Through My Lens

Texas Images

2009-04-01T10:46:00.001-07:00

Hook 'Em

Texas Capital in Early Morning

Billy Bob's, the Largest Honky Tonk in the US :)

Cows Stampede Dallas

I used to think that a herd of longhorns lived in my closet...I'm still a bit scared of them.

Inspecting the artist signatures on the cows

Earth Hour Shots

Real, legit, delicious tortillas

The bluebonnets were everywhere!

Adventure at the City Museum

2009-03-09T08:53:00.000-07:00

A sea of pink invaded the City Museum in St. Louis on Saturday. A sisterhood retreat brought almost 200 of us to the museum.

Dreaming of being back in South America...

2009-02-24T17:40:00.001-08:00

Maybe next year I'll be back for this :)
Here are some pretty pictures of Carnival in Rio.

Life as an Artist: Byron Smith

2009-02-23T07:57:00.001-08:00

Byron bends the bristles on brand new brushes. He will later use medium, a substance that will affect the bonding of the paint with the brush and canvas.

Byron Smith: Self-portrait

Byron demonstrates a pose that a model may imitate during a drawing session. He invited the model to pose one morning for a small group of Artists at Orr Street Studios in Columbia.

Before beginning a painting, Byron rolls a drawing table from his studio. Byron has had his studio at the Orr Street Studios since its opening.

Byron begins a painting. He most enjoys working with watercolors and oils.

Byron talks about his artwork with Columbia patrons at Sven's Kafe. He is currently showing work at the cafe next door to Orr Street Studios. Byron and his colleague Ali Halane show work that revolves around themes of earth, wind and water.

Artist Byron Smith works with oils on Sunday morning. Every weekend he and his colleagues meet at the university to sketch and paint nude figures.

Super Bowl Sunday

2009-02-04T09:03:00.000-08:00

CHRISTINE

Christine is a bartender at Buffalo Wild Wings in Columbia. She was unhappy to be working on Super Bowl Sunday, but she did have some time to take breaks and watch the game on Sunday.

EDDIE

Eddie is a truck driver between Missouri and Minnesota and is an avid Arizona Cardinals fan. He cheered as Arizona scored their last touchdown of the game on February 1, 2009.

The past is never stagnant

2009-01-23T07:05:00.000-08:00

My camera is currently being repaired in the shop. So, I just played around with a point and shoot yesterday. With the new year, I was thinking a lot about the past and the changes that have come into life with my movement into the future. Impressionist painters in the nineteenth century included "movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience."

Multiple Flash = Multiple Tricky

2007-12-03T10:55:00.000-08:00

Golden Girls Erica Rentschler (L) and Sara Liechti (R) dance at the Mizzou pep rally held on November 30, 2007 before the Big 12 Championship football game. The Golden Girls joined the marching band and the cheerleaders to pump up the large crowd that gathered for the rally that featured appearances by Mizzou head coach Gary Pinkel and select football players.

Multimedia Stories

2007-11-26T20:33:00.000-08:00

Following are some multimedia stories that have perked my interest this past week.

The Fight for Sugar Hill:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spe/2007/sugarhill/index.html

This story has some powerful images. It may be a little lengthy for the average viewer, but I think it pairs audio and images nicely, and at times, powerfully.

Suicide Races:
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/multimedia/index.ssf?RACES

I like the content of this story and I think there are some good images. At the same time, I have issues with the audio—it doesn’t match up like I expect it to when I watch the story. I want to see an image of people cheering or a crowd on the sidelines when I hear them and I want to hear hoof beats or the skid of hooves on the sand, or the splash when the horse hits the water. I guess this wouldn’t be considered an exemplary audio story, but it is one that could be improved upon to make a good event story.

Stories of Katrina’s Aftermath:
http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/photography/2007/katrina2year/

This multimedia presentation includes pieces of video. The pictures almost jump at you too suddenly; however the jarring nature of the presentation only echoes the jumps these people had to make so suddenly in their lives. I think the combination of music, photos, and audio make Anita Fowler’s story the strongest in this multimedia presentation.

Blend and Fill: more fun with the flash

2007-11-07T22:54:00.000-08:00

Rachael McMillen, 18, yawns as she sorts out laundered articles of clothing during her early morning shift at the US 190 Cleaners. McMillen, who has worked at this store since she was 15, works 40 hours a week and also studies at Columbia College.

