Urban Landscapes & Cloudscapes || Denver Colorado

I took a little trip downtown yesterday in hopes of capturing some of the "urban landscape" of Denver. I ended up at the top of a parking garage downtown, shooting as a snowstorm slowly rolled towards the city from the north. Here are a few of the images, as well as some street art that is downtown as well.

Twenty Minutes at Union Station || Denver Colorado

I went on a little adventure into downtown Denver this afternoon in hopes of capturing some urban landscapes. Well turns out its hard to find "urban landscapes" in Denver, and since it was cold, I went to Starbucks and got coffee, then headed back towards Union Station.

The next train left 20 minutes after I arrived, so I took a seat and waited. It started to snow harder, it had gotten far colder since this morning, and the people gathering on the platform looked cold, although many were prepared with heavy coats.

I shot as discretely as I could, nobody seemed to mind. Here is Twenty Minutes at Union Station:

 A man a train that wasn't mine. 

 A maintenance man on an 'out of service' train. He was eating lunch, or dinner.

 One who came prepared. This guy made himself a great subject. 

 Yes, this lady is taking a selfie on the platform.

The guy across from me on the train. It's totally a Monday. 

Super good portrait session today! Kelsey and Leah were great! Thanks ladies! Tried some different funky editing techniques, so let me know what you think!

Urban Sesh with the CP Crew

Seshing a bomb drop with Tim Thoreson (top), Anthony Fox (middle), Caleb Ehly (bottom), and Alex Hon (on filming duty). At a classified location near Sandpoint Idaho.

North Idaho at Night

Starry night in North Idaho, Orion, the Little Dipper (I think, on the left of the second image), and the glow of Sandpoint. ISO 800, f/2.8, Exposure Time 12-25 seconds.

Final Class Post (The Official Title is Way Too Long)

The final post asks us to compare our relationship with photography before and after this class experience. During this class, I tried to function at the highest level of creativity and ingenuity that I could, sometimes this was not possible, and sometimes I just couldn't do it. Like I have said earlier, photography is a story telling means for me, or I would like it to be. I would like to be able to tell a story with my photos where ever I go. This trip forced me to document the experience at a greater level of detail than what I previously would have worked with. I don't think I accomplished quite what I wanted to, the images tell a story, but the story has gaps. Particularly in London, the focus seems to move off the interactions of the group, and the interactions of people, to the landmarks and historical sites in London. Initially, when I set out from Denver, my goal was to document the actions and the interactions of the group while in Europe, and at the same time get some good photos of the history and "landscapes" of the cities we were to visit. Sadly, I only worked half heartedly at the first part of what I set out to do. I, myself will say that the images I shot have very little direction, and most have very little expression. Most are well composed it seems, but I find that the subjects have little story to them, in a sense they are very dry. 

In conclusion, I would say that this experience hasn't really changed my relationship to photography. It has rather changed the way I go about seeing an image story. I need to focus. I need to anticipate action. And I need to visualize how a story will develop. I think that if I can do this, it will improve my imagery, and my content, dramatically.

A Day In My Life

A day in Brighton. These photos document my walk to the end of Brighton Pier and back on December 2, 2012. The variations in editing styles are due to a lot of "soul searching" on my part, to find a style that is unique to me, that I use to set my photos apart. So far, no progress has been made. 

Psychological Difference Between the Same Subject, Painted and Photographed

Painting in a sense was humankind's first attempt at capturing scenes of notability for enjoyment after the fact. Photography is just the evolution of that quest. Printed photographs are essentially just ink art done in a very fine style of pointillism, by a machine. A human could attempt to replicate this by hand, and given the patience, accuracy, time, and focus could no doubt accomplish a very similar product. However, I think that photography captures the emotion and the expression of the moment far better, and I think humans can see that, or rather feel it. I can't say what it is that would trigger such a feeling, perhaps a slight difference in colour or shading, possibly knowing that it is a painting or a photograph, but I think the real trigger for people is depth. Photography captures the depth of a scene incredibly well, with detail from background to foreground (even when out of focus). Photography has developed to see almost exactly like the eye, there is very little room for interpreting a scene any other way than what it shows, their is no room for "artistic licence", even if unintentional, the way their would be in a painting. That is what I think the psychological difference between a painted and photographed object are.  

A Sense of Time and Place

London: November 28, 2012 - December 6, 2012. 

The Human Street || Photographs at the Photographer's Gallery

The iPhone, the weapon of the modern street photographer, and just about everyone else. Scenes from the streets of London, and the Paris metro.

Above: Jasmin shooting, and I hit the bulls eye, second shot. 

The "Shoot!" exhibition at the Photographer's Gallery was very interesting and unique. First, before I saw this it had never occurred to me that they take pictures like that in shooting galleries. I mean I have seen shooting galleries before, but this added a whole new level of interest to them. Along with the shooting gallery portion, where you could shoot and get your photo taken if you were lucky, I found that the photos of bullets going through cameras and the rigs used to capture the images safely were very interesting. (Though, why anyone would voluntarily shoot a camera is beyond me.) The third portion, the video clip shoot out was, just a little overwhelming. At the same time it was incredible, engaging and strangely beautiful, being both musical and visual at the same time.  

A Sense of Light and Time || Letter to Fox - Talbot

Stonehenge. A place where light and time collide, and have collided for ages. Walking around the stone circle (freezing my ass off) I felt that this place was the same as it had been long ago. I felt like the cold winter light that feel on us while we were there, was the same light that fell on the ancient Celts who created it. It was a very powerful place, hard to describe or capture as an image.
The winter light in England is very, very, very, pleasing in photographs. I found that the sunlight retained the feel, slant and look of summer evening light in the northern hemisphere. Very workable for any type of photography.

Henry Fox-Talbot,
Photography inspires me to tell stories without words. It has become a major part of who identify as over the past two years. When I go anywhere, or even when I am sitting in a chair, I am looking. I am looking for subject matter, I am constantly framing things, looking at them, and re-framing them. From the advent of photography if has been advancing. Now only the concept of freezing an image in time is the same for most  as it was in your time. The methods are different, far faster, and more accurate. There are many still who prefer an older form, itself far removed from what you pioneered. To me, photography is a means of expression, whether in older forms, or in modern forms. Whether that is what you intended for it, or whether you only wanted a means to record things is a mystery to me.

The Journey So Far

The Journey so far has been an experience. Obviously Paris is far different than any city in the United States, especially Denver. My experiences by myself, and with the group have been memorable. I have felt many different emotions towards the trip as a whole, happiness, frustration, surprise, the list could fill an entire page if I wanted it to. Honestly I think the trip so far can be summed up in just two photos:

If you were to blur the faces, and erase all traces of recognition of the subjects, I think you would find that the images reflect the nature of the trip. The first photograph of a photographer gives a sense of careful, introspective composure, something that would be reflected in our blogs, and our images. The second image is clearly a metaphor for what happens when you turn college students loose in a country where they can drink legally and have nearly zero inhibitions. A discord with the general attitude of "who gives a fuck!", and thus seems to pass in a blur. So far, that is how my trip has been.