We’re very Tired. Last night was awesome. After an exciting intern application process – we finally met all of our 15 (FIFTEEN!) new interns! We also invited our Alumni Interns to come along because we wanted to acknowledge their hard work, progress – and generally putting up with me (Mark).

This is a short clip shot by our friend Mark Hubbard. He’s the executive director of Renew Social Ventures (where we’re the Photographers in Residence):

• renew is a nonprofit collaborative space in the heart of historic Roswell, Georgia. Our mission is to spark, support and incubate Social Ventures and Nonprofits that are tackling the societal, ecological, economic and cultural challenges we face today.
• renew provides the creative and engaging environments needed for Social Ventures and Nonprofits to form deep connections with each other and with their communities.
• renew organizes and hosts regular programming focused on addressing social challenges and encouraging social innovation (i.e., new ideas to resolve existing social, cultural, economic and environmental challenges for the benefit of people and the planet).
• renew is also a community cultural center devoted to supporting and encouraging the visual and performing arts in Roswell and the greater Atlanta metro area.

If you’ve noticed anything about Leah and Me – it’s that we’ve been coming up with ideas that we joke about, and then they somehow end up becoming reality. Like taking a trip to China for a month AND getting paid for it. Done. (I ‘telecommuted’ and did my job for a month from China – and Leah somehow got enough vacation time). Or taking on 10 Interns. And now fifteen. Oh. And how about a low cost studio space? Did you see the video? Do you notice how HUGE that studio space is? There is no way that we could’ve afforded it if it wasn’t for Mark Hubbard and RenewSV.

• renew Memberships are $400/month for unlimited use by up to two Member employees – additional employees may be added for a fee.  We also offer $200/month Grassroots and Partner Memberships.

Yeah. It’s awesome. Find out more information here.

It was a very exciting evening. So many new faces, so much talent, and you could feel how nervous they all were to start working and shooting. It’s kind of tradition now that all First Intern Events must basically consists of pushing them out there to just shoot and sort of ‘jolt’ them out of their comfortable shooting habits. Here’s one flash. Here’s two. These are your starter settings. Start shooting. Start directing the model.

Then we walk around and help out for adjustments, but the Interns just have to start shooting and making mistakes so we can get past them and eventually get to the really good stuff. We’re not trying to avoid mistakes or bad shots, we’re trying to specifically work through them. Getting  a perfect shot isn’t worth much if you can’t do it again.

This group of New Interns mostly live in the Metro-Atlanta area, but some live further out and are actually in Atlanta specifically for this internship. We have people commuting from as far out as Carrollton, Ga. – and that’s crazy in itself. However Tristan lives in North Carolina and will be driving down every two weeks (per the requirements) – and Kristen lives in Orlando, FL. but will be here in Atlanta for the three months of the internship.

Leah and I are… overwhelmed by the trust and faith that our Interns have in us – and we’re going to do more than our best to deliver.

I’m still working on getting all of the Intern blogs and the navigation links updated – but until then….

Introducing, our newest Interns (click on their photos to go to their blogs…):

These are our Interns.