Focus, exposure, composition, light, and a clean background. The first three are the easiest to master, many amateurs have solid skills with the first two, you learn composition after looking thousands of photos and taking even more photographs. For some reason I think it is the last two that I am finally starting to really look for. Shallow depth of field is fun too. I haven’t taken a photo since Saturday tomorrow will be Thursday…I am shooting wrestling. Might be fun.

“To photograph is to hold one’s breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It’s at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.”
Henri Cartier-Bresson

Mas Pictures

Some stuff from today, Talons Challenge at Beaver Creek 13 mogul runs in one day. I am not really into bumps so this assignment wasn’t exactly awesome but the sun was out which helped with light on the bumps.

….then on to a calligraphy workshop, just a feature photo.

Photojournalist

I think that photojournalist have a tough job, its hard to show up at a mundane type situation and make something out of nothing. I had a good day yesterday I shot in the town of Minturn all day long it was good to get out and just shoot and not sit around the office going to meetings and stuff. For the whining I do I really have a great job and sometime I take it for granted.

Some selects from Minturn….

Slumps

I have a feeling we all go through them. I know I have slumps every once in a while, but why? Is it just all part of the process before we get better do we go down before we go up? I spent three hours on a shoot today, shot over 700 frames and walked away with out a single interesting photo. I am so disappointed in myself. This week in general has been a huge disappointment….so here I am three days later and still no good photos (granted I did take the last two days off) today was just as bad as Saturday. I had two assignments today one was to shoot an interview of Grace Slick who was in the 60’s band Jefferson Airplane.

She is not this hot anymore, she is like 68 now, but she was the most entertaining interview I have ever been on. She was open about so many things she had done, not afraid to speak her mind at all it was so impressive. I dont think my photo of her is very good (my day was so bad I just downloaded my images to the desktop and did other stuff didn’t even bother editing the images) but I still walked away with a memorable experience to last my entire life.

Identity?

Self portrait circa 2004.

There are a lot of “photographers” some are amazing, some are mediocre…at best and there are a ton in the middle. At what point do we develop a photographic identity? A style that sets us apart from the rest of the herd. It could come sooner for some and later for others, after I graduated from school I was afraid I had already peaked. I didn’t peak, I think I had a style back then but I think it was more adolescent. My first year at the Vail Daily was rough looking back at it now I got lucky a few times but most of my pictures were pretty bad. I still have my moments but I think I am a little more consistent. Do I have a style yet? I don’t know I hope to one day.

I just missed making this a good photo…note the lens flare.

Influences

When I took my first class in photography we watched a video on W. Eugene Smith after watching the video he was my favorite photographer. Later as I moved onto college I discovered Henri Cartier Bresson, whose images I am still astounded by, the way he sees the world blows me away and the way he was able to make amazingly perfect compisitions never cropping definitley impacts me to this day. Then came Robert Frank and his book the Americans when flipping through the book it reads like some sort of Kerouac novel abstract yet extremely truthful thought provoking images. Frank led me to Gary Winogrand who with out question one of the best street photographers that has ever lived. I definitley try to find humor and irony in my photographs the way he found the comical on the streets of New York. And finally Sebastian Salgado, whose documentary work has without a doubt made the world if not better a little bit more educated about working conditions around the world. So there you have it the five photographers that influneced me early on there are still so many out there that have affected the way I see the world contemporary and classic image makers. As my friends and I progress they even become photographic heros in my eyes.

Thank You, Bresson, Frank, Smith, Winogrand, Salgado, Bret, Shane, Rick, Iverson, Kimberly, Hans, Tim, Dave Neiligh and Frank Varney, Angie Buckley, and anyothers I have forgotten.

Face

The face of photography is changing, and sometimes I feel like I am the only one that cares. Are photographers the only ones who actually like looking at still images am I the only one who thinks many of the videos out there are lame? I am not trying to be sore about this, there are some good videos but for the most part I find them boring. I dunno what to do just grin and bare it? Make my own crappy videos? I like the audio aspect to slide shows but and even some video mixed with stills. At any rate enough ranting here some pics from this week.

Geography Bee….intense!!!!

Porsche winter driving school…one week…$6,000 not too bad huh?

New Year

So here it is already the 9th and my first post since the new year. My personal resolution was to keep updating this regularly but I have had a tough time motivating myself to keep this up. The face of photography is ever changing and some times it can be intimidating but I guess we all have to go with the flow in order to stay competitive. I was a little grumpy today it has been snowing for several days and every time I get in the car it feels like I am going to get in an accident.

I bought a lomo ring flash a few weeks ago and I got it the mail today this is a photo of my roommates dog using the ring flash. He is a bastard. Yesterday he peed all over my camera bag it was gross, I have probably done a few things to deserve it, karma can bite you big time and I am sure more bad things are on the way. Could be a rough year.

This is a shot from today, the only assignment I had. Scott Rella sculpting some ice in Vail. It was windy, snowy, and cold. I am getting tired of shooting in grey skies I want some color this shot would have been way better with a beautiful blue sky. The nice thing about living at 8,150 feet is that the skies are really blue.

So I guess what I am trying to say is that I will try to keep up with this in a more timely fashion, maybe even try to start spreading the word that I actually have a blog. No need to tell people about it if I am not updating it.