Stained Glass at Village Glass Works

So I went to Village Glass Works to photograph Molly Fiegel creating a stained glass mosaic. Here's my favorite of the bunch:

And the other ones that I captioned:

A wind chime hangs by the entrance of the Village Glass Works, located at 315 N. 10th Street, on Friday, November 13, 2009. The Village Glass Works is located in the Samuel H. and Isabel Smith Elkins House, built around 1882, and is listed on the National Register for Historic Places.

A wind chime hangs by the entrance of the Village Glass Works, located at 315 N. 10th Street, on Friday, November 13, 2009. The Village Glass Works was established in 1976 and is Columbia's oldest continuously operating stained glass studio. It offers classes in glass beadmaking, copper foiling, lead cane, fusing, and mosaics.

Molly Fiegel helps Justin McMillen search for glass used in making beads at the Village Glass Works on Friday, November 13, 2009. Beyond glass beadmaking, McMillen also makes small vases, useful for holding a flower or perfume, which are displayed and sold in the shop.

Rock Bridge Away Game

Earlier in the semester, I volunteered to cover an away game of Rock Bridge High School. So, on October 23, I travelled to Blue Springs South to cover the Bruins as they played Blue Springs South in Blue Springs. It was good practice for the game that I'll be doing on November 21st.

Here's the photos I captioned.

Rock Bridge High School senior (#12) runs down the field to tie the game on the Bruins' first return on Friday, October 23, 2009. He was instrumental in helping the Bruins defeat the Blue Springs South (KC) Jaguars, 34-41.


Rock Bridge High School senior Trey Millard (#9) carries the ball down field to gain the Bruins a first down against the Blue Springs South (KC) Jaguars, on Friday October 23, 2009. The next play, Nate Eghvareba (#8) was able to make it into the end zone, giving the Bruins the lead, 14-7.

New Missouri Theatre Director

R. Eric Staley was appointed as the new CEO for the Missouri Theatre. He was incredibly nice to work with.

This was a situation where I wished I had another strobe flash and a remote in order to be able to illuminate the background.


R. Eric Staley, the newly hired CEO of the Missouri Theatre Center for the Arts, poses for a portrait on Friday, October 23, 2009. A graduate of MU, Staley's career has been spent working with non-profit organizations, including the Central Missouri Food Bank and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo.



The main critique of this shoot was that Staley should have been bigger in the frame. Next time...

Vox Cemetery Assignment

Here's the pictures that I took for a Vox assignment on Columbia-area cemeteries.

This is my favorite of the bunch.


A smoke stack of the University's reactor echoes the obelisks of Columbia Cemetery on October 20, 2009. The Columbia Cemetery, located off of Broadway Blvd. between N. Garth and Providence Roads, has been in use since 1820 and holds many of the University of Missouri's former presidents, faculty, and curators including Richard H. Jesse, James S. Rollins, and Walter Williams.

I like how the smoke stack echoes the obelisks of the cemetery.

I also really like this one:


The setting sun peaks over a grave at Columbia Cemetery on October 20, 2009. The Columbia Cemetery, located off of Broadway Blvd. between N. Garth and Providence Roads, has been in use since 1820 and holds many of the University of Missouri's former presidents, faculty, and curators including Richard H. Jesse, James S. Rollins, and Walter Williams.

Breaking Football Stereotypes

Today I did a studio assignment for Vox. Last night, when I heard that I was going to have to do studio work, my reaction was 'crap!' I felt like I'd forgotten everything that I'd learned in Advanced Techniques. But once I got into the studio and started doing it, it came back.

So, my assignment was to photograph a football player in a way that breaks the stereo of the dumb jock. I got advice from Josh on how to light it and I came up with the idea of putting Andrew behind a desk with a pile of books and a pyramid of apples on it. And for a little something extra, there would be a pear in the pyramid for the observant.

