Just a cool picture.

Again, I havent had much going on, so I havent blogged at all. However, I always have pictures that I end up loving, and I dont even put them on here. So, its time for that to change. When mom and dad were gone for what seemed like forever.... Mal and I were in charge of making sure that dads garden didnt die. Any of you who know dad, and his garden, know that he loves it like its one of his kids. So, we were under a little pressure. I am happy to say, that it did survive... so we did our job. Thats really beside the point of the blog though. I get sidetracked sometimes..... well, a lot.

Anyway.... one of the mornings I went out to water the garden and turned on the sprinklers. Well, this is what I came out to after I turned them off. It was too cool to not grab my camera and take some pictures. I took about 30 of them, and these are the 2 i liked the best. What do you think?

The war continues....

As some of you know, I am in the middle of an ongoing war with Susie. If you remember, back on October I posted pictures of what she did to my bathroom. Filled it with scary stuff, a bloody shower curtain, man standing in my shower that talked, skeletons, strobe lights, spider webs.... you name it. And is scared the crap out of me. We have gone back and forth at each other probably a year now. It was my turn. So, It thought and thought until I came up with the best prank! I decided I would sell her car on Craigs List and not tell her. So, I took pictures without her knowing. then I posted an ad on craigs list selling in for $10,000 or best offer cause they were moving out of the country and needed to sell it quick. Pretty funny! Not even an hour after I posted it, she started getting calls. Of course she knew it was me...... but sure was funny that she had to tell all these people it wasnt really for sale. I just put her name and phone number on the ad so everyone called her. Man, it sure was funny. Im just waiting to see now what she comes back with... not gonna lie, it makes me a little nervous!!

I survived!!!

For those of you who really know me... wont believe me when I tell you this... So, I have pictures to prove it all. A couple weeks back, I went with Heather and her Dad and a friend on a week long backpacking trip. I know.... you dont believe me do you? Well, believe it. And we camped for a full week too, which is about the most camping I have done in my whole life. It was a lot of fun though, more than I thought it would be.

I have TONS of pictures, as you can all imagine. So, I just put some on here so you can see how pretty it was. We went to a trail that was 4o miles long, just up out of Durango colorado. It is a trail that is only accessible by train. Not just any train... but a steam engine. One with coal and everything. It was awesome. It was about a 3 hour ride up to where we started. When we started heading up.... I knew there was no turning back. Then I really started to wonder, why and how I got talked into this adventure. Here we were before we left.... nice and clean!!! That didnt last long though.
This train was just awesome.....
This was along the first day.... first real body of water we saw.... aside from lots of rivers.
Here is where we camped the first night..... I was never so excited to find a big open meadow in my life before!!!
This was at the top of one of the 5 passes we crossed over. It was so pretty. Right here is where we met up with the continental divide trail.
Yep, there was snow up there.
And we were fortunate enough to be able to cross some of it.
This is the lake we had come up on, not meaning to.... yea, we got lost. Only for a half a day or so. We had to hike down to this lake and around it without any trail at all. Then find our way out and back to the trail the next day. It was interesting.
Here are just some random pictures....
Still not on the trail... who needs trails anyway?
This was one of the many waterfalls.
OUCH!!!!! No, that is not my knee cap! Believe it or not.... that was before it swelled up... all the way anyawy. I slipped on a river rock and went straight down onto my shin. It left a full leg bruise... i have a picture of that I will add later. Oh, it hurt so bad.

We crossed lots of COLD rivers...
The last pass we went over was called Columbine Pass. It was FULL of these..... I didnt pick it, dont worry.
We went up and over those.....
Came across another lake on the way..... it was iced over... a little cold up that high.
From the top of the last pass we climbed...
What a good feeling.... it was all downhill from there!!! There were times that we gained 3,000 feet in elevation in a mile or two, just to get to the top and head back down. that part of it wasnt that fun cause you knew it meant that at some point it was straight back up! It was so hard. For this one we literally had to count 100 steps before we could stop and rest. It was a killer.
So, the last night..... this was what our campsite consisted of. Mountain goats. they just hung out right outside our tent all night long. It was pretty cool. that was our entertainment for the night. We watched them for hours, and they could care less that we were there with them. We got right up to them and they would just look at us and keep eating. Pretty funny. you can see a few babies in the back.... they were cute. I wanted to bring one home!
So... I survived... I never though I would. there were times I thought I was going to die, but I didnt. It was way more fun then I thought it would be. But, I have had enough camping to last me a lifetime. Next time, Im going to find a trail that goes down by a Marriott Hotel or something. A week of no showering is not fun for me!!!

Yummy.......

