What's Been In Front of Me

I honestly can't remember the last time I've stepped outside without my camera around my shoulder in the last 3 years. Sad to say, I didn't really shoot that much for the amount of tissue damage I've probably done to my shoulder. I had to dwell on technical stuff, but I think it had something to do with my old camera and knowing that when I made a frame it wouldn't turn out quite as nice as I wanted it to just because the old 30D just wasn't making the cut anymore. I just feel a little more confident shooting again with a camera that has such nice quality. Now the only pressure is if I can't make a nice frame I can't blame it on my camera.

I've been trying to let go a bit. For a while I've had a mindset when I go out to shoot: whatever I would normally shoot, shoot the exact opposite, or shoot something as oddly as possible. I don't really know if it has shown in my work or if I've really been successful at it yet, but I'm trying. The world is a strange and beautiful place filled with equally strange and beautiful people I'm finding, so I figure I might as well shoot things how they really are, or at least how I see things in my mind.

My New Limb

I couldn't resist heading up to Columbus this afternoon after one of my finals to get my 5d mkii. We'll its more like I couldn't resist putting off writing my final anthropology paper to go up and get it, then I couldn't resist making a few frames on my ride home, then I couldn't resist taking a break from writing to d/l the new camera RAW plugin, and of course after all this work I couldn't resist toning up a couple frames and blogging about my final night of procrastination of the quarter.

Nothing special photo wise, but just thought I would share what I saw out of my car window, good thing there isn't a picture of what I looked like as I shot these with a big dumb grin on my face.

Sky Blue Sky

More pictures of friends than I really should have. 

Too many bright yellow walls to hurt my eyes.

Far too many photo ops for one friend to handle.

Just enough milkshake for two.

Hanging Out with Friends

This picturesque scene from uptown Athens is a little . . . backwards. Knowing Kat and knowing Sean I'm pretty sure the emotion went the other way. I only wish this was candid. 

Hospice

I've been trying to spend time with a hospice nurse for a few weeks now and finally worked out the kinks and got permission from two patients. The visit was fairly short but within that time I realized how difficult it is to work in sensitive situations. The man we visited was suffering from congestive heart failure and was in fairly bad shape this morning. He could barely stay awake or move, and his wife told the nurse he told her "This is my time. This is my time do die" earlier that day. I hope he is feeling a little better next time I go out, I'm looking forward to hearing some of his stories and spending more time with him and his wife.

Think I'll hold off on posting photos of the patient for now.

Getting Outside

The warm weather has warmed my cold nerves. I've had a lot of trouble with how I think about photography lately and being able to talk to people to get into their lives. These frames are from New Straitsville, Ohio and I owe all of them to Ryan, who's been working on a really nice, inspiring story about a large family living in very low conditions and I tagged along with him tonight as he went out to hang with them. It was nice to be able to shoot something that wasn't an event or somebody building something for once. . . which is my own fault and has really shown me where I need to grow as a person and photographer. The kids in the family are really interesting. I like that they are so satisfied in their lives and have surprisingly inspiring mindsets and dispositions. The lives they are growing up in are something so foreign to me, hard and unforgiving to say the least, yet they are surprisingly good people just doomed to a life that won't let them become the people they wish to be. 

Quote of the night: "It don't hurt, it just tastes bad." said Zaniel on the concept of being forced to repeatedly eat dirt by his older brother.

Days of My Life

Just a couple scenes of my life recently. I didn't notice how contrary the second set of photos are until I was going through some frames from tonight. Just a couple scenes on the Highway about 30 minutes from one another. Its funny how the scenery can change so quickly. Kind of wish I had something more profound to say about that, but I'm falling short. Sorry.