Paper Studio

Thought I'd procrastinate a little today and play around with the camera.  I set up a piece of paper and bounced the 383 off the roof.  White balancing in PP was the hardest thing ever!  Right when you think you have it, you go to the next photo, come back, and it looks too green or blue or pink!  Its not helping that they are all here next to each other now.

Last weekend's fun.
Room mate's "quikfish"
Shell
Good luck charm.  An old present.
And quite possibly the most valuable thing in my life right now.  Without these my manual focus skills would be non-existant.   These bad boys beat glasses any day. Only downside is when downhilling...if dirt gets in there...it's not goin anywhere!

PEACE!

Tomato Soup

No real pics today.  Got some groceries on the way home tonight.  I used to hate tomato soup but after the Crater Lake shenanigan, it gained my respect.  I think every time I eat some tomato soup, I'm going to think of Crater Lake whether I like it or not.

Paper snowboarder Dan Treadway checkin out tonight's soup dinner.

lata

Ghetto Vintage Monday #2

So... I slacked and didn't take G5 shots for this Monday.  Still in developmental stages obviously... 

Here are some old ones:

No insightful thoughts on anything either.

Bluegrass

Last week's assignment had me shooting Siskiyou Summit, a local bluegrass band.  It was fun... but I felt limited as to where/how I could shoot.  There was student dancing in the back but whenever I went back there, they got all shy and quit dancing.  I haven't thought about much in the photography department this last week.  Hopefully that will change this coming week.


Glenn insisted that I took a picture of his old guitar.  I asked about it and he told me a interesting story about how he bought it from a fan a while back.  This was most definitely an "experienced" guitar.  A friend of mine inspired me to talk to the subjects more on assignments.  I thought it was a good suggestion and thats a new goal of mine.  
A donation from the crowd.

This was my other assignment last week.  Exciting!

peace

oops

Dislocated my thumb playing b ball monday night.  Makes manual focusing a bit difficult!

Just kidding! That's my (normal) right hand.
Fat person thumb!

Good thing it wasn't my right hand!  Do they make left handed cameras?

"Hey Ya"

So, I came across this program called Poladroid yesterday and kind of liked it for its simple and creative possibilities.  I'm thinking about theming each Monday "Vintage Monday" and posting "polaroids" from the previous week.  Today I busted out the old G5 and hauled it around school in search of old school shots.  I thought the G5 would be nice because it lacks DOF, has a quiet shutter, and is already cropped more square than the K10d.  I even flipped the LCD backwards and looked through the crappy viewfinder too.  Not all are from today, but some are.  I'm not sure if this theme will last or not...we'll see.

            

If you're curious about the program, its:   www.poladroid.net

Its really simple and could be much better... but its entertaining for a minute.

"shake it like a polaroid picture"

Parade Shoot

Friday nights rolls around.  One thing leads to another and a little (lots of) partying goes down.  Somehow I set my alarm for 8:45am and woke up feeling (not) great.  I had a newspaper shoot about 30 minutes away that started at 10:30am.  I HAD to go.  Although I didn't feel like it, I was NOT going to be a typical "all fluff no stuff" SOU student and bail on a commitment. A little tylenol here, a little water there, and a cup full of hot chai/coffee later, and I was on the road to a Chinese New Year parade.  I got there a bit early and things worked out.  I think a great way to get rid of a hangover it to occupy yourself with something else and straight forget about it.  Here are some shots I thought were interesting though they may not be of the parade itself. 
These were right next to the "white", "black", and "mexican" rubber duckies. JK.
Stylin' bag piper.
(Eminem says) "Segway's back...back again."  If you look very closely, his eyes are closed.  ridiculous.
This one goes out to Mr. Randalls.  
I don't know why I took this picture but when I got home and looked at it, there was more than meets the eye.  I thought it had a real cool feeling to it.  Can you see what I'm talking about?
spectators
No Chinese New Year parade is complete without the dragon.
There were lots of llammas (or alpacas I dont know the difference) there.
..... puke.  What is he doing with that nifty little dragon?!?! The parade was over too!
hehe
Alan Wong, from San Jose.  Nice guy.  He must have played this drum for hours.  I bet he'll be sore tomorrow.

"my precious..."   (no, not at the parade) 

So, this was a very good experience.  I'd say I learned quite a bit.  I was too much of a wuss to shoot "M" mode like I usually do.  Things changed too fast!  I usually chilled in "P" mode.  I don't like Pentax's Autofocus.  I also probably bombed the job from the newspaper's point of view because I got sooo involved with taking pictures, I forgot to get names of people/organizations.  Lesson learned.  I was also thinking about the Leica M8 rangefinder this weekend.   Quieter shutter would be sooo cool a few situations.  

