Tuesday

Hey Everyone! Why does today feel like a Monday? I’m just really tired and lazy. I recently Went to the William Eggleston exhibit at the Frist museum here in Nashville. I have been trying to gain some sort of insight as to what a profound statement is and what is truly creative art. I know that not very many people make a living off of photography these days. So the future looks a bit bleak these days for us. But hopefully we will be able to get our economy back on track. I think it might be a little harder for a guy who is 26 to truly appreciate what a good economy is because that is all I have ever known in my lifetime. I am starting to get the picture though. For the past year and a half I have been looking for a job. I really wanted it to be doing something with photography,like an assistant or something. But no one is making any money and internships are practically non existent. I will tell you from experience that you really need to know who you sign up with before you start working with them. It is a troubled market and everyone seems to be fighting for jobs in highly unprofessional ways.

I have been taking some photos here and there but I have a shoot on Thursday that I am excited to share. I don’t photograph babies very often so this should be fun It was another slow week for the photo stuff and though I am constantly taking photos. I am holding myself to much higher standards. As I mature I am starting to struggle with copyright issues. what happened to the day that your photographs were your photographs and you could legally do anything you wanted with them? Lol It’s not that bad really you just have to have them sign a statement that you can do whatever you want to do with the photos.

Here’s some Guster

Monday, Monday…

Hey everybody I am at school for this installment so I don’t have any images yet again but I will be sure to give you a song for the week.

For this blog I would like to discuss some topics facing the photographic community the world over. First off, is it good? We all know that not all art work is accepted by everyone, everywhere. This is inherently the greatest thing about art. No matter how shallow or in depth a piece may seem to someone, it is sure to have just as many followers as it does people who dislike it. All I ask of a piece of art is that the creator be able to explain what he was thinking in a clear and concise manor. For instance a black and white photograph of a barn may seem to pale in comparison  to the photograph of a child dying in the streets of a third world country. But upon explanation you find out that the barn was being bull dozed to make way for a shopping development. Further the family who owned the land was kicked off by our government and paid nearly nothing leaving the family to starve right on our own ground. The photographer was making major points about the collapse of our nation in difficult agricultural and economic times, government control and most of all about the people who are effected by these situations. Which is ultimately you and I.*

The photograph of the child may seem Shocking, cruel and saddening. Most of all because our human nature demands that we feel bad for people less fortunate then our selves. But what does this say about the photographer? Did he take the photo to raise awareness of harsh times in Cambodia? Because we as Americans are all aware of how things are there. Did he take it because of the composition and aesthetic value that seems to emanate from the photograph? If so has he not stolen the image from the child who already has nothing in an attempt to further his own career? Or was he planing on using this photo to start a campaign against hunger around the world. If so, it seems to me that there is no lack of ways to donate your time and money. So, Why? Why would someone take a photograph like this in the world today? No matter how you look at it unless HE saves THIS child from hunger he has exploited him in some way or another.

Though it doesn’t solve the problem of exploitation; imagine if the two images were taken by the same photographer and placed side by side as a diptych. The barn on the right and the child on the left. His statement merely  reads, “This is where we are and this is where were going.” The combined piece In my opinion would be fairly progressive in the idea that he is choosing a topic that effects everyone of us today. If you think it doesn’t  effect you then your either so delusional about your surroundings that you think people are actually born to serve you or you are merely uneducated about how bad things can get and how quickly. That is what I think is so successful about this piece. It educates as well keeps your attention long enough to feel something.

I would love to hear thoughts and discussions about the topic of art being good. As you can see it is a very broad topic that could go in as many directions as there are people on the planet. So NOTHING is unacceptable under this topic. Thanks again for reading!!!

As an artist I am very emotionally connected to music. This song has been there for me through good and bad times. BT’s Creativity never ceases to amaze me. With titles as strong as, “This Binary Universe,”  His newer work certainly pushes the envelope in the states for music that is considered “acceptable.” I imagine that if Mozart were alive today his music might strongly resemble BT’s in it’s conception and boundless creativity. So here’s to BT for helping inspire new thoughts and visions for a generation being drowned in a sea if useless and untalented musicians.

*The pieces mentioned above are merely an example of a photographic scenario. To my knowledge they do not exist in the context I have described above.

A New Year

Hello everyone! I hope all of you had a festive holiday season!!!!! Hmmm. Let’s see what went on. I took a billion pictures, went to Kentucky to have Christmas with the family, slept, and then I slept some more. Thats pretty much it I guess for my holiday.

I just recently purchased my first alien bee flash unit Yesterday. Over the semester I will be posting the effects of having just one key light with you at all times. I am taking digital imaging this spring and I hope to be growing my ever expanding knowledge of my craft by leaps and bounds. Also I would like to give a shout out to Watkins college for Employing introspective teachers even in general educations portions of this class. Like Doug Hoegstra? I’m not sure how to spell his name but He is the English comp teacher. I really his enjoy his teaching method because hge makes reading and writing fun and illuminating. I am learning that writing is the ultimate key to getting your point across clearly and concisely.

