Fine Art Photography Ghost Project

Take a seat

So this summer has been just flying by. I can't believe how fast August has arrived. For the most part I've been just taking pictures for the newspaper and preparing for admission to an MBA program in organizational behavior. Bottom line, not much going on in the form of personal work. I did however manage to photograph my sister's wedding, which was a lot of fun. I used my 40D and an old Minolta XG1 that I bought in high school. The XG1 didn't have a light meter that was reliable, so I ended up having to "meter by memory" for all my film shots. Thank heavens for the sunny 16 rule of thumb. This shot was taken in the Jesse Knight Building on campus, third floor, on the southern end.

Fox Tails

John Telford once made a photography of some fox tails that has always impressed me. This week I tried my best to do "my" version of his photograph.

Fish Eye Lens

Fish eye lenses are the coolest things ever. I was having trouble keeping my feet out of the frame.

At the drag strip

Thursday I assigned myself to photograph the Rocky Mountain Raceway media event. Not only was I able watch a jet car go 150 mph on an 1/8th mile sprint I also drove one of the cars down the track. The car I drove didn't spit flames out the back or anything, and actually it was street legal, but I did go from 0 to 75 mps in just under 9 seconds. Not bad for a first timer.

New Bass Strings

So I am in a rock band, and well I have been since I was in 8th grade. I've always been fascinated with the bass guitar and especially playing chords instead of single root notes. Don't get me wrong, I like to hear some funky grooves, but when it comes to knocking my socks off, hearing stuff like Adam Prado play the verse to "Four" just blows my mind. So here's a song for all you Jimmirig fans out there, if you're even out there still.

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Color Negative 120

So for my class I had to do an assignment using a medium format camera. It was difficult since I have never used one before, and the shutter kept locking up on me. I guess I was doing something wrong. Out of the two rolls of film, these two photos are probably the only usable ones.

General Conference

This past month Brittany and I were able to go to the general conference of the LDS a.k.a. "mormon" church in Salt Lake City. Brit has always been a fan of Jeffery R. Holland and the messages he shares. This year he spoke about the comfort that only Jesus can provide, and the loneliness that only he can understand and has felt. At times I think we all feel a little empty and alone inside, no matter how well we think we are doing. This message was definitely inspired of God.

Recent Photo Shoots

Recently I have been working on getting my final projects done for my lighting class and my color photography class. Here are some fun images that I have made this week as a result. Thanks again to Derek Sheen who was able to be a model for me at the last minute.

Fhotoshop Philters

The more that I use Photoshop, the more I realize that it is just one big huge complex toy. Honestly, it's like the ultimate video game, except instead of trying to beat Bowser and save the Princess, you are challenged to create some adventure of your own.

Paul Adams would always make fun of the illustrative filter applications in his 210 class. Since then I was afraid to use them. I just thought that they had no real purpose. Boy was I wrong. A little less flattering than the Low Key photo of my friend Brian Francis, however I think it has a lot more punch.

Low Key

For me the hardest thing about being a photographer is finding people to photograph. I would be so much more comfortable photographing a tree stump, land scape, sand dune, sunset, or a hundred other things, but people are the hardest for me. Today in class we talked about the importance of accepting yourself as an artist, and the need for patience in developing your own photographic style and voice.

Today I photographed a friend of mine, Brian Francis. He's another cool kid. Cut from the same cloth as my friends Chad and Chris. Brian was more than willing to help me out. I called him at 8:00am and asked if he could model for me in the middle of the afternoon. He left work early and made the time to be photographed.

The more I look at my portraits the more I feel that I'm starting to fall into a continuing pattern. A lot of the lighting looks classic, simple and out of date. Technically I think I am close to controlling the lighting, however I feel it has no zest.

Middle Key

Thanks to master shredder Chris Mann for being a killer model for me. For those of you who don't know Chris, he is perhaps the coolest kid to have ever lived on 400 East Street. Due to the nature of the internet, the colors are kind of flat compared to the original/final print.

The Projector

Once when I was in fifth grade I had an experience with an overhead projector. My teacher was using one to teach us something and he got up for a second to show us something. While he was away from the projector he left his pen on a student's desk and when he got back to the projector began to write, but realized he didn't have his pen anymore. I remembered where he had set it and told him to look on the other side of the room. Just as he got up and stepped away from the projector, the head inside of it overheated and blew up sending blistering hot shards of glass over the classroom. Had he been in the seat where he was just seconds before, I'm sure that his face would have looked like Harvy Dent's. Don't ever underestimate the power of a projector.

Wheat Field Re-worked

Over the summer I took this photograph of a wheat field in Pennsylvania. I posted it up a while ago, and wasn't that pleased with it. Since then I've re-worked it, working from a JPEG file, so the quality is fairly degraded, but since I had nothing better to do today, I thought, what the heck why not. Here's to the summer and the warm warm sunshine.

New Logo

I've been working on a new logo for my photography. Just a little something that will help me mark my images as my own.

Portraits of a happy couple

This is my buddy Blake and his fiance Hilary. Blake and I grew up together in Palo Cedro together I was honored to take his engagement photos. Since I have been in Val Brinkerhoff's Advanced Color and Classical Portrait Lighting classes I feel like I've learned a lot mistakes that I've been making in the past. Here's to the happy couple.

Salt Lake Panorama

Here is a panorama of the Great Salt Lake. I wish it would have stitched together a little more clearly but such is life.

Under The Golden Gate

This Christmas has gone by quick. We left Provo buried under 8 - 10 inches of snow and found warmth in sunny California. From north to south we've seen Redding, Benicia, San Francisco, Huntington Beach, Yucaipa and San Diego.