And Now...Greek Life

Ugh. I had my entire post written out and it got deleted. This entry's gonna be short.

So I picked up an assignment for the Phi-Mu's Phinest fraternity pageant. Lots of frat boys dressing up in costumes and making asses of themselves.

Going in, I didn't want to shoot a typical live-event shot. I wanted something more. So I arrived early and went backstage, hoping for good preparation art. But luck wasn't on my side. The lighting was almost nonexistant, and the area was completely chaotic. About 50 kids were packed into an area about the size of my apartment. The only way to get a sense of scale was to shoot from above. So, being the innovative guy that I am, I hopped on a rickety ladder and went for some long exposure shots. At about 1/8th, a got great blurs from people moving around. However, finding someone standing still to build the shot around was a little tougher.

After shooting for a while, I found some guys writing their house letters on each others' chests with shaving cream. Bingo. They were still enough that the shots came out.



The nature of long exposure shots demands that you shoot something else for insurance, so I went out and shot a typical shot. The more I shoot in the Student Union Little Theater, the more I love it. It's a little dim, but the directional light is great. Makes for great profile shots of people. All I had to do was wait for someone in a good costume.

Funny Thing Happened on the Way To Work Today

I was walking from class to work, ready for another night of photo editing, when I got a call from the Tulsa World. There had been a multiple-fatality school bus accident about 30 minutes away from Stillwater. I gathered my gear and made my way to the scene.

When I got there I saw the bus - it's front end was completely caved in. The bodies had already been removed, luckily, and I didn't have to see any of that. I don't know how I would have reacted if I did.



Police and sheriff officers were milling about, most of their work done, waiting to go home. I tried to make the most of what I had to work with. Light was getting low and I didn't want to use a strobe. Luckily I was shooting with a D100, so the grain wasn't unbearably bad.



I noticed a woman crying as I was arriving and made a mental note to keep an eye on her for a human emotion detail shot. I didn't want to exploit her pain, so I tried to keep my shots subtle.



Dealing with an assignment like this, involving a dead child, wasn't easy. For the first time I felt like a vulture. I circled the scene, looking for angles and shots. Talking to the woman, who turned out to be the school principal, I was as compassionate as possible, but I still felt like I was intruding on her own personal grieving experience. I'm glad she wasn't the child's parent.

I can only imagine what it must be like to shoot things like this on a regular basis.

"Red Water"

Ahoy.

Had my second freelance assignment for the World today, with one more to come on Saturday. Here's hoping the trend will continue and I can get more photo gadgets.

Anyway, the assignment was a press conference for a water detoxifier that treats "red water," a toxic byproduct of manufacturing TNT.



OSU researchers had been working for years on this and finally came up with a prototype. It was pretty typical: a speech and demo of the product. I think the shots I came up with were pretty good. Dramatic shots of the speech, and good stuff from the demo.

Unfortunately, the device itself was pretty mundane. A small set of tubes and whatnot. Looking back I wish I had gotten closer and put more of the machine in the foreground, but I'm happy with what I got. I'll post shots later tonight.

Worst...Spring Break...EVER.

So I'm back from Destin. It sucked. Photo ops were terrible - cloudy every day, rain, etc. I really wanted to get out and get some nice landscapes, bird shots, etc. No dice. The conditions were so bad I couldn't make myself go out shooting at all, and would up only taking about 50 shots or so.

But the 15 hours each way in the car SURE WERE FUN! I felt like shooting myself in the head by the time I rolled in to Stillwater.

Anyway, here's a select. I took a few bird shots, too, but the light was so boring I'm not going to bother posting them.

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Looking down on the beach, which was nearly deserted at the time, I was lucky to find the interesting sand formation to use as a foreground element. I like how the shapes of the sand give a sense of dynamism to the shot, as the waves were pretty weak at the time. They did fill out the left side of the frame, luckily, and give some middle-ground interest. The sky, despite being cloudy, isn't completely gray - this was during the ~10 hours of the almost weeklong trip that the sun peeked out.

One other thing that I noticed: even though this shot was taken looking almost straight down the shoreline, I managed to avoid "bullseye-syndrome." My eyes, at least, rather than looking straight into the center of the frame, constantly move around the edges of the frame. I guess that by stacking my compositional elements at very different points I was able to avoid the typical dull straight-on look. The sand, waves, sky, condos and people walking in the background come together nicely. Maybe I'm tooting my own horn, but I think the shot came out nicely considering the circumstances.

Kinks, Bugs and Wrinkles

Still figuring this contraption out. I've found an image host but am having trouble putting photos into my posts.

I'll be heading to Florida for spring break in about two hours, and won't be posting until I get back. I'm ready for some sun, sand and Seagrams.



EDIT: I think I finally got it.

Paintball used to be one of my biggest hobbies, but I had to get out of the sport when I got to college. I still make it to the occasional tournament to see my old teammates and take a few photos. This shot is from a tourney from early March.

It's getting easier to shoot through a paintball mask, but there are still limitations. Seeing well enough to put together complex compositions is still tough, so I try to isolate one person and really emphasize him, like I did here. I was hoping to get a string of paintballs coming out of the gun, but I didn't have the gear to do it. I'm assuming that a shutter speed in the area of 1/30th and a tripod would have done the trick, assuming that the subject was relatively still. I'll make sure to try it next time.

Recently I haven't been checking all four corners of my frame, and it's starting to show. A lot of my photos have had clutter in the background like this one does. The white spot in the upper right corner and dead space in the lower left detract from the simplicity of the image. I need to slow down and really analyze what I see in the viewfinder - this is what separates good shots from great ones. Another complaint with this shot: the subject really isn't DOING anything. Once you get past the innate coolness of paintball gear, the subject is fundamentally boring. He's not shooting, sliding, running, whathaveyou. More time at the field would have gotten me a more dynamic subject, but I was on a time constraint. Deadlines suck.