Playback: Life in Review

Why hallo thar autumn

2009-09-22T23:54:00.003-04:00

Just a few things from Fall Quarter so far.
I should update more.

An update.

2009-07-14T22:13:00.004-04:00

It's been a while since I last updated. Summer has been far busier than I anticipated. I have not had the chance to do much shooting for myself, but I have been doing a fair amount of work for the Springboro Sun, not that children and outdoor concerts are really all that exciting, it's still experience.
I did get to go to Warped Tour in Cleveland last week. Thanks to the rather lax security, I managed to get my D80 and two lenses past the gate (even after having my bag "checked"), so I did get a couple of good shots of the A.K.A.s and Aiden.
For more photos from Warped Tour and some of the things I've been shooting for the Springboro Sun, check out my Flickr!

2009-06-18T08:54:00.002-04:00

I had my first shoot for an actual paper yesterday.
Not that little kids' basketball camp is really that much of a challenge, minus the gym having awful light and my good lens still being MIA somewhere in a Tamron warehouse.
Still, it's a step in the right direction.

America

2009-06-03T23:06:00.003-04:00

Memorial Day and little league, what could be more American?

An update

2009-05-27T16:05:00.005-04:00

Just some random things from life lately. (Portrait for class, "slice of life" assignment, fireworks, and boyfriend!)

Went to Columbus to see Third Eye Blind on Friday (May 22nd) with the boyfriend, which was great. Amazing band. Surprisingly it was the most intense show I've ever been to...or maybe I've just never been that much in the middle of the crowd anymore. Either way, great experience.

I also went to Riverblast in Dayton and then to a Memorial Day commemoration while I was at home. Pictures from the service to come.

Moments

2009-05-06T21:12:00.005-04:00

Hookah on College Green and Cinco de Mayo festivities.
Athens is home to some interesting people.

A little out of place.

2009-05-04T23:24:00.002-04:00

This is why one should always carry a camera.

This week in Athens

2009-04-22T19:48:00.007-04:00

Just some interesting things that I ran across this week...

Wishing for summer...

2009-04-19T17:53:00.005-04:00

I think I'm getting desperate for the sun and a bit of freedom.

Oh what fun!

2009-04-05T20:21:00.006-04:00

First weekend back at OU, and it was busy, busy, busy. I did, however, get a chance to relax for a bit with some friends at the Donkey where we had some good conversation and laughs. It's nice to get a few moments to chill with some fair trade coffee and some good friends, especially with a quarter that's shaping up like this one.

By a happy chance I have an assignment to shoot pictures of Court street and on Sunday (April 5th) there was a marathon and a half marathon starting at the intersection of Court and Union at 9 o'clock in the morning. The street was pretty packed with runners but I ran into a professional photographer there who tipped a couple of us off that there was a balcony with free access with a great view of the starting line. It was a pretty interesting vantage point, and I got some nice shots of the start of the race. (More on my Flickr, along with a copy of my portraiture portfolio)

I also took this photo, which I love, but sadly I couldn't get through the crowd in order to get the caption information before they all dispersed and disappeared into the melee, so I can't turn it in for class. Oh well. I don't know what it is though, maybe the light or the subject itself, but I really do love this photograph.

And one final one, just for laughs...there's just something amusing about ROTC guys running with a cannon down Court Street and stopping at a red light.

Big Baby

2009-03-29T10:28:00.001-04:00

Going back to school means I'm going to miss my cat.

Business cards?

2009-03-24T22:24:00.004-04:00

Today I came across a package of ready to print business card sheets, and decided that maybe I can make myself some business cards after all.
Here's my design...let me know what you think...I'm not sure how I feel about it at the moment.

Edit:
So, on account of the fact that none of the computers in my house have colored ink, the card design changed a bit...
I think I like this one better.

Upon arriving home...

2009-03-18T22:47:00.003-04:00

I discovered that my new Tamron (I'm poor) 70-200mm f/2.8 lens had arrived!That's it on my Nikon N75 35mm film camera. I think over break I'm going to take some film shots and hopefully do some developing and printing at the high school. Can't wait to be back in the darkroom!

Other things on the list of things to do over break...
- Figure out Twitter
- Spruce up the blog
- Apply to photo studios for a summer job
- Read Les Miserables
- Look into buying a medium format film camera
- RELAX!

I'm glad to be back.
I missed my cat while I was at school...

Flying!

