the easiest subject is always yourself

black friday morning: 6:30am

Taking pictures in a dark record store is difficult. Most of my pictures came out blurry and weird looking. This is my boyfriend dressed up as Santa. It's one of my favorite pictures because it came out the least blurry and dark.

here is a picture of my favorite person

He's smiling at me because we're crazy about each other. It's such a good picture of him! This was from night hiking.

self portrait

I did a bunch of pictures of me in a mud mask during the summer, and they were really funny. I did it again yesterday. These didn't come out as funny as I hoped because I was in a rush, and it was cold as hell in my bathroom. Who can be funny when they're freezing? Oh well. Enjoy.

a picture from the highway in boston the other night

I know this isn't the most original photo project, but it was a hell of a lot of fun. My friend Mike and I went to the open studios in south Boston, and while he drove I took pictures of the city lights. I tried to wait for interesting shapes and light to interract with one another before I took the photo. I also played a game where I tried to take a picture really fast before Mike started driving again (if we were in the city or in traffic). Otherwise, I tried to see how the movement effected the picture.

the crazy light last night

I only had my point and shoot digital with me, but for a few minutes the entire sky was orange and gold. Then some of the sky was black and green. It looked like the apocalypse outside.

I think it might have to do with the tropical storm?

firefighter landscape2

I went to the cemetery in the rain today, and shot some photos with no sunlight. I haven't uploaded them all yet, but here is what the firefighter grave, and the exact same landscape I did the other day.

train yard

I'm going to be doing more photographs of trains.

I went to Hope Cemetery one more time, and then I drove towards Millbury, following the train tracks. Here is my favorite picture from the train yard.

Hope Cemetery 4

I don't like shooting entire landscapes. I like focusing on small areas and spaces. However, since the contest asks for landscapes I've been trying to shoot them. Here are some pictures from my shoot yesterday.

I went to go photograph more greenbeens and ended up with a picture of my cat

This is probably the best photo that came out of my cats. I didn't mean to take pictures of my cats, I actually went to go shoot some green beens but the cats saw me and came over to say "hello." This is technically my sister's cat. I have pictures of my little black cat too, but he's not as photogenic. He kept closing his eyes halfway and he looks high. It was pretty challenging to get a good picture of them when they kept moving. It was also misty out from the rain that night, and the sun was shining and I haven't shot pictures in misty weather before. I also found out that when I shoot in close-up mode (that little flower symbol) on my camera, the pictures process as jpegs. I knew it was doing something different when I was shooting, but I wasn't sure what exactly it was doing. Now I know.
Anyway there wont be any more green been pictures because they're all dried up and dead.
And I decided I will put a picture of my cat up, not because it's a great photograph but because I can't put a picture of my sister's cat up here and not one of mine.

hope cemetery 3

I made a third trip to Hope Cemetery this morning. I tried to focus on making landscape pictures, rather than focusing on specific stones. I also tried to get lower to the ground with the tripod, and try to catch some of the things I find the most interesting about the graveyard. Some of these things are the patterns and rhythm of the trees and tombstones. The different shapes of the stones, and the trees, and the shadows make the picture interesting. It was about 12pm and very sunny out, I think I need to go again a little later.

I'm home. and I like to eat greenbeans.

It was getting kind of late, and I wanted to take pictures, but I didn't know where to go. Then I realized that there are lots of things in my yard/garden to take pictures of. I think this picture might be better if I cropped the left. The picture might be to the post/the greenbeen. Anyways, I like the light and the detail of the bean/the hairs/the shadows.

another drive in picture

I'm putting this one up here because it's good to see the mountain in back of the drive in. It stretches over Hubbard park, and you can see the radio towers from East Peak. I've done lots of hiking here. This photo puts the drive in in more context. Anyway, the mountain might mean more to me than to you because this is my home town. Actually, my boyfriend called me to tell me I need to put the mountain picture up because it's better.
I think I over sharpen my landscapes too much. I don't know why I do this but I should stop. I always think it looks great at first and then it doesn't. Ugh.

southington drive in (for Josh)

This is my favorite photo from my trip to the Southington Drive In. The trip was inspired by Maddy. It was a beautiful day, and I happened to be driving by it with my boyfriend. So I made us pull over, and we walked around for a while while I took pictures. I would like to go back, because I think there would be more to notice a second time around. Also, Josh talked about doing band pictures here when we do Hostage Calm photos. I agree that this would be a very cool place to take band pictures. This place would be great for band pictures not only because it's an interesting space with the old screen, and the eroding parking lot, but because it's near an ice cream place that makes their own pumpkin ice cream. Yay!

Berlin train station

I was driving around my town/the town over, and I stopped at the little train station in Berlin, CT. Here are a few pictures of the stop. They look like every other train stop, but train tracks are one of my favorite places to be. This is because fo the history that surrounds them. Most places that had alot of train business are now more or less empty. An example of this would be Worcester. Berlin is a cow town, and I like empty cow towns too. I like driving through a town and seeing nothing but fields and cemeteries. Like small cities and factory towns, I also appreciate the pride that these towns have in their history.

