Love, peace, and casualty

Don't forget to love yourself.  I don't really know what I think of this.  It just kind of came out one day.  There's a lot of subtle things and hidden meaning.

























A few shots of the city, bridges, a cow, and the water (which looked amazing that day) from City Island in Harrisburg PA.  I normally only go there to run, but on a particularly beautiful day I decided to take my camera along and just walk.



























Look familiar to you?  Good eye.

Black and whites from a recent shoot down at the river with Jim.  You can't really tell, but I allowed him to wear the ever so sacred bear hat that day.  We were just there so I could "shoot the Suskie" (Susquehanna River) because of how nice it looks when it's half frozen.  He didn't find out until later that he was really what we were there to shoot.

These are the colour photos from the same shoot (obviously).  A few more of the Suskie itself but still mostly of Jim. 

These are the black and whites from a shoot I did with Jim.  This was an absolutely great session, as when he plays his guitar he zones out and forgets that I'm even there.  This allowed me to get some fantastic natural shots.




























These are the colour photos from the same shoot (obviously).  I was pretty happy with these, despite how terrible I normally feel my colour photography is.   And I managed to get one of him smiling.  Which he pretty much almost never does in photos.











This is my hands down favourite from the shoot - titled "A Forgotten Youth".  This is probably going into ye olde portfolio.   I am absolutely thrilled with how this shot turned out.

These were taken at John Rudy Park whilst doing a photo shoot with Scott.  I don't really like how my colour photos come out, but I don't think these actually came out all that bad.

Except for the first one.  I really don't like it that much, but I know Scott loves it so I figure I'd put it here just for him.

























These are the colour shots from the shoot with Scott.  I know a few of them are pretty similar, but I just loved the way the light was at his back and had to catch it from a few different angles.

I think my favourite has to the be the last one though.  I absolutely adore the way the shot came out.  It sums him up perfectly and I feel I really captured him in it as a person as opposed to someone posing.

These are the black and whites with Scott.  Obviously.  And, it goes without saying, I like how these turned out much better.  I felt I captured not only his moods and thoughts but my own as well.  Which was the goal.

All in all I felt it was a pretty successful shoot.  We both learned a lot whilst doing it, and we had a great time.

Oh and we had some amazing pizza afterwards too.

This piece is called Certainly and is double sided. The lyrics are from City & Colour - In the water I am beautiful which is over there for your listening pleasure. The song itself is incredibly sad, but I kind of took and re-did the meaning of the song for this collage.
I'm incredibly happy with the way this came out surprisingly. Not so much because of the aesthetics but because of the meaning behind it. This collage, whether it's good or not, will probably always be one of my favourites just because of how I felt when I was making it and how it made me feel.  And how much the song  means to me - whether in it's original version or the modified one for the collage.  I'll never forget how I felt, and that's what makes it so special.














The ever so gorgeous Miss Olivia.  Took these while she was in her room drawing her midterm.  Standard black and white shot, some double exposure style shots, and a black and white of an art piece Olivia's done.





















The gorgeous Miss Olivia at City Island in Harrisburg.  She's so much great to photograph.  She's got a great smile, is ultra photogenic and just all around to be around so it made this shoot really easy.  I'm really happy with how these photos came out as well.

This is a collage I did called Connected. using my own black and whites of him, him, him, and me.  "Stay away from broken people" and "We are all connected" are quotes (of course), but from two different places.  I felt that given the nature of the photos and theme of the collage, they went well together.

I'm not sure I necessarily like how this came out, but as I said to someone earlier, it was really fun to work with my own photography.  The large version is a LOT better though.

Ducks! 

Taken at Longs Park in August.































People!

(and ducks)

Longs Park, same day

Dry spell again, I won't even make excuses.  I've been spending so much time at the gym and doing other things my art is kind of on the back burner.  Not to mention it's too bloody hot to go outside.

I did manage to snap a few photos earlier in the week though.  Don't think they came out too bad, though they're pretty much nothing compare to my stuff from last year.  I don't know what's changed.

Okay yes I do - I haven't been back in London in quite some time and haven't gotten my usual breath of inspiration that lasts me for 5-10 months.

I figure somethings got to give soon though.  Things always happen to me in the summer and they almost always put that spark to create back in me.  I figure this summer will be no exception...can't wait to see what...or who it is.

This is another one where it was more of an expiriment. This is kind of abstract postcard style.  And mirrors.  I don't know what it is, but I'm in love with these little mirrors.  I've used them in a few other things - namely the altered book (see below) and Truth.

I'm not sure if I was going for anything here (other than the message - yes believe or not this is a message to someone :-P). 

Though I do think my next addiction is going to be little mirrors.  We all remember my last addiction of overlays.  That went pretty well, maybe the mirrors will too.  Or maybe I'll cut my finger for the 6th time and give up (hey, the edges are sharp).


This is a page of samples from the altered book I started almost a year ago. This was a very personal present for my muse. He went away for a long while and I needed to keep myself occupied.  So I started the altered book. I posted this sample of it way back when, but never anything else.  I had promised I'd post more, so I finally am.  I'm not posting the book in its entirety for personal reasons but I will post this, a sample page, and one full page.

I definitely encourage you to view all of the altered book things in their full sized forms (just click on the thumbnail and then when it opens up the new page, click on that image and then "all sizes")

I don't have much to say about the content of the page itself, I think it speaks on its own really. So I'll talk a little about the book. I used White Oleander by Janet Fitch. This book is practically my bible and I've always seen it as very inspirational. I have a large chunk of it memorized (yes, memorized). I quote it often, and I saw a lot of myself in different characters in the book. Hence my choice of this for my first altered book.

The background in this sample is from a scrapbook paper (I don't know the name offhand) that depicts London.  I used strips of the same paper in Timeless on the left and right borders, and the entire paper in Secrets.




This is a finished page.  It's what the new collage is semi-based off of. The whole butterflies theme. When I said the book inspired me, I wasn't joking.

The paper I used for this was a handmade paper with handmade faux rose petals pressed into it.  It's a gorgeous paper and I've never seen it at any shop again. I think that's part of what makes this my favourite page in the entire book.

Timeless.
I normally have something interesting to say but it's just a collage type thing.
Though I guess this one is kind of interesting because it took me 2 collages to get this result.  The sides were originally part of a much different collage that I didn't like very much (with the exception of that part).  So I dismantled it piece by piece, and ended up making this one.

This is my entry to the KarMel Scholarship.  The photography are portraits of two couples that I shot, and the collage was also (obviously) done by me.  The winners will be announced in July.

I kind of like this one. I didn't use a lyric this time, but rather a quote. I haven't/couldn't come up with a good title for it so for now it's just "Roots".  Full size version.

A few macros of flowers I bought on Valentine's Day. It was a really nice arrangement so it wasn't hard to get nice photos.

A couple of black and whites of ice on trees from that stupid storm last week.








 

Self portrait! I look depressed because I hate snow.