Meet LBC Gospel Choir's Fall Concert - part 1

I work best when I have rewards waiting for me and tonight, while I plugged along on a paper, I decided my reward for doing such would be to post two photos on my blog from Mizzou's Legions of Black Collegians Gospel Choir's concert I went to Friday night. I'm working on filling in some gaps for my story, so I was glad to get to photograph them in a performance setting again.

Anyway, more on all of that later, here are two photos for you to look at:

Meet Phoebe, the early years

Hooray, it's my birthday! I turn 25 today and so far, it's been going great. I got a cake from my Boot Camp family (...it's a j-school thing) and went out for some dancing and shouting and laughing. Lots of well-wishing AND, because I'm a Starbucks Gold Card Member, a free drink of my choice (and what a large one it is).

I am so happy.

So here are some of my baby photos, because those are always fun to look at:

I am pretty sure this is exactly 25 years ago:


6 months old:


A year...?:


And my kindergarten school photo:

Meet the feeling

Last spring, when I first started here at Missouri and was trying to figure out how to be a non-sports photographer, I took the photo you see below for my portrait assignment. I liked the shot but couldn't figure out why. It wasn't technically strong, in my opinion. But still, I liked it.



David Rees, my professor at the time and Mizzou's own Yoda, articulated why I liked it: it didn't just show something, it showed how something felt. It wasn't just "this is what I saw" but also "this is how it felt."

"Really good photos don't just show you something, they also make you feel something." That's roughly what David wrote in my critique and it was a bit of an ah-ha moment for me that I still keep with me.

Below are a few photos from a jam session that broke out my last night at Hazel Kinder's Lighthouse Theater and one from backstage that, for me, also convey this. They stick in my mind for the simple reason that they show how the scene felt at the time. Dark and mysterious, perhaps, but with intense and purposeful light in just the right places. Like the riffs played to the basic melody that evolved on stage.

Understanding and shooting this kind of photography is why I came back to school.



(Saxophone player)

Meet Hazel Kinder's Lighthouse Theater

Here is my contribution to my group's final project on Hazel Kinder's Lighthouse Theater. I took most - but not all - of the photos and edited the pictures and the audio.

UPDATE! Check out the full project here.

(Also, I highly recommend the new full-screen option. Click the box with the four arrows pointing outward to see a GINORMOUS presentation.)

Meet 1,000 words

--or--

"Advanced Techniques of Photojournalism in a photographic nutshell"

In direct opposition to my previous post of optimism and serenity, I am putting up a picture that sums up the experience of using flashes/artificial light both for the subject and the photographer. I'm editing for my final project and found this very poorly executed gem in my outtakes.

I'm thinking 2009 CPOY...this screams "personal vision" (or lack thereof?).



(Sorry, mister.)

Meet simplicity

At the risk of being overly poetic, let me tell you that last night, as I was parking my car, I had a moment of serenity where I was glad and thankful to be a photographer. I have the ability to see beauty in unexpected places and find myself appreciating somewhat random scenes. The parking garage was one of them. I looked out my window and thought "how pretty" and, after a few seconds, "how weird...to think that a parking garage is pretty." This morning, I spent several minutes watching the smoke from my incense waft around in the sunlight. Simple, beautiful scenes can bring such serenity.





For more waxing photographic, check this out.

Meet Multiple Flash

(November 30, 2008 Columbia, Mo.) Alita Stoneking, left, and Tom Weisburger, from St. Peters, Minnesota, warm-up their instruments and fingers in the lobby of Hazel Kinder’s Lighthouse Theater Saturday afternoon before the theater’s first annual fiddle contest. Stoneking, who plays in fiddling competitions throughout the Midwest, won first place out of four fiddlers in the open division and Weisburger placed second. (Photo by Phoebe Sexton)

Lighting Diagram:

Meet Hazel Kinder's Lighthouse Theater (pt. 1)

Some fun shots from the fiddling contest and bluegrass show at Hazel Kinder's Lighthouse Theater:

Meet Kevin, your multi-light assistant

I wasn't paired with Kevin for the multiple light assignment, but since he's in my group and we were all working on our final project together, I got some fun shots of him assisting.

Slideshow examples

Audio slideshow for class:

The Flower Show

---

While poking around online, I found it interesting that various universities' news/photo offices are doing multimedia. A sample:

Tufts:

Science Takes Center Stage

Harvard:
Harvard's Election Excitement

Boston University:
The Hot Seat