Journalism/photography will continue to offer other photography courses.
By J. Del Valle
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
The three advanced photography courses will no longer be taught here after spring 2017 as the third year of a “teach-out” of an associate of arts degree with an emphasis in photography.
The A.A., Concentration in Photography, degree was discontinued after 2013-14.
“This college is the only campus to teach three advanced photography courses in South Texas for the last 40 years,” photography Professor James P. McBride said.
The advanced courses are PHOT 1372, Portrait Photography; PHOT 2372, Commercial Photography; and PHOT 2373, Photographic Perceptual Design.
The three courses were offered as “unique needs” courses, meaning this college had to get special permission from state officials every three years to allow the courses to be offered.
“The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has a list of courses they allow community colleges to teach, and this college’s three advanced photography courses were no longer listed,” said journalism program Coordinator Marianne Odom.
Although the photography degree was no longer available for students beginning in 2014-15, the three-year teach-out gives students already working on the degree the chance to complete it using the 2013-14 college bulletin.
These courses teach career-seeking photography students a range of in-depth techniques on how to shoot and edit commercial photos for weddings, advertisements and fashion. Students also learn how to use the Adobe software suite.
The three advanced courses are limited to 10-15 students per section because they require a lot of hands-on instruction during studio time.
Photography freshman Mando Cruz is enrolled in Adjunct Scott Vallance’s Commercial Photography and Photographic Perceptual Design classes this semester.
“By chance I found out this past summer they were going to stop offering these classes; luckily, I was able to take (them) this semester,” Cruz said.
“I have benefited from both classes on the technical command of my camera,” Cruz said. “I have my bachelor’s degree in English, and photography has been a hobby of mine that I wanted to get more thorough training on. My plan is to graduate with my associate in photography and start off as a freelance photographer.”
After the spring semester, photography courses listed under the COMM rubric still will be offered in the journalism/photography program, and students will be able to apply them to earn an A.A., Journalism FOS, degree.
FOS stands for field of study and allows students to transfer 12 to 15 hours of selected COMM courses to four-year public institutions.
The courses journalism/photography will continue to offer are COMM 1318, Photography 1; COMM 1319, Photography 2; COMM 1316, News Photo 1; COMM 1317, News Photo 2; and COMM 2324, Practicum in Electronic Media (Photoshop)
For more information, contact the journalism/photography program at 210-486-1765.