No Pleasure Quite Like Milk and Cookies

04.30.2008 No Pleasure Quite Like Milk and Cookies


Well, I started out with a photo, same subject matter, but at the last second I switched it out for something a little closer, more extreme angle and better (somewhat) lighting. I just looked at it for a few minutes and realized there was no way I was going to get away with this crap. I tend to settle for less if I'm in a hurry or tired, usually relying on chance and initial intuition. So here's to second tries.

Green Minded

04.29.2008 Green Minded


And I don't mean the Hulk. Though that would be cool.

So this started out as me wanting to go outside for today's photograph. I've taken so many inside the house that it bores me. One of the compositional hints that I've read about is reflection. While I wanted to copy my reflection from the dark window, I instead got the above picture. Like the penicillin guy, accidents yield intersting results. While this picture isn't going to cure the sick, its still pretty interesting.

I like the budding branches the most. It was something that I was admiring about spring when I looked out the window and saw that the dark tinted glass on the suburban would work for a reflective photograph. So its quite nice to capture some of the nice moments of spring outdoors, even though its a little chilly today. I just realized that, unlike winter, I won't have a moment to photograph the outdoors in the springtime during the course of this project. So tak it while you can, I suppose.

Teaching

04.28.2008 Teaching


Basically, I was teaching my brother how to paint. As if I knew too much about it myself. You see, I was picked as his confirmation sponsor, which for those of you not familiar, confirmation is when the young Christian receives the Holy Spirit. It’s a big deal for we Catholics, a festival on par with baptism and communion. Anyway he has to do this confirmation project. He wanted to nail two pieces of wood together and I said hell no. So given that we have the materials, paint… a framed piece of wood panel conveniently lying around. So here I am teaching him the basic color wheel, we had previously done a grey scale painting as prior. He’s taking to it well enough. He doesn’t get it entirely, but he seems interested. Ed mentioned in passing, “Oh this is better than art class, we never learned any of this.”

So he’s somewhat interested. Which is a plus. We decided on making an icon… of Michelangelo’s Pieta.

Yeah, it’s post modern like that. Deal with it.

Looking Up

04.27.2008 Looking Up


Just your basic, straight forward portrait.

Behind the Red Sheet

04.27.2008 Behind the Red Sheet


Basically, I hung a red sheet in front of our bay window and stood behind it. I figured it was something different to try. The first thing that stood out to me once I did it were the silhouette of the flowers, so I tried to keep them in. The other bit is the corner of a chair, which didn't seem to bother me that much so I didn't crop it out. What I did crop out was the clear part of the window showing though I figured the blueness, while contrasty, took to much from the otherwise monochrome picture.

Northwest

04.25.2008 Northwest



So there is this blossoming tree in my neighbors yard. It's only been in bloom for the past couple of days. But I've been noticing it and how awesome it looks. Call me a wuss, but flowers are freaking cool. It's like watching a supernova in slow motion and in your backyard... On a tree.

So I snapped a few photos of the tree in various angles and apertures and shutter speeds. I think I'm going to compile a Flowers in Spring 2008 portfolio or something. I have a bunch from the zoo I really enjoy looking at as well. So we'll see where that takes us.

It's titled Northwest because I felt like it had a strong up and left direction. Notice the branches, my face, even the gradient in the sky. Overall, I'm quite pleased with this one. I'm glad the extreme worm's eye worked out as well. You know how a lot of times people, including myself, do it to be edgy and it really fails... I think it worked here. What do you think?

A Penny for the Ferryman

04.24.2008 A Penny for the Ferryman


So I just noticed... This is the 100th post (but the technical 99th picture)! How exciting!

So I did this photo because I'm working out loan information for grad school next year and because I had a penny in my pocket. My girlfriend casually reminded me that the ancient Greeks put pennies on the eyes of their dead. Student loans... death...

Yeah.