But, when I got there, I found out that the idea that Andrew had discussed with Beth was just the torso of the athlete, with him holding some books. I ended up adding an apple.

Here's the shots I captioned:







One of the challenges for me was trying to get rid of the shadow that cast by Andrew's hand/arm onto his chest and getting rid of the reflection on the apple of my two lights. None of the pictures chosen were ones where the reflection was gone. (I achieved that by having him bend the apple back slightly.)

Boone Life - Beginnings: New Enterprises

Hallelujah! After much effort (including 13 hours yesterday), I have finished one of the two Boone Life assignments for this semester. What's a Boone Life assignment, you say? Well, the grad students in Staff each have to find 2 people to do picture stories on, according to the theme, 'Beginnings.' My first one was a woman, Kasey Ryan, that I met through my friend, Rachel. She has several beginnings this year: divorce after 8 years, a new business, and she recently (Sept. 20) became a Christian.



This assignment taught me a lot about doing one of these things:

1. Do your interview early on. It took a while (!) for me to be able to check out a Marantz (a fancy video recording system) to tape the audio for this project. And after I was done, there were 5 or 6 other situations that I knew I wanted to get that I hadn't photographed yet. For instance: I would have loved to show her catering. I would have loved to show her COOKING at least. I wanted to show her interaction with her kids (this one I managed).
2. Get bunches of interviews so that it's not just one person talking.
3. Figure out what type of ambient noise you want in the background. I ended up using noise from her store, and a little bit from outside her store, but it probably would have been more interesting if it had been something like while she was catering. Although, that I think wouldn't have quite fit the story.
4. Transcribing audio can take a long time! One, 30-minute interview took me I think 4-5 hours to transcribe and I type quickly!
5. Putting it (the audio) into Final Cut can take a long! time. Figuring out how I wanted and what I wanted to pull, plus cutting it down so it was the right length... Long time.
6. Figuring out what pictures to do - a long time. This was the first slideshow I have put together myself. So, my first edit had way too many pictures in it. The rule of thumb is 3-5 seconds for any one picture.
7. Consistently use a type of transition - even if it's no transition.
8. I love it when a plan comes together (thank you, Hannibal Smith!).

Also, from discussing slide shows in class - if you use video make sure that you use it more than once....

Highlighting Skyler Hinton

I was sent out to photograph Rock Bridge senior Skyler Hinton during football practice. It was a little harder to photograph than the practice I shot of Chase Rome, because they were practicing farther away from the sidelines. I did, during this shoot, push myself to walk onto the field so I could get closer to the action. I figured, better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission...


Rock Bridge Senior Skyler Hinton (#72) pauses for a portrait after practice on Tuesday, September 8, 2009. After breaking his fibia at the September 12, 2008, game against McCluer North, Hinton was sidelined from the 2008-2009 season. Hinton returned to sports after three months and is optimistic about his coming season saying, I think I could do enough that I could play at a good school and get a scholarship.


Rock Bridge senior Skyler Hinton sprints to intercept the nose tackle during practice on Tuesday, September 8, 2009. Hinton looks to help his team better their 1-9 record from the last two seasons. Moving from his previous position as left tackle, Hinton will now be playing center, a move which makes sense to head coach A.J. Ofodile, who said, "He's a hands-eye coordination guy. He can snap the ball and make things time up for us."


Rock Bridge senior Skyler Hinton smiles as he prepares to hike the ball during practice on Tuesday, September 08, 2009. Hinton spent last year sidelined after he broke his fibia at the September 12, 2008, game against McCluer North (Florissant, MO). Hinton has defied doctor's projections and expects to help the Bruins better their 1-9 record in 2008-2009

This kid has a great smile. And he was nice and goofy at times during practice. There were a couple of times where I *just* missed a great shot! Arg!

50th Annual Heart of America Marathon

One of the hardest marathons in the US to run, because of the route. There's a really steep hill that happens at the end of the course. And, oh!, the drama. My camera has been being hinky lately. It all of a sudden didn't want to turn on. I fiddled with the battery a little bit and it seemed to fix itself and then...

