Friday, September 05, 2014

Quick Note...


So as I sit here taking a quick break from packing gear for the first wedding I am photographing this fall. I can't help but think how the past year has been insane! I realize I keep reflecting on coming back to school to get my masters, but beyond that I got married and have completely jumped into a lot of different types of work that I never saw myself doing. 

I spent the majority of the past summer working in the McDougall archive printing a show about Missouri Mules and shooting/editing a video about the photographer who photographed that project. The amount of photo editing I have done in the past year of other peoples work while I was Assistant Director of Photography at the Missourian really amazed me. Editing through all that work has really made me see my own photography differently. I always heard that, but felt it might be a bit cliche, I was wrong... very wrong. 

As I mentioned I shot some video this past summer and am now shooting even more of that. It feels good to work out my visual chops in another medium. Ill be posting some of that soon when I get some of that edited.

Ok back to packing gear... 

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Relaxing in Xela



After falling asleep at 8 last night, Lindsey and I got up and went to Democracia market, wandering around the stalls. It feels great to be back in a place where so many good memories were created. Making new ones with Lindsey this time around. Let's see what kinds of trouble we can get into...





Thursday, May 22, 2014

In the Bag...


Friday morning my wife and I are heading to Guatemala for a week. Since I am not going there for work, I decided to shed some gear and only take what is pictured.

Equipment:
- Bag Paladin Mission Go Bag (Honestly one of the best bags Ive owned)
- Canon G12
- Olympus XA rangefinder.
- iPhone 4
- iPhone 5
- iPad (for email and editing)
- Card reader for iPad
- Charging cables
- 6 rolls of film (400 Neopan BW)
- Impact Mini Slave
- Flash light
- head lamp
- Chargers and Cables

And whenever I travel, I make sure I have my journal and a notebook.

This trip is a kind of short honeymoon, so my main concern is just having fun. I plan on spending my mornings wandering the markets and streets in Xela. This gear set up has treated me well for street photography in the past and is just so much lighter than my D4 rig. Ill be posting from the road so look out for some photos.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Has the storm passed or is it still coming?



I was talking to my Dad yesterday and he asked how it felt to make it through this past year. I honestly couldn't tell him. Not only was it my first year in grad school, but Lindsey and I got married in March. While married life has been great, its also still kind of on hold, since we live in two different towns. That has been the hardest part of all this. The school work has been time consuming but nothing that I couldn't handle. 

I wish I had, had more time to shoot this past year. I think most of that is my fault for not making more time for it. Trying to balance writing papers and shooting can be difficult. This next year should be different. I am leaving my position at the Missourian to become one of two Missouri Photo Workshop Fellows. I am also going to be shooting more video and some how I got myself signed up for a Rural Sociology Course. I'm pretty excited about all of it, but I want to temper that excitement with the reality of paying bills and picking up some work on the side. Along with school ending for they year, I've really started to dig into my masters project research which has already turned up some interesting problems. Those problems are helping me center in on a story so they are very good problems.

Finally since Lindz and I did get married we have planned a little mini honeymoon, in a few weeks we will be heading to Guatemala for a week. We are both looking forward to that trip, I am excited to show her around the place I loved and called home. We are having trouble deciding what to go see and do while we are there, so I think we might just wing it. 

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Painting with Light...

Last assignment before finals... Light Painting, my group of three had fun with this one, going off the concept of household accidents which are a serious problem every year. 


Sunday, April 27, 2014

PhotoVoice: Last Class



For our last class, we worked with the students on captions for the four photos that were picked to go in the gallery show. Working on captions was a big challenge. Some of the students were very poetic with the captioning, while others were very literal. We ended up working an hour later than normal. The students seemed to love the challenge of thinking outside the box of "this is a picture of."

I should note that before we all sat down to caption, the PhotoVoice class of 2014 spoke with the CMCA board, giving a very brief intro about PhotoVoice. The students were great, speaking with board members with confidence about their work and what they did during class.

At this point in the program, it is up to Staci and I to edit the photos and get them ready for the gallery. The students have been great and I can not wait to see the reaction we get from them when they see their photos up on a wall for the first time. 

Two of the students I was helping had the sudden realization that their photos were going to be seen by a lot of people and had ear to ear grins on their faces as they wrote down captions. It was a great night! As I get this edits done in the next few days, I need to make sure and get the word out about the gallery show on May 15th at PSGallery downtown.


Thursday, April 24, 2014

Project K Interview

Project_K_Interview from Josh Bachman on Vimeo.


A brief Interview with Kenton about his interest in photography.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Editing...


Photo by Sami


This week will be our last full class and it is mainly going to be about editing and writing captions. The captions for the photos are not going to be the typical journalist captions that I am used to. Many of them read like artist statements. Declaring a very strong point of view on a certain subject. They have not been completely ironed out as of last class. 