The Hallway

04.23.2008 The Hallway



Anyway, I've been reading the sixteen tips for good portrait photography. I think I've been mentioning it before in the talks about overexposing and underexposing photos. Well one of the tips is capture the culture.

Now, I figured that since I didn't live in some far off exotic place that there wasn't much culture to share. But I started off in the hallway where there are some interesting paintings and gradually moved down the hall until I reached my mother's font display. I figured if Catholics were a minority in the US, then it qualified as culture.

I tried to photograph it as I would see it every day, in passing. The best way to capture that, to me, was movement. I took a few in motion, this one seemed the best to go with. I also kept my jacket on as it provided some continuity with the color scheme in the wall paint, therfore emphasizing the fonts and my blurred face.

Bang

04.22.2008 Bang


More to come...

First to Last

04.21.2008 First to Last



When I told my girlfriend, whom refuses to be named, that I was a little naked in today's installment she about freaked out.

But really, I don't see what's wrong showing a little cheek every so often.

So yeah, that's young me. When I look at photos of myself as a baby and small child I wonder and ponder how clueless I was as to what the future held. There's a little bit of ironic pleasure I take when view old photos. It's like, who knew then of how many people would be privy to this moment. It's not something you think about when you take a photo, really.

Ghost

04.20.2008 Ghost



So this was actually an accident based on carelessness and poor planning. See, I had a high aperture number from when i went to the zoo, but I didn't look at that when I slid the metering over to 15 seconds. Apparently I didn't notice the meter number either because I snapped the shutter to check my composition and noticed after a few seconds that the shutter was still open. So as a joke I sat down. Then I took a few more in this style because I thought it was cool that I would appear ghost like.

It's shallow, but hey, its awesome.

So I added a film grain filter and some underpainting in photoshop to give it a old timey feeling. I then enhanced the highlights on my shirt to blow the whites out a little and be more ghostlike. I like it. Even if it was a cheap trick.

Rhino

04.19.2008 Rhino


It's a little cheesy, but it works. I went to the Toledo Zoo today with my girlfriend and it was awesome. I mean, most of the animals were pretty much asleep. But they sleep 20 hours a day anyway, so it was excusable. It was still pretty neat to check all the beasts of the wild seeing as I haven't done anything like it since I was a kid.

But anyway, yeah, that's me and there's the Rhino.

Reflection in a Coffee Urn

04.18.2008 Reflection in a Coffee Urn



Not too much to say about this one. I was scanning the area for good opportunities when the coffee urn struck me as a good prop. It turned out as expected, though the bit of my head in the lower right hand corner was unintended. I liked it so I kept it.

Closed

04.14.2008 Closed


In order to expand my knowledge and ability I've been looking at other portraits and tips for taking portraits. One of the suggestions, back to back, was overexpose the photo and to underexpose. I took 48 overexposed photos and 2 underexposed.

This underexposed photo was taken against the yellow wall and by underexposing it I got red. I was concerned that the upper border was too low by everyone else's standards... but I really like where it is. It works with the eyes being closed to suggest blindness. I really like the way this one turned out.

Watch

04.16.2008 Watch


Basically the product of a craving for tea coincided with having to take my photo for the day.

Profile... again

04.15.2008 Profile



I was trying some things out with the overhead light and when coming up with ideas I thought "gee, I haven't done a profile shot yet, have I?" Turns out I have. How about that. My memory leaves a little bit to be desired. Anywho, I've used this light quite a bit during this project, but I couldn't recall if I'd used it with the intend of casting shadows from the features of my face.

So squint at the photo.

Do you see the skeletal image created by the light? Yeah, that tickles my fancy.

Bad Karma

04.14.2008 Bad Karma

You know those days that go so good where you think, there's got to be a tails to this head. Yeah, I just met the arch nemesis of my good days. I'm feeling tired and cranky, and I'm going to bed.