2009-03-08T11:25:00.005-04:00

So yesterday Thomas took me flying! This was our plane.

Ohio from the sky!

I even got to fly it for a few minutes. Too bad I couldn't see over the dashboard! Add that to the need for a puke bag (twice) and I guess I'm just not pilot material. Still, it was quite an experience!

I tried.

2009-03-06T23:17:00.003-05:00

Free Supper happens every Thursday and Saturday at the UCM on College street in Athens.

Both student volunteers and members of the community come to enjoy a hot meal at the Free supper.
Here Geary Gilkey and Kyle Uckert chat after dinner.

Geary Gilkey and his wife Francis come to the Free Supper almost every Thursday to enjoy a homecooked meal.
While Geary is distracted by one of the volunteers, Francis swipes the pretzels from his tray to wrap up and take home for later.

"She's my go-getter," Geary says about his wife, Francis.
The couple has been together for 21 years after he proposed the same day that they met.

Geary is quite the animated story-teller, and he has a multitude of expressions to accompany each tale.

My back-up photo story...or it was until the real one turned out to be sort of a dud. I guess it happens. At least I made sure to have a back-up, however weak it is, eh?

The print lab is the bane of my existance.

2009-03-03T18:30:00.005-05:00

So, while OU is awesome and has this renowned program for photojournalism and visual communications and whatnot, I find it kind of disconcerting when the printer in the computer lab never seems to be capable of working. It just baffles me that we've supposedly got this amazing working environment, yet it is next to impossible to print something without waiting an hour and a half, having to "double up" with a complete stranger on the 13x16 printer, and having the print itself come out the wrong size.
Sorry for the unprofessional rant blog...
All I wanted was this picture...and to have not missed dinner.

Since the Last

2009-02-24T19:16:00.005-05:00

It seems like it's been a while...

I've shot a couple of different things since my last post.

First there was the Community Service Project of the Week, which took place at the New To You thrift store just outside of downtown Athens. Volunteers helped clean and organize the displays in the store on Saturday morning.

Then, later that night was my friend Jessica's 19th birthday party in the TV room in Washington Hall. Cake, pizza, singing, and Twister all followed.
Finally, I shot some pictures at the Hip Hop Shop at the Union on Monday night. First time ever using a strobe, which was an interesting experience. In fact, in general it was an interesting foray into a different side of Athens' culture that I've never seen before, and it was pretty fun.

Through the Window

2009-02-16T14:03:00.003-05:00

There's gray sunlight filtering in through the window. The lousy view of a parking lot, power lines, winter-bare trees, and an apartment block looks bleak, unwelcoming, and gray. There isn't a lot to say on a day like today, just a lot to think and feel and wish.
The electric kettle purrs on the floor, like some hard plastic replacement for a pet left behind at home. The scent of instant coffee is nauseating yet necessary, the taste delectably vile. Snowflakes flutter past the window pane, and I pull my blanket a little bit closer. This room is never quite warm enough, except on the few occasions when it's too hot. It never smells so great either, last night's microwavable gourmet concoction mixed with slightly molding garbage and the overlaying blanket scent of Febreeze.
Such is college life.
The coffee cup burns to touch and hurts to swallow. Coffee is one of those strange masochistic things that humans seem to feel the need to find enjoyment in. It looks like dirt and in most cases tastes just as great. It's only the scent and the side-effects that we like. Seems like an awful lot of trouble for a buzz.
Not that I don't drink it almost every day. Once again, I plead “college”.
The snow is picking up a little. It looks like the inside of a snow-globe, except instead of waving snowmen or cheerful little gingerbread houses, it's just simple people and simple lives carrying on their day-to-day banality that are trapped inside the glass. People are walking to class or home or work, holding their coats closed against the cold, hunching their shoulders under the weight of their backpacks, or against the wind, or maybe both. Once in a while a car drives past and the tires against the road sound strangely reminiscent of rolling ocean waves washing across the sand. If I close my eyes I can almost imagine there's a stretch of white sand and blue water just outside the window instead of dead grass and tarmac that the snow never quite manages to reach.
They always teach us that every snowflake is different and unique, just like all of us; but they all look the same to me. Plain, white, and lost, caught in a breeze that's so much bigger and faster and stronger. Maybe we really are like them, caught up in circumstances we can't handle and pushed around by a whirlwind of events that we can't control.
Seems like a rather nihilistic view of life. Maybe it's true, or maybe I'm just a cynic.
The snow has stopped swirling now. I wish the words would stop too, but they won't. I wish at least they'd make sense, but they won't do that either. That's my curse, to think and feel and have no way to make sense of it all. Pretty words in black and white can only do so much. Everything these days is just pixels on a page, and there's no escaping that.

