Meet some MPW outtakes

Below are some of my favorite pictures from the Missouri Photo Workshop in Festus, Mo., that didn't make my final edit. Enjoy!

Meet more of the LBC fall concert

As you can see, today has been a photo-filled day and I finally made some time to go through my take from the LBC gospel concert that I shot at the end of last semester. I posted two photos right after the concert and those two images were probably my favorite of the evening, but below is a slideshow of the runners-up.

I'm still frustrated with this project. I still don't feel I have really shown the story. I keep missing the little telling moments that piece together an accurate portrait of this choir and this genre of both music and worship. Feedback is much appreciated. Also, I apologize for the graininess, but I was not able to check out a camera that could handle the church's low light, so I did what I could with my 20D and RAW files. I hope you enjoy:

Meet my ode to learning flash: labs in review.

I didn't think I'd survive it, but I've made it through all the individual assignments involving flash for Advanced Techniques. A look back on the painful process for all to enjoy (or lament), done in the style for competition submission (amped up contrast, saturation AND vignetting: the trifecta):


Flash? Really? But...but...I can do fine with available light...

And flash just makes me that much more conspicuous to my subjects! (This shot was an intentional
homage to the amazing and hilarious laundromat shot we saw in class.)

Yeah, Jimmy, the idea of juggling another piece of equipment and
technical calculation makes me feel dead inside, too.

It's going to be okay, Will. We're all scared. Just wait it out.

I feel your pain, Anjali. Trust me, girl, I feel. Your. Pain.

Jakob's fancy German Leica flash has the ability to reach a higher power (badumpching).
He wastes no time calling out for help.

A huge, special, wonderful thanks to Catalin for holding our hands and drying our tears through this painful process.

Meet suffrage!

When I woke up this morning to both my phone alarm going off and NPR blaring from my clock radio at 5 a.m., the first thing I remember hearing was the announcer saying "It's here! The election is finally here!" I had the same feeling. I couldn't sleep last night because I was so excited to vote - I haven't been this excited about anything in a long time, including starting grad school. How grand to be present on a great day in our country's history.

Because my mother said she is always one of the first in line at her polling place, I made it my goal to do the same. I was the first official voter in my precinct and cast the second officially tallied ballot. Below are some (pretty terrible) photographs of my voting experience, from seeing some fellow grad students groggily stroll in through getting my free "thanks for voting" coffee at Starbucks. I am guarding my "I Voted" sticker with my life.


Me, Vivian and Wendy, pumped that the day has finally arrived.

Up before dawn, making my voice heard.

I voted and you should too!

Meet Barack Obama (and about 40,000 Missourians)

I won the battle over fatigue and tromped around the Obama rally, taking pictures, hearing his voice for real-real and admiring how many different people turned out to show their support.

I left my apartment a little after 9 p.m. for the 9:30 speech but my friend Clint (he's the beleaguered but joyous one toward the end) got in line at 1:45 p.m. - he's just better at caring about stuff like this. It really paid off for him, though - he shook the senator's hand.

It was nice to just wander around, taking nice little pictures for myself, listening to Obama and the fans as I relaxed from one of the toughest weeks I've had in school.


Watching the speech on one of the screens.

I don't care if this was done for a photo-op backdrop, I liked it a whole lot.

Sorry for the quick & dirty toning on this...perhaps one day I'll come back and clean it up...

He's in this shot, I swear! Go to the shorter lightpost to the right of "CHANGE" and go down to the big black box. That's his lectern. Woo.

Hooray for arts & crafts.

This is deliciously Midwestern and Obama thanked the crowd for it. He even said "Mi-zur-uh."

Because no one has ever seen the Lectern of Change...

Clint is such a trooper.

Can't have politics without a protest.

...or campaign buttons.

Meet Dr. Edward Adelstein

I photographed the medical examiner for Boone and Callaway counties for VOX magazine and came up with some pretty cool photos. Dr. Adelstein is a cool guy with a warped but entertaining sense of humor (which, really, is to be expected after 18 years in the biz.



If you're interested in the article, you can find it here: http://www.voxmagazine.com/stories/2008/06/19/hands-and-human-body/ (The online photo play is...not so good (but if you can get your hands on a hard copy, that looks pretty awesome).)

Meet some honest emotions...

I never got to post shots from my best rehearsal with the choir because of the looming final project deadline. They had a really emotional practice the last time I stayed for the full time and some of my favorite shots from the whole project came from that day. Regrettably, I admit that I shied away from what could have been some really stellar shots because I was a bit uncomfortable staring that much raw emotion right back in the face. But I'm working on it.

This first one especially embodies - to me, at least - what gospel choir really feels like...

Meet the Final Project...(draft #1)

Update! The project has been re-edited and posted in a new post. Click on "Introductions" at the top of the page to go to the main page of my blog so you can see the final product!

This is the first final draft of my final project. I covered the LBC Gospel Choir here at Mizzou for most of the semester. There will probably be tweaks on this, but for now, I am reveling in being so very nearly finished!

Meet some new views of the LBC Choir

Here are some of the better shots from my latest time with the choir. With Daylight Savings Time doing whatever it did (starting? stopping? Springing forward...), the light in the room is dramatically different and not really to my advantage. I have a lot of squinty singers (meaning, I mostly collected audio until the sun set behind a building), but I think I got a few interesting shots. Thanks for looking!