Pete's Past Photography and Present-Day Musings

The Product of Boredom

2010-11-16T21:57:00.000-08:00

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...

2010-09-21T10:03:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-28T21:48:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-08-07T08:43:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-21T14:20:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-05-17T22:07:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-17T14:21:00.000-07:00

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.

new job!

2008-05-14T20:20:00.001-07:00

So I am a copy editor now alongside of being a photographer. How cool is that? Yeap... just wanted to brag...

It was too good to last...

2008-05-11T12:35:00.000-07:00

Saturday was perfect. Sure, it was unseasonably cold in the morning, but when the sun rose, wow! Just the perfect weather for a running race, which was what I shot in the morning-noonish hours. But now, Sunday, it is cold, in the 50s, and rainy. Curse you Indiana weather!!!!! Anyways....

The race was the first annual Coach Hep Indiana Cancer Challenge or something like that. People ran, rode bikes, walked, etc. and of course I got there way before all the events even started. People were just mulling around, registering, socializing, and not doing anything photogenic at all. I then realized that the fun walk with Jane Hoeppner and the rest would not be until 11am, about 1.5 hours later. After taking pretty pictures of shoelaces and bicycle jerseys, "Screw this," I thought, and I went home to sleep instead of waiting until 11.

Upon returning, things began to happen and I did my thing. Here's the result:

Cute, but quite sad when you learn the back story. The father lost his mom to cancer early this March. When I found that out from him, I mumbled a "Wow, I'm sorry" but the way I said it, it did not feel... true--it came out sounding a little fake. I hope he did not take offense by that. I mean, what are you supposed to say to someone after they say that to you? Sigh... well that's the photo--that's his daughter, obviously, on top of his shoulders touching "The Rock" by the way, in case you did not catch that. Damn though... I still wish I sounded more empathic saying I'm sorry to hear about his loss because I still kind of feel bad about it...

Oh, and here's the slideshow:

Coach Hep Cancer Challenge slideshow

Day of ugh-ness

2008-05-09T21:27:00.000-07:00

Rain, rain, rain, 50-60 degree weather, plus more rain... wait. It's May 9--isn't it supposed to be summer? Gah! Dang Indiana weather--I just don't get it...

Anyways, I won't have any pictures posted on this blog from today until tomorrow mainly because I am lazy and feel more like writing as of the moment than posting pretty pictures. So I pulled the assignment for the last IU track meet of the season today which began around 3 in the afternoon. Feeling tired, I took a two-hour long nap from 2-4. When I awoke, it was rainy and nasty outside--it was already overcast and cool before I fell asleep.

Dragging myself off of the Arbutus couch, I walked on over to the Haugh track complex and made feeble attempts to get some decent photos of athletes doing their things. I captured some good moments at the high-jump and pole vault but hands and legs kept on getting chopped off such as the example here:

Also, I was at one part in the way of the press box's view of the finish line and was told via the P.A. that "those next to the finish line need to either move one way or the other." "Thanks guys!" I thought. Heck, at least they did not say "photographer near the finish line." Ugh, all-in-all a terrible assignment weather-wise and picture-wise. But here are some of my decent results, including the one at the top:

I did have a good chuckle at the track though. Yes, I realize and agree that it is terrible to laugh at somebody else's misfortune but the two guys in this photo just could not raise the hurdles. Just writing about it now makes me laugh--they were at it for about three minutes!

On a happy note, when I got back to my apartment, the tv was blaring--my roommates probably left it on when they left--jeez... Anyways, after glancing at it I realized that the movie, "The New Guy", was on. Having seen it before about eight years ago, I was intrigued to watch it. LOL, it was the best movie ever--maybe it has been a while since I just lounged in front of the tv. You should look into watching it whenever you are bored or need a good movie to watch--I recommend it!

This movie made my evening!

Now we are up to speed...

2008-05-07T12:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, so after that long four-day drought of no posts, I am finally back on track. So I had to go to my physical therapy appointment yesterday at college mall and while passing through the intersection of 3rd and College Mall, I was greeted by many, MANY, Obama and Clinton campaigners waving their crazy signs and such. Struggling not to make any eye contact, I made it through the perilous intersection unscathed by the political crazies. I did however to decide and check out the intersection later with my camera. It was the day of the Indiana Primary after all... here are the results, including the one above:

The girl above looks frighteningly familiar to Hillary Clinton--scary!

