The Product of Boredom

Oh gosh, it's a post on a blog I barely write on anymore! What is there to blog about nowadays if I have no photos to brag about? I will say, I have photo ideas fly through my head time and time again but they are a mere passing than anything. It would be cool to bring about some of them though... thinking something along the lines of drawing with penlights with the use of a fill-flash. Nothing fancy really, but something nevertheless.

Hobbies are weird how the temptation to exercise them come and go. There was a good quote in a Stephen King book explaining that all talents want is to be used, to be put into practice. If you do not, they become nothing more than pestering thoughts that entertain you time to time when your mind wanders. Finding the energy, time, and effort to put said things into practice is another thing however. It may be a form of procrastination, but I figure it is a mixture of that with the fear of negative judgement, mainly from myself, and me being slightly self-conscious about my thoughts and work.

I do that sometimes, you see... there is a small little dude inside of my head with a big voice nay-saying all my ideas. Sometimes I go along with it, sometimes I think the dude is freaking stupid and annoying as hell. I am not really saying that dude is all that bad, it just appears to enjoy nay-saying more than yay-saying.

Well maybe this weekend I can put my idea into creation. I have too many ideas that roam in my head and it is not doing me any good to keep them in there. A bottled up imagination, I dare-say sounds scarier than having someone judge an idea of mine made into fruition.

I don't post on this thing anymore...

Time and time again, I enjoy randomly remembering that I have a blog and viewing it after months of inactivity. Nothing bets going back and remembering the multiple photos and adventures that my life consisted of over two years ago. From walking home two miles in the rain at 10pm after an IU track meet to the time I broke my wrist and took pictures at the 2008 Little 500 races the day I got out of the hospital.

Crazy times, crazy times...

Now I am a full-time working person at a place called Centerstone, a community non-for-profit mental health center that provides mental health services to low income families, primarily those who have Medicaid. Funny how you can go from wanting to be a photojournalist at one point to be working at a mental health center as a case manager for adolescents down the road...

Anyways, yeah... I never really had a big plan for this blog, and well, I still do not. It was one of those things I decided to make back in my "glory days of photography" in order to show off my work. I still do the photos and I still have my camera, and despite its many dings and scratches, it still can help me make some pretty good photos. My drive is not the same as it was awhile ago and my results may not compare to many of the other photos out there today, but I am still conscious when I press the shutter to not simply make a candid photo but a real photo. That is something that will never go away.

New Year's four months late

I used to be big on the whole photography thing. Really big. Something then caused it go fizzle out. It was a culmination of many things, things that I still am not sure of. But that does not matter anymore.

I do not take as many pictures anymore under the pretense that I focused for too long taking photos of people living instead of living myself. But on occasion, I do find those days in which I find myself wanting to live through a camera lens, even if for a little while.

There is something powerful about being an observer, a captor of things usually unseen and unappreciated, that draws me back to my camera. It is almost as if you are invisible, a shade, a ghost, and it is exciting. It is exciting to see things from a point of view that barely anyone gets to see and then, when returning from the eyepiece of the camera, mulling over your results.

Here are some of my more recent results from the 2010 New Years...



These photos were taken right after New Years--everyone was enjoying a celebratory cigar outside in the freezing cold. With the perfect light, smoke, an elliptical, and slightly drunken atmosphere, conditions were perfect for me.

I am going to try to start putting more things up on this thing as time goes by, so continue to check this blog out periodically!

Retirement... sort of...

Yeah, so I just realized I left this site idle for quite a long time.

Many things have happened since my last post... many many things...

First off, I have switched my major from journalism to psychology. Yeap. I know. Big change, huh? I realize it was kind of sudden, but I know it was the right thing to do. There are a lot of motivations behind doing so, mainly personal, but I feel burnt out when it comes to photography.

Sigh... the bad thing about writing something like this is that I can only write so much about my decision and what I do not write, those who read it will fill in the blanks I failed to address with assumptions and other speculations that may or may not be true.

All I have to say is this--I finally feel happy where I am at. The future is uncertain for me, but I know I am heading down a path--a path that is new--a path I actually feel excited about traveling on.

I may post more photos on this site as time progresses, but photos are not my priority anymore. All I can say is that I am glad I realized this now before I majored in journalism and realized, once out of college, that photography was not my thing. Whew... would that have been disastrous...

Big Ten Track Championships

Yeah, so this day was long, stressful, and disheveling--hence why I'm writing the post for Sunday three days later on a Wednesday. Hehehe.

So instead of writing a play-by-play of everything that happened, here are some of my selected pics. I really did not score big at the meet but I made some OK shots...



Gotta love his hair...



The sun kept playing tricks on me all day--it was annoying trying to stay one step ahead of it--I blame the meet officials for scheduling the event during midday--bah!



Pole vault shots I'm finding are fun to shoot--how often do you get to compose a shot with a person flying through the air with the blue sky as your primary background?

Road Trip!!! (in about eight hours)

Ok, so this will be my first photography-based roadtrip today--kind of excited! NCAA Track Championships baby! What fun--I have some interesting multimedia ideas to work with alongside of the reporter going--hopefully all goes well! Look for an update later today in the evening some time.

Burma Vigil for Burmese Victims of Cyclone Nargis

So, I was walking back to my apartment last night when I got a call--it was my friend, Aung Khain Min (I call him AK) and he just saw me walk past his apartment--we live in the same apartment complex. I have been wanting to hang out with him for a while since he is planning on traveling overseas over the summer in a couple of weeks. I make an abrupt U-turn and head to his apartment.

We catch up on some things and then he says that there is going to be a candlelight vigil tonight for the cyclone victims. With nothing else to do, I tagged along to show my support.

When we arrived at the courthouse, I started to get quite cold. You see, earlier in the day it was quite warm--shorts and short-sleeve t-shirt warm. However, when you mix the sun setting with a nasty cool breeze, well yeah... you get my drift. Anyhoo, I was standing there being supportive and listening to AK and the rest of the Burmese students chat in Burmese and why Mr. Brandon Foltz comes along. I guess someone at the IDS filled out a photo request for this particular vigil and since nobody picked it up, Brandon was left with the job. We chatted for a bit and then he went to work. I told him since I am friends with these people I probably should not shoot for the IDS even though I had my (actually, the IDS's) 20d with me at the time. Ethical stuff, can't shoot photos of your friends, etc. He said to go ahead and do it anyways and I figured it would not hurt--he has been kind of strained at the photo desk with lack of photos so I figured I'd give him a hand.

Brandon began snapping away and after about five minutes questioned me for my lack of shooting--I only shot a couple of frames within the last five minutes or so. Jokingly, I said, "Oh, you want me to shoot more, huh?" and I wildly aimed my camera at him, getting off a short burst of out-of-focus shots of his mouth:



I like how you can see his green gum in almost every photo--pretty funny.

Anyways, this is what I got after Brandon left:



I'm a fan of this above one actually. I had a chat with Neineh, one of the students out there, about this photo and I said that it was good, but did not really explain much. Still, after pulling it up on the computer, I think it is quite good. Not great, but still pretty good.



Jerry Htoo



Neineh Plo

Also made a Soundslide out of it, too, but without the sound. Yeah, I know--a voice recorder is the next thing on my list of big purchases so sound will be coming soon.

Burma Vigil

...ok, so I can't get the link to work right now. But bear with me--in a couple of days, it'll be up.