“Bad Dog”

A news aficionado’s nightmare – coming home to find that your dog Rocco or Princess let loose on the house and destroyed the Sunday paper before reading it – may soon change with the  industry’s uncertain future in print.

And here’s the lighting plan.

***

Part of me wishes this photo came out more stylized, and the other part LOVES that it could pass as natural light. Every bit of light was deliberate, from making sure the bone is bright to adding a tiny bit of fill on the food in the bowl to get rid of a shadow from the bone. I’m finding that I really like this studio stuff. It’s HARD. But it makes me think, and it feels so rewarding to come away with a frame that makes me happy.

Also, now Scott and I have to get a dog someday. We already have the bowl!

I could really use one of these signs for my life this semester. It’s been non-stop since day one with emails and classes and meetings and photo shoots and editing . . . phew. Just thinking about all the things I’ve done so far makes me exhausted.

The funny thing? I’m loving every moment. I know it’ll be over so fast and I’ll look back and say, “Look what I did!”

Until then, I’ll be sure to catch up on my zzzz’s whenever possible.

Missouri senior Jonathan Hinderliter shows off his sunglasses during a portrait session on February 13, 2010. Hinderliter balances his love of fashion, shoes and shopping with his sharp personality, cynical tendencies and a penchant for arguments.

Lighting diagram for my single-light portrait. I like arrows and stick figures. Reminds me of this.

*****

Sorry for the unannounced intrusion, blog friends. I’ll be updating on occasion with posts like this – it’s part of my assignment for my photo class. Anything that’s prefixed with “Advanced Techniques” in the title is for the class. The purist in me thought about keeping these kinds of posts relegated to an old blog location, but then I figured it might be fun to keep all my posts together. You’ll see outtakes from various assignments throughout the semester, plus now some finals for submission. Hooray for process! Hooray for blogging!

At least it’ll give me a guaranteed post every so often. I have a list that’s about four topics long of photos I want to blog. Soon, I promise.

Way too many days have passed since I’ve last updated. Hopefully I won’t let that happen again. There are so many awesome things going on, and lots of pictures to go along with them.

There’s also a ton of emails. My phone just buzzed again – it’s 11:43pm on a Friday night. Such is the semester.

Somehow, I’ve managed to take on work that is almost equivalent to taking three photo classes at once. Advanced Techniques is my official photo class, where we’ll be learning all about lighting and making technically better photos. (I’m SO super excited about this class, and I’m not just saying it because this blog will occasionally be taken over by class assignments.)

But then I’m working on an independent study surrounding the mayor’s race, which entails working as a photographer for the Missourian. Granted, it’s not full time like the staff class, but it’s still going to be a lot of work. After a particularly stressful day on Wednesday, I went to cover the first mayor candidate forum and remembered just why I’m here and why I love this job. Moments like this happen more and more often. I love each and every one.

Finally, I’m the Vox magazine photo editor for my assistantship this semester. So while I’m working in Advanced on lighting and photographing for the election coverage with the newspaper, I’m also up at the photo desk managing photo requests and editing shoots for the magazine. And fielding emails. Lots and lots of emails. And attending meetings. Lots and lots of meetings.

And while I’m sitting here astounded that the past week was only a week … I look back at all the work I’ve done so far and wouldn’t change a thing at all. Working long hours is so much more rewarding when I love what I do!

Let’s hope this feeling lasts the entire semester. I’m going to need it.

When I started my Project365 three years ago, I had no idea it would turn into such a production. For the first few months after I moved to DC in late 2006, I realized I hardly took photos anymore. This was totally unacceptable. The project seemed to be a great way to keep my hand and eye in photography – especially since I wanted to work as a photographer someday.

So off I went to eBay to find a little point and shoot camera. Once it and its mate arrived (I ended up buying two different used cameras), I tested them for which would become my new companion. The Nikon P2 won out after a few days use, and on January 17th, 2007, I started my project.

Throughout the years in this project, I’ve recorded an incredible amount of moments, memories and places. From being couch-ridden with the flu to numerous photos of my Metro commute, from going to the store to going on vacation, from moving across town to moving across the country, and from the happiest days to the saddest – I’ve documented my life.

It’s incredible to look back and be able to remember all these moments through pictures. And it’s fascinating to look at how my photographic eye and skills have grown through this project. I’ve learned how to find a picture in the mundane, and a picture in the momentary excitement. And, for the most part, not with the best camera in the world but with a small, aging point-and-shoot camera. (Only recently have I been regularly using an SLR.)

365 days a year (plus leap day) for three years straight.

Some days, I wish I could give up. And others, I know I cannot. And there are photos I wish I took, and a few I regret making the pinnacle of my day. Perhaps someday I’ll bring the project to a close. But for now, it lives on. There are new adventures to be had and new photos yet to be taken.

See the projects in their entirety:

Year One
Year Two
Year Three

and introducing … Year Four

FYI. My website was hacked, all my files deleted. Thanks to my webhost, I’ve got most of it back. I’ll be adding back whatever posts are missing after January 9th. (I think there was only one.)

Note to self and others: KEEP BACKUPS OF YOUR WEBSITES!

I’ll be making a monthly archive of my site, at the least. Can’t believe it happened only two months into hosting on my own. Won’t let it happen again.

Trying to photograph a memorial service in the cold, pitch black night is not an easy thing to do.

I tried to play up the back lighting, steam breath and halos around the attendees, but nothing really read well. The one photo I really liked made it look like there were only a few people there, and I didn’t want to do Molly’s memory a disservice. At least thirty people stood in the middle of the street, in the dark and cold, to honor her life.

Officer Molly Bowden died five years ago at this intersection from gunshot wounds inflicted during a traffic stop. She was only 26 years old. So young, so much promise ahead of her.

