Updated Photo Sequence

Of course with any photo there are things I wish I could have done differently. I really wanted to go to another nail place and take photos but time didn't allow that this past weekend. It is something I plan on doing in the future though. After the first go around in class, I wish I would have gotten behind the manicure lady and gotten more of the face of the customer. It would have been a different angle but something I didn't think of at the time. I was conscious of it when I took more pictures of a jeweler for a VOX assignment. I feel like I experienced new things in this assignment. I had never been to a nail place before or watched someone get their nails done so it was something new to see. One of my goals this semester is to experience new things and go new places that I've never gone before and to push myself as a photographer and journalist. I'm working on breaking out of my quiet shell and this assignment helped a bit in doing that. I'm still not sure about the ordering of the sequence. I might take out the check writing photo because I feel it isn't necessary in understanding what is going on. You get the picture of what is happening from the other photos and that photo takes away from the rest.

Long lost photo..

Actually it hasn't been lost for long. I took this photo when I followed U-City FD and it was on a different card than my other photos but alas I found the photo of Dave to post on here. Nothing terribly exciting, just folding tarps from a house they had a fire at.

Princess Nails Salon Sequence

My original idea for my sequence was to go to a laundry place. I went to one and waited around for a while but nobody came so I had to think of something different. I decided to go to Princess Nail Salon off of Grindstone. I have never been in a nail salon before so this was something new for me. Rose Smith was nice enough to let me take her photo as she was getting her nails done. I had walked in on the beginning of her getting her nails done and stayed till they put a color on her nails.

Jeweler

I did some photography work for an assignment with a local jeweler. He makes his jewelry from start to finish. Starts with drawings then carves the design out of wax and casts it etc. Its an interesting process and I'm excited to go take more photos with him.

More Photo Sequences

Here are some links to photo sequences that another photographer has done.

http://www.amishphoto.com/picturepages/1964sto.htm

http://www.amishphoto.com/picturepages/2188%20SL.htm

http://www.amishphoto.com/picturepages/511.htm

Photo Sequence

So I had to come up with a photo sequence for my class. I tried to think of various ideas and drove around for a good long while and just had a block. So as I was pulling into my complex, I saw this bird and a few more were in the trees so I pulled over and snapped a few photos. Not really what I wanted but I think once I think of more ideas things will come to me.

First week of classes

First week of classes are over. I've realized a few things in that week. One is that I will be incredibly busy throughout the semester. I have both staff and picture story this semester. I'm determined to do well in both classes and hopefully add some photos to my portfolio cause my portfolio needs a lot of work. A second is I need to stop stressing about things. Today I had to go enterprise for my staff class since I didn't have any assignments. I thought of a bunch of ideas but they were more things that could be developed into stories. I went through about seven ideas I had and none of them worked today. Places were closed, didn't exist, or nobody was there. I did find a story on alpacas that I am going to follow up on this weekend hopefully. One of the things I'm really going to try and work on this semester is being more vocal in classes. I'm always a quiet person, afraid to say things in class. I realize this won't work in some of my classes. I really want to be more open in my picture story class because I can probably get a lot out of the class. I love the book we are reading in that class now and I'm taking notes on it so I can hopefully add to discussion. I related a lot to the perfectionism chapter because that is something I stress about. I want my photos to be good and get frustrated if they don't turn out the way I want them but I have to realize that not every picture you take is going to be good. Learn from those photos or learn something for next time. I feel like the more you try to be perfect with your photos, the worse they turn out to be.

Anywho those are just my thoughts for the day and things I want to fix for this semester.

Photography Block

For my capstone class we have to shoot a sequence of photos. Not that hard right? Wrong. Well I'm just having a photographers block like writers have writers block. I did some driving all around today. Drove out in the country and through town looking for something that would spark my creative juices but instead I got nothing. I get this every once in a while and it is frustrating. Add to the fact that it is raining outside makes it harder for me. As I pulled into my apartment complex I did see some sort of birds eating some food someone left on the ground so I pulled my car into a near spot and took some photos of the bird. Boring it seems to me but I had to take a photo of something otherwise I was going to go crazy. I got a few photos of the bird walking closer to the food, getting some food and then kinda walking away. It is a sequence but not a very good one. I have some skating sequences from my internship that I could use but I want to go find something new. I guess my task tomorrow is to go find that.

Anyone have any suggestions on what to do to help my photographers block? I'm up for whatever suggestions you all have.

First day of my last semester!

So the last semester of my college career is in full swing (well almost..lol) I had one class this morning and my photo shift from 3-9. I've been tired lately which isn't a good thing with the busy semester I'm gonna have. I'm really excited about my last semester here. It is going to be the toughest yet but I think I will learn a lot and have some great stories and photos come out of it. I already have a few story ideas in mind that I would like to work on, I just need to contact the people. I want to do some more work with the U-City fire dept if I can this semester. I want to go back and shoot some portraits of the guys in their uniforms in front of the truck when the weather gets warmer. I just bought a book that has portraits of the NYC fire fighters that I'm excited to get and maybe get some inspiration from that.

Anywho that's all I have to say for now.

Stay tuned for more updates and photos throughout the semester!

University City Fire Department Adventures Day Two

As some of you know I decided to spend another day at the U-City Fire Dept. I really like the guys there so I came back for a second go around hoping to go out on a call. No such luck with a call. I was there for a while and not a single call. I'm beginning to think that my luck has run out :) It made for a long day but I brought plenty to keep me busy. I didn't take any photos because there wasn't much to take photos of that day.

Maybe one of these days I will get back to spend a few hours there and see if we go out on a call. I would really like to go out on a call there, but luck doesn't seem to be on my side with that.

University City Fire Department Adventures

As some of you know, I'm trying to do little side projects to keep me busy over Christmas break. I thought I'd continue some of my work with various fire departments. I worked with Columbia last year, St. Charles last week and University City this week. I really enjoyed my time with U-City FD. They were a great bunch of guys to hang around with and get to know. I'm hoping to go back on the 14th of this month to spend another day with them. Hopefully we can get a call this time around. It would be cool to do a summer long project on the crew. I'll have to see if they will have me back for that one..lol :) Anywho, the following photos are what I took the day I visited. We didn't get any calls that day but I did get to go around and see a bunch of burnt out buildings which was neat to see. I also took some pictures of the guys cooking (I don't even think they know I took the photos, I was being sneaky.) They aren't of great quality but that is because I wasn't using flash at all. If I used flash that would have been a dead giveaway..lol I hope to post more photos once I work with them again.

Dinner Time!

We drove by a bunch of burnt out buildings and I took this one from my seat in the fire truck.

Inside a place where they train.

Chatting inside the truck.

Stopped to help a lady push her car.

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