I'm at the marathon and I've been taking pictures of the atmosphere, etc., and here comes the first-place finisher. He's heading down the home stretch and my camera has gone asleep. So I depress the button, nothing happens. Now, I thought maybe it was just my battery, and I'd brought 2 extra charged ones, and I stick in the first one and nothing! I'm muttering, 'come on! come on! don't do this to me!' And get the second one in and nothing! Stupid camera! Now I'm going to have to get you fixed!!! And I'm on assignment and I missed the winning shot.

So I started taking pictures with my i-Phone and then around 9:30 I tried the Missourian and someone was there (they weren't there at 7:30 when I tried to check out a camera just in case my 'working' camera decided to get finicky), so I walked the 3 blocks down to the Missourian and got a working camera.

Here's my captioned pics:


Carolyn Mitchell, 72 (#39), of Lenexa, Kan., waves in triumph, with Karen Nicholson, 43 (#167), close behind as she crosses the finish line of the 50th Annual Heart of America Marathon on Monday, September 7, 2009. Mitchell was one of the last participants to finish and had planned to run with her husband, Kent Mitchell, but he was sidelined with an injury.


Newell Kitchen, 50, of Columbia, Mo., rests after completing the 50th Annual Heart of America marathon on Monday, September 7, 2009. The Heart of America marathon is considered one of the most difficult in the United States because of the weather and some of the inclines during the race.

Social Service Cuts

For this Missourian assignment, we went to the Voluntary Action Center. The story was about the city's proposed cuts to funding for social services like the VAC. The VAC strives to "address unmet needs in our community, giving low-income people the opportunity to gain independence, overcome crisis, meet their basic needs, and improve their quality of life." Edward Willis (and Christina Montgomery) was nice enough to consent to let me photograph him; several people I talked to that were waiting in the very small lobby weren't so aminable.


Edward Willis, 57, looks over information on obtaining diabetic testing strips while Christina Montgomery of the Voluntary Action Center (VAC) contacts Kilgore's Medical Pharmacy regarding his prescriptions. Willis was referred to the VAC by his doctor. "It's a good place to come to," he said, "People who need help need a place to come to."


Edward Willis, 57, talks with Christina Montgomery of the Voluntary Action Center (VAC) about his health issues, including his need for diabetic testing strips . Willis was referred to the VAC by his doctor. "It's a good place to come to," he said, "People who need help need a place to come to."

While I was waiting in the lobby for someone to show who *would* agree to be photographed, I overheard a very interesting conversation.

Chase Rome

On the 25th, I was sent out to photograph Rock Bridge High School senior defensive end Chase Rome. Rome recently signed to play football for OSU, and will be graduating early. He was recruited by MU, KU, K-State, Michigan, UCLA, and Syracuse, to name a few. Really nice guy.

It was an interesting shoot. I learned a couple of things:
1) If you're taking equipment that you've never used before, be sure to cover everything BEFORE you go. I ended up having to call in to figure out how to work the auto-focus for the Nikon camera I was using. I'm a Canon user, and with the Canon, you just hold the button half-way to auto-focus. With the Nikon, you have to hold down a different button.
2) I don't know how I feel about the mono-pod. I like the idea in theory, because it will help with arm fatigue. But I found it really cumbersome in trying to position myself for a shot.

Here are the shots that I captioned:

First, the Gatorade moment:

Rock Bridge senior defensive end Chase Rome rehydrates during practice on August 25, 2009. Rome has been playing competitively since the seventh grade, and was identified as a top prospect for college recruitment since the ninth grade. Rome recently committed to playing for Oklahoma State University.

Quirky Columbia Bookstores

Okay, it's my first Vox assignment, to photograph two of the many quirky bookstores around town. And since it's Vox, I'm thinking that it should be more artsy than a picture for the newspaper.

