The 51st University Photographers Association of America (UPAA) Symposium will be held at the Miami University campus in Oxford, Ohio, June 18-23, 2012.
Your hosts at Miami University are Scott Kissell and Jeff Sabo—we look forward to seeing you and we hope you will enjoy your experience. Last year UPAA celebrated its 50th Anniversary in scenic Utah, hosted by Brigham Young University and organized by photographers Mark Philbrick and Jaren Wilkey. This memorable symposium was attended by creative university photographers from all over the country who were eager to learn and to share and to inspire each other with ideas and information. We all have something to contribute, and it is important for you to attend. The UPAA symposium has become an annual reunion of professionals who help each other grow and succeed, and it needs YOU to accomplish this!
- Past symposiums have had some great speakers, and this year will be no exception. Thanks to support from the UPAA board members, we were able to feature Annie Griffiths, who will surely inspire us all. One of the first women photographers to work for National Geographic, Griffiths has photographed in more than 100 countries during her illustrious career and worked on dozens of magazine and book projects. In 2008 Griffiths published A Camera, Two Kids and a Camel, a photo memoir about balance and the joy of creating a meaningful life. Her newest book, Simply Beautiful Photographs, was published in October, 2010.
- Annie Griffiths has also agreed to do a critique of five images from the UPAA print competition during the question-and-answer portion of her talk. To learn more about Griffiths and see some of her photography, visit our symposium speaker page.
- Kelly Block, Specialist of Professional Marketing Support for Canon, will provide loaner Canon gear, and they will also have a clean and check technician on hand during the conference. Canon is also providing the Photographer of the Year prize, which will be an SLR & lens kit.
- We will kick off the 2012 symposium with a presentation from our own UPAA member Jim Stroup, the 2010 UPAA photographer of the Year. Jim is proof that we already have talented speakers in our own organization. If any other UPAA members are interested in presenting, please let us know.
- The 2012 Annual Print Competition judging will take place at the Miami University Art Museum. The images will be on display for public viewing at the museum from June 14 through July 8, 2012. This is an exciting opportunity for UPAA photographers to show their work in a museum gallery.
- Workshops:
- Scott Glavin will show us how he sets up his remote cameras for sports--no one can do this better than Scott.
- David Tejada will be back to do a workshop on location lighting.
- There will be a video editing session for DSLR Cameras.
- Adobe will provide a workshop for our symposium, on Adobe Lightroom 3, and will provide us with some software to give away.
- In 2012 the Nikon shootout will be in Dayton at the National Air Force Museum, an amazing museum with airplanes from all eras of aviation history, including the Wright Brothers first military plane and modern military aircraft. Even if aviation history is not your passion, you will appreciate this museum!
- We will wrap up the symposium with Comedian, syndicated cartoonist, Aaron Johnson, who will surely make you laugh with his “What a Duck Live Tour”. Johnson produces the photo–centric comic strip “What a Duck” which he will use in his presentation to cover the all to familiar issues with the photographic industry and explains why sometimes the best thing we can do is shake our heads and laugh. See more about Johnson on the speaker page.
Start making your plans to be in Oxford, Ohio in June to make this, another great symposium! The cost of the symposium is only $375. Keep checking back for updates. We look forward to seeing you and hosting the 2012 UPAA conference at Miami University!