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Craig Sands, adjunct professor, Photography, leads students to League success

In Features, Multimedia on May 15, 2012 at 12:17 pm

By Mackenzie Clark

Photos by Advanced Digital Photography students

Timothy McVeigh. Photo by Craig Sands, adjunct professor, Photography

After years of cutting through red tape, Advanced Digital Photography was offered for the first time and three students from the class won League for Innovation awards. Students say this is partially due to the leadership of Craig Sands, adjunct professor, Photography.

Sands didn’t get his start in photography until his second year of college.

“I kind of found it, or it found me,” he said, “and I just had a natural penchant for it, and I’ve just run with it my entire life.”
Sands started in the Art department at Washburn where he was also playing basketball. After an ankle injury ended his athletic career, he studied abroad in Denmark where he said he discovered photography was his calling. Upon his return, he attended the Journalism school at the University of Kansas.

“At KU things just kind of came to fruition,” he said. “I had a wonderful instructor named Gary Mason who I think I can truthfully say didn’t really teach me anything about photography, but he taught me a whole lot about compassion, and taught me about the type of photographer or storyteller I wanted to be.”

Sands did freelance work and internships for many publications including the Kansas City Star, Topeka Capital-Journal and The Baltimore Sun. On a whim, he applied for an internship at National Geographic.

One of the League for Innovation winners from Sands' class. Photo by Gary Hunsicker

“I really loved Geographic,” he said. “But their lag time between shooting and publication could be months and years, and I was into the immediate gratification of having a front page. I’d experienced that enough that I kept wanting it.”

Eventually he returned to Kansas City to work for the Star again, and later started his own business. The college contacted him twice to see if he was willing to teach here, and he has now been here for over nine years. He said he is very glad the college now offers this new class.

“This Advanced Digital class has been perfect,” he said. “It’s what a lot of students needed to take another step forward.”

Sands explained the difference between his Basic class and the Advanced level course.

“In the Intro class I teach [students] how to do all the things the way I do them, which is pretty unconventional compared to the way studios and other photographers might do it,” he said. “I work as a journalist still. I teach them journalism, basically, without making them live by the credo of ‘effect nothing, just record.’”

Photo by Joenne Hartley

Sands said that the class has gone well, although completely differently from how he had planned his curriculum.

“I’ve kind of figured out what I want to do with this class just by trial and error, and by throwing out things that I want them to do, and the matter I want them to do, and the professionalism I want them to display,” he said. “And this class has just run with it.”

Sands told his students he is not sure how much he’s taught them, but he has given them opportunities to succeed or fail, and “everybody’s been succeeding fabulously.”

“I’ve been so pleased with this class,” Sands said. “I’ve had everybody embrace what I’ve asked them to do and they, at different levels, have really focused hard on a few things and I’ve had to force them to do a few things. […] It really was gratifying, the League for Innovation.”

Gary Hunsicker, student winner of the League for Innovation award, described learning from Sands as “learning to see.”

“I started taking [Sands’] class off and on a couple years ago,” Hunsicker said. “So I started with the beginning stuff, and he does a very good job of, I think, the big picture. He concentrates on things you should be looking for when you’re trying to compose a shot or you’re trying to figure out what you want to take a picture of, like reflections and shapes.”

Photo by Beth Kovar

Hunsicker partially credits Sands with his victory in the League for Innovation.

“When I printed [the winning photo] he walked in […] and when he saw them on the table out there he immediately picked it up,” Hunsicker said. “Part of it is his eye, because I probably wouldn’t have picked that one.”

Contact Mackenzie Clark, editor-in-chief, at mclark68@jccc.edu.

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Geoff Chow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by James Allen

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Students learn to spin fire on campus

In Features, Multimedia on May 15, 2012 at 12:07 pm
 
 
By Christopher Khan
 

Fire dancers Rachel Berry and Shawn Nelson show off their moves. Photos by Hannah Hunsinger

They would practice with fire on campus, if only the college would let them. 

