Journal of seeing

I find everything fascinating. Representation is a type of definition we do to understand and explain everything to our self and for others. From birth to death it is caught in a cycle represented by a circle. I am called Shawn but the name does not describe me. Not like our words describe hot or cold. Instead it is my actions that define the name that has been given to me. I try to look at everything for all its beauty, and try not to look away when I see the darker or disappointing aspect. Only knowing one side of something beautiful does allow me to know it entirely. Accepting only one aspect would be like lying to myself about the true nature of what I am looking at. But accepting it as a whole is like embracing the truth of what “is”. This can open the door to both happiness and sadness. Yet both are continued to be viewed as 2 distinct separate things. I think they are not. Without one could you feel the other? Would there be a comparison if one did not exist? Like the cycle of life, emotions and everything seems to pursue two things. Two sides of the same thing. Emotions we have like hunger and fullness. I find within myself a desire to have both and neither. Like a balance of duality. To neither be overly happy or to be in sorrow. In achieving my balance I would have no need or desire. I would gain an unshakeable center that will keep me in peace if all else changes around me. In this secure perspective I should have the calm to act in a way that is true to my heart rather than an impulsive emotion. In that way I would be different from others I am around. By acting on my morals or heart, it should override my initial emotional reaction, and any outside influences. I think in this way I can break an endless cycle with myself and begin to fully appreciate the many cycles that make up the world around me. In theory once this happens then forward is the only place to go. As long as a cycle continues then it will repeat no matter the time that passes. Maybe I can develop differently in time while others are stuck in an endless cycle that is bound to repeat in time. About the greatest of perspective differences is a vast winter tundra. Land covered by snow and frost means one thing to you but to me it is a vast place of possible growth rich with water and open expanse to be filled in with vegetation and life but for the time being it is white, barren and with out life at first glance. Bleak it may seem, but Life does exist in these places. It is hard to find and elusive, such things usually blend in and have their own way of life that is outside our normal scope of survival.

Bleakheart, so it is fitting.

Click above to see or follow this link

https://picasaweb.google.com/112772385708760078338/September102011#5651575144642570914

The links on the right from Storm, Archon 08, and Fubar all are accompanied with music. The links go to you-tube, and the latest one Fubar has some actual video from Fubar. The lighting was spontaneously morphic. And I would describe it as NEARLY imposable to adjust the camera on a "moments" need. It was also taken the Friday of Halloween. Sadly I missed getting the photos of all the great costumes that were presented there. The video is my first attempt and done to the sound of Greenday I believe.

Architecture in light/med/dark

The entery on Architecture was taken in light/normal/ and dark. For latter use in photo adjustments. The visit to Hill Top Reservoir was fairly educational too. There is a lot that could be said about it historically but worth visiting to hear it and see it first hand. The photos became difficult to take cause of temperatures dropping and eventually my hands were shaking so bad that my hands shook the camera. So I set it to take the picture in 2 sec, and that solved the shaky cold hand issue.

Background and Appriture difficulties

OH man... the problems of changing appriture to get different effects and still end up with a decent picture. The time of day plays a huge problem in getting a picture to turn out. Near the end of photos my friends father was nice enough to stay seated so in seeing the variations in appriture. All the people here are family members of a good friend. He was unable to attend their yearly apple picking and I have never picked apples before so they invited me to this. But I can honestly say I have been spoiled by automatic appriture settings. With more work on larger scale backgrounds I will be better able to see the effects. But one of my largest problems was just being able to look at the camera in the bright light that morning to tell How the settings need to be shifted in order to get the better picture.

Motion capturing of Rain For (Night Speed, Motion)

For the latest photo-bug shooting I rather spur of the moment thought it would be a great idea to do the assignment ON the thunder storm. BEAUTIFUL weather and I quickly discovered the problem of trying to take a picture of something that you can not SEE through the camera. The only thing I could do is vary the sensitivity (ISO) until i reached the proverbial whiteout pictures with the flash. From there I backed off the sensitivity to get a more true color. Most pictures were taken around 400-800 with the flash. At ISO 3k+ the majority of the picture was whited out. The shutter speeds started very short and I slowly changed it picture by picture. Untill you see the very awesome effect of shooting at night in a thunderstorm on the last pictures. Thanks for viewing Motion Capturing of Rain.

Short Story "a"

The "Got Gas" album may very well be short lived. It is simply about getting gas at the pump, but lacks many of the usual shots like approaching wide angle, the drastic shadows in the car and out of the car along with shooting a picture past a small bit of plastic was troubling. I tried to change my iso from around 400-200, and after that some settings kept changing automatically. Other than that I didn't want to run the risk of getting run out of the gas station for what ever reason. The replacement album should be about "Game Night" at my friends house. We get together and create characters to play in games.

Action Event

The Class project was to shoot Event(s) so my aim was to get it done over this 09/07/09 weekend. My personal wish was to attend it more than I did but I still loved what I had a chance to experience. So the focus of the pictures are on the Sumo wrestlers, and Wadaiko drummers. I had all sorts of complications while trying to take the photos from spectators running interference with my shots to the sun popping in and out behind the clouds. I had to deal with reflected light off the people that were sitting near or in front of the camera with white shirts, the subjects of my photographs had varied complexion/skin tone, and a number of my shots were shot From under direct sunlight INTO a covered and shaded stage where the performers were located. I toyed and played with all sorts of settings from white balance, shutter speed, and another setting that lightens and darkens the actual photo. I tried to pick the best of the pictures that were shot and post them both as action portrait 1 & 2. Untill I am more familiar with my camera action and fast movement photos will be challenging.

Also if anyone preformed and would like a complete cd of these photos I could try to get it off to you right away. But I am not yet familiar enough to create a slide show CD. Great shows and I thank everyone that took part in it including the stage hands and Mo. Botanical Gardens for hosting the event.