Picture This: a photo blog by Amanda Morrison

Taking Advantage of Opportunity

2012-01-25T12:58:00.000-05:00

As a photojournalist, you often come across very redundant or familiar situations. It is quite simple to take the easy way out, and come away with the same photo every time, just settling for the safe shot that you know will run in the paper and satisfy everyone involved. These situations could be an annual event that has been covered since the existence of your publication, or in the case of the photos in this post, something very topically similar that was and has always happened a month apart.

The Christmas and New Year's Baby assignments are all too simple. Get a call to show up at a maternity ward, go in, pose the parent or parents up on the bed with the newborn, take a few frames, and leave. You leave with a photo showing the family and the new baby; you just did your job as a photographer and in the process got through a fairly quick assignment on a holiday.

Going into these assignments I knew I was going to be the shooter on both days, so I wanted something different from each situation, something nice that I would be pleased with. I decided to forego the obvious and simple photo, and take advantage of the opportunity that I had been presented with. It is not often that you get to witness parents' first interactions with their child. It is one of life's moments of pure joy and excitement, and you are allowed to be there to record it. You are not there to intrude on a moment but to experience and celebrate it with the family.

When I showed up on Christmas morning, it was my first brand newborn baby photo experience. The parents were glowing. I chatted with them for a while before removing my camera from the bag. They were new parents, with their first child. I watched how they explored and interacted with their new son, and decided it was too beautiful to pass up. Instead of having them pose, (at first, because I did also take the posed shot incase no one liked my different take on the newborn assignment) I just snapped photos of them experiencing their child.

By taking time and advantage of the situation I was in, I walked away with a touching little moment that couldn't really be recreated or experienced again:

I am not saying that you can't get a nice moment or emotion by taking a portrait shot either though:

With that experience under my belt, I approached the New Year's Baby with a different attitude. I knew that I would be able to capture nice moments AND that my trying something different was appreciated. A risk worth taking once is worth taking again; as I walked into the over-sized maternity room I was trying to figure out how to be different from my thinking outside of the box just a month ago.

The situation was different; there was not a pair of glowing parents, no father doting over his first-born (nor would there ever be), it was a second-born child, with grandma and a tired, but happy mother. It was also dark. A far cry from the very nice side lighting that I was getting from the window on Christmas. I still took the time to chat with the family, Grandma making more of an effort to hold a conversation. The baby was not as active as the Christmas baby, and mom was very tired, but still curious. A lot of my photos became about mom exploring her new child.

Completely satisfied with what I had taken I got up to leave; I noticed that the dark room created a nice contrast with the light over the hospital bed making kind of an ephemeral glow to the room. Now not wanting to focus solely on tight detail shots, I felt that the mood of the lighting matched the situation perfectly. It was just mom and baby and the rest of the world didn't matter at that point. Changing the angle of my shooting to make the best of the contrasting light gave me a very telling image. (Which is sadly appearing over-exposed through blogger, I think blogger brightens posted pics for the web or something. Try to imagine darker edges.) I also really like the body language and that everyone is in adoration of this small, sleeping child. I did not take a safe portrait in this situation because I did not think that it did justice to the story.

The moral of this blog post is: do not be afraid to spend a little extra time and go out of your way to make a nice photo of something that you have to shoot all of the time. Not every situation or day allows you to do this, but taking the moment to enjoy and experience humanity always pays off in the end.

Wait? What's this? A new blog?!?!?

2012-01-19T00:48:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone! It has been a long time since I have posted on here (almost 3 years to be exact.) In that time I have landed a full-time job at the Watertown Daily Times as Photographer, and have already been there a year!

This first blog is just going to be a collection of clips from the past year and why I like them. (probably just one shot from each month!) This should catch everyone up on everything. I probably won't be too detailed.

Also, I am going to try to make a point of updating this blog once a week. It can cover pic of the week, clips, or just photo techniques/shooting strategies. Now for some photos! (Apologies to people who follow my photo updates on Facebook religiously; you have probably already seen most of these shots.)

December 2010:

One of the first pics I took as a part timer at the Times. I like the curiosity in his eyes, as well as the light in the scene and on his face. Case in point as to why I generally always have a camera on my person; you never know what you will run into that would make a nice photograph.

January 2011:

Part of my job is finding features/stand-alone images. As a small, rural community, we do not always have days that are packed to the rim with news. Boys doing sports will always show-off/ be glad to be photographed; being a girl with a camera multiplies their willingness ten-fold. I like the flying snow, the colors, and the angle of this image. It is also nice to have the other boys at the top of the hill!

February 2011:

Winter time usually results in a multitude of shoveling and snow-blowing photos; it is difficult to make the photos different and visually interesting. While shooting this, I noticed the light in the back yard, and was happy when the man decided to continue his work in the back. Because of that I was able to capture a moodier image of a mundane task. A photo does not have to be technically perfect to be interesting! (This was also one of the photos that convinced my boss I was capable of coming on as a full-time staff member, another reason to like it!)

March 2011:

This photo, aptly titled "Waiting," was about waiting for both my subject and me. Not only was the quilt in the background the most beautiful quilt in the show, but there was a bench placed right beside it. I knew that I wanted a shot with someone on the bench, maybe looking at the quilt, but what I ended up with was better. After waiting around on the ground, my shot already composed, for what was probably 20 minutes, a man sat down and began waiting for his wife to make it into the room. To me this photo shows that a little patience can pay off. Otherwise I would have been stuck with a boring snapshot of a quilt show.

April 2011:

Car accidents can be very frustrating situations to shoot. Thankfully no one was hurt in this one, but there was a police pursuit as a result of it. I like that it is wider to show you the obscurity of the situation. Photos don't always need to be super tight in. The police officer with the flashlight ties this image together (or is just a nice little bonus).

May 2011:

This was a fun event to photograph; it had a lot of opportunity to play visually. I noticed the horses lined up "watching" the horse pull, and decided to use them as a frame. Once I knew I could have a sharp audience and sharp horses as a frame, I wanted to accentuate the motion of the horse in competition through the image. This was a simple technique of dragging the shutter (slowing the shutter speed down) while bracing my camera on a railing.

June 2011:

I went to photograph an astronomy night in the woods, a situation where there would be almost no light. I tried using my off camera flash a little, but decided it wasn't working and looked unnatural. Instead I decided to focus on shapes of people and the laser pointer cutting across the image. I also made sure to take advantage of the twilight so that I could get a deep rich blue sky. I am glad that I went graphic instead of trying to be too literal with this event.

July 2011:

I really just like the angle of this shot. I managed to get a lot of white house paint on my lens as a result. However, this was the cleanest angle that kept the work she was doing obvious. On top of that, I love how she has paint all over her face and hands! It is always smart to try and pick out the best character at every situation.

August 2011:

A long exposure at dusk can create a great mood in a scene. The warmth of the boat house balances out the coolness of the sky. The fisherman completes the scene (and his reflection is visible, which is a nice perk). I feel that all the elements lead you in to a nice scene, whilst showing the beauty of a local area.

September 2011:

I love shooting sports, and sometimes you can get a gem of a moment like this one. I knew that the shooter aced the last direct kick she had taken, so I lined up to shoot it like the goal was going to be made and a goalie would be diving. Instead, I got this shot of most of the line diving out of the way of the shot! There are a lot of things that could make this more perfect, but moments like this don't happen often; a little preemptive planning can go a long way.

October 2011:

I always say that I would rather go to 100 fires before I would go to a car accident; shots like this are one reason. Every other news organization had left the scene by this point. However, I had noticed the smoke and structure of the house as firefighters walked through it. I laid on the ground and composed my image and waited for some one to place themselves nicely in the frame. It took about 20 minutes of waiting, but I finally got the shot that I was waiting for. I did make sure I had an OK spot news photo BEFORE I waited for this one, but I feel as though my patience paid off.

November 2011:

This shot won a clip in the NPPA contest, or it had, until the region's postings disappeared from the NPPA site. This was in all honesty a quick, drive-by kind of shot. I got out of my car with a wide angle lens on, clicked a couple of frames, and left. I tried to keep it clean, had to battle with show-off teenage boys who were trying to ruin the shot by being stupid, and I wanted it pulled back so that you could see both the store and the length of the line (in all its bundled up and tented glory). The primary colors also help this shot out.

