hula hoop

We now have the third in my autumn portrait series. This time around, I teamed up with the the awesome Dominique to create a shoot that combined fire dancing with the color of the fall leaves. This was tricky, since the fire dancing itself is only impressive after dark, and the fire bright itself isn’t enough to light the trees on its own. I came up with a lighting configuration that uses two, off-camera flashes, one to create a shutter dragging effect and the other to light the trees behind her. I’m mostly happy with the effect as a proof of concept, but I would like to experiment with the setup more. I’m planning on putting out a more in depth lighting tutorial soon, as well as video, so be sure to subscribe if you want to see more.

A full year. Since I graduated. Since I proposed. Since I started freelancing. Since I started the site to keep myself in practice. I suppose that I should take a hard look back at 2013.

Let’s start by looking at things from a purely objective standpoint and take a look at the numbers.

Numbers Total Hits: 9,709
Overall Average Hits Per Day: 27
Most Hits In A Single Day: 283
Total Number of Followers: 110
Total Number Of Posts: 205
205 posts/ 365 Days= 56.1% of Daily Goal
Then again, I was working 60-80 hours a week the last two months of the year, so taking off November and December, we get 196 Posts /304 Days= 64.5%

What do these numbers tell us? Well, they tell me that I need to do better. I While I have started writing, editing video, and dabbling more with graphic design, I haven’t come as far with branching my skills as I would have liked. And yes, I have been shooting daily, it hasn’t necessarily been what I want to be working on.

It might be fair to say that I’ve been… disconnected. After I graduated, I lost all of the resources available to me through the university. That doesn’t just include the photo gear and technology, but the connections though fellow students and teachers. Add all that to the fact that my car died early this year, and funds have been relatively low. So, with no money, no car, and no connections, it honestly felt like a year adrift.

But, those are just the numbers and the setup. What did this year in photos actually look like? (Be sure to click to open in theater mode. There’s a cut line for each one of these. )

I wasn’t allowed to take my DSLR into the Lindsey Sterling concert, so I shot what I could on my camera phone and edited it on the way home.

A cat from One Of A Kind Pets plays with my friends during a visit to the animal shelter.

I didn’t think much of this when I shot it, but it’s been an absolute favorite of my friends and family.

My friend Lucy and I took some time to do a quick shoot down by the river in Kent.

As I practiced more, I got better with this InDesign trick.

My friend paisley shows off one of her corsets.

Another shot that I didn’t think much of, but got plenty of attention.

This is probably my favorite trace design conversion that I’ve done all year.

Jordan shows up in a lot of my favorite shots of the year. She’s a fantastic model, great to work with, and I am so bummed that she moved so far away.

This year, I got to discover that I a man I knew through school was actually a pillar of the local art community. It turns out, I was the only one in the whole city with photos of the guy.

Not all of the apples made it into the cider. Part of a quick story package I put together on my phone complete with video.

As a general rule, I hate my self portraits. This kind of works for me though.

I finally took the time to try HDR on one of my photos. It was actually easier than I thought.

A pilot at the Kent Air Show. This photo became a part of the Lost in Oscar Hotel project.

Maxine wielding her cardboard roll of death.

I shot a lot of photos to help out a music promotions class over at Kent State. The Electronic show was a great place to shoot shutter drag shots.

A black bear photo I shot while accompanying Karen to the zoo with the children she babysits.

I was inspired while I was juicing to take a stab at some more comedic still-life stuff.

I took my friend Kyle along with me to this rock gig I was shooting. When he saw the photos, he asked if these were from the same concert, since they looked better than the event while it was live.

I tried my hand at typography. I think that the Arabic went well with the design.

A couple braves the first heavy snowfall of the winter to go grocery shopping.

I got some work as a freelancer shooting sports.

Putting the GoPro on its ‘Time Lapse’ setting and attaching it to my monopod quickly became one of my favorite tricks. This man doing Tai Chi was actually someone I had already met when I was doing a story on a local retirement community being convicted by their new management. I shot this when I was out on a photo walk with some new students when I was helping to run a workshop at the university.

A trick of perspective and a silhouette I sagged on my camera phone while on my break at work.

This photo is what I used to accompany my piece ‘Mrs. Gilley’s Garden,’ an editorial on the using photographs to connect with a woman suffering from dementia. The piece was run in multiple local papers, and I still receive compliments on it. I certainly have mixed feelings about the piece. What is happening to Mrs. Gilley breaks my heart, and I feel no shortage of guilt for the recognition I’ve been receiving for what I wrote. But, if it makes even a small difference in someone’s life, helps them better communicate and understand a friend or family member going through the same thing, then I’ve at least done a little good.

The book fort that I built with my friend Alyssa early last year was probably the most effort I put into the setup for a shoot.

A model helped me with my grey cards as I shot one of the shows put on by the Kent Fashion School.

Jordan and I got to take over a local Harley Dealership for about an hour.

I lost track of how far I walked on the day I shot this. Totally worth it for some of the photos I got that

The quality of what I can do with my cell phone camera continues to surprise me. It’s fantastic to have when I can’t carry my full DSLR.

For someone who deemed herself “the most awkward model ever,” she didn’t do too bad here.

I wasn’t allowed to take my DSLR into the Lindsey Sterling concert, so I shot what I could on my camera phone and edited it on the way home.

When stuck at my terrible call center job, I wrote haiku to keep my mind occupied.

I got more into nature photography over this last year. I feel like there’s only so much I can do with my low-end telephoto though.

By a stroke of pure, dumb luck, I ran across a fawn while second shooting a wedding.

Proof that I should not be allowed to near Photoshop.

Shot my first Rap/R&B show this year.

I took this as a nature shot, and ran it through an InDesign filter. I wound up using it on a business card design.

A quick macro shot at the local orchard.

I went with my friend Alyssa to the cherry blossom festival. Going to DC and back within 24 hours was a bit of a challenge, but the road trip was worth it. DC is one of my favorite cities to visit.

shot these geese as part of my first solo wedding shoot.

Where does that leave me? I wouldn’t call the year empty, and I can’t say there was nothing fulfilling. I wouldn’t say that I didn’t grow, but I still feel like I could have been more. I feel like I’m falling behind my peers. All I can do is try to keep at getting myself off the ground this year.

I photographed this collision with my cell phone on my lunch break. Thankfully, there were no fatalities. The photograph was picked up by one of the local papers.

Still, with everything I shot this year, one photo stands out more than anything I did. It was the photograph I took on my lunch break with cell phone of the car crash. It reminded me how much I can care; not just about news, but about people. I had just finished Dave LaBelle’s Lessons in Life and Death, and learned just how much photographs of tragedy can help those involved cope and come to terms with those events. I felt like I had a responsibility. It reminded me that no matter where I am, or what I’m doing with my life, that drive for journalism, and news is always there. I’m never going to give up.