This morning I had a meeting with Natasha V at 9 Davies Avenue (https://www.natashav.com). Natasha is a graduate of the Photography Program at Algonquin College and it was important form me to get feedback from her in regards to our program. I quickly realized that she attended our program during the analogue days and her experience in the program was very similar to mine - a good experience but really nothing to do with today’s requirements in the industry. Although, we both agreed that students need to learn to slow down and shoot with intension and with the digital age, it’s easy to forget to do this. Analogue was great for this - sometimes too great, haha.

According to Natasha, another important factor is creativity and pushing students to use creative factors and instruction to develop this portion of their portfolios. While technical skills are important and mandatory in this industry, creativity will set you apart.

We discussed business elements of the industry and she was very pleased to hear that we have an Entrepreneurship course now but thinks it should be a longer course because there are too many topics to cover in one semester.

Overall, a very candid and effective meeting and it was wonderful to touch base with Natasha and get to know her.