First up, Get Lost Books on 9th Street. It was a rainy day, so business was slow. Here's the shots that I captioned:


Bookshop owner, Meghan Dilliss, pauses briefly from work at Get Lost Bookshop, on Friday, August 28, 2009. Dillis opened the shop partly because she wanted to bring back the community bookstore to Ninth Street and The District.


A hand-written sign delineates the "History and Criticism of the Arts" section of Get Lost Bookshop, located at the intersection of Broadway and Ninth. Owner Meghan Dilliss chooses her books by personal and customer preference: "I like to carry things that I would read." Photo taken on Friday, August 28, 2009.

It's the Beginning of Another Year

And this time, I'm a full-time student. Which is pretty exciting!

Yesterday (Sunday), I volunteered to cover MU's freshman initiation ceremony, the Tiger Walk. The freshman class, around 5,260 students, gathered on the Francis Quadrangle to rush through the Columns and score some free Tiger Ice Cream. The incoming freshmen line up on the north side of the Columns and then, as symbolism of their entrance into the Mizzou community, they stream southward through the Columns, running toward Jesse Hall, where they are greeted with the ice Cream.

I had positioned myself in the center of the Quad and took pictures as they ran at me, by me. I was really surprised that no one hit me as I stood there. Really surprised. Here's the ones that were captioned:


Freshmen stream through the Columns at the Francis Quadrangle as part of the 15th Annual Tiger Walk on Sunday, August 23, 2009. The Tiger Walk symbolizes the students' entrance into the Mizzou community.


Theodore Tarkow, Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences, works with Billy, Cilicia and Kristi Jamison to hand out a University of Missouri tradition: Tiger Stripe ice cream, as part of the 15th Annual Tiger Walk, on Sunday, August 23, 2009, on the Francis Quadrangle.

It's the First Day of School

And I was sent out to cover Grant Elementary and Hickman High School. And then later to Columbia College.

This morning, I got up at 6:45 to cover the first day of school at Hickman High School and then later at Grant Elementary School.

At Hickman, I didn't take many pictures. About halfway through the assignment, I made the mistake of asking the Vice Principal if I could take some pictures inside the school. He informed me that I wasn't allowed to take any pictures of students. So how am I supposed to cover back-to-school without taking pictures of students? (A later suggestion was photographing feet, etc.). I was also later told that I *can* take pictures there. But it really cramped my creative juices and I had to take pictures on the down-low... And didn't end up bringing back many pictures. Here's what I captioned, including this one, where the girl in white looks to me completely like a boy:


Sisters Rebecca Dennis, left, and Lawanda Dennis, second from right, review paperwork before their children's first day of school, on August 24, 2009. Their children, Malcolm Herron, 16, second from left, and Keuna Guy, 16, right, will be entering the 11th grade of Hickman High School. Hickman High School was named as one of the top 1500 high schools in the nation by Newsweek in June, 2009, placing them in the top six percentile of schools nationwide.


Students greet each other before they begin another school year at Hickman High School on August 24, 2009. In June, Hickman High School was named in Newsweek as one of the top 1500 American high schools, placing it in the top six percentile of schools nationwide.

Thanks to the Volunteers

Somehow - I don't remember exactly how - I ended up volunteering to photograph the thank you dinner for the folks at Ronald McDonald House. It was pretty much my one bright spot in an otherwise really stinky, stinky day. Photographing this event really made me feel grateful for everything that I've been learning this semester. No, it was not everything I dreamed it would be (technically), but I was able to get some shots that would have been impossible without my handy-dandy strobe. What's even cooler, not only did I get to practice my event photography, but I am also going to get to practice my multi-media presentation skills - I'm going to interview some of the people from the house and put it all together with the stills. The director, Jenn, was really excited about the idea. I haven't mentioned wanting to add some pictures from people at the House (since I just thought of it), but I think they'd be game. I am picturing something that really says, 'thank you,' to all the volunteers. (The more I think about the possibilities, the more excited I feel about it... Yes, I am a dork - but I wouldn't change a thing :)

Here's some of my shots.