Hey, he took 8% of the vote in Indiana's Republican Primary--I say Mr. Ron Paul deserves at least some attention in the spotlight...

Saturday's graduation (four days late)

2008-05-07T11:50:00.000-07:00

So I had to suffer through two exactly the same graduation commencement ceremonies last Saturday. Well, they were not actually that bad but let's just say I essentially had guest speaker Will Shortz's (crossword editor of the NYT) speech memorized after the second ceremony. Here are some photos I liked that did not get published... :(

The journalism section--it is nearly perfectly symmetrical which made it one of my favs.

This guy was blowing up this novelty beach ball thing during one of McRobbie's speeches during the ceremony. They then proceded to bat it around at the end of the graduation. However, it landed in the Ph. D. section where it apparently was confiscated--I guess those people are too serious to have some fun. Kind of disappointing, too, because taking photos of a big graduation 2008 ball being batted around Assembly Hall was pretty photogenic.

Hehehe... he was asleep. Hey, if you had to sit through both commencement ceremonies AND play music, you'd probably be tired too.

Big Cookie!!!

2008-04-29T13:31:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I got a little over-excited today when the Sugar and Spice bakery had their special monster cookies in the union. Not only did I buy one but I...

practiced being a strobist with one. Ok, so the lighting set-up is not too elaborate or exciting but hey, I never plan on becoming a food photographer so I do not really care. Anyway, I tried using a monster-lighting technique on the Monster Cookie (get the irony? hehehehe).

Seriously though, I have to finish my paper over the NYT Magazine's photo usage for Steve Raymer's class and I need to practice some lighting techniques for an upcoming photoshoot of the Collin's Assassin's Guild. Hopefully all works out well... I am going to try to go for a wrap-around lighting look kind of similar to what is seen here:

http://flickr.com/photos/ajorgensen/2397643698/

I doubt I will get the same effect since I will only be using two canon flashes and the sun as my three lights but we shall see! I will post the results from my practice shoot as soon as I can.

Update:

Here are my efforts in my valiant attempt to create a cool, side-lit portrait earlier this evening--I am open to suggestions please!

Hehehehe... we ended up getting a "Magnum" pose courtesy of Derek Zoolander--did not turn out bad at all--haha!

IU Men's Soccer vs. Mexico Youth National Team

2008-04-23T00:14:00.000-07:00

So I was asked Monday night to shoot the annual IU Men's soccer matchup against the Mexico Youth National Team. Stressed out with papers and needing something fun to do, I took up the offer, reserved the 20d and 300lens, and checked it out. It was my second sporting event sporting the Canon 20d and I will say, it is definitely wonderful. Blows the Nikon d2h out of the water in image quality and the autofocusing mechanism is not too bad either. I will most definitely look into investing in a 20d or 30d this summer if I am lucky. My second body XTi was working out well with the 70-200 lens which surprise me due to its somewhat lackluster autofocus system. Anyways, here is the link to my results--a slideshow was put up on the IDS's website.

IU Men's Soccer vs. Mexico Youth National Team slideshow

Image number four was my money shot for the night and I hope to post it up here tomorrow. Also have to love the randomness of the Mexico crowd. A guy actually showed up dressed as a luchador--crazy! Those Mexicans sure made the Hoosier fan section look like crap. Oh, and try to disregard the silly grammatical errors in the captions.

This was my shot of the night:

It was shot tight, too, with only a little trimming action around the edges to center the action better in the frame. It kind of sucks though--so many people shoot wide with large file sizes and then crop in to make it look as if they shot tight, I feel as if my photo's effect is slightly lessened because of this. Oh well, the experienced eye can tell this was shot tight due to the short depth of field so I do not feel as bad...

First post!

2008-04-19T10:58:00.000-07:00

So people say that it is helpful to keep journals on a daily basis so why not give it a shot, eh? Maybe now I will be able to remember when the events I am supposed to shoot photos are so I do not miss them... enjoy the random sporadic postings of mine!

I checked out some work on strobist to motivate myself before this shoot of a Little 500 student coach for the Arbutus. Shot around 1/200th at 20f at 100 ISO with flash at max, it worked out decent enough.

Some Little 500 stuff:

Phi Psi in a team huddle before men's Little 500 race

In the chaotic photographer frenzy at the men's race finish, I snapped this shot of Cutter team member Clayton Feldman with his girlfriend (L). I believe it says so much more than the typical "screaming, hugging, celebrating shot.