Just a cool photo that I made.
I say ‘made’ because I saw it happening from across the room, talked to the people to let them know I was taking their photograph, and sat with the frame for a few moments to compose it perfectly before clicking the shutter.
It may not be the most perfect shot, but I saw it and made it. And oh, I love the symmetry.
It wasn’t March.
But it was beautiful out, and there definitely were marchers for this annual parade held as part of the True/False Film Festival.
And one of friends, because they are awesome.
I’m really bad at uploading and blogging images. It’s always been a problem, not just because I’m working some crazy hours this semester. Case in point – I have an entire set of photographs from my move to Missouri that I’ve had on my list to upload and write about, yet they still sit on my computer, waiting.
That was August. Eight and a half months ago.
Oops.
So without further delay, I present the very few images I actually liked from my two-day stint at the Missouri Grand Prix on February 12th and 14th. I’ve never photographed swimming before, and this was a doozy of an event to start with. But all in all, I learned a ton, took a few fun photographs, and can’t wait to give swimming a shot again this summer.
(This was an experiment using liveview to get the right angle and focus. Next time, I’ll spend a little longer in the lane to get that focus point perfect.)
Doug Taylor shows off his award -winning basset hound’s impressive “wingspan” at the 2010 Columbia Kennel Club Dog Show on March 14. Three-year old Cannon Ball won Best in Breed and surprised Taylor with a Best in Group 1 (Hounds) win as well.
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For an assignment that’s supposed to test both your flash color balancing and color correcting skills, I did almost no color correcting to this photo. The biggest thing was doing a spot color correction on a white part of the dog near his neck – my remote trigger (the pop-up flash), while turned off in-in camera, still emits a teeny bit of light. It was enough to throw the color off slightly.
I think I would rather have been told to photograph something in a nasty light with no flash and have to make it work via the photoshop controls. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to do that editing for Vox and the Missourian already. Salvaging someone’s poorly lit take is a very important skill when you NEED those pictures and someone shot it wrong.
Bounce Flash:
Mayoral candidate Bob McDavid answers a question at the forum held Wednesday evening on the University of Missouri’s campus. Audience members provided the questions for the candidates at the event jointly sponsored by the Missouri Students Association and the Associated Students of the University of Missouri. Renters rights and downtown security cameras were hot topics for discussion.
Direct Flash:
Missouri freshman J. J. Bowles, an ambassador of the Associated Students of the University of Missouri, created cards to signal to the candidate speaking that their time was running out for the question at hand. The mayoral forum held in conjunction with the Missouri Students Association on Wednesday featured five of the six candidates running for election in April.
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In full disclosure, the bounce flash photo above ran on the Missourian’s website today as part of the full storyon the forum. I’m covering the mayor’s race for an independent study, and although I didn’t want to do it, I photographed the forum for both class and the Missourian. After much deliberation on which images to hand in for class, I ended up selecting the bounce flash photo above, even though it had already been selected for the online package. It really was one of the best-lit photos with a real, journalistic moment.
This assignment was a rollercoaster of emotions towards my flash (don’t laugh), but I definitely have much more respect for it now. I’ll tame this beast . . . someday.
“Bad Dog”
A news aficionado’s nightmare – coming home to find that your dog Rocco or Princess let loose on the house and destroyed the Sunday paper before reading it – may soon change with the industry’s uncertain future in print.
And here’s the lighting plan.
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Part of me wishes this photo came out more stylized, and the other part LOVES that it could pass as natural light. Every bit of light was deliberate, from making sure the bone is bright to adding a tiny bit of fill on the food in the bowl to get rid of a shadow from the bone. I’m finding that I really like this studio stuff. It’s HARD. But it makes me think, and it feels so rewarding to come away with a frame that makes me happy.
Also, now Scott and I have to get a dog someday. We already have the bowl!
I could really use one of these signs for my life this semester. It’s been non-stop since day one with emails and classes and meetings and photo shoots and editing . . . phew. Just thinking about all the things I’ve done so far makes me exhausted.
The funny thing? I’m loving every moment. I know it’ll be over so fast and I’ll look back and say, “Look what I did!”
Until then, I’ll be sure to catch up on my zzzz’s whenever possible.
Missouri senior Jonathan Hinderliter shows off his sunglasses during a portrait session on February 13, 2010. Hinderliter balances his love of fashion, shoes and shopping with his sharp personality, cynical tendencies and a penchant for arguments.
Lighting diagram for my single-light portrait. I like arrows and stick figures. Reminds me of this.
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Sorry for the unannounced intrusion, blog friends. I’ll be updating on occasion with posts like this – it’s part of my assignment for my photo class. Anything that’s prefixed with “Advanced Techniques” in the title is for the class. The purist in me thought about keeping these kinds of posts relegated to an old blog location, but then I figured it might be fun to keep all my posts together. You’ll see outtakes from various assignments throughout the semester, plus now some finals for submission. Hooray for process! Hooray for blogging!
At least it’ll give me a guaranteed post every so often. I have a list that’s about four topics long of photos I want to blog. Soon, I promise.
Way too many days have passed since I’ve last updated. Hopefully I won’t let that happen again. There are so many awesome things going on, and lots of pictures to go along with them.
There’s also a ton of emails. My phone just buzzed again – it’s 11:43pm on a Friday night. Such is the semester.
Somehow, I’ve managed to take on work that is almost equivalent to taking three photo classes at once. Advanced Techniques is my official photo class, where we’ll be learning all about lighting and making technically better photos. (I’m SO super excited about this class, and I’m not just saying it because this blog will occasionally be taken over by class assignments.)
But then I’m working on an independent study surrounding the mayor’s race, which entails working as a photographer for the Missourian. Granted, it’s not full time like the staff class, but it’s still going to be a lot of work. After a particularly stressful day on Wednesday, I went to cover the first mayor candidate forum and remembered just why I’m here and why I love this job. Moments like this happen more and more often. I love each and every one.
Finally, I’m the Vox magazine photo editor for my assistantship this semester. So while I’m working in Advanced on lighting and photographing for the election coverage with the newspaper, I’m also up at the photo desk managing photo requests and editing shoots for the magazine. And fielding emails. Lots and lots of emails. And attending meetings. Lots and lots of meetings.
And while I’m sitting here astounded that the past week was only a week … I look back at all the work I’ve done so far and wouldn’t change a thing at all. Working long hours is so much more rewarding when I love what I do!
Let’s hope this feeling lasts the entire semester. I’m going to need it.
While this mess has since been cleaned up (mostly) and the paper handed in (I got an A-), it pretty well illustrates how my semester has been (and continues to be).
Right now I’m waiting for 162 RAW files to process to place into a time-lapse of contra dancing. I hope it works. I’ve never done a time-lapse before. I’ve also never done an audio slideshow this in-depth before. Sadly, I’ve done stories before, and this project isn’t really turning out to be one.
I don’t know why I’m getting so worried about this project. Maybe because I feel that a final project should be stellar. Or maybe because I’m just a perfectionist and can’t settle for handing in a “draft.” I took a look at a previous project some by some convergence students – which I didn’t want to see, but now I’m glad I did – and even in it’s baby stage, my project just looks better and sounds better. Maybe not better, per-se, but cleaner for sure. (Okay, I’m going to be honest. It’s way better.)
What I need is an editor. Thank goodness we have a work day tomorrow in class. I hope to get some feedback on the photos and perhaps some of the audio bits too. I’ve edited down a few nice chunks that I can play. Maybe I just need one more point of view about the dancing. Saturday’s it. Crunch time, last dance before the due date.
(I think I can, I think I can, I think I can … )
(one of my favorite photos from the second shoot.)