Just a few photos...

Here are a few photos from my latest trip to Clarinda.

Im sick do you read this

So school is ending im wondering who all reads my rambling on. i will post photos at the end of the week i just wanted to get some thing up im thinking of... ya back off to bed i go

There is a 1ST time for evey thing

So my 1st time in photo class post high school is winding down... and we are on the last project and i am doing some thing i have always wanted to do but never had the guts to do... I'm shooting architecture. and not just any im doing asylum architecture so you can just imagine how excited i am do to that but on the other hand it is one of the harder things i have done being i have not done this befor. my 1st few photos come out really well. Im also toying with an idea about doing a a project about my aneurysm im still working that all out the 1st thing to do is plan it the next thing is to do it my goal is 4 good prints that explore my life and my aneurysm :|

Just some work

I said i was going to post some work from the lighting thing so here is a pic or 2 i have other work on my facebook page

OMG WHERE DID THE TIME GO

I have not done my blog in so long. I have been in school for some time now and school is well school. To say it is easy would be a lie but to say that its not pushing me to do good work would be to not give it any credit. I have been doing some good B/W work and its pushing me to think out side of the box. Do i like dark room... work well not that well, but i love the work that is coming out of it. I have some nice work to show for it and a good grade. I just dont think that MCC and Nebraska are the place i need to be nor can i spread my wings here and fly to do my greatest work here that is why im looking to las vegas. Im not saying I have not learned any thing at school. I have and im grateful for my time at MCC. It got me to push my box out. ill have to scan some of my photos from my light assignment and post them but for now here is a lil bit of what i have been up to...

From the desk of Turtle Photography

Well this past week end i went out to Englewood days in Co and got to meet alot of cool people. And i met Phantom 88 a band out there well i don't do a lot of people photography but i did that weekend and i thought it turned out good so i thought i put it up here.

On and on and on it just wont stop... May be thats a good thing?

So I went back out to the fair grounds today only to come home and see I'm not happy with a lot of my photos. I have 404 original images for the project. Because this blog is about personal growth I am going to post some of the less then par images and I'm going to put up a few that i like. It was my hope that today would be the end of it i think I'm going to take a day off and veg for a day and go back at it rested up may be that will help me to achieve what I want in my photographs and to wrap up the 1st phase of this. It is teaching perseverance if nothing else. The thing i keep asking my self is what is the end result of all this? I know what i hope to do... The book, but I'm vary unsure. here are a few of the pics that are sub par i did not edit the bad photos at all. That not to say all my photos where bad to day. I just wish more of them would of turned out






































Now for some photos i did like.

Personal Project continues...♦

So I went back to the fair park to day; every time I have gone out there it is so hot. When I sit down to do the descriptions for the photos I have to look at my map and I found some of the photos did not come out well. That got me to thinking I should go back with a script out lining what I would like to accomplish. Like what places I want to shoot and how i want it done. here is a random sampling of some pictures I got from is at state fair park.

The end of project I hope will be a book about the state fair with my photos. I have a long way to go.

The State Fair Park has a lot on it. I don't just have memories of going to the state fair. in 4th grade i went to the one room school house located in state fare park. as i was photographing it the years seemed to slip away. It was like I was back out side with my class playing after lunch and i was trying to recall what was there years ago... 19 years is a life time for some people. I stood there thinking about my life and the course that brought me to photograph the same school house I was in years ago. State Fair Park is also the place I learned how to drive. So it holds many memories for me. As August comes to a close i have school coming up this is the 1st time i have went to school for my photography I hope i can make it.

Personal Project

This is the last year for the State Fair in Lincoln Ne. After this year the University is going to come in and take over the park and turn it in to a research park or some BS I really don't care... the after math is not the point other then the fact we are losing the state fair. I have set out to document state fair park before we lose it and I am no where near being done. The other day i was thinking it is not just the buildings were losing but also the walkways so i am going to turn my camera on them as well. I wanted to get a few photos from my my 1st trip there up. This is one of the dairy stalls in the dairy barn. It is my hope to follow state fair park though from before the fair the fair to what ever the U end up doing with it.