So yeah I will building up more pictures and things for future blogs I just wanted to say hi and it is great to be back for another semester!!!!

New Year

Hello everyone! 2010 is coming to an end and 2011 is hot on its heals. It is in this time of year that people try and rethink their methods and ways of life. We sit around and pick at our faults and dream up ways to better ourselves. Well this year I propose that we stop all of the madness and celebrate what is good about ourselves and what is right in our lives. What if we could spend more time with our families or writing hand written letters instead of sitting on the couch watching shows that make is feel inadequate. I watch television just like the rest of us. But I challenge what the commercials are actually saying. like the new car commercial that states by buying their car you are actually saving more money than buying a gingerbread house?!!!!! WHAT? How about we save thirty two thousand dollars by being content with the vehicle that we already own? Is it just me or are people just getting more greedy?  so with all of this being said. If I make a new years resolution it will be to be content with my life exactly the way it is. I will be happy with weighing about a hundred pounds less then allot of other people. I will continue to be happy with the one I’m with. I will love the animals that I have. I will remain content with the tinny apartment and I will continue to enjoy the company of the family and friends that I have near to me. While keeping on a path that will allow me to remain financially independent. So with that I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a HAPPY New Year!!!!

Previsualization

Hello Viewers! I’m not sure why all of my text is underlined and hopefully I will figure out how to turn this off by the end of the blog. Ok, this weeks lesson is about the word, “PREVISUALIZATION.” What does this mean? In simple terms it means that when observing a scene you need to have the ability to see the end product. These are all examples of some of my digital work. When I take these photos I have to take into account all of the possibilities available to me in Photoshop, printng and digital negative printing processes. For the majority of my images I like to shoot in low contrast. You can always take detail away in Photoshop but you can’t add it without hours of extensive and detailed editing. I don’t have time to go through how all of these are edited but I can tell you that your curve editor, histogram and black and white adjustment layers are your best friends! please feel free to ask any questions or leave comments. I’m always looking for conversation.

Was that photo worth dying for?

Sooooo. on my latest photo excursion I decided to go to Kentucky. While on the road I take pictures of things I drive by. ALLOT. This might not be the safest thing seeming as in how my tires already need aligned from running over several curbs unexpectedly. I know what your thinking given the title; I almost got into a car accident. But no. That was merely a tangent. nearing the end of my trip I decided I wanted to go the riverside and take more pictures of Mike at sunset. Rushing to get my camera equipment together to beat the sun I was already in an unfocused mood. I knew that with my flash equipment I needed to rush as fast as possible if I was to get even a single shot before it was too dark. “I’ll let you in on something I was not privy to.” IT WAS ALREADY TOO DARK!! Anyway… I get one shot down and move onto the next and this is where it happens. I get my lights set up, my camera ready and the flash that was already at a minute refresh rate, anger is boiling because I had wasted allot of time that day. I get Mike set up, I snap one picture and when I went to step back my foot is immediately stopped by a rock and I almost fall about 12 feet into a crashing river waterfall.

The one and only picture is in between poses and really vague having been caught off guard by the flash actually working and I have to ask myself. Was this photo really worth dying for? Probably not… So as a friendly reminder to all of you photographers out there. Manage your time wisely because great opportunities will pass you by like this one did.

One Horrible Summer? CHECK!

I was going to write about how crappy my summer was and how I couldn’t find a job and nearly lost faith in all humanity but I’ve decided to go back to my roots and just do a photo blog without any winning. so I’m going to show you all a little trick I figured out in photography this summer. Its called the speed light. however small and insignificant this one item may seem to you, if you know how to harness just a fraction of immense power the world of high fashion photography can truly be yours. So lets start with our examples.

Hey look, It’s me! LOL alright I hope by this example your able to deduce that the one on the left is the crappy before picture and the one on the right with my logo is the effect that you are headed for. So what would make such a dramatic difference in two shots taken a minute apart in the same outdoor lighting conditions? Well my friends that’s the power of the speed flash. I have an old crappy one that has been handed down to me. It is very simple but I feel it is very effective. I have this one mounted on a light stand and coupled with a cowboystudio wireless flash system, “less then 50$.” The mount was 7 dollars on amazon and is standard umbrella mountable. The umbrella is pivotal to getting a smooth white light due to the diffusion properties. I am adding thumbnails of everything needed for this picture here…

So there it is, these are the exact items that I used for the photo except for the flash. I had no way of finding the actual one I’m using. Alright now that you have the equipment. Your ready to take the photo…

The image on the left.

