The Report

My internship for Commercial Photography was with Atlanta Celebrates Photography. It was in a general office setting at the Showcase Photography school building. I began on March 28th - June 3rd. Amy Miller is the executive director and Michael David Murphy is the program manager. All of the other help that they get is from volunteers. Amy and Michael begin working in the office each morning at 10 and go strong all day until they leave the office. They continue to work most days after they leave, meeting with various people for the sake of the ACP organization. "All of what they do is for the purpose of supporting photographers and enriching Atlanta's cultural scene. Most of the programs are free and open to the public. ACP strives to offer something for all people of all age groups and levels of knowledge about photography." http://www.acpinfo.org/programs/index.shtml  Some of their programs are:

• ACP Collaborations
• Film Series
• Greenhouse
• Knowledge Series
• Lecture Series
• My Atlanta
• Public Art Program
• Photo Book Fair
• Portfolio Review & Walk
• Spotlight Series
  The history of how ACP emerged is quite interesting. It began 12 years ago between 2 people in a car, Those 2 were Corinne Adams and Suzanne Katz who were brainstorming about how to build a stronger photographic community in Atlanta. For more on the history please visit ACP History. 

Throughout the year Amy, Michael and volunteers work very hard at getting donations, volunteers, lining up participants, and getting venues etc for the main event which happens in October each year.

Most mornings when I would get into the office Amy and Michael would be in, either on the phone setting up appointments, working on the website, on telephone conferences, etc. They are always extremely busy in preparation for the month of October. I could never have even imagined that so much day to day work early each year goes into 1 month of activities. It's the kind of thing that people who attend never even think about. Behind the scenes of great events is always where the drudgery and mundane but all important work happens. Amy and Michael hardly ever have time to barely even look up but somehow they would always seem to have time to ask if I needed anything. Amy was always so thoughtful whenever she would give me an assignment to offer to help me. She would constantly say that once she was done with her work she would be over to assist me. I thought that was very nice but there was no way that I could allow her to come and help me no matter how mundane the work. Each time I would try to get finished before she could get to help me. Times in which she would come over to help I would tell her that she didn't have to help me. She finally stopped when I told her that there was no way that I could let her help me. I told her that I was there to get her back and assist wherever I was needed. I explained that I wanted to do all the menial tasks so that she could take care of the really important stuff. She finally relented and stopped trying to help me help her.  :-)  

I updated the database, email lists, mailing lists, stuffed envelopes, created dummy entries on the ACP guide, researched different photographers, potential donors, etc. My assignments each day were sometimes quite extensive and tedious however extremely necessary for Amy to get what she needed done. Some days I would nearly fall asleep at my desk but to hear Amy and Michael say "thanks so much Teresa you just don't know how much that helped" would make it all worthwhile. I began to understand that the roll I played helped them to get to the next step. It was work that they would have to stop and do which they really didn't have time to do. I was glad to be in an environment which I could actually contribute to making the final outcome a success. Each of my daily assignments and hours are listed in my daily updates on Angel. 

My last day was today, June 3 which was well after most of my classmates. I thought that I was going to work all the way through my last day. However, yesterday Amy threw a 'curve ball' at me. When I got ready to leave she told me that the last  day was set aside for me. She said that would be my day, which meant that she and my Michael would devote their attention to me! She told me to come with any requests, questions, contacts that I wanted to make, whatever, whoever, they were going to be there for me. Wow I was quite overwhelmed to say the least. I did not expect that at all. Well, I must say that they kept their word. Today was so awesome! Amy came over to me desk and sat down next to me. I told her that I didn't have a lot of questions at the moment but I would like for them to critique my images. She began by giving the following info on marketing myself:

• get my name out to different event people
• have business cards with info on the front & pictures of my photography on the back
• market to event planners, venues, realtors for portraits, sports portraits
• look in newspapers, magazines for potential jobs
• look for opportunities in churches, word of mouth
• check out how other artists market themselves, look at their websites - find out what they offer and then think of how I can add my own uniqueness to that type of photography
• she also made suggestions for architecture photography which I am also interested in, she said that I would need a separate card for architecture which images showing that I can shoot both exterior & interiors
• she told me that there isn't a problem listing both types of photography on my website especially while I'm still trying to decide which I'm really interested in - she did caution against having more than two because as she put it "I can appear to be schizophrenic" :-)

Needless to say Amy and Michael had so much advice for me today, truly it was my day. They also went through each one of my images and made comments. I have taken each one of the comments to heart and wrote them down. I must say that this was a very rewarding 2 months for me. A time that I will never forget. Amy and Michael told me that I must come back for the grand finale in October, which I told them that I will. I also inquired about continuing this relationship in the years to come. While I can't say that I got to shoot or was ever in a studio environment but I got to see what goes on behind the scenes of ACP. This is an organization which caters to the very field that I aspire to be a part of in my future. I made acquaintances with 2 very important people who can get me in contact with even more important people. While the work that I did wasn't the most glamorous or interesting it was gratifying to know that it will affect the lives of many fellow photographers out there one way on another. 

After all that Amy and Michael did for me they yet surprised me with one more thing. I walked out of the office for a few minutes and was given an envelope upon my return. They actually presented me with a wonderful thank you card and a nicely 'packed' gift card. Yay what a great way to end my internship! They told me that they appreciated everything that I did, that I was a God send, the best intern that they ever had and that I have raised the bar for all interns to follow.