Movin’ On…

So, obviously the picture a day thing has kind of fallen by the wayside…I’m also not a particularly big fan of WordPress (especially the layouts), so I’ve moved to Blogger (because everything Google touches turns to gold…).  You can find me over at Box of Light.  Hope to see you there!

A change of pace…

I’ve been thinking a bit about the blog and how it’s set up and how many pictures I post and I’m thinking about making some changes.  I’d like to keep shooting a photo a day, but I think from now on I’ll only post a few of those pictures, be more particular about what I post.  All the photos will still be on my Flickr account, but I’ll be more selective about what I post to the blog.  I think I’m going to change the layout too, because I think it’s nicer to view these photos on a black background, not a white one.

I’ve been pretty good so far about shooting whenever I can…I was starting to really enjoy my Polaroid camera, but I dropped it yesterday and now it’s not working.  I’m going to try to fix it but I have a feeling I’ll just end up buying a new one.  I’m trying to shoot more film, but it’s hard for some reason to stick to it…I’m playing with the Holga a little bit, but I probably won’t be able to get into the darkroom for at least another couple days.  My wide angle lens is broken again…I have a feeling it has something to do with the air out here, I started having the same problems with this lens this time last year.  It’s a little disappointing because I just go it fixed, and I can tell you I probably won’t ever buy another Sigma lens.  Luckily it’s a pretty cheap repair, but it takes so much effort and time to send it in and wait for it to get fixed.  I guess I should get on that soon.  That’s really all there is to say right now, here are a few photos from the past couple weeks.

Part of my job out here involves meeting boats at the pier to pick up any freight they might be bringing to the island and delivering it.  This year, the boat gets to the island right when dinner starts every night, and it’s become common for our whole crew to show up to the pier to find the boat is late.  This photo was taken on one of those evenings that involved a long wait.

An example of another common part of my day…My job here involves daily rounds to collect trash and regular trash runs into town to drop the trash off in a dumpster.  This was taken during the first trash run into town on a new boat contracted by the island called the Sakonnet.

This was taken at a party on the infamous Shack Deck…This is one of the only places on the island that is purely an employee space, and so it gets used for a lot of parties.  It also happens to be my front porch.

This is Shack Deck from afar.  Just out of frame to the right is Shack, the former coal shack on the island, now a Pelican living space and my home for the summer.

Nate, my supervisor, posing on Shack Deck after a hard day’s work.

From what I’ve heard, these clouds are pretty uncommon…I got lucky enough to catch these right before they disappeared.

I don’t know which story to share about this picture…Only a few days before I took this picture, I learned that the subject, Jeremy, is from the same town as me and that we were in marching band together.  This photo was taken in Portsmouth after a weekend off, before a very crazy boat ride in strong winds and at least 8-10 foot swells.

5/14-6/1

I know, it’s been a long time…I’ve been overwhelmed with trying to adjust to being on the island, and then being back in Nashua for the weekend.  It’s so hard to adjust for such a short period of time.  So far, I’ve managed to take a lot of pictures on the island, I hope I can keep it up.  I hope to be getting the darkroom on the island set up soon, as soon as my budget gets approved so I can buy chemicals.  If that happens I may not be posting for a while, I’m going to try to shoot mostly film, which means I’ll need to scan prints so I can post them, and I don’t have a scanner on the island.  I’m afraid I’m being (as usual) overly ambitious about what I’ll accomplish this summer…I’m feeling kind of scattered, anxious, and overwhelmed at the moment, partly because I need to get up excessively early to catch a boat tomorrow, and I’m worried the seas will be rough, but mostly I just feel like I can’t collect my thoughts.  Hopefully things will get better, but in the meantime, here’s some photos!  Oh, for some reason I totally missed 5/18…I think that makes 3 days so far I’ve missed, which in the scheme of things isn’t too bad in my opinion.  Ok, photos!  I don’t have time to comment, I need to go to bed REAL soon.  If I get a chance later this week I’ll come back and right some notes…I really do want to explain some of these photos, there are some cool stories behind them.

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5/9-5/13

So, I have been shooting with the Land Camera, but I think it’s gonna take me a few film packs to get used to it…I’m definitely not happy with my results yet, but I think it will just take some time to get used to a new camera, the same thing happens with any new piece of equipment.  In the meantime, here’s the past few days’ photos.

5/9:

A little Lensbaby portrait of the Land Camera…I debated cropping it because of that little white thing on the right side, but I felt like it didn’t detract terribly, and I prefer to maintain the full frame as much as possible.  Still, I’m not sure, should I have cropped?  There’s another photo coming up that was definitely improved by cropping, but I like to keep the full frame for continuity I guess.  That and I feel like you should be able to compose a good photo with the full frame, and cropping should be a last resort.  Thoughts?

5/10:

It’s so difficult to get reds right with my camera!  This is not exactly how it looked, but my camera tends to make reds look too pink, or otherwise oversaturate them, I think.  I can’t really figure out exactly why they look off, so I’m not sure of the best way to fix it.  I think I’ll try to research it…I love red, but I’m never happy with the way reds look when I photograph them.

5/11:

Another hard image to edit; I think the lighting had something to do with it this time.  I’m also beginning to fine tune my Camera Raw skills, and starting to learn things like the difference between the exposure control and the brightness control.  I’d like to have a better raw editing program, but I’m broke at the moment, and I’m also kind of a creature of habit and like using Camera Raw.  I got a book about it last year for my digital photography class but never so much as glanced at it until a couple of weeks ago.  I think it will end up being summer reading.

5/12:

Not much to say about this one…It was just a quick snap, the lighting just caught my eye.  This one was cropped, to remove part of his jeans showing on the right side, because I thought it was just totally confusing and took away from an otherwise nice image.