December 2011:

I had a couple of shots from this month that I wanted to show, but I decided that I would post those in a different blog.

This photo is a result of taking advantage of a different shooting angle. I love that you can see through the backboard in this particular gym, and I always make a point to try and get a nice shot through the basket every time I go there. I like that this photo is all about the moment of anticipation. All of the players' eyes are on the ball and the ball is about to fall into the basket after bumbling around the rim. The ability to change up the perspective took a boring and quite normal moment in a high school basketball game to a different level.

Stay tuned for pics from January 2012.... and Beyond!

SORRY!!!

2009-03-03T01:13:00.001-05:00

sickness and craptastic internet has resulted in a lag in posts.... will fix that once the interwebs work

2/2 through 2/8

2009-02-16T21:16:00.026-05:00

Monday Feb 2: Living Room

I spent most of the past week ripping cds so that I could burn cds for my mom's jukebox. I waited for the cd to pop out of my computer so that I could add more depth to this otherwise flat image. It is very difficult to color balance because there is like 6 different light temps coming into the pic. I also wish that the hot spot wasn't in the right corner of the pic, but that light needed to be on.

Tuesday Feb 3: Living Room

I just thought it was funny that when I set my glasses and stuff down on my computer that it looked like me. That is all.

Wednesday Feb 4: Grandma and Grandpa Morrison's

My gma is finally home from the hospital! This was just a quick grab shot of her sitting on her bed stirring her coffee. I like the somber mood. It was an interesting situation because I didn't want to keep taking pictures of someone just home from the hospital, just so i could have a nice picture for my blog.

Thursday Feb. 5: Teen Center

Joe was challenging everyone to a chicken wing eating contest, and he finally lost to Matt, his 3rd contest. This is the shot of Matt taking his last victory bite of chicken! I like the look of defeat on Joe's face while there is a mass quantity of chicken in it. You can also see Matt is smirking while eating his last bite. I also like that the foreground is a warmer color and the background is the compliment of that. Also tonight there was a show by the Julia Marie Band. Check out the extra blog for my shots from that!

Friday Feb. 6: Behind the Edge Teen Center

Today I supervised kids building a fort and having a snowball fight. I thought it was really interesting that you could see their feet peeking out through the exit of the snow fort. It was also amusing that they weren't in snow gear. Overall its just a funny detail shot.

Saturday Feb. 7: the Interwebs

This is photofunia, a silly website that lets you upload your pictures into exist frames. I thought it would be hilarious to see a rural scene spray painted onto a city environment to the point where it looks like a mirror into that rural world. This is a picture I took of an old time baseball game and a photfunia on a graffiti frame.

Sunday Feb. 8: Honeyville Church

Today we made valentines for shut ins and needy people. It was a lot of fun. Here you can see Mrs. Porter stamping a piece of the card that was being assembled. I like that this is the anticipation of the end result, instead of just being a stamp on a paper.

1/26 to 2/1

2009-02-02T23:32:00.015-05:00

Monday Jan. 26: Table

This was a delicious breakfast, in fact it looks so good that I want some right now. All I wanted to do was photograph the table from looking down at it. I wish that I had a lens between 24 and 50, that lens would have been better to photograph this with. Here I was at 24 mm, and I don't really like the distortion happening at the edge of the frame too much in this case. I do really like the angle of the fork and how it is on the plate.

Tuesday Jan 27: Living room

Mom is doing her science class budget for next year. I liked her use of the pencil to point to things, as well as her hand gesture on how she held the book.

Wednesday Jan. 28: Kitchen

Really boring out of focus shot of a whisk. However, I was able to white balance for the weird lights in the kitchen, which made me very happy.

Thursday Jan. 29: Computer!

The part of today where I wasn't sick was spent re-editing my awesome photo projects. This is all 3 stages of my project in one shot: editing, final, and final on my web site. I like the lit keyboard and the dramatic-ness of the image. Also I was amused that I could line the 2 versions up so well on my computer.

Friday Jan. 30: Living Room

Me in front of a fireplace. I liked the mood and how well lit my face was.

Saturday Jan. 31: Sandy Creek Gym

Today I went to help mom at her modified bball game. She's the 8th grade basketball coach. The top most shot was nice because of the action and facial expressions. This was a difficult shot to crop.
The image above this one was a nice repetition of body language. I love the facial expression of the girl on the right, probably the best player out there. She really meant business.

Sunday Feb. 1: Honeyville Baptist Church

Just a quick shot of Mr. and Mrs. Nichols singing hymns during church. I liked the closeness of the image.

1/19 to 1/25

2009-01-26T14:44:00.019-05:00

Monday Jan. 19: Della's (or my old) apartment living room floor

Della and I had a slumber party in her living room while I was in Rochester. One night we watched a very weird and silly animation called "People" (but this is not the point). This is a shot of very sleepy Della. I liked the body language and angle of the shot, since it is obvious that it is being shot from under the table and on the floor. I appreciate the simplicity of the environment. Also I enjoyed that Della is clearly dressed for the day in (in non-sleepwear), that it is obvious that daylight is pouring in the window, and yet Della is sleeping, or is in a position that says "I don't want to wake up yet."

Tuesday Jan. 20: My bed

I needed a shot, or so I remembered while lying in bed trying to sleep. So I pulled out my cell phone and snapped a really dark 1 mp cell phone pic of me sticking my mouth guard out of my mouth. It was a really bland image, until I noticed that Lightroom had a direct positive filter as an option. I was so curious that I clicked on it,and low and behold it made a better, more interesting image just because of the contrast.

Wednesday Jan. 21: The basement

I walked downstairs and thought it was hilarious that my brother was talking on the phone and talking online with the same person. I loved the body language he had while on the couch coupled with the fact that his computer lit up his face well. ( Doesn't it look like he is having a fantastic conversation!)I also found that even though there is a large bright spot in the corner of the image, your eyes don't focus on it because of how large and bright it is. It almost hurts your eyes, like staring at the sun does. Because of this, your eyes are drawn to my brother, the point of the picture. On top of that I like the little touches, such as the large pile of Mountain Dew Bottles next to the shoes in the right bottom corner.

Thursday Jan. 22: Nowhere, Nothing, No shot today

Spent the entire day re-editing the project seen here.

Friday Jan. 23: The Edge Teen Center

Movie Night at the Edge, where I was volunteering. I got a group of kids together to play scene it with me. Its interesting to see what people remember about movies. I just really liked Jake's facial expression that he made while trying to figure out an actor from a really old photo of the actor.

Saturday Jan. 24: Living Room

Look we are finally taking down the Christmas tree (its fake, not a dried out old flammable one thankfully). The pattern of light on the box drew me to this image. Otherwise, I think my Dad's left arm looks really freaky. The background also looks a lot like motion blur to me, but it isn't because I know that my house was not moving while I took the photo.

Sunday Jan. 25: The Couch

This is where I spent most of the day, working on my smugmug website thing. Typical face of mine while doing webwork. Here's my smugmug though.

1/12 to 1/18

2009-01-26T13:52:00.026-05:00

Monday Jan. 12: The Edge

Went to the Edge for a meeting and a paper signing session. For some reason a lot of kids decided to play pool. Its kind of small, but I liked that Nate's eyes were in focus. Also the arrangement of the balls on the table was nice, not too many but enough to show that he was playing pool.

Tuesday Jan. 13: My Living Room

After having not shaved my legs since the first week of July, I decided it was time. It was recommended to me that I document the process, a much more difficult task than I orignally anticipated. I have removed the shaving pictures, at a request. But anyways here are the clean legs.

Legs successfully shaved clean. 2 hours later.

Wednesday Jan 14: Nowhere, nothing, no shot for today

Thursday Jan. 15: The Edge Teen Center

The above image is just a silly image of Matt modeling through my brothers legs. His facial expression was priceless, that is why it is here.