This year I have been so out of touch with the mountain I didn't even realize the Rail Jam was today.  I had been looking forward to shooting that for a long while too. I felt I'd like to prove myself since last year's performance.  No snow = no snowboarding = LAME!

Keep it real.

Another Walk

The last two weeks have been terribly busy. Engineers are not supposed to write essays about Founding Fathers... I have had no time for photos. After school today I decided I needed a little break. I popped the headphones in my ears, tuned the iPod to Grouch and Eligh, and walked out the door with my camera over my shoulder.  

I can't believe I did it again.  A few weeks ago I swore NEVER to desaturate all the colors but one.  Lookie here! As the once bald Brittany Spears would say, "Oops! I did it again"...  Would been kinda cool if I was actually Canadian. 
If I was to do this one again, I would have shifted right a little so the horses legs were not hitting and the Bluff in the background was in the middle of the clearing.Sack of bird feed.
I'm not sure exactly what is going on here.  Someone had dug out around an old stump and put small amounts of dirt in each planter. Weird. 


Turtles getting their feast on. (no, this was not on my walk)

So this set might not be the most fun.  It was nice to get out with the camera.  To be honest I really don't like using the 50mm as a walk around lens.  I love it for people, but not much else.  DOF is fun though!  I most definitely over-processed these. I really need to work on that.  I'm gaining respect daily for those photographers that can come up with great shots that aren't processed much.  

Other news:  I got rechargeables for my flash.  Cool.  I might be shooting a parade on Saturday morning.  Unless I party hard Friday.  I have a calc quiz tomorrow.  I'm going to the library to study right now.

peace.

I'm sorry!

Yeah... I've been really busy and slacking on the blog.  Everyday I want to update, but have no new content.  I haven't even had time for the paper... which really bums me out!  Here is another old sentimental fave.  Day after my 21st b day.  First brew bought in the United States.  A very good buddy of mine and I posted up on a lifeguard tower at Morrow Bay by San Luis Obispo.  It was super chill till the beach patrol told us to scram.

Summer Lovin'

Don't give up on me yet. Keep it real.

Portland Style Photo Walk

Yeah it's been a while.  My bad.

By Portland style, I mean take pictures of urban objects, contrast the crap out of them, add a Biggie Smalls amount of vignetting, and post them on my blog.  OK. OK. I'm sorry to all my Portland friends.  No hard feelings.  Anyways, I figured it had been too long since I busted the camera out so I rang Ham and we went on a lil walk.  I had full intentions of getting my Portland on.  I'll spare you misery of the contrasty shots of "Lost Cat" signs and smashed Starbucks cups covered in mud on the side of the road.  Here are some others:
I hadn't used my 50-200mm in a long time. So it got some time on the camera...till the sun went down and it was way too slow.
Here is a photo of a native Ashlander in it's natural environment.  AKA lazy toolbag with a large mustache getting no exercise on his Segway.  I've conveniently added vignetting to bring out the douchie-ness.
50mm at 1.7 under a railroad car.
....
OK.  Thats enough sarcasm and judgment for the day.  I'll leave ya'll with Zumiez-colored mini cameras and come back with some real photos.

Miles Davis Cool

I signed up to take a portrait of a wrestler for the paper today.  That was a mistake.  Although he was very helpful and patient, nothing seemed to work out.  Add portraiture to the list of things to work on. 

On a cooler note, a good friend of mine got a new pet.  I was privileged enough to take a handful of shots of it.  It has no name yet but let me tell you, this thing was COOL... like Miles Davis cool.

Shot with my Pentax SMC-A 50mm at f/1.7

P.S. uh oh, its Friday night!

Vintage Pixels

It was school city today and there was no time for cameras.  Here are some old skool shots to fill some space.  This was one of the the "end of the year" shots from last year.  I've got another idea brewing for this year....

So what if I darkened the skies... 
Here is an all time favorite.  Geologic from Blue Scholars in Washington summer '08.

Vegan Shoot

I shot a vegan documentary screening this evening.  I have no clever or entertaining shots whatsoever...BUT I did find it slightly comical when I realized my camera has a small "In-N-Out" burger sticker on the side.  When I got home I realized my tripod has large "In-N-Out" stickers all over one of the legs.  They probably hate me.  I'm still going to eat meat... and love it!
Daaaang that some noise! And look at that banding!  Shot with a SLVR.