5/13:

It’s not 100% sharp, but this was truly my favorite image from the day.  We went to my dad’s cousin’s restaurant (Uffa! in Portland, ME, really beautiful place and delicious food, check it out!) for a graduation party for my cousin, so I was trying to get some shots of family members and the atmosphere, but I had a hard time.  I switched between a wide angle lens and my 50mm, but I just couldn’t get much I was satisfied with.  I thought this was just a really nice portrait (of one of my dad’s other cousins, we’re a big family), I didn’t think the softness really detracted from the image.

While we were at the restaurant, I noticed the photos hanging around the main dining area, beautiful images from various places in Africa and I think Central America.  It occurred to me that maybe I should find out if I could show some of my work there; well wouldn’t you know it, the owner/head chef James said he actually has a hard time finding people to show work!  He was totally enthusiastic about having some of my work on display!  Now, the tough part…I have NO idea what to show, and I have to get everything matted and framed.  I’m considering doing a show from the work I’ve been doing on this project, but I’m still undecided.  I have so many photos, I could come up with all kind of different shows.  The only problem with showing images from this project is that I would really like to show at least one or two of my black and white photos taken before I started this whole thing.  I don’t know if it would be less cohesive to throw those images in, but the show he has up right now is a combination of color and black and white (granted the subject matter is somewhat related, whereas the subject matter of my work is all over the place).  Any suggestions or advice are more than welcome.

4/30-5/8

I really wish I knew how to create WordPress Themes…All I want is a simple layout, with a grey or black background, without having to make my images smaller.  Is that really so much to ask?  I’m leaving for the island in a week and a half, internet access is really limited there, so I can’t say for sure how often I’ll be posting over the summer.  I’m really hoping to take lots of photos this summer, to experiment with my Holga and my new (old) Land Camera.  I’ll also probably be shooting more film…Despite the convenience of digital, I generally prefer film (something about it being more “traditional” or “classic,” plus I definitely prefer the film process to the digital process), and there’s a small darkroom on the island that I suspect I’ll be running for the summer.  Plus, I have a bunch of film and paper, and it’s just going to go to waste if I don’t use.  I’ve also generally gotten the sense that my black and white film work is superior to my digital work, so I feel like maybe that medium is more suited to my style in some way?  I think this summer will be one filled with lots of playing and experimentation, to learn what I do best, what I like the best, and what I need to work on.  I’m going to be doing these things in studio topics next semester, so why not get a head start?  Of course, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and I always have high hopes for photographically productive summers, but I’ll do my best.  I want to shoot on the island, but I also really want to shoot in Portsmouth on days off.  I didn’t take enough photos in general last summer on the island, but I didn’t take ANY photos in Portsmouth.  Lots of goals for the summer…I hope I can acheive them all!

4/30:

Probably pretty recognizable to most of you…Outside Traina in the middle of our final photo critique.  I really like the way the tree glowed, but it was hard to capture, especially sans tripod.

5/1:

Not Your Average Joe’s in Acton, MA for a birthday lunch with my parents.  Really nice color and design inside and incredibly delicious food, especially the desserts!  Highly recommended.

5/2:

The lighting is so hard to capture here…In real life the leaves glow much more.

5/3:

A common sight on our front porch…Not so much a sign of our drinking habits as evidence of our lack of cleaning habits.  Welcome to college.

5/4:

My wonderful roommate Serena, all dressed up for our end-of-the-year/my birthday party.  There’s something so funny and sweet about this photo, I really enjoy taking pictures of her.

5/5:

I’m not a huge fan of beirut, or drinking games in general, but it seems to be a staple at our parties.  Really I just think this is another good photo of Serena.

5/6:

I’ve been playing with the Lensbaby a lot recently, trying to get used to using it and figure out what kind of subject matter it’s best suited for.  It’s actually quite a fickle piece of equipment and requires a lot of practice to really get used to.  I’m still working on it.

5/7:

Another Lensbaby shot, but you can’t really tell.  I know this is a kind of typical flower photo but I was more concerned with learning the lens, and I still think it’s a pretty photo.  Not groundbreaking, but not bad either.

5/8:

One more with the Lensbaby.  I think this is the most successful in terms of taking advantage of the qualities of the lens.  I think I’m going to keep trying, but I also have other things to play with.  The Land Camera is next, so watch for some Polaroids soon.  I’m going for something like what you see at Mikael Kennedy’s site, passport to trespass.

4/1-4/29, minus 4/16-4/18

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3/21-3/30

When my brain isn’t completely fried from schoolwork, maybe I’ll actually write something…Until then, here are some pictures.

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4/16-4/18

4/14-4/15

I have no idea what numbers these are…I don’t have time for a complete update right now but I thought I should at least start up with the most recent photos.  I’ve been playing a little bit with night photography, just to change it up I guess.  I realized that one of my goals for these project was to get back in touch photographically…It wasn’t always such a struggle for me to shoot photos I was happy with, but lately nothing I’m doing if really successful or interesting.  I had hoped having to shoot more would mean I’d get more comfortable with it, or maybe start to see the way I used to.  So far, this project hasn’t really helped with that (probably at least partially because I’m also doing it for class) and I don’t really know what to do.  I’m so frustrated with photography and I don’t know how to get out of this rut.  Any suggestions are welcome.

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It might be a while…

I have been taking pictures, kind of, but I can’t post because most of the photos I’m taking are for a project and I’ll totally mess it up if I post the photos before it’s done..  All will be revealed in a couple weeks, hopefully.  School’s also about to get seriously busy, so that might prevent me from posting, but I’m trying to shoot more and I’m still taking at least one photo a day, so expect a big update in two weeks or so.