My beautiful and too-awesome-for-words girlfriend got me these sweet old school cameras for my birthday, which was Saturday. The brown one is a Model 95 Polaroid Land Camera manufactured and sold in the late 1940s. It was the first "instant print" camera made. I know, how cool is that! They don't make film for it anymore, but it will be a great peice of memorabilia to have and place decoratively on a shelf somewhere.

The smaller black one is a Kodak Brownie, a very popular camera from the 1950s that takes really awesome shots from what I've seen. This one works and I have color and black & white film for it! I can't wait to play with this thing. When I do I'll scan the shots and put 'em up on the web.

My last birthday present, while less tangible then the first two, is probably the nicest thing anyone has ever given me. My girlfriend went to a local art gallery and showed the owner some of my work. Apparently she liked it, because they are going to have an exhibit of my photos sometime in January or February! I'm really excited about it. More details to come for sure, here's the gallery's website.

What to do?

I bet my two devout readers just assumed I had quit the whole blog thing. Surprise! I'm back! Hopefully you've had me on RSS so you haven't been having to check every day. I'm in the midst of trying to determine exactly what I want this blog to be about. I'm not necessarily interested in this being any kind of editorial, where I express my opinions or discuss politics/current events, so that's out. I've also grown tired of the posts solely about myself and the goings on in my life, (who cares right?).

Clearly I'm interested in photography, and I'm inspired by the blogs of David Hobby at Strobist and super-awesome (I really was gonna say "super bad"...damn movie) photographer Chase Jarvis in his blog . However, I can't yet provide the kind of service and insight into my discipline enough to have people actually read for information, I'm still learning.

My passions are music (which I'm kinda burned out on right now, except for the new Interpol record!), photography, and sociology. So, hopefully over the next few months I can make this an informative resource in regards to the latter two, and synthesize ideas from these concepts into a functional learning outlet with a clear purpose. Geez, that seems like a rather daunting task. Sounds like a test question...

Till then, here's a shot of one of the best hot dog joints in downtown B'ham.

I'm so tired

Happy monday everyone! Mine was pretty rough, I woke up this morning and went to perform some of my duties as a lowly intern. We went to a lawfirm and shot portaits of all the lawyers for their website. It ended up being fun though, and I never leave the day without learning something, regardless of how small the experience may be.

So now that I've officially started my internship, I've done some pretty cool stuff by myself. I did this shoot of an architect from a local firm, and it's going in the Birmingham Business Journal. I know, I know, I'm practically Ansel Adams right? No, but things do seem to be coming together really fast. I'm not quite sure when the pics will be out, but keep your eyes peeled! Although, they won't have my name on them. This shot had 1 SB600 shot into an umbrella camera right at subject.

On a bright note, I now work for the University of Alabama at Birmingham's newspaper, the Kaleidoscope. I've already got three assignments for this week, so all three of you should plan on sparse posting over the next week or so as I adjust to the 20-hour days I'm probably gonna have.

Blah, blah, blah...me, me, me. I know, posting has been a little self-absorbed lately, but so much cool stuff has been happening I just felt the need to share. Good talk! (finger guns).

Wussup Coco...

Hey there folks. So my girlfriend got this adorable new puppy a couple of weeks ago. Coco was kind enough to pose for me the other day in the early morning when the light was fantastic. Look at da wittle pupppy awwwwwe...
P.S. - this picture was linked on the super cute blog http://www.awwwthatscute.blogspot.com/, you should check it out for your daily cuteness overload.

Light for Thought

Ok, so I've been meaning to mention and link a blog that has helped me sooooo much in my photographic endeavors, specifically in regards to creative lighting. HTML Tutorial
is like four free semesters of college, and you have thousands and thousands of classmates who will actually provide insight and help you answering any questions you may have. The site is well outlined, beginning with guidance for people completely new to off camera lighting, specifically off camera strobes (also geared towards saving $$$$$ by encouraging diy projects as opposed to spending lots of cash on lighting gear). I know I speak for many when I say I'm completely indebted to David and all of his hard work he does in his spare time. This kind of free sharing of information and experiences is oh so very refreshing and appreciated. So, anyone interested in learning how to creatively and effectively use light to improve your photography, would undoubtedly be doing themselves a disservice to not check it out.

Ya miss me?

Wow, so it's been a while. I've been ridiculously busy with a new summer semester at UAB. I'm taking 5 classes, and now I'm officially interning for a local professional photographer. He had me do the poster shoot Wednesday for the Birmingham Steeldogs cheerleaders all by myself! His other intern and I are doing a shoot this week for some architectural company in town. Things are really coming together, and it's been alot of fun. I haven't had much time lately to do any recreational shooting, but managed to mess around with some super duper high shutter speed stuff today. Coffee!

Hello!

Man, I know it's been a while, and how horrible of me to leave all of you on the edge of your seats for so long! Yeah, anyway, I've been studying for my finals for the last couple of weeks, and just finished them. Here's a picture of my buddy's Corvette I ran through Photoshop using a new technique. It's pretty cool, brings out all the details. Also, the picture of my dad after some filtering effects. Compare it to the unedited version I posted on April 2nd; the differences are ridiculous.
So I've been interning with Karim a little bit since I landed this sweet gig, and it's been really exciting. I helped him with a wedding last weekend and actually learned a good bit. But before that, he invited me to go to Talladega to shoot with him for Sports Illustrated! I didn't get to go, but man would that have been killer. Gotta go, you kids stay classy!