shuttering

CPOY time again ...

this time last year, i was paging through my portfolio (read: entire body of work, which at last count filled ten 2" three ring binders with negatives and slides and about fifty cds), desperately wondering what would qualify me to enter the college photographer of the year contest. what had i shot in the first seven years of being a photographer that would distinguish me from the hordes of photo students at the big east schools and the well endowed shooters at the brooks institute?
it's crazy how different this year feels. i like the process that this contest forces me to undertake -- a thorough perusal of all the images i've captured in the last year of shooting. i like seeing how i've changed as a photographer, the broadening range of subject matter that has accumulated in my portfolio. i like being able to look back at what i considered my best image when i graduated from high school ...

... and compare it to my best image from four years ago ...

... to my best image from last year ...

... to a shot i took last weekend that is a pretty good summation of what i like best about my style ...

it's so weird, looking at those images and remembering the first two and how they swam up out of the developer, stop bath and fix, and then to look at the last, which just popped up on the file browser of photoshop cs. this last year of work has changed me from an alchemist, surrounded by the stinking fumes of fixer, into a god -- able to change a stormy sky to blue with a few simple clicks of the mouse (not that i would ever do that. EVER. heh).
sorry to seem if i'm tooting my own horn. i just really like where i am right now, how my shooting has changed and developed. i think i'm a very confident photographer, a very resourceful one. if you look back through the four pics posted above, i think there is a common feel to them. but whereas the early shots are very calm, almost staid and unobtrusive, unimposing, the latter are much more kinetic. i think this past year and a half, which has seen me finally get my head screwed on straight and seen me become more comfortable in my own skin, in my place in this school among these other shooters, in my adult life, has expressed itself in my photography.
bah. enough procrastinating. wish me luck in cpoy.

ongoing obsession: photoblogs

so not very many days go by for me without clocking in at bloglines to check on noah or durham township or daily dose of imagery ... yesterday and the posted finalists of the 2006 photobloggies awards have served up several new sites full of yummy photography:

no traces
travis ruse
joe's nyc
mylalaland
julian roumagnac
the narrative
making happy
jinky art
never happen
shutterbug
spudooli
the boudist
cloudy bright (some parts require quicktime)
boogie
martin fuchs
beat experience
istoica
outafocus

most of these are on my feedreader (in the lefthand column of this site) ... those that bloglines could find, anyways .... i only explored the english speaking ones because i am a chickenshit. if you are feeling braver than me, go check out all the nominees at the photobloggies 2006 homepage.

now i'm really going to go do homework. i promise.

PowWow pitchas

So i'm on a pitcha kick ...
Some of my favorites from this weekend's Kyi-Yo PowWow...

Ultimate Frisbee Pitchas

Dear Club Ultimate team:
Here's the best of what I got this afternoon. Thanks for letting me get some shots! :)

Attn Morgan:

Morgan --

Ok, to make your life a little easier, I'm going to put up a temporary home for all of my miscellaneous evidence of forestry and woodsman related insanity. Give me a week or two to get everything up, I think I've got a bit of neg scanning to do. But I figured this way would be easiest for you -- that way, you don't have to dig through my portfolio pictures. The pics in here are kind of just the creme de la creme, not EVERYTHING I have, so if there's somebody you want a picture of and don't see here, just email me or post a comment on this blog.

Please note: The more organized albums (like Winter Olympics 2006, Forester's Ball 2006, Forester's Ball 2005) will still be up independently and the images inside them WILL NOT be transferred to the new Forestry album.

california pics

a few "mistakes" from the california trip ... i like them (don't mock) because they're very viggo-esque. in other viggo-related news, watched "a history of violence" this past week. twice. wow. that man is just ... an artist.

procrastination, brought to you by lightstalkers.org

today has been a strange but good day. started off the morning sitting through two green lights with the radio on loud, trying to catch the lyrics to the most heart-wrenching song that i've ever heard: "for blue skies" by strays don't sleep. the song is just a simple piano riff, and the gravelly whisper of a male voice repeating "i forgive you, i forgive you, i forgive you," and a female singing, "for blue blue skies..." that and the rain that drummed on my roof all night and made streaky diaphonous patterns on the windshield and i was all muddled up, thinking of old hurts and new ones that dig in old scars. wondering, too, if there will always be that one certain person in my life able to make me feel so very very stupid.