Jenna and Justin play on the playground at New Haven Elementary School. The two third-graders get twenty minutes of playtime on the playground each day.

Some cowpokes get ready for Halloween.

2007-11-04T15:48:00.000-08:00

Color Correction Assignment:

There are some weird things in the woods...

2007-10-25T13:28:00.000-07:00

The new challenge, the next step: Flash!

2007-10-18T16:34:00.000-07:00

Members of the Midwest Fury, an under-11 soccer team from Columbia, Illinois, play an arcade game at Willie’s Pub and Pool on October 13. After being rained-out from their tournament, team members and their parents came to the pub to watch the University of Missouri football game against the University of Oklahoma.

Jackie Milan and Renee Heck enjoy drinks at the Blue Note before a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on October 17. The two women drove an hour from Eldon, Missouri, to watch one of their favorite movies. As is typical of many Rocky Horror fans, Milan and Heck brought items such as rice, toilet paper, and playing cards to throw into the crowd throughout the movie.

Glass in the Studio

2007-10-03T22:02:00.000-07:00

"Stephanie, Emote" - The Portrait Assignment

2007-09-24T22:35:00.000-07:00

This assignment certainly had close-to-endless creative possibilities. That idea was not only exciting, it was a little daunting. No less daunting was the fact that I was paired with photographer extraordinaire: Stephanie. The minute we sat down together, Steph already had her plan for how she was going to shoot me; I was nowhere near having an idea. And when we went into the studio, my ideas were still pretty slim. It was not that I hadn’t thought about the shoot (it was more the exact opposite) it was the fact that I did not know how to use light to convey who I knew as “Stephanie.”
Stephanie is an amazing person. Since knowing her last semester, I’ve been inspired a good deal. She’s explored away from her home of Seattle, Washington, playing volleyball for three different schools, working, and following her passions. She’s incredibly driven to say the least, and I admire her for finding what she wants to do with her life. Steph also gave me some of the best advice I could have ever had last semester about following my heart. Therefore, I see Steph as a very introspective and motivated person. Her tattoo of a turtle represents the Hawaiian word “Hanu” which means “direction.” This tattoo seems fitting for Stephanie’s character. She says that it reminds her that, even through all of her adventures, she’s always known where she wants to end up, always had a sense of direction.
My first picture reveals the tattoo. At the same time I think it captures some of Stephanie’s quiet satisfaction in knowing where she’s headed in life. The portrait was set up with two lights and a reflector. One spot with a blue and green gel was aimed at the grey backdrop from the back right. A large soft box was at the front, a little left of center, at shoulder height. A reflector was placed on the left to insure illumination of the tattoo. The shot was taken at f22 at 125 at ISO 200. I would have liked to see her right side in a little less shadow; a reflector or low-wattage light might have been helpful on the right. I can’t decide if I like the blue-green background. It corresponds to the color of the tattoo, gives a sense of both boldness and serenity, and is also Steph’s and mine’s favorite color. However, it seems somewhat gimmicky. Thus, I don’t know how successful the picture is. Is the blue too overwhelming?
In my second shot, I captured the other side of Steph that I’ve begun to know this semester, the goofy side. She’s an upbeat girl with giggles and smiles and some funny stories. In my second photo, I think I captured this funny side. I shot this photo at f16 at 125, ISO 200 with one light with a barn door on it. I chose the barn door, quite frankly, because I didn’t know what it’s light would look like. I think the specular light is a bit harsh for this photograph and somewhat defeats the lightheartedness of the image. I wish I had used a reflector on the left so that there was not such a difference in stops between the two sides of her face. If I were to shoot this photo again, I would do it in a more high-key environment.
Overall, I think I did an ok job on this assignment. I really felt clueless (i.e. not at all artistic) on how to set up the lights in order to portray the “essence of Stephanie.” I need to work, too, on communicating with my subject while I’m shooting. Stephanie surely helped me by opening up and displaying different emotions, but not all subjects are going to be so honest.

Some other favorites:

Changing Light

2007-09-13T13:05:00.001-07:00

The Alpha Chi Omega fraternity just celebrated the beginning of its 85th year on the University of Missouri campus. The front façade of the chapter house, which faces westward on Richmond Avenue, is surrounded by plants that model the chapter’s official colors: red and green.