 Photo by William

We are working on getting more out of a few of the students who need a little challenging or pushing in their thought processes. One student's current captions were very general and myself and Sarah both felt this student could use a push to see what else they are thinking when they are looking back on their work from the past six weeks.

For the editing processes, I selected five images I thought were the students strongest, then we open that up to them and allow them to choose their favorites. Most of what I picked was not what they picked. 

What I loved was the conversation about why they liked one image over another. Most of the comments are about their personal connection to the photo, something we try to dismiss in journalism. It was a refreshing to look at work and be able to see photographers really express themselves.


Photo by Hallie

I hope this Thursday is just as mind blowing.

Oh and if you are wondering why some of the images have time stamps on them... those students thought it was cool to have that on their photos.



Thursday, April 17, 2014

Multiple Flash Assignment


Shelby Tucker, 14  skates across the ice at the Washington Park Ice Arena Tuesday morning in Jefferson City. Tucker spent two hours practicing and talking with two other skaters that were also at the skating rink Tuesday Morning.

The light setup, I set one light and monoblock in the ice hockey bench as my Key light and an SB900 across from me to act as a backlight/fill.

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Portraits...


Deborah

We shot a few more portraits this last week. We had some great discussions about what makes up community when we looked at this week's work. Much of the work was centered on the students' families, but along with that, a few frames of college buildings were shown with the idea of a growing community of students. Another photo featuring the Providence Inn brought about the discussion of the news of a teen found dead there and how a building like that could represent a bad part of the community or a place that could pull a community apart. It was a very insightful way of thinking of the community assignment. 



Aimable

This next week, we are going to start some of the editing process. Pulling the kids' best photos out and start looking at how they want to lay them out in the gallery. The class seems really excited to start doing the edit. 

Along with that, we have started talking about captions for their photos asking them to go home and think about the assignments in terms of the written word as well as considering them photographically. 

Sunday, April 06, 2014

The Portraits...



Samie

 This last week due to bad weather we only had four students show up. We had some time at the end of class to start taking portraits for the exhibit. The class assignment we discussed was relationships and one of the more enlightening photos was a self portrait by Hallie who discussed having a good relationship with yourself. She talked about letting yourself off the hook and how being good to yourself allows you to be good to others.

This next weeks assignment is community. I am pretty excited to see what the students come back with this Thursday and hopefully more of the class shows up so we can make more portraits.

 Zane

 Hallie

William

Audio Research


Surfing the internet looking for audio slideshows we enjoyed. I'm posting two, both are very well done.

Waiting

Mental Health Stories


Tuesday, April 01, 2014

Color Correction Assignment

Elva Guerrero prepares a batch of biscocho cookies for the Bachman wedding Wednesday March 26, 2014 in her home in El Paso Tx. The cookies are a traditional cookie for celebrations in Mexican culture, they are eaten at weddings, birthdays, quinceaneras and other holidays.

In camera color correction... I really do not know how photographers pulled this off with so much precision before digital cameras.

Monday, March 24, 2014

What I am learning from my students...


This passed weeks PhotoVoice class was great! We got the upload issues from previous weeks taken care of and were able to see everyones images and spend some time talking about them. The project for last week was "life long learning." 

Each student took a very different approach to the subject, Zane (pictured above) shot a series still lifes that made a really nice essay, giving us a glimpse into what he felt would make it possible to have life long learning. (As we edit those in class, I will post the series).

After we talked for a bit, we started our photo scavenger hunt. Which was a lot of fun. We stayed with in the area of our building. The students hunted for photos finding some great shots. 20 minutes after we had started I had one student run over to me and tell me his card was full, once that little hiccup was solved he kept shooting. I felt like this was the perfect opportunity for the class to ask me any photography questions in real time and we could problem solve things out. I am happy to report back it was exactly that. 

Next weeks assignment is "Relationships." We discussed in class the types of relationships and how they can be varied and different. Sometimes I find myself explaining to much (or at least thats how it feels) then I step back and remember they are smart kids and always come back with photos and explanations to why they took a type of photo that blows me away.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Fill and Balance

Ami Jester a fourth year nursing student takes advantage of the warm weather that passed through Columbia on Saturday March 15, 2014, to set up a hammock and relax.

 John Langworthy a sophomore in the Chemical Engineering Department studies for a chemistry test at the MU Student Center Tuesday afternoon March 18, 2014. "Ive been studying off and on for a while, since about 2pm, but I can't really say I've been studying." Langworthy said with a smile.

 Fill and Balance assignment was a little tedious, because I have never been able to get comfortable with these techniques and off camera flash. Over all it was a good experience and I am pretty happy with the balance photo. I know I need to keep working on this and I'm glad I realized that as I was shooting this assignment.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

PhotoVoice Class Two...

Brother and sister Hallie(left) and William


Thursday night was class two for the 2014 PhotoVoice Class. We talked about the students weeks, looked over some of their work. We had a few technical difficulties in getting all of their work downloaded, but next week those problems should be taken care of.  The lecture I gave on photography this week went well, using their work as examples of good photos helped keep them excited during the class.