Sibsfest!

2009-02-10T19:57:00.011-05:00

Last weekend (February 7th and 8th) was Sibs Weekend here at Ohio University. I don't have any siblings, but I did have a general news assignment for class, so I decided I'd check out the festivities and hope to capture some kiddies having fun with their big brothers and sisters (or cousins, etc). So here are some shots from Sibsfest at the Ping Recreational Center on Saturday afternoon, mostly centered around the "traveling magician" Stephen Dixon, who went from table to table entertaining people along the way.

Perfection

2009-02-06T01:48:00.003-05:00

It's one of those days where the air is so cold that you can feel the inside of your chest beginning to freeze as you take a breath. There isn't a cloud in the sky and the blue is so bright that it almost burns to look heavenward. The sunlight seems to shimmer off the white bark of silver birch trees and the patches of ice resting on the uneven cobble stones.
Sometimes the most ordinary things just look a little more beautiful after a couple of cups of coffee.
There's a picture here, waiting to be taken; a moment in time that's just begging to be captured and shared. It's nothing special, and yet it's one of those moments where the light is just right and something mundane is suddenly extraordinary. The bare branches of the trees up above frame a weather vane, glinting golden in the morning sun. A lone bird sweeps by, dark against the blinding blue. Everything glows with the light of a perfect winter's day.
And yet...I have no desire to try to contain this moment in a cage of pixels to file away on a hard-drive, a couple of megabytes nestled between sociology notes and a few MP3s. A photograph cannot ever express this. It can never cause that burning in your chest as you suck in the frigid air and expel a miniature cloud that swirls from your lips and disperses into the immaculately crisp day, nor can it tickle the insides of your nose with the clean scent of frost tipped grass that rides nonchalantly on the faint breeze. There is some beauty that must simply be felt, not just seen...and call me selfish, but just this once I want to keep it all for myself.

Not photography, sort of anti-photography really. It just seemed pertinent.

Artists

2009-02-01T18:48:00.006-05:00

Well, I figured as a start to my photoblog, I'd put up some images from my latest VICO 222 assignment (artists/artisans) up here.

Our House

2008-10-17T11:22:00.002-04:00

I'd like to live here. It's nothing fancy. To be honest, it's downright shitty. There's grime on the windows, leaves and cigarette butts and the remains of dinner two nights ago scattered across the front porch. The doorbell doesn't ring anymore. A three-week-old local newspaper is still jammed in the corner beneath the door, dusted with chips of peeling purple paint. The couch pushed up against the front window has mould on it and a stain that might be anything from beer to blood. The front steps don't sit quite right on the ground and don't line up with the edge of the porch either. I think it'll be okay.
There's a big wall-hanging in the living room, visible through the uncovered picture window. It looks like one of those big table cloths that you buy from an “alternative” store. You know, the ones made of scraps of colored fabric with shiny bits of glass sewn onto it, probably by some poor little Mexican girl working for a couple of cents an hour. It's a nice touch.
I can see the kitchen in my mind. Tiny cooker in the corner, crusty with decades of dinners never quite cleaned up all the way. There's mildew on the ceiling from the rising steam. The faucet over the grungy sink leaks; a faint drip, drip, dripping is the only sound. The microwave clock blinks tiny green 0s as if time doesn't touch this place. The linoleum floor cries out for the touch of a mop, like a child that hasn't been given enough love and attention. The scent of grease and coffee hangs in the air like a cloud, filling the small space with its presence.
The sun is coming up, peeking through the clouds, reaching its long fingers through the dirty windows to caress the jumble of mismatched furniture scattered across the floor. Shafts of golden morning light illuminate an ocean of swimming dust particles, glinting as they flutter and swirl through the room and come to rest on the threadbare carpet.
It's nothing much, but I think we could be happy here.
That one took my by surprise. I wasn't expecting that thought to come wandering into my brain. That's not like me, but there you have it.
The sun rises higher in the sky and glares golden off of the window, shining into my eyes and obscuring my view into the room. It's time to move on and let my feet carry me away down the cracked and broken sidewalk: back to reality.