Below is another picture of Carlton, thank goodness someone is animated on Thursday nights.
I took the photo because of the repetition of raised hands in the image. I made Carlton's hands frame the rest of the hands so that the idea of hands would be more obvious.

Friday Jan. 16: Julie's Room:

This was part of our stalling for the Amanda-driving-up-to-surprise-people day. I liked how obvious the action in this picture was, as well as being able to see the action close up, and her entire face in the mirror. I thought it would be a cool idea to do, and I enjoy photographing in mirrors. Julie was amused. I also appreciate that the light reflecting off the mirror provided a nice fill light on her face in the otherwise dark and nastily lit RIT dorm room.

Bucky's Apartment:

We surprised Bucky and Della with fun toys, which included Sock 'Em Boppers. Watching Della and Dan go ninja style boxing with those sock 'em boppers was very interesting, if not potentially dangerous for the innocent by-stander. I liked the closeness of this image, as well as the blurred action that shows you how fast they were running around and pounding each other. The anticipation of Dan moving to his left is a nice moment too.

Saturday Jan. 17: Panera

We went to eat at Panera for breakfast. Della decided to get a massive mug of cocoa and I decided to photograph her drinking it, since the cup was so over sized. I liked this one because she wasn't staring at the camera while I was taking them.

Sunday Jan 18: RIT Dorm Side

This is the view of a bench in front of Sol as I was walking back from Woyak's room. I just really liked what the shadows looked like. Especially that the shadow under the bench so clearly copied the design of the bench. It was monotone already, so I decided to check out Lightroom's default grey scale conversion action. Over all I like it.

1/05 to 1/11

2009-01-14T16:48:00.021-05:00

Sorry for the lateness of this post. Internet issues and the importance of other things have delayed my updating.

Monday Jan. 5: The television

This is just a shot of what I watched today: How I Met Your Mother, the best show ever on tv. I recently bought all of the seasons on DVD, and have been watching them all. This was a fun moment, I just liked the intense moment of frustration and anger in Lily's eyes. Nothing special, just a shot of a tv screen.

Tuesday Jan. 6: My Bathroom

#1 This is proof to the world that I do indeed shower. Albeit, not every day, but showering nonetheless. Secondly, I liked how the steam had effected the mirror in the bathroom so that only a small section of it was still a mirror. I am overall very pleased with this cell phone self portrait.

Wednesday Jan. 7: My Kitchen

We got a brand-new stove, and it is awesome! But before I go on and on about the stove, I am going to cut to the photo. My dad was doing the wiring, and he was shining a very bright light on it. I liked how this light highlighted the focal point of the image, where the wiring was being done. This was my favorite shot of the because it feels like my dad is being so sensitive and careful with the drill.

Thursday Jan. 8: Under my Christmas tree

This is really just a poor example of painting with light, but it was done without a tripod or an assistant. With a tripod a light shining assistant wouldn't have been needed. I think I will try this again sometime with a triopod, since our tree is still up.

Friday Jan. 9: Craig and Ann Elyse's place

I am one of the editors for my church's website, mostly in charge of photographs. Today Craig, Ann Elyse, and I worked on the website for a long while. What I like most about this image is that Craig, the scene, and the computer are all in focus and are exposed to be in the scene together, without needing photoshop to selectively process the areas of the photo.

Saturday Jan. 10: Chris's Living Room

On Saturday, my brother's loudness of having band practice ON TOP OF playing Guitar Hero was too much for me, and I headed off to visit my friend Chris. We watched several movies that night, and at one point I decided to snap a few shots off. He asked me how I could take photos without light. I mentioned that I didn't need light on, but indicated to him that if I did, that there was a light next to me. I proceeded to turn it on, blind Chris, and take photos of it.

Sunday Jan. 11: Honeyville Baptist Church

This photo is just a quick shot of the parishioners in front of me holding a hymnal I just like how the hymnal was being held. Its not that spectacular.

New Year's Eve! (finally)

2009-01-14T16:03:00.013-05:00

On New Year's Eve I volunteered at the Edge. It was a lot of fun. Here are some pics to show case that.

Whats a New Year's Eve party without food and drink? This is focused much softer than I would have wanted it to be, but I did like the forwardness of the action in the image. Also I love that this kid is focusing so intently on his pouring. Kudos to him, that meant that there wasn't going to be a mess to clean up after he finished.

This Photo reminded me of cheesy 80's music videos with the mirrored light and persons. Photographing dancing can be fun if you play with it.

This is an image that shows a photograph can make action seem much, much more epic than the actual action. Carlton fell flat on his face immediately after this frozen moment in time. But he does look pretty cool doing a one handed handstand in the shot.

Like I said this image is a prime example of boys showing off 100 times more than usual in front of females with cameras. Joe's pole handstand break dancing led to many more show-offy antics. Such as the following:

This is Matt doing a Chuck Norris round house kick spin over top of Joe. I especially love the facial expression of Joe. He was cringing the entire time because he was positive that Matt was going to kick him square in the head. (Matt didn't kick anyone all night, but Joe did come close to knocking me over twice). I really enjoy that this picture contains both action and reaction.

And to wrap it up, here is the typical NYE picture of someone toasting to the New Year. I particularly like the speck of light that illuminates the mouth area. I noticed this and was very glad to get one frame that contained this speck of light.

Have a great 2009 everyone!

12/19 2008 up to 1/4 2009!

2009-01-05T17:28:00.024-05:00

Monday 12/29: My Living room

I noticed the repetition of santa circles on the table and it was nearing midnight. I needed a photo of the day so I took it. Nothing fantastic, just a picture.

Tuesday 12/30: My living room

My bro kicked me out of the living room so that he could watch Monty Python and The Quest for the Holy Grail with his friends. I came back and raided the movie party with coconuts and a camera. Cole was lucky enough to be photographed by me. He has crazy eyes when he plays with those coconuts. I didn;t take too many shots so that I could leave the crew alone.

Wednesday 12/31/2008: The Edge Teen Center

This is one of my photos that supports Nathan's theory of "A girl or a camera makes boys show off. A girl WITH a camera makes them show off even more."

To see the rest of my New Year's Eve pictures check out the extra blog .

Thursday 1/1/2009!!! : My Basement

New Year New Rockstar. I was playing Guitar Hero (CHEAT ON THE CHURCH- GRAVEYARD BBQ) and my computer was there so I decided to show some attitude and be a rockstar *click*

Friday 1/2: Kohl's Dressing room

I bought some sexy pants today (dress pants :D) and decided to take a pic with my cell phone. Not spectacular, but the only shot I took.

Saturday 1/3: St. Joe's Hospital, Grandma's Room

My Grandma has been in the hospital for over a week, and today was her birthday so we all went to visit. The sink was crazily shiny because of the direction of the light on the mirror. I only had my cell phone, so that is what the pic was taken with. I really like that you can see the sink in the reflection of the mirror. Also, I can only get good self portraits with a cell phone, so that is what I take with it.

Sunday 1/4 : Honeyville Church
I've been put in charge of photography at my church so that we have images to put up on the website that we are creating. Communion happened this Sunday, and I wanted to capture it for the website. I only had a 70-200mm on my camera in order to mix it up. This was the shot I liked the most because you see young and old, and interaction.

HAVE A GREAT 2009 EVERYONE! Keep checking in here for more updates, more photos, and more analysis!

2009-01-02T12:15:00.001-05:00

I hate how blogger reformats the blog post different from the page preview after editing it, which is way different than the entry screen.

Christmas Eve at Gma's and Gpa's

2008-12-30T12:14:00.018-05:00

This is just a summary of my Christmas Eve in photos.

These are my grandparents, and this is also the reason you bring a flash with you. So you can balance the uber ugly strong side lighting with a nice soft fill.

This is what I did to entertain the boys after they finished opening presents. My DS is in the front. I guess the screen was just plain blue since the light was going off on their faces and my screen too. They were greatly amused I was taking pictures of them. We were playing mario party ds, and I was losing until the end of the game, where a freak occurrence led me to win.

I like this photo, but I wish Abigail was in focus. I learned that when photographing kids opening presents, the chance of you getting a nice photo that is also focused correctly is like 1 in 90753092385789237589735.

