Student Report# I have no idea.

What did you accomplish in the last week?
In the past week, I've worked on my personal project, having taken a few old photos from Facebook, and editing them to fit the theme. I've also started a third series, this time fully in black and white.

What problems did you encounter this week? 
Having to take my AP art exam knowing I lost my updated breadth, never did a concentration book due to ever changing ideas, and not having a solid set of photos to use for my concentration.


What do you plan to do and/or accomplish in the next week?
In the next week, I'm not entirely sure what is going to happen. A show Sunday, and a few days off in which I can go places and take my portraits. I just have to decide whether or not I can actually go through with it.

What provided you with satisfaction this week?
Starting my B&W series made me pretty happy, but that is more or less the extent of my artistic satisfaction.

What were you unhappy or dissatisfied with this past week?
I am extremely unhappy with AP. All my work and potential to have a portfolio I am proud of has gone down the drain with little chance at being rescued, and it has just now truly hit me.   

Student Report# Something or another.

What did you accomplish in the last week?
Considering what has happened concerning my computer, external hardrive, and school computer, virtually nothing. But, I did start one new series of photos that I have been wanting to start for weeks now, and one other joke set that has yet to be announced.

What problems did you encounter this week?
Technology hates me. My external hard drive is busted, my school laptop with my entire Breadth crashed, and my personal laptop is now in this state of Limbo, where it turns on for a wee bit of time, and then proceeds to shut off again. I have stopped attempting to turn it on for fear that it makes the problem worse.

What do you plan to do and/or accomplish in the next week?
A goal I have recently given myself is to go up to complete strangers, and ask them to pose for a few photos. I don't have much hope for the photos coming out amazingly, but just to let go of my anti-socialism and approach someone will be a humongous success for me.

What provided you with satisfaction this week?
Starting my new series is more or less the highlight of my week.  Whether or not I can use this series for my Third concentration, I still don't know. But I'm glad I just got it going.

What were you unhappy or dissatisfied with this past week?
I am unhappy with technology. Incredibly unhappy. It needs to not die around me.    

Thank You, Clay Enos.

As of late, I've been having a bad time with things. Not only with my photography, but just in general. So, despite my better judgement, I dedicated an afternoon solely to MyModernMet. I looked at 20 or so sets of photos. Watched a couple of artsy videos (Like Tick Tock from a few entries ago) and a few How-To's. One in particular was a how-to on Street Portraiture.

And I was completely blown away.

Clay Enos, who took photos for Watchmen and Sucker Punch, was litterally stopping complete and total strangers on the street, and asking them to pose for a few photos. All he had was a Nikon (forgot what model it was), a 50 mm lens, and a white backdrop. He found a corner of a building that was completely in the shade, taped up the backdrop, and started shooting. And they came out amazing! Obviously if he's taking photos for movies and having videos dedicated to what he does put up on one of my favorite sites, he mus be pretty talented. But the photos are so simple, and in that simplicity, even better.

I have always been caught up in having the proper lighting, planning on getting a lighting kit with umbrellas and reflectors and all that jazz. But just yesterday, I had a photoshoot with Brittney R. for her own WISE project and she brought a light kit from TV production. It was terrible! Absolutely terrible! First off, getting the lights to cooperate was a challenge, figuring out how I would set them up. Then I couldn't find the right settings on my camera to compensate for the orange light bulbs (i forget what type of light bulb that is, and will probably correct this when I find out). I ended up shutting off the lights and just using my flash. And on top of that, I realised just how hard it is for me to give my models any kind of direction whatsoever. She liked a few, but I didn't hear the kind of enthusiasm that is generally reward enough for any of my photos.

I think that's why it's so hard for me to charge bands I've been shooting for the better part of a year to get the photos I would have taken anyway. The kids in the ska scene in particular are just so psyched to see my pictures and I've received such praise from them,  it kills when I don't put up photos for them to enjoy.

But, having gone way off topic, I digress.

Thanks to Clay, I've been inspired to get back to what are essentially the roots of my photographic ability. What really made me take up photography as a hobby was taking photos of my friends. And now, after much too long, I have returned. Having looked through near hundreds of photographer's portfolio's, I'm starting to get a better idea of how they developed their "Voice," what makes a viewer instantly know that it is their work.