Makes you take a moment to re-evaluate life. Where we’re going, where we’ve been. I count myself as a lucky one these days, so thankful for the wonderful people in my life and opportunities presented and taken.

The future is in soft focus; not definitive, yet you can just make out the outlines of what lies ahead.

Onward.

It’s been cold here.

Actually, cold is an understatement. The jet stream has gone haywire and arctic air that usually stays way up north is blasting the country with some abnormally frigid weather. My grandmother in Florida said that planes were delayed at Sarasota International Airport due to ice on the wings. The airport does not have de-icing equipment (it IS Florida, after all), so they had to wait until the sun melted the ice for the planes to fly.

Yikes.

Here in Columbia, it’s been in the low teens for almost a week. I’ve never lived through such cold weather before. Naturally, I do not have appropriate clothing for spending more than a few minutes outside. So when my editor, Matt, at the Missourian told me on Wednesday that we would be heading out at 6am the next morning to find people shoveling and cleaning off their cars from the snowstorm just beginning to hit us, my first thought was “CRAP. It’s cold.”

Earlier in the day, I had been covering the Missouri General Assembly at the state capitol and came straight from there to the newsroom still dressed in my faux-suit (black pants and a not-quite-the-same-black blazer). The snow had started on the drive and showed no signs of letting up anytime soon, so I knew time was of the essence. I made my way across town to a sporting goods store to find the item that would get me through the next day’s assignment – SNOWPANTS.

So there I am, standing in the Dick’s Sporting Goods store in the middle of a snowstorm, in a faux-suit, looking at snowpants. I must have been a sight! However, I lucked out and found a pair that fit perfect that were on clearance sale.

The morning’s assignment went quite well. Not many people out, but I managed to find a few good ones. The photo gallery is online here. (not sure where my best picture went – it was the lead image on the page. Will inquire within.)

Later in the day, I decided to go check out some sledding at Stephens Lake Park. Remember – it’s still barely in the teens, and now the wind is picking up. So it was COLD. I expected only a few people to be there. Instead, I was greeted with at least 30 kids and adults braving the temperatures to take in some fantastic sledding. The pictures did not run in the paper, as Matt got there and back to the newsroom first, but I figured I’d post them here. I would not have gotten these photos without my new snowpants. I hate the cold, but I love those pants.

Clayton Howard, 21, his sister Audry Reno, 11, and Morgan Bischel, 20, get ready to go down the snowy hill at Stephens Lake Park on Thursday afternoon. Howard says of his sister and hiking back up the hill, “She says ‘Oh, it’s not bad,’ while we’re up here winded. I gotta take a breather.”

Kids of all ages formed lines at the sledding hill in Stephens Lake Park on Thursday to allow everyone to safely have a turn. Samuel Smith, center with an orange disc sled, said to his father, Michael, “There’s thousands of people here!” “I know, the most ever,” said Michael in response.

Sledder Brock Mauller, 10, goes airborn on a snow jump at Stephens Lake Park on Thursday afternoon. Despite the bitter cold, many people came out to enjoy the freshly fallen snow.

Young sledders and their parents find warmth in a fire pit at the edge of the sledding hill at Stephens Lake Park on Thursday afternoon. The temperature remained in the low-teens for much of the afternoon.

I’ve never been to the west coast before. Technically, I still haven’t been, but Seattle is pretty darn close – and in Pacific time – so it counts in my book. Scott’s family lives in Everett, so we didn’t spend the entire trip within city lines. However, the few times we were able to visit were fantastic.

On our first trip, we went to the Seattle Center, which is home to the Space Needle, SciFi Museum, and the Experience Music Project (collectively known as the EMP|SFM). A bit touristy, a bit awesome. While I don’t think I would go up in the Space Needle all the time, it was incredible to see the entire city from the air.

The second trip kept us on the ground and put us down in the center of the Pike Place Market. What an incredible place! If I lived in Seattle, I would go there every week to buy fresh fish for dinner. I usually get squeamish seeing whole fish or meat on display at the supermarket, but here all I wanted to do was look at it and eat it. Mmm, fish.

We really lucked out with the weather on this trip. The only sort of precipitation we saw was in the form of thick frost on the ground in the morning and fog over the bay once. Other than that, we had beautiful blue skies and golden sunsets. I almost wish it rained a little just so I’d get to see what typical weather is like in Seattle. I really loved this city and can’t wait to go back and explore more.

(Don’t worry DC – I don’t love it more than you. Seattle’s an adventure. You’re home.)

Ironically though, the only photos I have uploaded so far are my project365 selects. More photos to come in subsequent posts. I’ll keep ‘em short and sweet.

My first semester as a graduate student is complete.

Holy moly and little fishes, it’s complete! It’s hard to imagine almost, remembering how I’d sit around all day long – when I wasn’t in class – reading article after article for class, falling asleep while reading said articles, and writing papers every week on what I read. Or how I’d have a photo assignment due every week or so and how nervous I’d get finding subjects but end up with fantastic situations.

But many hours, projects, papers, readings and naps later, I’ve come out on top. For one of the few times in my life, I am a straight “A” student – and it feels good.

In addition to all the classwork, I also managed to staff the 61st Missouri Photo Workshop and be on the volunteer reporting team for the 2009 APME Conference. Oh, and I sang in a choir through school with three performances throughout the semester.

No wonder I’m thoroughly enjoying my few days off by cleaning, baking, archiving and website building. Counting from the end of the semester on Friday, I have five days here of nothing, then Scott and I are off to Seattle to visit his family for the holidays for six days. West coast, here we come!

On our return, I will start work at the Columbia Missourian as a staff photographer for three weeks . . . and then semester #2 begins! Oh, how time flies.

But for now, I’m enjoying spending a lot of time right here.