A look at myself...

I've found that through the time that I've spent learning photography, that I look at things in a whole new light. You find beauty in the strangest places. With art concepts and techniques, things that are old, ugly and disgusting become beautiful imagery through a lens.



A charred fire-grill, as the flames kiss the metal, produces images of sharp contrast between light and darkness, color and absence of color. Pattern means chaos.



Light after sunset. Yellow contrasting the Blue. Light contrasting the inevitable darkness. Substance against the lack of subtances.
This light pole seems to be illuminating the blue in the sky.



This porch lamp exhibits the same principles. When you see it on the porch, it appears to be uninteresting, but through the lens, it becomes beautiful.



Sometimes, as a photographer, you have to modify 'traditional' photographic perspective to create an emotion that doesn't exist to the naked eye. The child above exhibits movement against a still setting. She seems to glow, and her ghost like exposure, almost gives a reminiscent feeling.

Here are some other examples.








Some self portraits I made Friday evening.



The last picture, I think, represents the dichotomy of self. Contrast from within. Being torn into two different directions, feeling a multitude of emotions, and even through difficult decisions, we find that new opportunities arise, if we're just willing to look in that direction.



Until next time...

Saturday photo-shoot

....from Old Main to Dickson.



Today's photo shoot with a couple from church started at Old Main and worked its way down Dickson Street, where they bought me lunch for my time at Hog Haus. I got a few random shots in along the way, so here are some things I saw...



I've learned that texture is everything. Anyone can take this picture of the brick path, but it's artistically stimulating. The pattern gives us order, but the rustic look indicates age and character. There is a story to tell here. Maybe hundreds, or thousands of stories. Tens of thousands of lives have walked this path and I wonder what their stories are.



George's Majestic Lounge has a REALLY cool door!



Bored in Hog Haus and wanting to use my camera so more.



We sat on the balcony of Hog Haus and this bird kept flying away and back with new food. We even saw it fly to the stop light and miss someone's car in its droppings. Ten bonus points to whoever can tell me what TYPE of bird it is.



And we were careful not to spill our drinks into this drain.



The photo shoot itself was decent. It's my first 'couple' session and was trying to figure how/where/what to direct my models to do/pose.











This was a session of about 300 photos. I kept 113 for my first round of editing and ended with about 40 good ones. Not a bad day at all.

I may get another photo session in this weekend with a family, as well as another softball game (hopefully).

The following week Chicago.

Utter Randomness

I spent the weekend at home. It was my last trip to my hometown before moving to Brazil. I'm down to 6 weeks, folks. I went for a walk when it wasn't raining and before eating at Wiederkehr's Restaurant and got a few pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera to the restaurant because it's very dark, but because of the formal setting, I didn't want to distract people with my gigantic flash.



A pond just off my parents' property and the adjoining road.



Time always moves on...



There weren't many nice flowers around Johnson Regional Medical Center, but there were a few small ones on the backside. Almost a private patio. I'm going to give some suggestions. That hospital needs to improve its landscaping. Ironic...to say the least - especially if you know much about my family.




Another set of flowers, with some photoshop color editing.



A recent effect I learned in photoshop...CS4.

There are better scenarios where this effect would work, but my father was in the hospital, and I was just trying to get some pictures while it wasn't raining.


An Finally - I also got to hit another item on my pre-Brazil bucket list.
Sunrise Cafe Chicken & Waffles...

don't be fooled..it's exactly what they say it is. Chicken & Waffles. The chicken was good. The waffle was good, but I'm not convinced that they go well together, but granted, it wasn't bad.



Not much to show this week, but I've got some major events coming up.

Possibly two photo shoots this weekend.

At the end of May, I'm taking a business trip to Joliet, IL (30 miles outside of Chicago). With some of my free-time, I thought I'd take my camera to some bucket list items.

Cubs game at Wrigley Field (LA Dodgers weekend)
Various other sites


So, hopefully with these events, the next few weeks will be more interesting. Weather this past few weeks has been horrid on a weekend photographer such as myself.

Just 6 more weeks til Brazil - when the real photography begins...

until next time...