Ghosts of the 63 Diner

Wow, to go from one of my least favorite assignments to one of my most favorite...

My latest assignment for class was "Painting with Light," which means we set out cameras to a long open shutter/exposure and then we run around and illuminate things so that they appear lit in the final picture. And when you do it right, it turns out really well!

For this assignment, we drove north on Rangeline to the 63 Diner, which has been closed for about a year now (but is re-opening soon - if you've never gone, it's a fun experience with good food to boot). The plan was to illuminate parts of the diner for our picture with the ghosts of some former 50's diners hanging around. But when we got there, we discovered that the lights were on. At least some of them. The owner had apparently left on most of the neon signs out front, the clock on the building, and the light in the entranceway. And once we were there, we discovered there are lots of stinky ambient lights (coming from the parking lot lights and the gas station across the street). Those stinky lights yeilded a picture like this:


Pretty much *all* of that is ambient light - except the writing in the windows, the glow on the car, and the atomic eat sign. The colored lines on the chrome are reflected light from the neon signs that were flashing. The big white light by the door on the right is the reflection of the gas station lights. And, of course, you can't even tell that that's a clock above the car.

After trying a bunch of different angles, we had almost given up when we decided to try shooting the picture straight on at the hood of the car. Here's the lay of the land:

And here's our light diagram:


Here's our finished product:


Pretty cool, hunh?

PS - many thanks to Jason for being our human gobo!

Blending... Bah, Humbug!

I just want to say that I am *not* a fan of blending. I mean, I like how it looks, but I am really not liking doing it myself. It's one of those things that I will probably have to practice tons more before I get anywhere good at it. I hated this assignment. I can't remember muttering, "I hate this assignment!" more often than I did doing this one.

Here's my select (what I'm turning in):


I wasn't really thrilled with anything that I shot. Which I find really frustrating. Because I like to have at least one picture that I like...

I did like some of the stuff that I took when we were practicing in lab, but that's about it! And that's not something that we can 'turn in'...

Multiple Flash at Hulett House

Last Sunday, I had fun working with multiple strobe, trying to capture some Mixed Martial Arts fighters while they practiced their moves. My group is focusing on them for our final project and I am really liking our subject. Here's my final shot:


I ended up chosing this one because it really gave me an 'in the ring' feel. I wanted to background to drop off so that you couldn't see the other fighters practicing and I really liked the way the light gives him a halo.
Getting the light right for this was hard, because they were constantly moving. And when we finally got it to where I liked it, the guys moved. Arg!

Afterwards, when my partner, David, was shooting, and I was playing the human light stand, I thought I would just take a few shots with my camera. I discovered that when I shoot my mounted flash, my hand-held would go off too. So I was able to get a shot like this:

It's an Audio Slideshow

As part of our class, we were required to research audio slideshows and find one that we felt was well done, ones in which sound really contribute to the overall effect of the piece. For my slideshow, I chose to feature a slideshow I found on the Los Angeles Times website called Ana's Story. It featured photos and interviews with Ana Rodarte, a 24 year-old woman deformed with the disease commonly known as Elephantism, her father, and with the surgeon who helped remove most of her deformity. I say most because her face still bears some of the distortion of her disease. I chose this one partially because of the access that this woman gave the photographer and partially because I was really disturbed by her condition. It really bothered me, not because of what it looked like, but because of how hard her life must have been interacting with people who can be unkind.

Balance and Fill

Hooray! I think I'm starting to get this...

Our next assignment has been balance and fill. Balancing is the term for when you take a picture with a window in the background and you can see both the outside and the inside. This is not a balanced shot:
The outside is really blown out to where you can't really see anything.

But this is:
Practically the exact same spot, but you can see the detail in the church across the street.