This is another "I wish it was in focus better" moment. Ben got a Guiness Book of World Records book, and he opened to the page with 3d goggles on it. Conviently on that page was also the woman with the world's largest boobs. The 2 little boys kept quickly opening the book to that page, looking at the image, giggling, and closing it. The fact I got the shot in focus this much is pretty impressive to me. The moment is very hilarious though.

This was a helicopter game where you had to pick up cargo and drop it in the drop zone within a time limit. It was probably one of the most difficult games I have ever played, and we never actually managed to get it to do what it was supposed to. I was just playing with the depth of field and shutter speed on the helicopter and this is the one I like best.

Grab shot! Afterwards Mike was like "I had no clue what you were doing" and I still don't know if Becky knows she was photographed.

The one thing about Christmas Eve is the amazing amount of photos that get taken. This is a shot that shows 4 people trying to get a photo of my grandparents. I liked that the flash was going off in the frame, and that my grandparents are blown out by light overkill.

Becky pulling the sneak attack photo, only to be stopped by her father who was waving his hands through her shot. And also notice this nice quantities of ham on the table. MMM ham.

This was a hilarious moment to watch. Karen is telling her daughter to pose with a Barbie doll for a photo, but Abigail wants to keep putting the Barbie in front of her face as a joke. I like that you can see this happening in the shot.

So that was my Christmas Eve in a nutshell: food, family, fun, photography, and Nintendo.

12/22 to 12/28

2008-12-28T10:04:00.011-05:00

Monday 12/22 : My Living Room

My dad has like the most elaborate tree to decorate ever. This year we only put 1/3 of the decorations on it that we have to go on it. Our tree is over 9 ft tall and is home to all your favorite cultural icons such as the beatles, scooby doo, superman, etc.

I liked the pattern of the balls in the box of decorations. I noticed my dad continuously reaching in this one box, so i snapped a shot while his hand was breaking the frame. This was the best shot of all of this scenario I shot.

Tuesday 12/23: My Porch

We have a massive sodium vapor light on my front porch, and the light changes everything around it a lovely pea soup/ sea foam green when the camera is balanced for any other lights. I just stuck a 14 mm lens up in the air into the Christmas lights so that the lights would be in your face. I also like the blue and white contrasting with the sea foam green.

Wednesday 12/24: The House of the Grandparents Morrison

Every Christmas Eve we go to my Grandparents house and have a family party. Please check out the pull out blog on Christmas Eve for a more in depth look into this. This shot is the "I can take my own Christmas photos" picture, where everyone else (Becky and Mike) are confused as to what is going on.

Thursday 12/25: My Living Room

Christmas was relaxing. This photo is of a really crazy/cool moose statue my dad bought my mom. If you know anything about this house, you would know my mom is addicted to decorating the house in moose. All I wanted to do with this is get a close up shot of the crazy moose eyes/ moose. I am amused.

Friday 12/26: My Living Room

My parents and I decided to get out all of our old card games and play games all boxing day evening. This game was called 5 Alive, and it is basically a glorified version of 21. I got my butt kicked by a serious of unfortunate events, so I was free to take photos. I framed this so that you could see the hand of my mom peeking into the frame, while still seeing the action of my dad playing his card. I really like the smirk that is developing on my dad's face as he plays the card, as well as the motion of his hand.

Saturday 12/27: My Bed

This is just hours before my basement flooded and I would spend the night hand drying books. I took this with my cell phone camera. I have a work lamp next to my bed with a 100 watt light bulb in it, which is why the light looks so interesting. It was also extremely difficult to position the image of Garfield so that he looked like he was jumping on my head. That's all I really wanted to do with this photo, make Garfield jump on my head.

Sunday 12/28: Honeyville Church

The powere went out near the end of the service today so we had to finish it without electricity. No big deal since the church was built in the 1800's and the acoustics could handle no electricity. Basically, I wanted the lights to show that there was no light coming out of the bulbs, the candles to show that they were lit, and the church to be a dark tone. Once the power went out it was very grey and dark because very little light was coming through the windows.

At Nathan's place

2008-12-21T12:28:00.000-05:00

From 12/20 to 12/21 I was at Nathan's house in Haliburton, Ontario, Canada! Here are a few fun shots from the weekend, or just things I felt like sharing.

This is the view towards the lake from the top of the hill at Nathan's camp.

Here is Nathan's crazy dog. I like this shot because he looks real laid back and its a simple shot. And yes he is a crazy dog.

This is the dog one second,

and the next second, he looks like this for no reason!

Nathan took me on a tour of the camp, which was by far the most awesome camp that I have ever walked around. Here we are exploring the wild unknown of the girls' bathroom.

Nathan also taught me how to play the basic form of settlers of catan. I still am a little clueless when it comes to playing (and boy can his brother kick butt at this game). This is just a fun depth of field shot.

Here is another fun shot. I bought Nathan of Anti-Monkey Butt Powder, and he LOVED it. I knew he would enjoy it, but I had no idea he would like it that much. Eventually it ended up being a facebook image and status. Oh and this just goes to show all people make stupid photographer faces when they take photos, not just me!

Overall the trip was awesome despite the massive travel issues open my return. It was fun to go and I hope to visit again some day when the weather isn't potentially going to kill me!

Sandy Creek Basketball

2008-12-21T11:29:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday 12/17 I shot JV and Varsity Boys Basketball: Sandy Creek Comets VS. Alex Bay Purple Ghosts.

The Jump Ball:

This was the JV jump ball. I liked the body language of the Ref as well as the look of anticipation on the boy's face right before he leaps to get the ball. Its not the greatest shot but it gave me a good idea for the jump shot for the next game.

This is the Varsity Jump Ball. For this shot I managed to get my way up to the track above the gym. I really wanted to see what a jump ball image would look like from above. There was an added bonus of a great facial expression of the boy on the left side of the image. I noticed that there were a lot of great faces made during these 2 games.

Facial Expressions:

This player made the best expressions the entire night. It shows that he was really devoted to the game and how he was playing. He really went all out. A great facial expression can take an otherwise boring image and make it very interesting.

This one is more subtle, but I was just amused by how often players stuck out their tongues when doing lay-ups or going in for a shot.

This was another guy who made amusing faces the entire game. I thought it was funny that he wasn't really paying attention to where he was throwing, and instead was making a funny face.

Basketball:

These are just the edits I thought were slightly interesting.

I thought that this player had amazingly good lay up form for just being a high school player. Every time he went in for a shot I knew I could count on awesome body language.

This was a really good screen play. The white team didn't notice the purple player setting up, and it was a very effective play. Overall, the body language of the players is very nice and simple, and it is easy to tell what is going on here.

I liked that this kid looked like Indiana Jones rushing out of the Temple of Doom with treasure. It has a nice layout of falling bodies and a triumphant moment of the player emerging with the ball.

I thought this was a cool shot of someone trying to throw the ball back into play.

Cheerleading:

I liked the motion and body language of the cheerleaders into the frame. The extra space on the right gives the feeling of movement further into the frame.

This image is about a cheerleader who slipped and started to fall while being held up. I love the expressions and the eyes of all of the girls in this image. They are all in shock or laughing about the falling girl.

12/15 to 12/21

2008-12-21T10:03:00.000-05:00

Monday, 12/15: My Living Room
I was just amused that we have deer wall paper on the wall and that there was a pine tree in there as well. I can't believe that I didn't notice this earlier, since this is in the living room every year. Maybe its because I've never been home before the tree was decorated before.

Tuesday, 12/16: Exercise Bike in my Living Room

I have been attempting to work out on days that I a not subbing. After I made this decision, I subbed every other day for the rest of the week basically. It was way harder than I thought it would be to take a photo of myself riding a stationary bike from above.

Wednesday, 12/17: Sandy Creek Central School Gym, Boy's Basketball

Today I shot Basketball. Please check out the accompanying blog to see the photos and hear my analysis of those photos. I was excited since I hadn't shot basketball in over a year. This was one of the most interesting shots from that.