i do well enough on my own making myself feel stupid, thank you very much. i don't need any further assistance.

school has been good though -- stuff in classes and the kaimin and the lecture that we had to go to tonight (brian storm of media storm) has me all itchy-fingered and abashed -- i want to be creative, i am a creative person ... but i am also a horribly lazy person that too often settles for "good enough" rather than "better than i've ever done before."

my penance? er, if it can be called that -- i set up an account at lightstalkers.org, which is a super cool networking and portfolio showcasing site for both amateur and professional photographers. we had a guest speaker in class lecture about it on monday, and there were two classmates with me in the complab tonight doing the exact same thing as me (check out the "my network" tab on my lightstalkers page to view their work). to view my work on lightstalkers (less secure than my password protected homepage, thus less of my work will be found there), go here.

in other news, i have an interview with new west of missoula for a summer photo internship tomorrow, so wish me luck.

foresters ball group photo

i will eventually post a real post. i promise. am just very busy with school and finishing up with foresters ball piccies ... am still trying to write something and throw a cohesive, clever, and visually stunning (heh) photostory together to try and get published somewhere.

eta:
dear forestry club yahoos and woodsmans team crazies:
if allison has her ducks in a row and has given you guys the address to this site, here's an extra little gift from me to you. i've created a photo album and am working on loading in all the good shots i got of ball week 2006. if you see something you like, let me know and i'll get you a print. if you want to steal any shots to play with on your own computer or to put up on facebook or myspace or whatever, go ahead but at least leave a note letting me know if my work is being indexed anywhere other than here. thanks!

the photo album can be found here: foresters ball 2006

just be glad you're not my little sister ...

heh, as i'm still in the "dress them up in funny costumes and then take pictures of them" phase. see what poor, long-suffering allison has to put up with from me?

i think i need to rescan the belt buckle one ... the slide looked fine, but it came in so dark that all the highlights blew out as soon as i started messing with the levels.

out of exile

wow, two weeks of no blogging. *cringes* it's so insane that missing even a weekend online (my parents' house has no computer, let alone an internet connection) means hours of catch-up in terms of checking other blogs and feeds and ... i'm not even going to consider what i've missed out on in the past two weeks.

but anyways. i'm going to plead, not insanity, but insane and crazy busy-ness. in the past two weeks i have one: gone home to the land of no internet for purposes of a harry potter night with friends and for turkey and frozen cranberry pie (which my mother then cruelly denied me! *sobs*) and two: moved into a new apartment. *happy dance*

i have never lived on my own before. i have had extended roommate-free weekends, but never a place all to my very own lonesome. in a word or two, IT EFFING ROCKS. i have a kitchen, bathroom, living room, dining room, bedroom, walk-in closet, and private patio all to myself, to fill with all my own stuff. *rubs hands together in manner of evil megalomaniac*

so, have spent the last week in blatant disregard of my lease, drilling holes in the wall and mounting more shelving and replacing the ugly provided curtains with pretty lacy ones more to my own taste.

my father did a bad bad thing when he made his girls handy with a toolkit. :) which, actually, he kind of did. i would just feel stupid playing the damsel in distress: "please, handsome well-muscled young man, can you help me tighten this bolt? it's just that i've misplaced my 1/4 inch socket wrench. *bats eyelashes* oh, and while i have you at my disposal, could you hold my purse while i rewire this outlet? thanks bunches! *giggles coquettishly*"

see, now that just sounds silly.

in other news, my portfolio is up and running to the point where all i really have to do to the damn thing is add new stuff when it's ready to be added. the url is www.peregrination.typepad.com/detephoto, but i'm not posting the password on this blog. if you'd like to check it out, email me and i'll provide you with the necessaries.

am also no longer a digital virgin. yes, that's right, i've gone on a digital photoshooting adventure.

and it was bloody awful. *pets precious, wonderful canon eos 3* and not just because the stupid thing was a nikon, and for some unmentionably stupid reason all nikon dials and functions operate bassackwards from canon's. no, it just wasn't a good fit. i'm afraid i'm going to have to be dragged into the digital age kicking, screaming, and possibly eye gouging. just a little bit.