skyline because you see that everywhere.
So you want to do something different.
You want to do something interesting,
and you want to communicate a story.
But above all, you want to listen to your gut,
and you want to have this click feeling.
When you're editing a photo, you feel a click.
And that was the hardest part of this internship for me,
was having him there and trying to learn the artistic listening
skills of listening to myself.
Because I'm very used to writing a paper enforcing the grammar,
enforcing the ideas, enforcing, enforcing.
And this is supposed to be, in his mind, a very meditative
process of listening to your mind,
and listening to your ideas.
I also had trouble finding models for my own photography.
So my solution to that was to use myself.
I would set up a tripod, and I would set up a camera.
Then I would set up lighting fixtures.
So in this example, I'm in my garage.
I had my dad's industrial lamp.
I put on a really pretty dress.
And then I just started to experiment.
What this did is that I have been
able to put this on a collaborative production
company's website named HitRecord.
And people who are professionals in this industry
have commented on my photos saying, great lighting,
interesting ideas.
And they've been able to get direct feedback, which really
helps me understand what looks good, what works,
and maybe what doesn't work as much.
Here's another example.
I also went to a lot of event.
I even was able to work with a band, [INAUDIBLE] Latin band,
for their website.
I just showed up at their website and was like, hey,
can I take some photos of you guys?
And they were like, yes, please.
And it was a really great experience
to be able to work with different people
and understand how to market myself.
From that, what were the skills I gained in my internship?
The main thing, as I discussed before,
was an artistic eye in creative thinking.
That also ties into working with a man who
has done his own business.
So I also learned networking skills.
I worked with creative directors.
I worked with setting up equipment.
But the main thing I got was being
able to create structure for yourself,
being able to listen to your own voice
and develop that voice through practice,
and how to create new ideas and have creative solutions
to everyday problems.
Looking forward, I'm currently working on a documentary
on Charlie Hebdo.
And I'm also filming for that tonight,
interviewing students who have personal experiences--
because I was in France for the last year-- on what it was
like to be there and to have an Islamophobic experience,
even if you're an American.
I'm also doing a YouTube channel.
I work on the school paper, and I'm also doing photo shoots
with people like Lacey, anyone who will let me work with them.
Finally, I'm also interested in working in a startup business.
I've come up with a business plan,
and I'm meeting with professors now,
exploring what it would be like to do that.
Just exploring and figuring out what works and what doesn't.
And that's the main thing I got from my internship.
Thank you.