Stinkin' Flash Photography

I don't know about anyone else, but this using the flash is hard! Sometimes I wonder if I will ever get it. For our next assignment, Color Correction, we had to use what we in the biz call a gel over our flash to compensate for either tungsten (lightbulb) or flourescent light. With tungsten you compensate by using a orange gel, and with flourescent, a green one. (Unless it's one of the many weird flourescent bulbs that's tintes say, orange. In class, Rita told us that at last count there were 67 different types of flourescent bulbs... At least we can 'chimp.')

The week that I did this assignment, I felt really tired and sick (like mono sick) and the things that I planned on going out and photographing didn't pan out, so I ended up using an image from a friend's birthday party. The picture I picked, I picked it because I liked the moment.

I'm hoping that more practice will help me feel like I'm mastering this challenge, because right now, I am stymied. And I'm not used to being stymied.

There's a Reason I Don't Like Using the Flash!

Since I really got interested in photography, I have avoided using the flash. It always seemed to wash out my subjects. The colors would be off. I just didn't like it. (Of course, then I would get that blur that happens, but I worked hard to figure out ways to compensate for it and to get good in-focus pictures.) I got a strobe for Christmas (thanks Mom & Dad!) and now we are tackling learning how to use it in class. It is much harder than it looks. While I get the idea of how to bounce light off surfaces and can do that somewhat well, there's something called the inverse square law which you use to calculate your aperture and I just haven't seemed to master that one yet.

For this assignment, we were given the task of creating 2 pictures: one with direct flash and one with bounced light. I am finding that I like the bounced light better because the light is less harsh. For my bounced flash picture, I chose one taken on March 7th, after the final performance of Lil' Abner at Hickman High School. I was hoping to possibly take some pictures during the performance but they made an announcement that flash photography (and recording the performance) was strictly forbidden. The subject of the photo, Austin Popham, talks to family and friends. Austin played General Bullmoose and had several solos during the musical.



I also really liked this picture:



But the white balance was off! All these things to remember...

For my direct flash picture, I chose one taken from the going-away celebrations for Whitney Wright. Whitney was moving on Friday to Denver, Colorado, to be closer to her family, and Wednesday, March 11th was her last day at the University. I took pictures at hew work party and her dinner at Flat Branch Pub & Brewery. The subjects of my select, Amber Harris (l.) and Whitney Wright (r.), worked together in the Department of Internal Medicine at MU and are friends outside of work. They were discussing the merits of So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing with the Stars. (I think The Real Housewives of Orange County came up in the conversation, too.) I liked how it gave me that Hollywood expose feeling. I just wish that Amber's face wasn't as hot. (Easily correctible in Photoshop, but in this class, we're not correcting things like that...)

Project: Glass

For our second project, we were given the task of either lighting glass or metal - no small feat! I was teamed with Vivian Esparza. Originally, I was going to do metal and she was going to do glass, but we both kept thinking of ideas for the other to shoot. So we decided to switch. I had two ideas. One was to shoot a hurricane lamp and some old photographs. The one I chose instead was one I titled, "Decadence." My caption read: "Decadence reigns as the champagne is poured. Stacked in a pyramid three glasses high, traditional symbols of excess are displayed: champagne in glasses containing an antique gold ring adorned with diamonds and rubies, chocolate-covered truffles wrapped in blue foil, and fresh succulent strawberries." I was torn between two pictures. And I really wanted to photoshop out a slight imperfection in the image - a spot on the light board.

Here's the image I submitted:



Here's the lighting diagram for the picture:



And here's the one that I also really liked, but didn't choose because the ring wasn't lit as well.



I ended up really liking the bubbles. Vivian wasn't as big a fan, which is why I got rid of them, but in the end, it seemed to give some added energy to the image. If I had to do it over again, I would have had the bubbles and the snoot. (Or else I'd photoshop some of the one onto the other. Hmmm...)