Sandy Creek Basketball

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

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!

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

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

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.

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

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....

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: 

1.  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. 
   
2. I think the vignetting that occurs through this lens is pretty nifty. 
3. 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. 
4. 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

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!

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. 

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