This day was pretty unproductive for me as far as photos go because I was driving around looking for them. After I thought about what Frank said, it's true that you can't go out looking to take pictures. Every time I would go out to take pictures, ever since I was a kid, I would just end up driving around for a long time and not have any pictures taken. This depressed me because it was a beautiful day this past Friday, and the lighting was beautiful, and I just couldn't figure out where to go or what to do. These are the most interesting of that afternoon.

Second visit to Hope Cemetery

So I went back to Hope Cemetery after work today. I got out of work at 5, then I was there at about 5:30 or so. The light was beautiful because it was orange, and it was shining on all the tombstones. Unfortunately, a lot of my pictures came out darker than I would like. I'm not a mechanical person, so I really need to practice with the ISO and aperture settings. Really basic things that I'm still embarrassed that I miss up. I tried to pay special attention to the shadows, and the way that they fell on the graves, and how the stones cast shadows on each other. I was also pleased to notice that the leaves are finally starting to fall.

Anyway, I have this idea. I was passing by this couple who were planting flowers at a grave. They were obviously mother and son, and it was really sweet. I was thinking that maybe I could try taking pictures of people in graveyards, the way they are interacting with each other (or the graves), and what they are planting. The problem is, how do I go about this? Do I go up to them and tell them that what they are doing is very sweet and I want to photograph them? Or do I hide in the bushes and snap them as they're going about their business? Would it be rude to go up to people when they're mourning their loved ones to ask for their picture? How long would I have to sit in a graveyard while I waited for people to show up?

Oh, I want to say that I haven't edited these photos yet because I was really excited to post them.

Note to self: make sure the printer preferences are set to the CORRECT paper.
I thought I was just really bad at taking pictures, or doing something terribly wrong artistically. I didn't notice until the 4th print that in photoshop I had the printer set up to print on pearl, when I was printing on matte. After I changed the setting to matte paper it looked a hell of a lot better. stupid stupid stupid!

I am having trouble with landscapes

I read the email Frank sent about the Hope Cemetery contest, and decided that going to there shoot would be good practice because I'm feeling kind of rusty at photo. I really feel like I suck (I'm not fishing for compliments). So I don't know where the paper about the contest is, but I have a few successful shots. A problem I had when I was there shooting is I didn't want to create cheesy cemetary pictures that girls in highschool take. I wanted to find things that I think are special about Hope Cemetery in general, and try to shoot those. By doing this, I wanted to research the cemetery then go back again for a second shoot.

My favorite parts of the cemetery are the very old graves that don't have names, and the sections of newer graves that have nostalgic markers on them. I think that some of the graves have been thoughtfully decorated, but there are definitly some of them that look like someone was emptying their attic. To each their own I guess.

This is my favorite photo from the shoot because I like the point of view, and the relationship between the cherub statue and the virgin mary statue in the distance. I'm also glad you can't see the muggy haze (it was really hot and humid on saturday), because I think it made a lot of my photos from that day look like shit.

I think I'm overdoing some of the images in photoshop, and its making them look worse. I'm also having trouble making things look good on paper in addition to looking good on the computer. This is making me really mad but I guess the only way to fix it is to practice.

I'm going to go back to taking pictures of my friends, but I feel like my friends in Connecticut are a little more interesting, and funny than my Worcester friends. Most of my Worcester friends are Clarkies, and I don't mean this in a rude way but I like to talk to/look at people who aren't Clarkies, because usually they're more individualistic. I also want to hang out in New Haven (I'm so homesick!) and take pictures of the club girls wearing no clothes and the yalies running down the street. I have my car, so I go home every other weekend give or take.

This is my friend Mark eating a watermelon slice. I love his face in this picture. One of the last weekends it was warm enough to swim. This is what summer should be. Watermelon and (root)beer. I hope to do more portraits of my friends hanging out, because they're really important to me. I'm going home to Connecticut this coming weekend, and the next. So I should have some more fun portraits soon.

During this photoshoot we were approached by a child molester who wanted to show us his "organ"

I'm really mad because I just wrote a long story about this picture, the photoshoot, and the child molester and then I accidentally deleted all of it. I took pictures for my friend's band "Earthmover." Unfortunately, a lot of the pictures didn't come out well because it got dark outside, it was hard to get 5 people to look in the same direction at the same time, and I'm still practicing. Although this wouldn't be an official picture, it's my favorite from the shoot be cause I like the lighting and the sharpness of the picture. I also like the interaction between the boys because they're really funny. Fortunately for me, we might get to do another shoot because the bassist quit the day after this shoot was taken. I now know I have to focus on getting them all to look in the same direction at once, and I need to make sure we do this when it's still bright out.

I think this is a good start.

This is my favorite photograph from the my train trip from meriden-portland. It's a view of Washington from the train. I love the deserted mountains, the clouds, and the faint hint of civilization in the background. I felt like most of the midwest also has a peaceful, empty feeling. I was on the large train from Chicago-Portland for 46 hours, and most of the scenery looked like this.