Student Rachel Berry, 20, and University of Kansas student Shawn Nelson, 19, formed a fire and glow dance duo called Luminescence in 2010, when they were seniors at Blue Valley North High School. They fire dance at events like birthday parties, Halloween parties, and in parks, as well as teaching others to fire dance.

“Fire dancing is a broad term to describe any kind of fire art that you can do,” Nelson said. “It is dancing in the way that you are choreographing it and moving to the music.”

In Berry’s case, she twirls a flaming hula-hoop around her torso.

“It has these metal prongs that are wrapped in Kevlar,” Berry said, “and I light those pieces on fire.”

Both Berry and Nelson began fire dancing in high school. For each of them, it took one exposure to a fire dancing performance to make them decide that it was for them. Fire dancing is a primary element for Luminescence.

“[Fire dancing] is exhilarating,” Nelson said. “It’s that knowledge that you are entertaining the crowd and making people happy. There’s always a thrill about doing things with fire and fire dancing, like a kind of added element of danger.”

Luminescence performances also feature other forms of dance, such as glow stick dancing, but fire dancing still has a draw unique to it.

“You can’t really see anything outside of the fire itself,” Berry said. “So it’s like being in the middle of a fire and light show that takes up all of your vision. It’s not about what you can see and what you can hear. The fire dancing is really purely physical. It’s all in the control that your body has.”

Both Berry and Nelson are mostly self-taught through YouTube, but they have attended fire safety classes taught by professional fire dancers. They are both involved in teaching others to perform.  Nelson is in charge of the KU Performance Club.

“The fire dancing community is very inclusive,” Nelson said. “They’re really, really good people over all. They’ll invite you to things, and give you tips and tricks.”

Earlier this semester, Berry and her friend Steven Brown began meeting up on Tuesdays on campus as a way to hang out and practice. Now, 10 people or more can regularly be seen in the courtyard between the SCI and GEB buildings practicing with fire staffs and hula-hoops.

“We ran into some of the people you see here today,” Brown said. “And it just blossomed from there. As it got warmer, we just decided to form an unofficial club, and we just keep getting more people.”

Berry said that she is planning on talking with college administrators to make an official Performance Club, like Nelson’s club at KU. People are welcome to stop by and join their regular meetings Tuesdays from 3 to 6 p.m. They cannot practice with lit tools, but it is a way to start fire dancing.

“[Fire dancing] does have a very meditative aspect to it,” Berry added. “It’s one of those things where you can completely focus, and at the same time you get a huge adrenaline rush. Being sort of dangerous, it’s also very peaceful.”

Contact Christopher Khan, special to the Ledger, at ckhan3@stumail.jccc.edu.

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BREAKING: Board of Trustees approves changing location of new Culinary building

In News, Web-exclusive on May 10, 2012 at 9:24 pm

By Mackenzie Clark

The Board of Trustees voted unanimously to change the planned location of the new Hospitality and Culinary Arts Center to the east side of campus at the monthly meeting this evening. This decision will add $1 million to the cost, bringing the total projected expense to $13 million.

The original location toward the west side of campus would not allow for clear visibility of the building, according to several trustees’ statements during discussion of the matter. The additional $1 million in cost is due to “rock problems,” said Trustee and Board Treasurer Bob Drummond, which is why the land had yet to be utilized.

“This program should be front of the house rather than back of the house,” said Trustee and Board Secretary Jerry Cook at the meeting.

Trustee Stephanie Sharp agreed.

“What I love about this particular location is how it accents our community outreach functions,” she said. “If you’re taking College [Boulevard] east toward Quivira [Road], what do you see? You see the farm, and you see the baseball fields, and you see the Carlsen Center, and as you come around the corner you see the Nerman and then you’ll see this building. Sustainability, music, modern art, culinary; I think those aren’t traditional things that people think of a community college for [...] but I like the outreach that it shows, and how involved in this community we are, and how involved they are in us.”

The official groundbreaking ceremony for the building is set for 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, May 22. In regards to parking concerns, updates will come as they are made available.

Contact Mackenzie Clark, editor-in-chief, at mclark68@jccc.edu.

 

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