D86: Voices

When I awoke this morning, snow was lightly falling and calling my name. I quickly got ready, grabbed some coffee, and headed out the door. I've been wanting to take some shots in the cemetery this winter, but the snow has not been sticking very well.

As I arrived at the cemetery I noticed the snow was cooperating perfectly. I decided to leave the warmth of my truck and do some walking.

There was an overall feeling of warmth and reverence as I wandered up & down paths through this vast resting place. At one point I swear I heard soft voices singing a song in the distance behind me. When I turned around the singing stopped. I can't explain why, but I didn't feel creeped out at all. I had this strange sense of acceptance of this event that I could not explain.

As I continued my journey, I came across a headstone with this written on the back:

I wondered what his story was. What kind of man was he? Why didn't he have any children of his own? Does anyone come to visit his grave?

I hope my own headstone will have more than "uncle" on it. I'd like to think that I will have little ones running around one day, to carry on my legacy.

Some headstones were covered in snow, as if asking for a little privacy. Others stood alone, seemingly watching guard in solitude.

Below I've included a few other shots from this morning.







Manual: Page 122 - Deleting Individual Photographs
Once in a great while I'll get bored between shoots and actually delete my test shots.

Images:David Wittig
I really like David's b&w wedding work.


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D85: The Best Laid Plans

"We're going to the Sundance Film Festival today? Perfect, I'll pack my camera bag!"

A spur of the moment road trip combined with a picturesque ski-town promised to be quite a photo op.

As it turns out, I was more concerned about enjoying myself on my 1 night out of town than toting camera gear around. If I had an extra day to spend in Park City, I would have definitely spent more time behind the camera. Maybe next year I'll go down for a few days.

In the end I had a great time, and some great stories came out of the trip.

Manual: Page 121 - Protecting Photographs From Deletion
This is a feature I've only used once. With larger format memory cards, I've never had a reason to delete photos in-camera.

Images:Emilie Sommer
Emilie has some fantastic photo journalistic wedding galleries.


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D84: Partly Cloudy With a Chance of Smug

My roommate & I ventured down to Park City, Utah today for the closing weekend of the Sundance Film Festival. Smug was the dress-code, and we played it well. Never have I been to a place where a stocking cap, scarf, and sunglasses indoors were almost required.

We hit up galleries, restaurants, bars, the whole works. If there was something going down on Main Street tonight, we probably stopped by.

I've NEVER entertained the idea of living in Utah. Never ever. However, Park City is already starting to grow on me...

Manual: Page 170 - Television Playback
I only really use this when we have family get-togethers.

Images:Annette Biggers
Annette is from Triple Cord Photography, and is an amazing talent. I think their website is absolutely fantastically designed. Just Wow.


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D83: The Intrepid Explorer

Meet Mitch, he's a space cop. I captured a picture of him tonight as he was hiking through an icy wasteland. You'll get to know him a little better next week...

Tomorrow I head to the Sundance Film Festival. We'll see if I come up with anything interesting for tomorrow's blog post.

Manual: Page 169 - Connections
Yes, I do in fact know how to connect my camera to things. One of my favorite uses of a connection is my remote cable.

Images:Anna Kuperberg
I absolutely loved Anna's child photography. I'll have to revisit her before some of my springtime shoots.


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D82: A Shot In the Dark

I decided to combine tonight's ice shot with an bottom-lit idea I saw a while back.

No Photoshop work here. I used a plastic form designed to make ice shot-glasses. A little food coloring gave the ice a little pizzaz.

Manual: Page 163 - Language
Umm... yeah, I'll stick with English on my cameras.

Images:Jason Christopher
Jason does some amazing fashion work. I really love the look of his lighting.


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D81: Details

On the way to check the mail this morning, I stopped to take a picture of some icicles hanging from a juniper bush. How often do you stop and actually study icicles? Once I loaded my images into Lightroom, I immediately noticed a very unique texture on the ice. I haven't the foggiest clue on how this would form, but it was quite interesting.

(and now the conclusion to yesterday's story...)

I may never be able to afford all of the new equipment on my wish list. Instead, I am committed to producing increasingly better images with my current equipment.

I will never stop learning from my peers, and I hope for a day that I can give back to them.

Today's big thanks goes out to Tasra & Ron Dawson.

Tasra is the reason that I started this project. Without her, I may never have decided to push the "reset" button on my photography. Tasra got me out of my comfort zone, exploring areas of photography that I've never even considered before. When I'm in a slump, I always go to her site for inspiration.

Ron has truly given me an inside look into the minds of so many photographers. I listen to Ron's podcasts at the gym, in the car, or while I'm editing photos at home. Ron has given me a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the lives of so many talented photographers. It is because of Ron's interviews that I truly feel I will one day make it in this industry I love.

Thank you Dawson family!

Manual: Page 165 - USB
Does anyone really use the USB connection on their camera anymore? I think just about every computer on the market now has a memory card reader.

Images:Scarlett Lillian
I just finished watching Scarlett on today's askdane.com episode. She's such a neat person, and I absolutely love her work.


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D80: Support

I walked around my neighborhood today, looking for something to kick-off my "ice" series. I came across a sheet of ice that had cracked into hundreds of tiny pieces, yet was still intact. I took a closer look to find out why the ice had not fallen into the hole below.

As it turns out, there was an intricate support structure consisting of pine needles, acting as nature's scaffolding.

That got me thinking about our support structures as individuals. How many of you have a support system to catch you if you fall? Does this allow you to take bigger risks? Have you ever shied away from taking a chance on something because you lacked adequate support?

Seven years ago I decided to pursue my photography as something more than just a hobby. During those seven years, I made all kinds of excuses as to why I never sully took "the plunge".

Truth be told, I was afraid of completely putting myself(and my work) out there for everyone to see and judge.

There were maybe 4 or 5 people that supported my work. Everyone else in my life thought I was crazy. They had never looked at my work, they just thought I should get a "regular 9 to 5" with benefits, 401k, etc. Not much has changed in the last 7 years in terms of support from those around me.

I've tried a million times to push photography back into the hobby category. Its kind of like trying to put the genie back in the bottle. When I look at photography, I get that warm fuzzy feeling that most people get with a new love interest. There are days when I spend hours browsing the work of other photographers, completely losing all track of time.

Part of starting this 365 project was to build a new support structure, consisting of people in the photographic world that inspire me. Most of the photographers that give me "support" have no idea who they are. I listen to their podcasts, read their articles, browse their work, etc. That is what gives me the motivation to keep trying.

I am not a phenomenal photographer.
I have not produced any groundbreaking images.
I have yet to define my style.
However, I am learning.
I am evolving.
I am striving to be a better photographer.
I am a photographer.

That's what the last five months have taught me. I am a photographer, and nobody can take that away from me. I may never be the best, and I may never be well-known, but I will always be a photographer.

(I'm going to cut myself off right there. Part II of this story will be tomorrow.)

Manual: Page 102 - Flash Exposure Compensation
I played with this quite a bit during my 1st experiment with HDR. The jury is still out on my HDR skills.

Images:Gabrielle Geiselman
Today I looked at some of Gabrielle's portrait work. She is great at creating drama in her images. Loved 'em.


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