Accordion to Who?

A non-facial portrait I shot last night for my portrait class. It was sort of last minute but it turned out pretty nicely I think.

Findings

A pink shirt, some driftwood, a unexpected 2 and 1/2 hour hike, two heads, and one Keystone Light later. . . I present a blogpost.

Scenes from the Texas Leica

Just about 1/100 of the film I've been shooting/scanning. I have to get in gear and get some color film, but I'm just having some fun exploring with new eyes. It's nice to shoot film after shooting so much digital just because now I have so much more of a grasp on the technical aspect of photography than I did when I started shooting about 3 years ago on an old Canon AE-1, now I just have to worry about my film turning out looking like an accordion from Walmart or me messing up the scans. I'm not quite sure how I ended up with a double exposure for the sixth one down, but I'm happy with the accident.

A Little Color to the Mix

Love Hate Film

I've been checking out the schools Mamiya 645 with a 80 2.8 lately and I've really enjoyed it.

But, this shot is with the trusty Holga.

I would have to be blind not to notice the difference between a camera costing $3000 and one costing $25.00, but for some reason I have yet to get scanning right and most of my film comes out looking like a Beck album cover, or just giant blobs of technicolor.  The scans don't do the frames justice in their quality, but bare with the technical difficulties.

Singer Songwriter Jay Hill

This is Jay Hill, a wonderfully talented singer songwriter from Boone County, West Virginia. I met him while shooting a little assignment for South East Ohio magazine this weekend. I spent the day with the writer and Jay as he took us around his small quaint home town and told us stories of his sometimes unbelievable life experiences. The guitar he plays with actually belonged to Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, the boots he wears are from a dead man, and his music partner Jesco White is of a different breed all together. As we arrived at 11:30am we were kindly offered a drink of whiskey and after an hour or so of hearing of his life and love of music as well as being treated to a few songs in his kitchen, we were off to his local bar owned by his aunt, which is also conveniently located next to the courthouse, jail, and Church of Christ, where we were treated to the company of a mouthy local and visited by a woman and her pet monkey.

Although we never met up with Jessi, we heard plenty of stories which painted a legendary image in our minds. Simply put, the day was one for the books, and will replay in my mind for a long time to come.

No Smiling in the Skull

A couple classmate portraits I took for the first portraiture assignment. I think I'm really going to enjoy this quarter of photography. I've always been interested in portraits and am hoping to create a body of work from this quarter that is somehow connected. Still searching for some good faces and places.

Dandelion

Just found this little guy laying on the ground looking a little crushed this afternoon and related to him on this Easter Sunday. The sun is warm and bright today, but no matter how bright things seem, there's always darkness creeping in around the edges, especially when we are already a little broken down.

Passing Over

Easter weekend and a lot of people on campus are going home. My parking lot is looking pretty empty and I saw another parking lot get a little emptier today. Just thought I'd make a post as I sit around here in my empty apartment at 4am as a snuggie commercial comes on TV.

Night Sunshine

Just a couple snaps. The first frame was from the back of my friends car while we were leaving a bar after a couple rounds of darts. It really reminds me of the movie Sunshine and now I have quiet the hankering to watch it. Nothing too special about bubbles other than they're bubbles. 

Update on Life

So I realize I have not been the best blogger as of late. I've been shooting more and more, but have yet to really shoot anything of substance, so I've been subconsciously holding back on posting because I feel like my blog has become too bloggish in the sense that I have only been posting personal photographs. . . I think its the idea that's being drilled into my head that many professionals within the photo community find and look at blogs, facebook, myspace, flickr, and the likes and judge you based upon what they see there. Just today I got a warning about not putting up photos that might incriminate you or show unprofessional behavior (the warning wasn't directed towards me specifically, just a class in general).

I think that it boils down to whether or not the photos are of high quality and represent that photographer as a person/professional. I find the photos I post whether they are from my day to day life or from a project or from class are the photos that I love to make. In my life I hope to strive to make great documentary work that is meaningful and hopefully helpful to some, but at this point in my life I feel all life is just as worthy of documenting no matter how mundane or personal. After all, in my mind and heart these are the pictures that I love to make and mean the most to me.

I was recently turned on to the works of Clayton Cubitt by Erica McKeehen (a really great and insightful commercial major here at OU . . . and I forgot to mention my girlfriend). Cubitt's work made me realize that if somebody can make images as conceptually absence and intense as this then I can take photos of anything that pleases me and keeps my love of photography fresh.