Sour

04.13.2008 Sour


So there is this picture of a guy I graduated from St. Mary's with. His eyes are squinting and he has a sour look on his face. I don't know what jogged that memory from the archives. I was photographing a commission and boom, I turned the camera on me and made a squinty face. Hear hear for spontaneous acts of photography.

Hiccups of Winter

04.12.2008 Hiccups of Winter

Armed with my cocoa mug and a determination not to leave the house, I battled the latest hiccups of winter. Especially after being spoiled by the wonderful weather during the week. Nothing but contempt for the biting cold outside.

Which brings me to my next point: it is spectacular how much the weather affects us. I mean, it convinced me to stay inside all day and work on a commission that should have been done last week. It also caused my brother to have a cow at the news that we were having pork tenderloin for dinner. I mean, he doesn't like pork but he was exceptionally pissed at this event. Anyway, the weather... yeah. We talk about it when we have nothing else to say.

Gaby and I

04.11.2008 Gaby and I



So this is my cousin's daughter Gaby. I have a lot of fun playing with her and... jumping out from corners and scaring the crap out of her. It's not a bad hobby, really.

So I was contemplating today's photo and in walked Gaby with her mom for a Friday night visit. I figured I haven't done any photo's with anyone besides my girlfriend, and the one with my mom, so one with Gaby might be interesting. Obviously, keeping her still was a problem. Especially with the lighting.

But overall, I think the portrait of her worked out the best. Those inquisitive eyes, gradient across her face and wisp of hair... I think it really worked out. My portrait, on the other hand, in line with the silliness of a few of my photos but not the center of the photo. Eh well, I kind of like it anyway.

Apples

04.10.2008 Apples


So it's official. I'm at an official photography block. Not to mention that I've been spending most of my time customizing and trying to get my commissions out of the way. Plus I had to go out and get some materials for customizing and some apples... hence this picture.

There are a total of 30 photographs. Starting at the top left and moving to the right, down and continued, is me eating the apple. By the last one its gone. Real adventurous, huh? Well hopefully it will lead to something cooler. You know how art is, one previous thing builds on another.

Like a Ripe Cherry

04.09.2008 Like a Ripe Cherry



So I've really been enjoying my drive east around 7 am along the shore of Lake Erie. The sun rises and has been bold red over the lake and amongst the clouds. It's really quite nice, I mean, Ive seen my share of sunsets but sunrises are a rarity in my short life. So I've been wanting to get out at some point and take some photos of the awesomeness of the sunrise. It's been on mind.

Excuses

04.08.2008 Excuses
Right, so last night when I went to fall asleep I realize a terrible truth: I did not post my photo of the day. Well, its been around 80 photos with only one day late. That's not too bad is it?

Well the purpose of this photo, that I thought of to use, is related to the reason why I forgot to post. I'm working on a custom action figure commission with swappable heads, one gruff and one screaming angry. I had to sculpt most of the screaming angry face and to do so I utilized a little application called photobooth to snap reference pics of myself in the pose intended. This is one of them.

So rocking out, right? How lucky am I to have this on hand? Yeah, you're right. I shouldn't have forgotten.

Rye Beach in the Spring, Sunset

04.07.2008 Rye Beach in the Spring, Sunset


I think we've finally had our first day of spring, here in Ohio. I was absolutely beautiful weather outside today. Sp I figured that given this excellent weather it ought to go out an take some outdoor photos. I mean, I've only been complaining about the winter weather for how long now? So Eddie, my brother, and I plus Loki, our dog, went to the beach. I was shocked at the amount of drift wood washed up on shore. I figure most of it must have been trapped in the ice depicted in the March photo of "Shackeltoned." As the ice melted, it must have washed ashore. There was so much of it that someone built a little fort, depicted to the right of me.

