Tuesday, February 19, 2008

clearing my mind

... and crawling into bed



sorry about the dust ... quick scans ... as always

These were all taken last week sometime during a Tuesday maybe? I can't totally remember. The two on the top and the bottom were taken at basically the same time. The one in the middle was taken a few hours later. I was in the PCL looking for a book by Thomas Merton. I never found the book I was looking for, but I did take this picture in the midst of the stacks. Something about the vastness of it sort of go to me. Well, not really the vastness so much actually, more the fact that I was just standing there in the middle of it, and when I noticed that, I wanted to try and take a picture that somehow communicates that to myself and others. I take a picture like that as a sort of exercise in capturing a feeling that I hope to convey or, well, "preserve"(?) for later. Hmmm. Does that make sense? I don't know. I took a picture. It's a picture.

Anyway, the real question is: Why am I telling you all this? Well, the fact is that I am in a web publishing class this semester, and in this class we are expected to keep a blog. This is part of our grade. Well, I already have a blog, so, easy, right? Well, not quite. My professor (pictured below in the actual act of telling me what I'm about to tell you), Dr. Homero Gil de Zuniga feels that my blog posts need to be expanded on in order that I really do the assignment right. He and some other folks in the class suggested that maybe I spend a little more time talking about the photos and what goes in to them and what not.

Well, honestly, this is a little unsettling for me. Taking photos is the one thing I do where I DON'T ramble. Seriously. I would if I could, but I can't. And honestly, I already sort of think my photos ramble (in the way that photos can), so yeah, it's kind of bothering me that here I am RAMBLING right now.

BUT, I am intent on making good out of this, SO, I actually do think it's a good opportunity to maybe do a little explaining or actually even better, to do things like ANSWER questions or get FEEDBACK. That's the kind of thing I'd really love, and could maybe be on this blog. So please, let me know what you think about ANYTHING. Post comments, email me, ask me questions, give me suggestions - Help me be a better photographer and have a better blog. I'm looking forward to it!

Friday, February 15, 2008

Valentine's Day


A video I made for Annie Wednesday night. Bear with it, it's not as sad as it seems at first. ;)

Monday, February 11, 2008

SPEED

So, there was this film-making contest going on in Austin celebrating the upcoming release of Michel Gondry's new film "Be Kind, Rewind" about two movie clerks (Jack Black and Mos Def) who erase all of the movies in their store and then decide to replace them by recreating the movies themselves.
In the contest, teams were asked to "swede" a Hollywood film in the style Michel Gondry exemplifies with his remake of the trailer for his own movie.
This is the entry we created, Speed. If you really want to help us out, go rate it and comment on it at filmmakingfrenzy.com. If we win, our movie will play during the preview-deals before "Be Kind, Rewind" at the Drafthouse!