Now, I don't have something completely new and entirely my own, but I've started with editing my portraits a bit; lowering the saturation and increasing the contrast to make them stand a part from just regular snap shots. It isn't much, but I still think its a much needed step in the right direction, away from being "the artistic mute." Hopefully something will happen with my rapidly increasing series of Subdued Shots, but frankly only time will tell. I just can't over think it like I do with every other aspect of anything to ever exist ever. That leads to frustration, from frustration to anger, anger to hatred, and eventually I hit the dark side.

I completely botched that Star Wars quote. Beg I forgiveness, Yoda.

I Feel Numb

Saturday the 19th was a very rough day. Some personal stuff happened and I had to leave hanging out with my little sister to go to Talent Farm for a show. First off, I biked from Ikea there in an hour, leaving me exhausted, just to find out that they pushed the show back another half hour.

So I'm tired, pissed off, and personal stuff. And then Sydney E shows up and asks if I'm taking pictures for the bands. I am, so she talks to her band mate and agrees that they might be up to paying me for their set.

The first band to legitimately agree to pay me for a show. I paid close attention to them and tried to get as many shots as I could.

Then some more personal stuff walked through the door and tap me on the shoulder.

The three of the other bands I have listened to before -King Rooster, Enrique's Revenge, and Reverie- and I knew they weren't planning on paying me for my photos. So this gave me the perfect opportunity to mess around and get really creative.

• Use my telephoto add-on lens with my 18-70 lens instead of just the 50mm. If used one way, it created a gentle vignette effect, which was pretty fun on the spot. But if used another way, and probably with a large file instead of medium, it would create a fish-eye effect. I have always liked how fish-eye photos come out, thinking they could lead to some pretty interesting portraits and proportion-play, but not enough to ever want to invest in a fish-eye lens. But now I have the DIY version. 
• Slow down my shutter speed and prop myself/camera up against a wall or my knee. When I took the photo, it stayed open for a few seconds, and after it was done processing, I would see a still stage and background, but actually have the motion of the crowd moving. Which would have been perfect for my AP concentration

 I played around with different flash settings which created two very interesting effects.

• One was that with the flashing multi-colored lights in the venue, I would have a "normal" version of someone in their starting position, and then multi-colored lines of the motion they made in the two seconds after. Instead of the blur lines showing where the person was, the lines showed where they were going.
• The second, which I discovered first, was what called "The Ring" effect by a friend of mine on the spot. I never saw the movie, but the best way I could visually describe it is with Back to the Future. When McFly is looking at the photo of him and his family, and they are slowly fading away leaving the background. Thats what I accidentally re-created. If I had to guess what exactly happened, I would have to say that my flash caught what was happening in that second, but things that were moving faster then the bulk slowly faded out because they were too fast. (ex: the legs of my friend Ben as he was swung about by Sam, a big, big man). I plan on re-re-creating the effects of this one in my studio if I can, and if not, at the next small venue show I go to.

After the show was over, the other band I didn't know, They Cage The Animals, came up to me and asked to see my photos I took of their set. I only took 70 photos of them, most of which were too blurry. But they still paid me $20 bucks on the spot for them. They gave me an email, and I ended the night on a high note.

Cut to Sunday night. I'm tired from AIDS Walk, mentally fried for a lot of personal stuff, and just trying to work on my photos from the night before for my Concentration/Personal Portfolio.

That is when my laptop decided to overheat. And crash.

I haven't been able to backup the majority of my personal photos, along with all the work I had done over the break. So I'll just list everything I probably lost for good.