Takeing it to the next Level

I have been involved in photography for nine years now, but it was only in the last 2 years that i realy started to take my craft seriously. I was talking to my mom the other day about takeing it to the next level and I told her I was scared because I have not done much portraiture. (My goal of working in Vegas in 2.5 yeas) But in the last few days I have come to realize that is not the only way to take the next level. I have opened my own CafePress store front... Sadly I don't have the money to set it up like i would want. I have put one thing of note cards up and i worked on this photo for the cards. I have been thinking about doing free siting to work on my portraiture for a number of things one of witch it would add to my experience along with adding to my portfolio. I am even toying with the idea of sending out post cards to the neighborhood advertising my photography services. If you see any thing on my blog or my flickr pages you would like as note cards, prints or any thing don't hesitated to drop me a line. I'm sure we could work some thing out. It is my goal to make my living with my art :)

Outside the BOX

Some times you just have to push your self even when your not feeling it... Today was one such day I have alot of them days and flowers photos are not my thing. But today was about pushing my self and steping outside of the box. As im working on my vision i keep asking my self the same thing; Why do i take photos? That has led me to a whole host of other things. One thing i ask at the end of this dialog with my self is do I need to answer these questions to make good art? I can not be a photographer if i do not make photos and i can not do that if i do not push my self to get out there and take them. Its kinda like the existentialist talk about I have all this anxiety because I have all this freedom. I need to over come my fear of failing and just do it... Why do i take photos? Right now its to find my vision and to work on my craft. If i have some nice art to put on the wall all the better... but as an artiest i do not believe that should be the end to aim for...

Learning Process

I have been learning to use photoshop more and working on my workflow. I shut in raw now but when i first got my camera i went out of town for 3 weeks and i had no idea what i was doing so i used jpeg. it was not tell yeas later and i got photoshop that i started useing raw and then still on my trip last summer i was unsure so i shot raw and jpeg it was not tell i red some thing about color in post processing and extermination that I found out what was wrong or was missing so i have added to my repertoire of postprocessing and added one more step to my workflow. here are two photos one befor i learned to deal with color in post and the other i reworked early this
morning.




No color post

















Color added in post and i have stared useing the unsharp mask.

Direction

I have two photos over on flickr caught in a lope and locked out. I mention them because they work as visual metaphor in describing my frustration in the lack of direction I feel in regards to my art. I feel locked out becaue i have a lot of hang ups that i have not over come... and i dont push my self hard enough to come up with compelling photographs. i tend to go back to the same things over and over again like the fire trucks like the psychiatric hospitals therefor im caught in a lope. to day i did go to the haymarket area and i tryed to photograph but i feel i came up short. i left with only photographing the city buses coming in to the barn for today and some other industrial complex...a grain elevator. On the post side of it i also feel im stuck in a lope because photoshop is so extensive I feel like im spinning my wheels... not just that but some times it feels so overwhelming all the technicalities with exposure sharpening and what not... Here is my homage to the greats that worked in the FSA during the Depression. Reflecting upon direction I keep focusing on short-term goals... like setting my my dige dark room up or buying this or that and i keep forgetting the long term one of being back in Vegas in 2.5 years working as a photographer. that is the point of me going back to school here where i live so i can pay instate tuition get my degree if i so choose and then go out there (vegas) and get a job doing weddings at a Chapel and supplementing my income by pursuing my own artistic endeavors and selling my wheres at art shows. so i would have the job side of it taken care of steady income from a wedding chapel and then the creative outlet at the art shows. i miss the art scene in Vegas. years ago i had a art instructor that was active here locally in art scene and that really turned me off that's another discussion for a another blog.

Why do I photograph?

Dada was an outgrowth of the 1st world war and was a backlash the against traditional canon of art and dealt with nihilistic themes and representation. At on point in my early adult life I questioned the existence of reality and I tried to pursue photography in a nihilistic direction specifically abstract photography. After facing death and feeling empty I searched for some thing more fulfilling both philosophically and artistically…

I have 3 photos here from my earlier work…

This is a sunset shut out in the Mojave Desert ill call this art photography.

This was taken at the neutral buoyancy laboratory at Johnson Space Center Ill call this a snap shut or travel photography (for personal use).

This photo was taken at Clarinda psychiatric hospital Ill call this documentary photography.










So with these 3 photos may be I can answer why I photograph and start working towards an artist statement.

My Intro to the world

Well i could cheat but i'm not going to this is my photo blog to the world so here is my 1st pic. I dont have an artist statement as of yet and im hoping that this blog will help me in that aim and will foce me to take my photography more seriously. I have been actively participating in photography since high school. but it was not until after my aneurysm that I decided to pursue my artistic endeavors. This year i'm going back school for photography and I have decided to study photography on my own. Im reading a book right now on exposure and following that one up with one on composition. a quick note about this photo befor i got sick i was vary much in to dada and nihilism; facing my mortality I have come to embrace existential philosophy and impart existentialism in to some of my art that is why you will see pics of turtles and other nature related endeavors. Much more to come so stay turned...