Photo by William
The photo above was turned in by one of my students William for the Basic Needs assignment, when he discussed it in class he spoke of happiness, in the photo are Williams friends and neighbors. The discussion of basic needs brought up many topics and one that seemed to be present in a lot of the images was friends and family. As a kid your friends and family are your entire world so that was no surprise. I am curious to see where these assignments will lead and what the students choose to place in their viewfinders. 

For the up coming week we will view more of the students work and I am planning a photo scavenger hunt around the CMCA building Thursday afternoon. Should be a good way of keeping my students engaged with the class and help them build on their photo skills, allowing them to ask me some photo questions in real time instead of having to wait a week between classes.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Single Flash Assignment...









Single Flash this past weeks assignment. Had a little direct flash going with the second image and a little bounce flash going with that first image. I had a rough time  getting my brain around this assignment. I practiced a bit at home taking photos of Lindsey, who while slightly annoyed allowed me to snap a few frames with the added annoyance of flash for a bit (photo below).

So I went out into the world of Kansas Cities art district and found Erin Lavin in the frame shop she owns with her Dad. She was great! allowing me to shoot while she worked on framing a painting for a local artist. I also drafted Lindsey to be my VLS (Voice Activated Light Stand). While I realize my technique for the one light set up needs some work (A LOT OF WORK!), I am pretty happy with the way these turned out. Its a building process, right? Maybe for me its a renovating process, deconstructing the little knowledge I have and building from there.

One other thing... After I shot this assignment I dug into my archive and went looking for some strobed out frames. Found this one of my Grandmother at her 90th birthday party a few years back. That lady is still kicking, drives us all crazy but she is on track to make 100.(photo below)


Lindsey 

Mema aka Robo-Granny (inside family joke)

Sunday, March 09, 2014

Helping find a PhotoVoice...



On Thursday night, I started working with Central Missouri Community Action. For the next eight weeks, I will be teaching photography to a group of kids. I have worked with the shoot-back concept before in Guatemala with a nonprofit organization, Voces De Cambio, and loved it. I've been looking for an opportunity to teach here in Missouri. While I was talking with my professor at the end of last semester, she informed me about the PhotoVoice program here in town. It's a two-fold win for me. One, I get to hand out and teach photography to kids that might not have the opportunity to learn this craft if it wasn't for this program. Plus, I get a course credit out of the way.

Thursday's class started off a bit rocky. Most classes the students were pretty quiet. (Well, with the exception of two students who were already friends.) Once we checked out cameras to the students, they ran around the room visually exploring the place.  This class feels like it is going to be a lot of fun.

The first assignment is Basic Needs, when Sarah (the other instructor) and I went around the room asking what the kids thought were their basic needs they shouted out suggestions "Bacon! Water! a House!" Then one of the more shy students quietly said "Family." I was honestly struck by that answer. I don't think I would have thought about that at his age.

I'm positive that this class will produce some insightful photographs. Perhaps when we have our gallery show, the community will have something productive to talk about.

Thursday, March 06, 2014

Light on Metal



Working off the concept of GMO Potatoes that are resistant to blight, using what little I know to light metal, With help from Shelby my partner for this assignment I think we did a pretty decent job of giving this knife some life. 

Our first attempt to light this concept ended with a bunch of potatoes with holes poked in them and not one photo I was happy with from a lighting stand point.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Something a little abstract...



This past weekend has been very busy. Most of it either covering or trying to direct photographers to cover a partial building collapse at a student housing complex on Saturday. Sunday I spent a lot of time working in the studio on an assignment for my lighting class, which will be uploaded soon. For the time being I figured a landscape-ish shot could hold some space on the blog.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Studio Portait














This week I spent some time in the studio with Tiffany Melecio. I went with pretty simple lighting choices because I tend to over think when I get into situations where I need to light a portrait. The first two photos I used one soft box (camera left)and a reflector (camera right). For the third photo I used two lights again trying to stay simple. placing one behind Tiffany with a blue gel on it and using a soft box behind me. 




Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Portrait Inspiration...


For this assignment we were asked to find a portrait we admire and discuss it a little. My selection is a portrait of Winston Churchill by Yousuf Karsh. I love the light he used it almost seems like a painting on some level. One light camera right and slightly elevated. Now I am pretty sure Karsh used a light behind Churchill for some separation, but it could also be dodging in the darkroom. Karsh successfully makes Churchill seem heroic, but contemplative. Its a great frame!

Copyright Yousuf Karsh

Thursday, February 06, 2014

Copy Work

 Gregory Heisler's portrait of Alonzo Mourning

Tim Hetherington's photo of Dawn on Broad Street Monrovia, 2005


This Copy work was done for an advanced technique class I am currently enrolled. I've done some copy work in the past, but never using a studio set up. Finding the right angles was tough to say the least.

The photos pictured in this post are copyrighted to Gregory Heisler and Tim Hetherington.