A new chapter of my life has begun.

[PatrickCheung]

I've just recently entered university to study architecture (at Waterloo for those of you in Canada), hopefully to one day become an architect. I've moved a little over 100 km away from home into the small, quiet but quirky town of Cambridge, Ontario. I've made a few great friends, who are almost like family to me... and the best part is that I share a house with most of them.

Architecture demands almost all your time in a day. Classes start at 9:30am and end at around 5:30-6:00pm with no official lunch break. We often find ourselves at the studio from 7:00pm to maybe about... 12:00 midnight, or at home in our living room doing assignments and readings.

With all that said, the past three weeks have been some of the best of my life. Despite the work load, I do not, not even for a second, regret coming here.

Anyway... these aren't much... but I thought I'd like to share the photos I've taken in the past three weeks of school. They're more for documentation of fun times and shenanigans than anything else!

Comments are much appreciated, and thank you for taking the time to open this thread

Late nights at studio somehow turn into dance parties...



My roomate, Heather



Studio Pillar art



Drafting



I have a lot more photos, but my hard drive corrupted and my backups went with it... so I can't upload them... Anyway! Thanks for the view!

[EthanFrank]

Congrats, and have fun!

[sprokitt]

Hey, congrats and enjoy every minute. All the best.

[mooge]

good to see you're having fun in uni- architecture looks waay cool.

^ oh and what he said. I spend all my time complaining. and wasting my time on RFF. oops! better get back to that calculus =S

[dfatty]

20 years from now you're going to be very happy you have such good photos from your uni days, enjoy.

[FrankS]

University days are/can be the most fun years of your life, enjoy!

[Denton]

Good for you!
Now how about that Architectural portfolio!

Denton

[hipsterdufus]

Looks fun and the pictures make a nice, cohesive set. I like the desaturated colors in the images. Enjoy your time there!

[zauhar]

Looks like you have great friends, and you're studying what you love - things can't get any better!

I just wrote a depressing comment about college on another thread, was nice to see your post as a counterbalance.

Also, glad to see you still start with pencils and instruments - I was afraid that Waterloo would have you in front of a machine doing CAD from the start.

Best of luck,

Randy

[Pickett Wilson]

Drawing boards and pencils? Do they still make those?

Some fun photos!

[dave lackey]

Good luck on a new adventure...as an architectural student, I found out that everyone else on campus had a life after classes. Not so with architecture students....no way. It was 7 days a week at full tilt.

I love students who don't go the "party school" route...LOL.

It is good that you are in the frame of mind that it will take that for quite a few years... not easy and not necessarily fun, but it is fulfilling. I wish you the best of luck as you will learn as much about yourself as you will about technical issues. Enjoy the ride and hopefully, the economy will be better by the time you graduate!

[Glass Addict]

Hi,

It's good to see a person from UW in here.

I graduated from there myself a few years back and the school was a few buildings smaller back then. It evolved so much since then (and it was only a few years ago).

Enjoy. It may seem like eternity sometimes, but when all things are passed, you miss those moments.

From UW alumnus, class of '05, Mech. Eng.

ps. I've heard in my days that architecture students are a bit "quirky".. wonder if it's still true..

[ChrisP]

I don't usually ask about cameras I don`t think they matter but I assume this was shot on something digitalÉ (I'll leave that E instead of a question mark to show how Canadian I am). Any insight into your PPing? Do you use LR3? If so is it mostly a matter of setting exposure than bringing up the blacks and adding brightness to help compensate? (and obvious desaturation).

[hans voralberg]

Congrats on starting university, the endless parties will come soon. May be not with your workload, when I was in Uni my schedule consist mostly of chatting to profs in bars, reading, drinking, hanging out in pubs and such.

[Haigh]

Nice to see such lighthearted work. Looks joyful to me. Thanks.

[raydm6]

Congrats and have fun. Watch out for the Freshman 15!

[Harry S.]

Nice photos.

Maaaatt Damooooon

[PatrickCheung]

Thanks for all the supportive comments guys :]

I believe that finding the right program for you is vital to having a good time in university! As long as you enjoy the things you're spending the next 4-7 years (or more) of your life doing, you'll be fine!

Glass Addict: Yeah, we're still quirky :] Engineers and Architects don't mix well... we pretty much got segregated during our frosh week. It doesnt help that our architecture campus is a town over from UW main campus. I'd like to think we're more like art students than we are engineers.

Chris: It's shot in the Fuji X100, edited mainly in lightroom 3. Shot in RAW, color corrected (I never change white balance when shooting in RAW), contrast adjusted till i'm happy, then desaturated! Hope it helps! It's a simple workflow, but I really dont have the time to pull out the crazy stuff!

[PatrickCheung]

Also... i believe i've lost the freshman 15 :] No time to eat at architecture school...

[planetjoe]

Awesome thread, Patrick, and it looks like the beginning of a great series of photos to remind you of a stretch of good times. Keep posting and work hard.

An aside to you and Glass Addict:

I did a Mech Eng degree at a school where Arch and Eng students were segregated, more due to schedule and intense workload than anything else. When it was still possible, breaking the barrier (i.e., crossing the street) allowed me to meet and spend time with some of the most creative, lovely minds I've ever had the pleasure to know. When you can, if you can, I hope you do the same.

Oh, to work hard alongside hard workers! Follow your bliss and be a Maker of Things.


Cheers,
--joe.

[shiro_kuro]

I really enjoyed this article and would like to share it with you .... all the best with school and this new chapter in your life ......

Slowness
http://cntpulse.blogspot.com/2009/04...owness_09.html

[Lauffray]

Didn't know Waterloo had an architecture program, nice. I got admitted into an architecture school, but ended up going elsewhere.
Keep taking pictures ! I slightly regret not having taken MORE pictures in university

[robert blu]

Congrats for his step of your life. As an over '60 old man I'm glad to see there are still happy students around. Your photo are very nice, the desaturated colors are appropriate to the subject. And, please print them all on photographic paper and put in a box to be sure to find them in 20 years time! Bravo!
robert
PS: please, keep posting...

[Peter Wijninga]

Great post and great series! Enjoy!

[oftheherd]

Originally Posted by sprokitt

Hey, congrats and enjoy every minute. All the best.

Agreed! But it looks like you and your fellow students are already having fun.

That's important. You need to study and study hard, but once in a while, you have to have fun to keep balance.

Enjoy the fun and the learning (not necessarily in that order).