1. Thousands of photos from my Sophmore and Junior years, and a couple hundred from my Senior Year.
2. My essay for the UCF application that I'm only doing to make my sister happy, not actually thinking I'm going to be able to go anyway.
3. My AP Concentration commentary.
4. My personal portfolio. From near a million photos I've taken in my short life, I had narrowed it down to a couple hundred which I was still in the process of narrowing further.
5. A couple hundred studio self-portrait shots I had done to practice different lighting effects.
6. Three AP Concentration pieces that I had been editing in photoshop.
7. The photos of the only two bands willing to actually pay me for my work. I am now going to have to refund TCTA if I am not able to recover the files. 
8. The photos I had set aside to be used for my WISE preview video. 
9. The will to continue AP Art (again) and pursue photography as a career. Just as I start to backup photos I'm getting paid for, my laptop crashes. If that isn't a sign that maybe this isn't for me, I don't know what is.

This morning, I actually had a 5 minute fight with myself as to whether or not I should bother bringing my camera to school.

I did, but only cause I have a reputation to uphold.

Not Too Deep

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Just too videos that made me think. And almost cry. In the middle of the library. When I should be doing my work.

the song to the second video "Anthem" by Emancipator

Student Report #6

What did you accomplish in the last week?
In this last week, I did some minor practice stuff but my biggest accomplishment was covering the Streetlight Manifesto concert. Over 700 photos were taken, a good portion I know to be at least decent.

What problems did you encounter this week?
I didn't encounter any problems this week aside from problems with getting the right settings during the Children of Eden play.

What do you plan to do and/or accomplish in the next week?
In the next week/over Spring Break I have to edit/sort all of my photos and write my review by Monday. But tomorrow, I am going to RenFest with my little sister and hopefully taking a couple hundred photos.

What provided you with satisfaction this week?
Streetlight Manifesto and finally accomplishing one of my biggest dreams.

What were you unhappy or dissatisfied with this past week?
I was extremely dissatisfied with my Children of Eden photos. Of the photos I took, very few of them are even worth sharing.    

Still Mind Blown

Last night was the night I've needed since my accident 7-8 weeks ago. Before I continue any further, I would just like to point out that there truly are no words that can accurately describe how incredibly happy I was nor how I am still high off of a Ska induced euphoria. (Note: I was not actually high, nor have I ever been. But this was the closest to that splendid bliss I have ever experienced. Ever. And I loved it.)


While leaving school early to go eat lunch at POC with Connor was a definite high point of my week, covering Streetlight Manifesto at Culture Room is quite possibly the best thing to have happened in all of 2011 (so far). As I write this, I am honestly still in shock that I was actually there. I still have to write my actual review for the show and edit/sort my photos from the over 700 taken (for three bands only) but I want to include some of my highlights.

• First off, Larry and His Flask. Quite possibly one of my new favorite bands to photograph ever. There is an ungodly amount of energy in this group, specifically in the Upright Bass player, who honestly plays like a man possessed. It was beautiful to watch.
• Sam Gallerstein. During one of the first few songs of Streetlight Manifesto, I ran into my friends from Enrique's Revenge. The trumpet player, Sam, helped me fulfill one of my biggest dreams. Ever since SkaFest 2010, I have always dreamed of being that one photographer crazy enough to get lifted above the crowd to take photos of the Headliner. Sam, the huge man he is, throws me onto his shoulder (despite my hesitance) and just holds me above everyone. It took a second for me to collect myself and actually start taking photos, but it was breathtaking. And even though I had security more or less tear me off of his shoulder, those two minutes were absolutely amazing. It didn't stop there. The majority of the set, Sam was at my back, helping me take photos. Pushing people out of the way so I can get a shot, directing my arms as I held the camera far above my head. Just being the most helpful guy I have had the pleasure of knowing.
• Streetlight Manifesto. One of the better known Ska Bands, even by those who don't listen to Ska. And I am getting paid to write a review for them. I am getting paid for the most amazing show I've been to. I am getting paid to be happy. Holy christ... for four hours, life was just Perfect.

I'm actually really having a hard time getting my thoughts together, so I'll stop before I continue babbling. Tonight I'm possibly going to see Children of Eden again, without my camera. But before that, I shall be attempting to sort out my 700+ photos. My worst fear right now is that my memory card will just... Die, more or less. It has a tendancy to mix up all the files and make all of my images virtually impossible to get to. And should I get my photos onto my computer, I will immediately upload them to my external hardrive, even if it takes hours to do so.