Thursday, 12/17: The Edge Teen Center

I loved the motion of Winona dancing around in her flowing tutu. This photo is more about the motion than the people doing the motion, which is why no faces are present in the photo. Additionally, I like that it is a very anonymous image.

Friday 12/19: Living Room

Today we got out of school after only being there 2 hours due to a snow storm. This is a shot of Mom taking advantage of the extra hours to get grading done before the weekend. The strange color cast is from the very large television across from her.

Saturday & Sunday 12/20 & 12/21: Nathan's House in Haliburton, Ontario

This is a teaser shot of where I was this weekend. I braved bad weather to be able to return home Sunday night, but overall it was a fun weekend. Check out the accompanying blog to see more shots from the weekend!

2008-12-21T09:59:00.000-05:00

sorry about the lack of update. from being snowed in in canada one weekend, to the holidays and then a very sick grandma i just havent had time. we will try today i suppose.

Edit:

So I am too lazy to type all the text for the blogs right now but I do have all the photos uploaded into the drafts! there will be a lot to make up for me being so late with them all.

there will be the 2 weeks posted separately and then 3 special categories:

SCCS basketball, Christmas Eve, and Nathan's House

i will get that up sooon!

-amanda

Dec. 8 to Dec. 14

2008-12-15T17:03:00.020-05:00

Monday December 8:
Edge Teen Center

So Jake wanted me to take some photos of him for his surrealism project. This shot was a grab shot during a down time when Jake was getting frustrated that his idea wasn't working too well. Eventually this led to many Rembrandt style lighting photos, as well as an art history lesson. It is lit using one stage light, so it is a harsh light source. I liked the balance of light and dark in this image. Jake is a good model even when he isn't modeling.

Tuesday December 9:
My Living Room
Dad is addicted to playing Mario Kart on my new DS. This is just a shot I wanted to take to show off my new Legend of Zelda themed DS. I like the depth of field, you can still tell Dad is happy playing, and you can tell someone is playing. The strange color is actually from the tv casting blue light on him.

Wednesday December 10:
Mr. Krenrich's Lab area

I was subbing for Mr. Krenrich today, whose main class is Marine Biology. This is one of his student's tanks in the back of the room. It was the most
well lit tank, and the fish were the most interested in watching me take their photos. I chose this one because the photos from the front of the tank have a reflection of me in them. Additionally, I liked the arrangement of the fish inside the tank, and the colors that were in the environment.

Thursday December 11
The Edge Teen Center

This photo is all about hands and the passion that the hands convey. I'm not that crazy about it.

Friday December 12:
Cornerstone Assembly of God

Tonight was Sandra's wedding to Rob. Boy was it blizzardy out. No I wasn't the photographer. My intent was to go to it to support a friend, but I did snap a few photos out. This was my favorite, Sandra being walked to the alter by her older and younger brothers. It is still weird to see Sandra in a dress.

Saturday December 13:
My Basement

My original plan was to go to a show tonight for Aaron's band. However, I ended up feeling sick and decided it was best not to spread my disease around the crowd at the show. So I knew I could rely on my brother to be in the basement playing a video game. I believe he was playing Call of Duty, and just ended up dying (which made for the best photo because the red screen shows up best in a photo!) It was like his only death of the match so I just got lucky. I like how you can see the controller and the tv in the same shot. Additionally my brother's laid back body language is interesting. Coupled with the wide angle lens, the room and my brother look huge.

Sunday December 14:
Honeyville Baptist Church

This was during the Kid's Christmas service. I thought it was a nice little photo of people singing hymns in the church service. Now that I look at it I should have cropped in the left side. Also the original has an annoying magentay red that is hard to balance. Overall I am pleased with this nice little moment, that also shows setting.

12/1 to 12/7

2008-12-07T20:21:00.025-05:00

Monday December 1:
My Kitchen

I cook dinner most every night basically because I cook when I get bored. This night was sweet curry turkey (needed to get rid of left over thanksgiving!) with minute brown rice. This just shows how hectic the kitchen can be. I also liked the repetition of circles and I never noticed how man things in a kitchen environment are round, until today.

Tuesday December 2:
My Basement

My brother was setting up the drum set in the basement.I love this pedal and just thought it would be a cool angle to view it from. I think I will try to get a more in focus shot some other time by using liveview.

Wednesday December 3:
CBS Broadcast

I LOVE RANKIN BASS CHRISTMAS SPECIALS! I hadn't done anything photographic all day long and I decided that watching Rudolph kick off the Rankin Bass holiday special season wasn't photographic either... or was it? So I thought I would take my 14mm and try to distort what you were seeing as much as possible. I had several favorites but I thought this one illustrated the technique the best and filled the frame the most.

Thursday December 4:
The Edge Teen Center
I have been teaching Winona how to drum so that someday she can become the drummer for the teen band. I made her play a song that she had never played before for the first time Thursday night. She was incredibly nervous so I went up there to keep her company and to keep a beat for her. Of course I had to take advantage of an angle that you normally don't get. I liked that this showed motion in drumming that isn't too blurry so that you can still see the subject. Also I think the abstraction keeps the focus on the main subject: the drumming.

Friday December 5:
Simworld/my bed room

I had realized around midnight that I hadn't taken a photo of the day yet. I was playing the Sims so I decided screenshot of me yelling at Sim Amanda to do things right.

Saturday December 6:
My driveway

Well I needed to clean the foot and half of snow off of my car that had accumulated over the past 3 days (it was all in vain, 6 inches was on it in the morning). I will admit that photographing yourself with a D3, while cleaning snow off your car, and not having any feeling left in your fingers is probably been one of the more difficult things that I have done. I liked this one because of the action of the brush. Also the color of the sky (that way because of the storms we have been having, coupled with the train yard back there... it was really that color) and the presence of a sodium vapor light near my vehicle, made for some interesting color casts.

Sunday December 7:
Honeyville Baptist church in a snow storm

This is kind of just a teaser trailer for a project I will be working on this weekend. My church is doing the Christmas story play with a comedically corny twist. I decided to document the rehearsal and production, as well as take some audio and make a nice little multimedia package about it and how it teaches about Christmas.

I loved this shot when I saw it. I was kind of just one in a quick series of fired off frames. But the expressions and gestures that the boys have during a 3 wise men rehearsal were just too funny. This shot gives me hope for a pretty decent little piece I could put together.

2008-11-30T17:36:00.019-05:00

Monday 24

Mom's Classroom

Mom had some old burnt and stained test tubes laying in a row on her counter. I liked how it was laid out and that it was on a black surface with some yellow in the tubes. I tried to make the row look as straight as possible, and I am pleased that I didn't need to straighten this image in light room.

Tuesday 25:

The Living Room Couch

I was watching death at a funeral (a fantastic movie everyone needs to watch) and I noticed that my ipod screen reflected the TV screen. So I opened up photo booth held the ipod up to my eye and took a couple shots. The screen says "death" and is surrounded by a couple coffins with crosses in them. Basically me being silly.

Wednesday 26:

The Edge Teen Center

We were watching drama practice and Morgan had her brand new phone on her lap. I just like the depth of field being so shallow. Also the color of the phone makes it pop out of the mundane background.

Thursday 27:

The Dining Room Table

This is my brother looking extremely satisfied after Thanksgiving dinner. I actually think he was contemplating his pie selection. I wanted to include the mass of plates in front of him to emphasize how large of a meal we had (heck there was an over 20 lb. turkey).

Friday 28:

Kitchen

My brothers shirt says "If God had a refrigerator your picture would be on it" And lo and behold there is a fridge behind him. I don't know I just liked the arrangement of elements on a basic level.

Saturday 29:

My bedroom

I thought to myself I wonder what a photo would look like with a 14 mm lens and a mirror that I skew the angle of it to about 35 degrees. As a result I had a self-portrait shoot. I liked the distortion of the physical mirror in this photo, as well as the dominance of the mirror in the foreground. Additionally, It wasn't too busy in the background, which is a miracle for this room.