In my changing light assignment I photographed the outside of the Alpha Chi Omega fraternity house. I picked this place because it incorporated a variety of textures and colors, and I like the pretty window box; it was also a convenient location to shoot. While the subject matter may have been slightly dull, I learned more about metering and exposure in different lighting circumstances.

While it is embarrassing to admit, I had never before looked at the histogram information on my camera. It was an eye-opening experience to use it during this assignment. I played around a lot with both my aperture and shutter speed, trying to even out that histogram for each shot. The most troublesome time I had shooting was at midday. Shot cl_petel_HR_03 was the best from that time frame. Because the sun was almost directly over me at 12:50 pm, I had a large shaded area on the left side of my frame and a very bright area on the right side of the frame. The difference between the two areas was greater than 2 stops. I averaged the meter readings for the bright area and the shaded area to find an exposure in the middle ground that slightly favored the shaded area since it took up a majority of the frame. However, my shot still does not look quite right. Midtones rule this picture; when I was shooting I did not know how to expose for the shaded area without completely blowing out the tree and the sunny area in the frame.

I took my favorite shot, cl_petel_HR_01, during the “magic hour” right after sunrise. I like the warmth in the windows and the detail and color in the elephant ear leaves. This shot was easier to expose for than others since the light was diffuse and illuminated most of the shot with the same intensity.
I am working a lot on trying to understand exposure better. This assignment surely helped me move away from relying on the camera’s automatic meter. I need to work on calculating what kind of exposure will work, but I think this assignment provided a good start.

Copy Stand and Meter Test Assignment

2007-08-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

For the “stump the chump” exercise I chose Jerry Lodriguss’ 1997 picture of two individuals watching the Hale Bopp Comet in the Arizona Sonoran Desert. This picture confused me in a couple different ways. First, where is the red light coming from? Also, how did the photographer expose for this image? The sky is bright, the stars show up, and you can see the motion of the comet; all of these would indicate a long exposure time. However, the photographer captures a gesture of the young boy in the foreground. The boy’s arm has no motion blur and therefore indicates a shorter exposure time. How did the photographer capture so much light in a night scene, especially when it seems that one part of the picture required a different exposure time than the other?

The physical copy stand test was a bit tricky since my image came from a book. I tried, with the help of a partner, to get the image as flat against the glass as possible. The image was not directly against the glass on the right hand side; therefore a slight haze occurs on the right-hand side of the image. You can also see the reflection of my lens in the darker part of the picture. Perhaps next time I will try to position my lens over a lighter part of the picture.

For the “mood lighting” exercise, I chose to copy a fashion advertisement from Vogue magazine. I think the diffused light paired with the light colors and the pose of the model creates a soft, feminine mood. The picture works to create a sense of radiance and playfulness; perhaps the advertisers wanted to inspire a sense of youth and lighthearted beauty.

When I was shooting during the light exploration portion of the project, I did not get any good tungsten shots. I learned that the tungsten white balance setting, when used during outdoor shots, casts a blue tone in the picture no matter what time of day it is. Indoors, I took shots under both fluorescent light and incandescent light. The tungsten select that I submitted was shot under incandescent spotlights that create a direct warm glow above the subjects. Despite setting my ISO at 800, the limited lighting indoors paired with an aperture value of eight created problem with stopping motion. The next time I take this shot, I will use a smaller aperture value as well as a tripod.

My daylight shots were somewhat better than my tungsten shots. I selected a picture of a young boy at the traveling carnival, which is currently being held in Columbia. At the bottom of the “Ruins Slide” a young boy pops to his feet after his fun adventure. While this picture has some motion blur with his limbs, I think it is ok because his face is focused and the motion emphasizes his excitement for the ride. I shot this picture at dusk at 400 ISO, aperture value 8 and 40 for shutter speed. If I had quickened my shutter speed, I would have had less blur in the picture. I learned that the daylight setting works well outdoors during different times of day. If this setting is used indoors, however, the image takes on a yellowed tone.

As a whole, my daylight and tungsten shots did not turn out well. They are distant, not interesting, and do not convey much. This assignment was difficult because it required me to get back in the swing of photojournalism. I may have had a camera in my hand every day this summer, but I did not have to approach and/or find stories in strangers. I struggle with working with strangers. Of course, that’s what this profession is about, and I must overcome my fears. As I warmed up with this assignment, I kept farther from my subjects than I should have. My pictures are thus not successful.