<————————-

again is the actual

non edited negative

straight from the camera.

All you need to do is a

little curve editing with

the edition of some post

cropping vignette and you

get the picture shown

below. However there is a

special trick that I do with

allot of my photos now.     When your at the end of your editing progress and you have all of your layers merged in Photoshop cs4 or above. you open up a new black and white adjustments layer. you then select that layers blending mode to soft light and bam you will see the effect that it has immediately. if it’s too harsh for you then simply dial back the opacity until you reach the desired effect.  The image below was taken with the same setup at the same time I simply added a blue filter over the image. I hope this was insightful and that you guys got something out of it! Thank you!

weekends are crazy

I’m not sure if all of you are fully aware of how busy one person can get so abruptly! 2 weekends ago I was in Jake’s film and started biking at least 7 miles a day top get ready for mary’s film. Last weekend I opened a small business and shopped for a bunch of items to go into my booth and set it up. This weekend we finished shooting our 2 day short film for Landon, started power washing my friends two story house and decided to start teaching someone how to take photographs. Next weekend I’m doing a wedding shoot on saturday and doing a scene in Mary’s new film on sunday, “the one I’ve been cycling 30 miles a week for,” while trying to edit the 600 photos that I’m likely to take at the wedding. On the 30th of march I will hopefully be doing a photo shoot for a music video and all of this plus who knows what els and school finals and trying to find a job in the mean time. So things are a little crazy for me right now. I feel the need to spare all of you all of the upsets of my personal and family life that are going on all around me as well. I really feel like I should write a novel. I’ve had the story and the basic dialog in my head for about 8 years now,  but lets face it who has the time? Oh did I mention I did a baby’s easter shoot this weekend too?

While driving up to kentucky the other day I got about 300 photos which I haven’t really gotten a good look at but I will post the best ones that I saw on here. which adds almost another hour to this blog because I have to edit and resize them to fit lol. I’m just glad that I had these two hours to sit and write this. I’m supposed to go to dinner with friends tonight but I’m too tired from the shoot to be social today. I love these movie sets! I’m getting to know some cool people, which is great because I would like to one day be an actor. So if your looking for an actor, “hint hint.”  Well alright thats what’s been going on with me at Watkins for the last couple of days. Now all I have to do is post the pics. I hope all of you had a happy easter. If your offended by the fact that I celebrate easter you can get over it because this is America and we celebrate holidays here.

LONG TIME!!!!!

WOW so it has been a minute since I’ve had the time to write this and I apologize thoroughly!!! Midterms weren’t as bad as they were last semester. This was a much needed reprieve. All of the classes are doing well and I seem to be able to juggle things a bit better this year. Things are well with the peeps “I use that as a total joke” just so were clear. We all went to see Alice and wonderland last night I thought it was brilliant. I’m not normally a Johnny Depp fan but recently I’ve started liking his films, such as (dead man). I would highly advise people that are interested in photography to see this film. You’ll have to watch it to know why.

Aside from loosing touch with Bekah wilson, “my friend from first semester,” I’m doing really well with the people here i think. It is a bit odd bieng a little older then most of my classmates. Even a 5 year difference is alot i’m realizing. I guess I tend to focus too much on studying and my work. lol I just think that some people try too hard to be cool and dont realize what were here for. I’ll be the first to tell you I’m not cool and I dont care to be, but I attract people who actually have the potential to be really good at what they do and I admire them as inspirations. “cough” “cough” Guy! “cough” lol anyway I just wanted to touch bases with everyone I know that this one is short but I will post my latest asignments once their finnished. I hope you all have a great week!!!!!!!

I am glad

listen to this perhaps as you read my post.

Hello to all of you who will never see my face. To those of you who are unaware of my presence on this earth. Hello to those who seek the things I seek but never find as I have never found. But in this light perhaps I am brought to be able to reconcile the differences between what I have found and what I really seek to find. Is there such a greater difference in all the world than knowledge and belief? I force myself to accept that this in not the way things ought to be. In this world am I not owed a sense of gratitude while all the while I lay here poor? It is said that beauty is wasted on the youth, but by the other hand is not wisdom wasted on the old? Life it seems is a double edged sward. Those who are granted gratitude for no just cause other than his name, while the greatest mind the world may have ever known lies in a gutter due to simple circumstance. I see corruption at every glance, death is in the trees. Stalking further out the faithful to bring them down upon their knees. Why? Is this not a question as well as it is an answer? If I went about cursing every unholy thing under the sun, would you not call me mad? But how in this sadness am I to be glad? Every attempt to further myself is met only with failure. Perhaps I need not only do this for myself? Is there a greater good that might be had? I’m loosing myself as I always have. but if I were to admit the state in which I was born was never fit for such a world. Then for only that i am glad.

- Jason Reed