Sunday 30:

Calcium Community Church

This is a skit we did at a church service on Sunday. It is called heroes and is done to the song "Hero" by Superchic[k]. This scene reenacted a school shooting by a bullied teenager. I like the expressions on the kids in the skit coupled with the interest by the audience. That and Jacob (boy with gun) is a great little actor musician. Too bad there was no way to get the windows exposed within the scene, but that is what shooting in churches results in sometimes.

Pic of the Day for the week of 11/17 - 11/23

2008-11-25T11:40:00.029-05:00

Monday 17:

Mrs. Johnson's classroom

I spent the day subbing for 8th grade science. During one of my breaks I ran around taking some pics of weird stuff in the class room.

In the end I just decided to play with the depth of field of the desks. It reminded me of the old photos of the abandoned Chernobyl clas

sroms by Paul Fusco and some bbc photojournalists. So I made the image black and white to mirror those.

Tuesday 18:

I wasn't feeling too great today, so I didn't shoot off any photos.

Wednesday 19:

I swore that I took some photos today, but I can't find them to save my life.

Thursday 20:

My Mom's office at school

This one is not too complicated. I found a Groucho Marx glasses thing in the storage room of my Mom's classroom after school. I decided I wanted to see what I would look like wearing it, so I put it on and took a pic. I thought I looked amusing so I kept taking self-portraits until I got this one that I liked best.

Friday 21:

Teen Idol at The Edge

The Edge Teen Center did an American Idol style singing competition this week. I was the media person and made dvds, videos, and photos for the event. I decided that I would post one photo about each kid in the competition since I spent Tuesday and Wednesday editing the videos for this and didn't have any photos to post from those days.

This is Shelly. She sang Selena music. her first performance was fantastic but she got too nervous at the end of the second one and placed 3rd overall. This photo is from her first song, and it shows her confidence,

as well as the applauding crowd in the back.

Carlton was very shocked to be eliminated in the first round. He is a talented boy, but he blew it trying to incorporate a live band. The band fell apart when Carlton when in a different direction than they had practiced. Carlton failed to heed my musical advice when I warned him to sing his song and just accompany himself on guitar. I chose this pic because it shows the reality of his situation sinking in as he listens to the judges critique his song.

This was Dave. He was very into singing for the competition. I think he practiced so much that he killed his voice. He came in second overall, but I felt he messed up too much to even be there. His voice was too squeaky and was cracking. This picture illustrated Dave's mindset of the stage and performance as a rockstar in front of a large crowd.

Chris was very animated when he sang, and he was very passionate about the songs he chose.

However the kid can't carry a tune in a bucket, but I bet he's a good rapper.

This photo showed his passion about

doing it, and everyone else not too excited about it while he was up there.

Nate entered the contest as a joke, which is one of the reasons he was my favorite to go on to the 2nd round, which he didn't end up doing. He was going to sing the pokemon theme song, but didn't know the words. He started with Ice Ice Baby and promised to sing the rest of the song if he went on to the second part. I thought this picture represented the Nate of the competition. There for fun and having a fun time doing it, especially when Jake makes him laugh from the front row while he's singing.

And this is Casey. Casey won the show. He is a very talented country singer, even though he is a hard rock boy. Casey was a true show man. He won with the song "Skin" by Rascal Flatts. ( A song about a girl with cancer, whose prom date shows up with a shaved head to take her to prom) Casey removed his cowboy hat at the point in the song that talks about the boy shaving his head for the girl. He had shaved his head for the performance. This photo shows that Casey, even though he was talented, didn't think he would win because he was the underdog. I liked that he was hiding his face while DJ was really excited to announce that he was the winner.

Saturday 22:

Craig and Ann Elyse's

I was at Craig and Ann Elyse's for a very good dinner, and this is one of the decorations in their house. I thought it was beautiful so I took some photos playing with how much ambient light that I let through. I liked this one that didn't have that much ambient coming through.

Sunday 23:

Honeyville Baptist Church

My church has a very talented teen puppet team that travels around doing skits and stuff. They do a skit every Sunday morning for the children at the church. I turned around and quickly snapped this photo. I like that the kids are really paying attention and the parents are taking advantage of the small break they get where they don't have to entertain their kids.

That is it for now! See you next time!

Some Photos while I sit here subbing....

2008-11-20T14:01:00.012-05:00

I think I have decided that I will take a picture a day and update the blog once a week. So my week starts on Sunday and goes to Saturday evening. My goal is to get a picture a day, but I tend to forget when nothing is going on.

Anyways here are some photos I liked that illustrate what I have been doing

since September.

Chris Coughlin and I have been playing lots of old NES

carts. Chris recently came across a gold mine of cheesy games so we have excitedly been reliving the life of blowing and hitting systems and cartridges in an attempt to get a fuzzy image to show up on screen. The best game was the one about the aliens that kidnapped ghengis khan, froze him, and defrosted him to take over the universe.

This next photo is one of my favorites. I noticed the composition of everything and could not

resist playing with my 14-24mm f/2.8 to get a fun advertisement-ish photo.

This is a successful photo for a few reasons:

The focus is on the controller. This is obvious because of its size and placement in the frame. Also the rest of the image is abstracted.
I think the vignetting that occurs through this lens is pretty nifty.
I love the depth of field sharp in front and not so blurry in the back that all you can see are blobs of light. There is enough information to give a context of the photo, without making it a boring snap shot.
I enjoy the trailing off of the cord. Its an element that helps to further pull your eye into the picture.

If I could change one thing about this, I would have exposed for the TV, and popped a strobe on the game controller and chris' feet. That way you can see the game, and not be as distracted by the glowing bluish wh

ite light from the tv, and still see the controller.

Exposing for a tv is difficult and will take much practice. It is something I will play with.

And besides video games, I also play lots of board games with my parents. Here my dad and I play Life.

It is quite bright to the right because we had set up a light so that we could see the board and not wake up my mom. So it was interesting to work with such a high concentration of light to one side of my subject.

Alright, enough of that for today. Maybe tomorrow I will throw together a rough edit of a multi-picture package/ story. Bucky: The Winginator

We all like spring water

2008-11-13T20:49:00.012-05:00

The first thing I photographed when my replacement gear came in the mail was the water jug on the water cooler in my house.

And I had to play with my new strobe :)

here are the demo shots

flash low and to the right

flash directly behind the jug

flash even with center to the left

So my family likes to buy gallons and gallons of spring water for a quarter a jug. I decided to tak some pictures of a recent excursion in the rain to go get some water. Here are the shots I found somewhat interesting:

My Mom watching my dad from the car. He is starting the filling process. I liked the window in a window in a window layering and the complimenting colors of the building and the light inside.

Dad pouring water from one jug into another because of a faulty sink. I like the motion and the fact you can see water running out of the one jug into the other. This shot was an anticipation moment because I knew it was going to happen, but it wouldn't be happening for long. I got 2 frames off, this one and another one that didn't work at all.

This last one I felt like making more artsy in lightroom for the heck of it. I liked the raw quality of the image and thought it felt more like a black and white image than color. I didn't really like the light temp in the room when I was shooting. It was a very nasty color. There's just something about the image that I like. It must be the simplicity of it.

overall this was just a practice for me and a reminder to start documenting things that happen in everyday life.

Mom always asks me why my camera goes with me everywhere, I need to keep myself sharp and shooting.

updater!

2008-11-12T17:26:00.003-05:00

I think I will start doing a photo a day again, and if I don't take a photo a day then I will talk about a portfolio photo.

but I will start this tomorrow or something since its time for dinner now.

<3>

Photo #1

2008-10-05T17:15:00.001-04:00

This is the first image in my portfolio.

Shot with:
Nikon D3 with 14-24 mm f/2.8 at 24
Iso 250 f/8 1/400 sec WB daylight

Officer Ray Wheeler, Henrietta, NY, arrests Eric Friedman, Syracuse, NY, as part of a simulation drunk driving accident on St. John Fisher campus Tuesday April 8, 2008. The simulation demonstrated the reality of what happens in the event of an actual alcohol related car accident.