So you Washington folks will appreciate this picture. I had to shoot my final assignment this last week for my large format and lighting classes. It had to be a still life shot and we had to incorporate the lighting we have used and everything to get the best shot we could. I have had an itch to go to Washington lately and not sure if that is what triggered this picture or not. So, I got everything together and headed to the school. Mom had some wood flooring that I took in for the background. This shot only took about 4 hours. I love it though! Let me know what you think! Im kinda bummed though cause I have one more week of this class. I love it! And by the way..... my instructor was saying he doesnt give 100's on shots often at all. i got one on both my scissors shot and my golf ball shot! Woo Hoo! I was pretty excited. Well... thats about it. Hope you like it.

Finally....

So.... I came to the conclusion last night that Im a blogging liar. Yep... thats right. You all know its true. Not so much in the things I say in my blog, just in the fact that I say I will post something "tomorrow", and 3 days later... its finally tomorrow for me. So, Im sorry, and I will do better and really doing things when I say I will.

I decided its finally time to put my pictures up on here for all to see that I took with the amazing 4x5 camera. Its pretty amazing. It inspires me.... not really.


Number one...... Mr Callaway golf ball. It was for a texture assignment. I wish I would have taken a picture of all the steps of this shot. Just imagine.... most of you know how funny dad is with his yard.... well, I needed grass to take into the studio at school for this shot. So............. mom headed out to the back of the garden and we cut out a chunk of dads grass. Dont worry, he didnt even get mad, probably cause it was for a good cause of a golf ball. Anyway, I went into class with this chunk of grass and shot away. The grass was only maybe a 10 inch square. And this is what it came of it. All with just the camera and lighting it makes it look like its right outside. Sure isnt.
Picture number 2. this one was for a thing called forced perspective. There is another shot that goes along with it, but its pretty close to the same. So, Im just doing the one shot. I did the lighting really dramatic to pick up the texture of the tape on the bat, and then to get the split ball and also to get the highlight on the laces of the glove.

This third one is just what it looks like.... jacks and a ball. I put them onto a mirror just to give it a different look. It was for a macro assignment. We had to take something that was less than an inch big and shoot it in the full frame.

This one turned out to be one of my very favorites. It was one where we had to shoot shiny metal. Then we had to get the light on the metal to go from light to dark gradually to give it dimension. It was actually really hard. Normally when you light metal, it just shines like crazy and it really bright and washed out. That is what we were trying to avoid. But, in the end it worked, and I love it.
Alright, that is it for now. I have others but they were shot on the camera with film, so its harder to get them on here. So this is what you got!

Good old school.....

So Im half way through this quarter of school. its great fun, I tell you what. Actually, I really do like it a lot. Its the best. I am in a class right now shooting with a large format 4x5 camera. I know... its all jibberish to most of you. Here is what one is.... Its what you see in old movies and stuff. But they are awesome. we have all new ones at the school to use so its a blast. There are tons of moves that can be made with these cameras. I cant even begin to explain. Mainly cause it would bore the heck out of most of you. I can do things with a 4x5 camera that I never could with any other camera. its great. Most studio photographers have one if they are shooting products and stuff. I want one bad. I want a studio with one. Yep... that is my new thing. They are sweet. but between getting the lighting just right and getting the camera set up just right, it takes about 3 hours start to finish for one picture. Its nuts! But... love it.

So, that being said... I have a few pictures I am going to put on here real soon that I have shot over the last weeks of school. Sorry I havent done them sooner, but I am so dang busy this quarter. Its all I do. So, I just got home from being at the school for 11 hours and its 12:30, so I need to get to bed. But I will post my pictures tomorrow.

Busy Busy..........

I know I havent posted anything for quite a while on here. Im sorry to all. But that is just how it goes sometimes. I have just been real busy. I spend majority of my time at school right now, so not much I can do about that. Its a busy quarter. I did 2 shoots this week that were sometime totally different than I have done before. So, it was good for a change. Actually, one of them was last week and then 2 this week. Last week I went to a Loveland High School and shot some action pictures for the boys swim team. It was really pretty fun. Just cause it was different and that is what I like. Im putting pictures on here that arent edited really, so just ignore that part of them. But, here are just a few. Nothing too exciting.





This last week, I went back to the high school and shot the actual pictures for the team. So, I shot the team pictures and also the individual ones. It was pretty entertaining. They are funny guys, so we had a fun time. Here is one of the team shots. I havent done anything with it either, but you get the idea. For some reason, they wanted the picture in their swim shirts and pants, but whatever. It works.

The other shoot I did this week was at Colorado State University in Ft collins. i got asked to shoot pictures for the Greek chapters of CSU. So all of the greek sororities and fraternities. What they did is got about 3 people from each of the different greek chapters to represent that house. then we took pictures for pamphlets and stuff for advertising purposes. We ended up with about 75 people and 700 pictures for them. We just put them into different groups and went around campus and shot some pictures. It was really fun and a really nice day. So, we had a good time. It was really random and fun cause I have never done this before but loved it. I havent edited any of them but here are some of them. And that has been my week.