And the countdown to November 15th* begins . . .
[*Which is when I will start stalking my phone and email incessantly to find out if I’ll be a White House intern for my master’s project.]
Kelly Schultz: The Triple Threat
The FinalCut presentation of the photos and audio interview for my character on Kelly Schultz will go here shortly. It’s rendering on Vimeo.
In the meantime, here’s my favorite photo from the entire project.
Ahha! The video is finally done. Please note – this is NOT a final but a work in progress. I do not like this presentation as completed here. The audio will be re-edited, and maybe the photos will be re-sequenced. It is only posted because it is a class requirement.
Kelly Schultz: The Triple Threat from Erin Schwartz on Vimeo.
U.S. Senate candidate debate: Missouri style
I had the pleasure of photographing the U.S. Senate candidate debate today out at the Lake of the Ozarks, featuring Democrat and current Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, Republican and former U.S. Congressman Roy Blunt, Constitution party candidate Jerry Beck, and Libertarian candidate Jonathan Dine. Needless to say, Carnahan and Blunt stole the show.
This was my first national race debate, and I can’t wait for the opportunity to photograph more. Come 2012 election, I’ll be ready.
(Click on the pictures for captions.)
MPW.62 – Macon, Mo.
Words cannot describe how I feel about the Missouri Photo Workshop. This year was my third, and I know deep in my heart it will not be my last. Perhaps my photos of the day can maybe begin to explain it.
Thank you, Macon, for being so receptive to us. And thank you to everyone who makes the workshop run. May it continue for many more years to come.
High School Heeler
Sophomore Tanner Brundage looks for his mother’s car on Sept. 16, 2010 outside of Jefferson City High School in Jefferson City, Mo. This was the last time his mother needed to pick him up at the end of the day, as today was his 16th birthday. Immediately after school, he took and passed his driver’s test.
While typical high school boys are involved with the traditional team sports offered by their school, such as football or baseball, Tanner competes in team roping for Missouri High School Rodeo and cowboy mounted shooting with Show Me Mounted Shooters. He began riding horses almost four years ago, and discovered roping after some of his riding friends started lessons with Mark Jobe, a roping instructor in Jefferson City. Many of the teens who compete in Missouri High School Rodeo grew up in rodeo families, but Tanner’s family has only recently been involved. “We’re kinda the rarity,” his mother Kim said. “We’re not the only ones, but most have been doing this forever.”
Tanner waits for his best friend Spenser Epple, 15, to finish putting on his collared shirt – the only dress requirement for this particular rodeo – at a small family rodeo on Saturday, Sept. 11 outside of Vienna, Mo. The boys live across town from each other but see each other regularly in classes at school and at roping practice in Eugene, Mo. every Thursday night.
Gary Kueffer, right, holds tight onto the rope around the calf’s horns while Tanner attempts to catch its heels during an open team roping session at a small family rodeo on Saturday, Sept. 11 outside of Vienna, Mo. The open event allows combined teams of varying ages, letting teenagers compete with the more seasoned adults. Tanner prefers to compete as a heeler, which he says is the more challenging position in roping. He said that according to Mark Jobe, Tanner’s instructor, “You need to be a better roper for the heels, and a better horseman for the head.”
After spending the afternoon competing about six inches of mud, Tanner takes a hose to clean off the tack on his 12-year old horse, Cochise. His friend and neighbor Macy Randolph, 13, patiently waits for her turn, as her earlier attempts to gain control of the hose led to Tanner dousing her with water. While high school rodeo is not an organized team sport, many of the teens in the Jefferson City area practice together.
Hickman, 20; Helias, 17
I went to the first half of Hickman High School’s homecoming game tonight to practice my football shooting. The weather was perfect, and the lens was just delightful – a brandy-new, never before used 300mm lens from Nikon. They provide new gear to the equipment locker at school every year. Now I want one for myself.
Captions to come. It’s late.
Pizza and light.
I like to photograph dinner.
In doing so last night, I had a moment of zen about light.
Overhead. (6400 ISO, 70mm, f/4, 1/90 sec.)
From the side. (3200 ISO, 70mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec.)
Each frame has a similar exposure – not exact, but similar. I had to go to f/4 and increase the exposure by about 1/2 stop on the overhead to get the surface of the veggies sharp. And the 1/125 was a little too dark so I brightened it up about 1/2 stop in post. But still. Look at the difference in the light. The pizza did not move, nor did the lights.
Which do you prefer?
Picture Story: One day story preview
This is where my subject’s horses live, but the horse here is actually his sister’s. (My picture of the day before starting to work on this project.)
My subject in action at a small rodeo on Saturday. He uses these small summer rodeos as practice for High School Rodeo.
Second half of shooting will be on Thursday. More to come.
Picture Story: On the importance of subject
I know I love the Bird By Bird book, so for this set of readings, I decided to go with Bill Jay and David Hurn’s chapter called Selecting a Subject first. I thought maybe I wouldn’t like it as much if I put it second like last week’s selections. Instead, in the second paragraph, I found my inspiration for the day.
“You are not a photographer because you are interested in photography. […] These interests, no matter how personally enjoyable they might be, never lead to the person becoming a photographer. The reason is that photography is only a tool, a vehicle, for expressing or transmitting a passion in something else.” (p. 29-30)
When telling one of my staff photographers about this idea, something made us stand up in the photo bubble and shout “Yes!” as though we’ve finally found someone to vindicate us in our belief that there really is something that separates us from the rest of the world with a camera.
Hurn and Jay’s advice on finding a subject also made me laugh, as I just went through that process in finding one-day story ideas to pitch. I drew up a list and then went through the next day and picked out the most interesting visually and interesting subject to me options. The two stronger ideas were of things that I’m passionate about, or have a true curiosity about.
I also loved how they describe finding a style in your photography. “A unique style, which is what we are talking about, is the by-product of visual exploration, not it’s goal. […] Ironically, by starting with self, it is missed; ignore it, and it becomes evident.” (p. 34-35) I don’t know where they came up with this stuff, but I could eat it up all day.
**
In this installment of Bird by Bird, I finally saw what I was thinking since the beginning – this writer knows, and likely had met, Natalie Goldberg, the author of Writing Down the Bones. When I was a writer in college, someone recommended that book. It’s excellent in getting past your ‘writer’s block’ or ‘creative block’ or whatever ails you in writing. I see many connections between the two books. Perhaps that’s why I love this one so much.
In any case, the two chapters up for reading continue where we left off at content generating. Sometimes the story just isn’t clear yet, but we know we have a location and an event to get us started. Sometimes the main character doesn’t become apparent until we have collected almost all of our content and are nearing the end of the day. Just like the polaroid, she wrote. It all slowly comes into focus as time passes and the story – the picture – develops.
I feel like I’m going to encounter this with my one day story, which I hope will pan out into a final project as well. I have a willing subject, and an idea of what I may or want to see, but it’s just a partially developed polaroid right now. It needs some shaking and time to fully develop into a story.
These readings, as usual, make me want to get up and make pictures, to get started on shaking my polaroid.
(cue Outkast.)
Football lesson #1.
When the football is this large in the frame on your 70-200mm lens, DUCK.
It bounced just to the left of me, flew back up to hit Jeff Lautenberger in the hand, and then veered straight into a TV guy’s camera above Jeff’s head.
It’s always an adventure on the sidelines of a football game.