Story behind image:

This was my first shoot for the Democrat and Chronicle as their Spring 2008 intern. The assignment was to go to St. John Fishers college and photograph a drunk driving demonstration that was happening in the middle of the campus. What had happened was that the fire and police departments and ambulance company had set up a car and a mini -van in a paved area of campus. They smashed up the cars to make them look as if they crashed into each other. Inside the vehicles were student actors, two in a mini van acting drunk and three in the car: one girl in the car "died" in the accident, one girl is critically injured, and the other is hurt but is responsive. Surrounding this obscure stage, is a large group of students who is in between classes at the college.

Basically what happens is that a fake phone call goes out to 911, and the police, fire department, and ambulances are dispatched to the scene. Then they explain step by step what is going on as they react to the crash as if it is a real drunk driving accident, down to the jaws of life and leaving the dead victim in the car until everything else is taken care of. While this is going on, the campus photographer, 3 TV news camera men, and I are trying to document the entire situation which lasts a total of maybe 15 minutes.

I saw them recreating the arrest and decided it would be a great opportunity to try and get handcuffs being put on a suspect in a photo while keeping students in the background so that the photo had context. I have 8 or 9 frames of this while the cop and the person being "arrested" were cuffing him up. This is the best one. The others miss a moment in the hands and people. I am pleased that I was able to get this frame while photographing very closely at the cop's and the "criminal's" butt level without getting smashed in the face. You have to remember I am shooting this sequence with a 24 mm lens on a full frame camera!

I managed to get 4 or 5 decent images from this assignment. The news paper ran my B and C choice photos (this one was my A shot. I posted the B and C shots after this). A, B, and C are the photos in the way the photographer prefers them when they submit them to an editor. Depending on how many shots are submitted the number of letters used increases or decreases. I also handled getting D&C style caption information very easily.

C shot: girl being loaded into ambulance
B Shot: Students watching demonstration through smashed car window

Why it is in my portfolio:

One visually interesting reason that this image is in my portfolio is that the hands have a personality of their own. There is the hand of authority on the left side and the handcuffed hands seem as though they are submitting to the hand with more power. Additionally, this element is large and in your face. It is more demanding visually than the rest of the frame, so your eyes focus on this point and want to know more about what is happening.

Another thing I enjoy about this shot is that the composition is not centered. The main focus is off to the left of the frame. The right hand side and the background are not so demanding that you pay more attention to that than the intended focal point of the image.

A third aspect of this image that I appreciate is that the background can tell you a little extra about the image. Not only is there a person being handcuffed on the left, but there are a lot of people watching in the background! This fact adds to the excitement of the moment in the frame.

Overall I am pleased with the content, the toning, the exposure and the experience of the image. I like the warmer skin tones in the hands, as it enhances the life of the hands. Furthermore, this was one of the first times I had tried out the D3 and boy can I say that I love the colors that can come from an image on this camera!

What Could Make This a Better Photo, especially for a Newspaper:

The first thing Max Schulte (an assistant photo editor at the D&C) and I discussed was how we wished the left side hand had some sort of identifying information. Like I know it is a cop and the caption indicates this, but it is not obvious from the shot that it is a cop. We determined if you could see some uniform, maybe the bit of a gun holster or something else that says cop was in the frame, it would be easier to read, and therefore more usable for a newspaper.

I also wish that there was a little bit of car debris, smashed car, or an ambulance stretcher in the background so that there was something that said car accident t o the viewer. However, the angle that I needed to be at to get this frame didn't allow for this to happen. These changes would make this an excellent photo, but I am happy with how it turned out.

Just a little house keeping note for this blog:
If you are reading this let me know! And if you do comment please leave your name with it so I know who is telling me what.

Please participate in a discussion about this image: what you would change, why you like it, etc. I appreciate knowing that you like it or don't like it, but please explain why so that it will help me grow as a visual journalist and photographer. By having a discussion about imagery, we think about how we see and document the world, and in turn, by helping others, we help ourselves understand how we see and what we do.

Hello!!!!

2008-10-03T15:23:00.003-04:00

So life has been interesting!

I had a great summer working as a videographer at camp, only to have my gear and everything stolen the day i was coming home.

That being said, do not worry insurance has got my back.

Now onto the good stuff.

Since I really don't have much gear at the moment to do shooting with, I have decided to talk about each picture in my portfolio individually each day or so.

This may also expand into talking about all the stuff that I have up on my flickr.

I also recently created a youtube page with some of my videos up on it. The rest of my video work was stolen along with my gear. I still have the raw tapes, but I can't do anything with them at the moment. Also, those Camp videos aren't the best ones I have done nor are they my favorites. There are a few more of those I can post some other time maybe. But that is not the point!

Basically all I am saying is that I am back to this blog.

Look for updates!

-Amanda

Yay 2 days in a row and more to come later !

2008-05-18T14:07:00.003-04:00

so there were no serious pictures taken today, but a lot of crazy snap shots

spent most of the day with a to do list, but here is my choice for a pic for yesterday

so this was chosen solely to show the awesomeness of a full frame camera with a 14 mm lens.
see how the unsuspecting summer thinks that she is out of my camera's frame but she is not at all. other than that i have nothing except for the fact that i have awesome friends. period.

It's been a long time!

2008-05-17T13:51:00.005-04:00

I really suck at keeping this thing updated. Yell at me more often please! Anyways, I had awesome photos from forever but I don't have time to post them now. So we are starting with a shoot from yesterday and will attempt to keep this up daily.

This was my A choice submission to the Newspaper for print on the story. Its about a company from Virginia who rebuilt this organ from scratch after the organ in the church burnt down after a fire in the sanctuary. This company has also built organs for the likes of Yale. There are 2 guys and one girl who work for them.

I selected this pic because I like how you can see both men working on it. The jobs they are individually doing are interrelated and are vital to do at the same time. The man on the left tunes the pipes by ear to the note that the man on the right plays. There is a lot of removal of pipes and stuff.

Also, this was one of the only shots that shows him blowing into the pipe to tune it.

I am amused by the color cast inside of the organ, a pea soup green. They must have been sodium vapor lights or something because the fluorescent corrections and levels just weren't working.

Overall I like the diptych feeling of the image, two separate but vitally connected elements to the story in one frame.

I also did a video on the story which I will be editing in the next few days.

And after that half thrown together explanation I am backing to working on graduation stuff !

-Amanda

P.S. check out http://www.frostbitesports.com to see everything that I did last quarter (December to February)

I guess you would call this the second week of January

2008-01-20T13:09:00.000-05:00

First (before we get to the photos), I ask that if you leave a comment please sign the comment with your name so that I can identify who is commenting. It will make things a lot easier for me in the long run.

Now to some photos

JAN 12: The beautiful Wedding of Shannon and Aaron

I was not the wedding photog for their wedding. However, I would never not bring my camera, and felt like I got a few shots. Now I just need to get them their wedding present.

I stayed behind the party as they entered the reception hall. Jade the photographer, had gone ahead so that she could get the shots that she needed to. I noticed Aaron sneaking a kiss moments before the new couple walked into the hall. I just really liked the moment.

The lesson that I learned from this photo is that staying in the most obvious, action filled place doesn't always make the interesting or best photo. Looking for something outside of what is expected gets you moments like that one.

I couldn't decide which one of the above two I liked better. Each has their own reason, and neither is perfect. I like shooting through arms and framing pics that way. Unfortunately I didn't have on a fill flash to brighten up Jade who is framing the pics. With a fill flash, I would have been able to use a better DOF (not so shallow as the 1.4 I am using for the pic), so that you can tell Jade is a photographer taking pics of the Bride. But I decided that not messing up the Wedding Photographers photos was a smarter idea.

And Jade was right when she said, "You may laugh at me now but some day you will be shooting a wedding and you will ask the bride to lay down on the pew and pose for some photos."

JAN 13 was spent doing all the homework I hadn't been able to do when I was at the Wedding, and there was no photo :(

JAN 14
The only b-ball game on Monday night that was close enough for us to drive to. The gym was lit ok, nothing spectacular, but we also didn't have the means to light it. This was my first night with my new lenses. (A 70-200mm f/2.8 vr and a 14-24mm f/2.8 both nikkor)

Thanks to Jay's sports class I am getting a lot more comfortable with longer glass, and I even enjoy shooting with it a lot more. I am also getting better at shooting sports. I keep looking at my takes from earlier basketball games and see how much better I am seeing the games now. I have also learned that seeing in Sports photo isn't necessarily seeing when you take it, but seeing after you take it. This means that you see the photo during the editing process, through cropping and the likes.