Anyway, there was much rock climbing, throwing of drift wood and Loki took a swim in Lake Erie. it resulted in us having to give him a bath because he stunk to high heaven. I suppose it was ok though. He hasn't been swimming all winter. So Eddie and I gave him a wash down and Eddie, in his ingenious ways, thought it would be a good idea to dry him using the leaf blower. It worked out pretty nice and Loki got dry through all that fur and down to the skin; this is unusual for him at bath time.

Anyway, this photo is a bit inspired by the gorgeous sunrises I catch on my way to work. I keep driving east and thinking how I wish I had time and my camera with me to snap a few quick photos of the sunrise over the lake. So for this photo, I had to settle for sunset, which can be just as interesting. The only difficulty was that the path west was obstructed by trees and a few piers and houses... not to mention Cedar Point off in the the distance. Our beach is pretty tucked in on the north coast of Ohio. But I still got a decent gradient of color across the sky. It was nearly completely over cast at mid day today, but it receded to puffy white clouds towards the end of the day, only when we finally got out there were no clouds to be seen. Too bad. That's ok, there's months of sunsets to come yet.

Showdown at Hen Mui Tvo Nunnery

04.06.2008 Showdown at Hen Mui Tvo Nunnery

So my photographic thought process has been greatly neglected all day as I've been customizing action figures and listening to T.a.t.u. and Taproot.

Yeah, I'm an over achiever.

But I realized late tonight that I had to come up with a photo of the day and I hadn't a good idea all day. So first I tried some crap with spray cans and ultimately decided on making awesome pseudo Kung Fu moves at the camera. This one made me laugh. I ran with it.

The nunnery bit comes from the picture to the left of me. I figured the drapes and picture added a little spice to the overall picture.

Anyway, until tomorrow I remain Carl "Shifty Tiger's Claw" Brown

Dark Corridor

04.05.2008 Dark Corridor



Best when clicked and viewed.

I found an interesting opportunity when I went to my families hotel to snap some room pictures for the hotel's website. As soon as I reached the top of the steps and noticed that the hallway was dark and the only lights available were that at the door and one random light on the side i knew what need be done. It was a perfect opportunity to snap a creepy photo for today's self-portrait.

Basically I metered off the wall to the immediate left. I found when I metered off the hallway itself, I got overly bright photos; as if I could see the whole hallway in daylight. So I snapped a few photos of myself at carious places in the hallway. I also burned the exit sign completely out of the picture. It seemed out of place in the black and white photo and unnecessary. In the color photo, the case is a little different. Everything has a little red tone to it, but the coolness of the window and hall light off set it and it looked too clashy for what I was going for.

What I Do Best

04.04.2008 What I Do Best...


You see, its a joke. Wolverine of X-Men fame is known for saying "I'm the best there is at what I do..." (which is basically maim and kill). What I do, is read comics when I'm supposed to be doing something else.

Ok, so I'm probably not the best at that. But I do it often. Every time I decide that I'm going to reorganize my comic books and get rid of a bunch I usually end up finding something I didn't know I had and take some time to sit down and read it. It's a wonder life.

Anyway, I've come to the conclusion I've got about 1000 comics. 700 to be kept and ordered, about 200 to be sold and about 100 pitched. That's a little ridiculous.

Shadow of Myself at the Stairs.

04.03.2008 Shadow of Myself at the Stairs.


I was walking around the house and looking for some unique opportunity to jump out at me and motivate me to take the picture. This was one of a few unoriginal snaps. I recall doing a shadow exercise in my photography class back in college, I'm sure whatever I did then was lame. This is much cooler.

I like the stairs and as summer cleaning comes up at the hotel, I think I'd like to do something based on ladders. I think its something I really haven't explored yet in this project. I also haven't done much with simply shadows either. But then, they never really enthused me that much. Not like ladders... I suppose.

The Vicious Destruction of an Ice Cream Cone

04.02.2008 The Vicious Destruction of an Ice Cream Cone

April Fools

04.01.2008 April Fools


Just keep looking, you'll get it eventually.