Bristol Mountain - 2

Bristol Mountain - 1

So, today I went on my actual shoot for the magazine cover Photo Arts assignment at Bristol Mountain. Which was a bit of an epic adventure. Seeing as though I am a college student and have no money...I couldn't afford a lift ticket, so, I trekked up half the mountain when I came across a nice ravine with a river below. I then climbed my way up to the barrier and crawled under onto the actual hill, just to be greeted by a safety patrol man who thought I had just wiped out, I told him I was fine and he went on his way. I continued my trek on the side of the ski run until I made it to the terrain park lift. I figured the lift workers must assume that anyone all the way up here must be legit and I got a nice ride the rest of the way up. There were a few other kids shooting so I went to get a piece of the action. Got some legit shots (which I'll be posting over the next few days) and the other kid shooting is pretty legit too, here's a link to his flickr page.

Flowers of the Night

I was looking though my photo collection and saw these photos from a few years ago. I didn't want to just take pictures of flowers, because those tend to get boring rather quickly, so I waited till night and used the on camera flash to see what would happen, and this is what turned up.

Magazine Cover Project

Sooo, today in photo lab we were supposed to be working on making a magazine cover for our next project, due next Thursday, but I am (hopefully) shooting over the weekend at the local ski hill. I put this together just in case I can't make it out there... xP

Brats

Seriously NY, get your act together and get some of these guys, cause they're flippin good and I want one grilled, boiled in beer and served with some sauerkraut. Let's get with it.

My Homemade Ringflash

Awhile ago, over winter break I wanted to checkout a ringflash from the photo cage to get some cool portraits for that emulate assignment. The cage, however was out of ringflashes by the time I got my gear. I had seen a tutorial for a diy ringflash while stumbling and decided to give it a try.
This was my result. It worked somewhat, but the light was not even all the way around the ring and it was super fragile. So once I scrounge up enough money I'm going to try and make a ring lamp out of a circular fluorescent light. My photo teacher let me borrow his diy ring light for a project and hopefully I can rig one up for myself.

Lake Superior

Taken on a backpacking trip through the Porcupine Mountains in Upper Michigan. Another one of my favorite landscape shots.

AMERICA

America.

Triptych

This is another school assignment, a set of three images in sequence known as a triptych. Let me know what you think!

Cover!

That right there is my local newspaper, and that photo right there is my photo on the cover of my local newspaper. My first legit tear sheet, thats right!

4x5

If you ever feel the urge to shoot with a 4x5 veiw camera (you know the big ones that you thought were only used in the early 1900's with the big cloth that goes over your head and whatnot) then you better have just gotten a hefty promotion or won the lottery, cause its gonna cost you. A box of 50 sheets will run you about $100 bucks, then you need to get holders to keep the film from being exposed when you take it in and out of the camera, 2 of those will cost you $55 (luckily I got to borrow some) and then to process the film it costs about $2 per sheet. Split between 3 other people I spent about $70 on this shoot.
Other than the cost the experience is awesome! Shooting 4x5 film really makes you slow down and look at your composition and lighting before clicking the shutter, partly because of all of the fine tune adjustments you can make, but also because pushing that button will cost you about $5. Once you get into it however, you don't worry so much about the cost or anything, but more on making that image the best it can be.
I was actually fairly disappointed in my images, The composition of the "Breakfast of a (college) Champion" is not quite how I would've liked it to be and the snowboard one I didn't get the shadows quite right. (I did a lot of editing after scanning that photo in to get it closer to what I want) I would definitely reshoot this if I could, but that just isn't really an option with the cost of everything. I don't think this is the end of my relationship shooting 4x5, I just think we're gonna take a break until there's a free film giveaway or something of that sort.

Mountain

A short mountain panorama from my family's vacation out west. It was July, and yes that is snow

Narrative

The 4th photo project of the quarter was to create a series of photos ranging from 9 to 36 images that sequence an event or tell a story. Back home in DC I shot a midnight snowshoe adventure with some friends. This is just a few images of the 14 I used to document this trek through the unknown.

Art History

In light of my Art History midterm today, which I probably wont want to commemorate with a blog post, I decided to give a little of my own art history. This photo was taken on a class trip to Spain, it is of El Alhambra, a Moorish palace and fortress in Granada, Spain. Washington Irving, writer of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle" traveled here in 1828 to eventually publish the book Tales of the Alhambra, about the history and adventures that may have occurred within and around the palace. Interesting huh?

Taken out west on my first real digital camera, a Fuji S5200. Still a favorite of the pictures that I have taken.

Home

As much as my mother would like to disagree, I do enjoy getting to go home every now and then. While moving out to the East Coast is new and exciting there is definitely something to be said about getting home to a place where you can actually see the stars outside. I'm glad I can return to a place where you know the person next to you in line at the grocery store and the person you just passed on the highway was probably one of your former high school teachers. For now however, I'm on an adventure and I hope this adventure will take me many places far from home, but its good to know that there's a place out there that will welcome me no matter where I've been with open arms and probably a cookie or something.

4x5

Working with a 4x5 camera is pretty intense. After you get over spending a small fortune on film you have to load all the film properly...which I didn't actually have to do today cause I have such awesome photo friends that did it while I set up my scene. But every little thing you can adjust to get the focus and depth of field just right is pretty crazy. It really makes you think about why everything is set the way it is. Because it is sooo expensive and finicky you really cant help but put a bunch of effort into getting the photo just how you want it. When I get the transparencies developed I'll scan them in and let you see how they turned out.

Swing Dancin!

Today we learned swing dancing in ballroom dace class (so sick), and that kid up there, is a Blues and Swing master and he's like 9 years old or something. His name is Tallan "T-Man" Latz and here he was at Steel Bridge Songfest in summer 2009. You can find T-Man Here and Steel Bridge Songfest Here.

Snowboarding

Here are two of the few snowboarding shots I've gotten so far this season. They were taken over my holiday break back home in Door County. No mountain nearby so we get what we can at the local sledding hill.

So I figured I'd jump right in and show you what I'm currently working on. This is a project for my Photo Class at RIT. We were to pick a photo and try to recreate it to work on lighting. The top is a Cole Barash photo and the lower by Ryan Robinson.

Cole Barash - Link
Ryan Robinson - Link