This frame is one of the moments. I knew that the play its self would be a good opportunity for a photo, but I didn't find this photo until I scanned through the series. I feel that all the elements start to pull together. Peak action of the shot, facial expressions on surrounding players as well as the face of the guy blocking the shot, and the ball is in the frame. Jay has taught me a lot about sports photography, and I can't wait to keep doing it.

Before the b-ball game I did some more shooting for my story on the Scottsville Ice Rink. I got permission to walk around on the ice, and so during shooting practice I decided to sit in the goal. None of these kids can shoot hard enough to hurt me so I am not concerned, even if I did get hit once.

When this boy approached the puck you could see his determination, but you could also tell that he was a little wobbly. He wound up with all of his might to hit the puck, and the first time he missed. So he tried again, and mustered up all of his strength to hit it. Instead he swung and the momentum of the stick made him start to fall over. Maintaining his perfect form all the way down, he teetered over, puck unmoved. This is the moment where he realized he had missed the puck and that he was about to fall over. The next time he was up to shoot he was the only kid to hit me with the puck.

JAN 15: I know I shot. I just can't find the photos for the life of me. Maybe I didn't upload them.

JAN 16

Tonight was Ed's bday. Unfortunately I had so much to do that I was unable to go hang out at the Coffee House with them all. But later we met up with Ed and his buds at Jay's Diner. My two awesome photogirl ressies tagged along. This sums up the mood of the night. Bucky and ryan were being brain dead and silly and so Anna and Becca have slightly exhausted, but kind of embarrassed/ confused looks on their faces. The repetition of facial expressions and body language is what makes this pic mildly interesting.

JAN 17
I go to CCC almost every Thursday. This week I was chilling with Debbie, doing homework and talking, when Ed came over. As he leaned on the two chairs, I noticed that he was perfectly framing Debbie. So I leaned out and clicked 2 shots off.

This photo is all about the framing.

JAN 18

Today was filled with Hockey.

This photo only exists to prove that Nicki's face is the same size as the opening on a Canon 400mm f/2.8

I determined that I like shooting hockey on the ground more than shooting Hockey in the stands. This is just one of the Wide Angle in the corner shots, nothing spectacular, but a typical hockey clip. I haven;t had much time to edit this shoot yet, so this is what I pulled out. Hockey is so fast and awesome. I can' wait to shoot more of it.

first full week of january

2008-01-20T01:55:00.000-05:00

JAN 5
I originally saw this frame in black and white before I approached the scene and took the shot. This is odd for me because I don't think I ever thought that way, even when i was shooting b+w. But it was such a Life magazine photo for me. The bride to be, caring for one of her best friend's babies in the window light of a darkened room. It was a beautiful moment. I wish that the lighting was more dramatic but you take what you can give. I just felt that this was a beautiful moment between Shannon and Kristen and Kurts daughter. I included both frames because I enjoy the black and white image more but wanted you to see what I saw when I approached it.
Lightroom does wonders for toning black and white images, individual channels can be tuned to b+w, its great!

JAN 7

First day of class back at RIT after break, and I had a photo shoot at the Scottsville Hockey Rink. I was intrigued by the milk crates that the kids use to learn the core fundamentals of skating. I decided that my kids will play hockey (or at least learn to skate) at an early age.

The best part about these it the mood and air of struggle and frustration that the kids are dealing with. The top photo has the one boy so frustrated that he quits and rests on the milk crate while the rest of his friends skate around. The bottom shows the determination to keep at it, and I really appreciate everything that these kids are doing to make themselves good little hockey players.

photos from December's end

2008-01-19T21:13:00.000-05:00

Before I post the new stuff, I decided to put up all the past days photos (and I realize I posted New Year's before this one)

DEC. 22
I am doing a story on the Scottsville Ice Rink Youth Hockey Learn to skate program, and the weekend before Christmas Santa came to play. Since I barely had any access at this point (which is disappointing because I could have gotten an awesome shot had I been allowed then where I am now) I was shooting from the bench. This was just the most interesting shot that I fired off when same came to skate.

DEC 24
It was a Nintendo DS Christmas at the extended Morrison Family Annual Christmas Eve gathering. I spent most of the day helping my cousin Nathan master his Pokemon Sapphire game. Amusingly he later called me to get help with it once he returned to his house. I liked the light of the gameboy shining on his face (its not drastic) and the intense attention that he is paying towards this game. Not to mention that was where I sat in order to best assist him, since I was the only "old" person who knew how to play the game.

DEC 28
Tonight was a night of chatter, reminiscing, and tea with an old friend, an ex boyfriend, and a new Aussie bud. I could give you a deep analysis of everything that this photo could stand for but; in reality, I was playing with my new (but really old) teleconverter 2x while it was attached to my 50mm f/1.4. I was trying to get a nice macro shot of the tin cup of mikes and ikes. Instead Ivy tried to eat the entire container. We were greatly amused, and I love how we still have deep amazing conversations.

DEC 29

Today was a blast! After getting lost driving 2 hours (or more) to my photo shoot's rescheduled location, I finally made it to the forests of Woodgate, NY (buried under 3.5 feet of snow!). Today was my first video shoot. Instead of trying to do audio, video, and stills, I wanted to play with the Canon GL-2 (which by the way is an amazing camera). I shot around 40 mins of footage, and went out on a limb to see what I could and couldn't do videowise. I have yet to edit the footage, but I cannot wait to take a look. I feel like I can produce a good 1:30min to 2 min video clip from it all.
But this image is a still (not a video grab). I did have my other gear with me because I did not know what to expect. (Since I have been doing a project on Sled Dog Racing, I have further supported my decision to raise these dogs someday). But I felt since it would be too hard for me to capture a variation of photos because of the set up of the run, I should do some video capture. However, I couldn't resist taking some portraits of the Dogs in their kennels. This one was the most striking because he had 2 different color eyes: both piercing me with their stare through the truck cage. I made sure to line the eyes up between the gaps in the grate to get the least distraction as possible. It is a shot that I will need to continue to recapture and recreate again and again.

DEC 31

This was the last "assignment" I would do for the year. I was covering the Teen Center's New Year's Eve Formal. In order to get some different shots I snuck up into the DJ booth with Jacob Dowker, the nights DJ. I eventually ended up hanging out there most of the night unless I saw something I wanted to photograph, and I was ultimately sucked into being the DJ for a good 1.5 hours. (Its sad that most of those kids had never heard bohemian rhapsody before that, and it was so awkwardly silent that I had to cut it out way early).
It was fun to snap some shots of Jacob while he was having a great time downloading songs and playing them for people upon request. This one was my favorite, mainly because of the ridiculous expression on Jake's face. However, that is what he did whenever he found a good song to play and was intently listening. So as the good friend that I am I captured it for him.

New Year's Day

2008-01-19T10:44:00.000-05:00

This is one of the first photos of the new Year!!!

I was documenting the Teen Center's New Years Party, and as soon as I saw that they gave kids noise makers at the beginning of the night I began to visualize the shots that would develop once the clock neared midnight.

At the stroke of twelve I was surrounded by at least 20 teenagers merrily blowing some very loud and annoying noisemakers. I noticed that Shane Slate (center) was attacking everyone with his, so I pulled in tight to Morgan Shelmadine's face and waited for Shane to attack her. Unbeknownst to me, Shane had already decided to attack the photographer, and I ended up capturing the moment where they both released their noisemakers, and came away with a nice shot.

-Amanda

First post and description

2008-01-19T10:40:00.000-05:00

So, I have decided to post a photo a day (unless I am where I have a dial-up connection). I will also explain why I selected each photo I post. Being that I am utterly exhausted right now, we will start this later tonight, with a recap of the last week or two worth of photos, since I have been taking a photo a day since the new year.

Keep me accountable if I stop posting daily!

<3 amanda