Photo I Always Wanted To Shoot - maybe

This week, instead of going on a photo trip, we all made the mistake of *not* traveling together and doing our own shoots.

Maybe it was the weight of the assignment on our shoulders.  Maybe it was the feeling that we all had such different visions that we wouldn't be able to help each other out.  Maybe it was a bit of pride and self-doubt and we didn't want our contemporaries to see how out-of-control or neophyte-like we really were with our tactics, cameras, ideas... Maybe it was that we didn't want our ideas compromised or wanted a little bit of "surprise" with the images we were going to produce.

Maybe it was none of these things for the others, and maybe it was all of these things for me.

I don't know - but what I do know is that Derek and I worked great together during my shoot with my model, Lela, after his shoot was cut short by a mentally unstable pool owner.  Derek and I talked about it all afterwards and decided that the most efficient and - well - *mature* thing to do was to help each other out as assistants.  We knew what we needed, we had equipment, one or the other, that was compatible with what we would need to accomplish, and we were all on the same team.  The competition, really, was with ourselves, not each other.

We learned that the lack of control with the setting, situation, people and equipment was the difference between a "good shot" and a "grab shot" (see Derek's blog).

With all that said - here are the shots that made the cut from my own attempt at a conceptual image and photographic design...

The third one made the grade as far as what will be turned in as the assignment.  Hopefully it does well in its attempt to please our professor / client.

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby Baby...

This week's adventure took us to our final destination of Ruby Beach, Washington.

Don't try and look it up on Google Maps, you'll have a very tough time finding it.

Anyway - we started off a little later than last time, again in my Mini Cooper.  Mike wasn't able to come with us, so we took another classmate, Cassy, with us.  She's much prettier than Mike (sorry, little brother) and she's got a very cool personality.  We got along great.

I got Derek and Kody (I spelled Kody's name wrong last time, so I'll be sure to make no mistakes this time!) at 0830 and we went to the ferry terminal to pick up Cassy, who came over on the 0745.  From there we took off west, this time, towards the Washington coast.

Our first stop was Madison Falls.

The entrance to the very small park area
and path to the falls.

Madison Falls in the Olympic
National Forest.

Derek, of course, wanted to get some "sick shots" of the falls for both school and his own personal use, and set about looking at how he could get on top of the falls in order to accomplish that...

Where's Waldo? Derek deftly maneuvers
his way to the falls.

Yes, that's Derek - his camera is in a
water-proof housing.

While Derek scaled the falls to get his "sick shots," Cassandra and I (along with Kody) took shots from below.  Mine, you'll see here.  Derek's can be seen on his website, Action By Derek.

Cassy attempts to capture Kody in
a posed moment.  Never happened.

I, on the other hand, got them both... :-D

Derek the Mountain Goat...

After a while of rummaging through the upper areas of the falls, Derek came back down to meet us and take a few shots from the bottom of the falls (see his images...)

Note the lack of footwear on the lad.  Remember, it's *January,* and we're in the Pacific Northwest, in the Olympic National Forest, way up high in elevation.  It was in the very low 40's in the sunlight, never mind the shade...










Once satisfied with the amount of images we captured at Madison Falls, we trekked onwards, toward Ruby Beach - this is what we encountered....

A photographer's point of view is very
influential in the way their world is
captured in slivers of time.

Ruby Beach, Washington 01/22/11

Cassy stares out into the Pacific...

Cassy posing all pretty and stuff.

Poseidon's son

Lesser mortals would be frozen.

.  .  .  .  .  .  .

.  .  .  .  .  .  .

The shots above were taken with both my Canon 7D and my MyTouch phone camera (or camera phone, since they aren't much phones anymore as they are everything else...).  During a portion of the images capturing and photo-experimenting, Cassy wanted to take a shot of me in a lean-to make of driftwood and a large fallen tree the jutted from the stand to the beach.  Derek suggested she use the remote strobe he had with him and was using at the falls earlier.  

He searched his rucksack thoroughly and came up empty handed on the strobe.  We figured he must have left it at the falls!  Without much more, and with the realization that a very expensive tool was left behind, we stayed just a few extra moments before we packed up and headed back to Madison Falls in a desperate attempt to find Derek's strobe.

We got to the falls much after dark.  Derek left Cassy, Kody and me in the car and took off with a flashlight to see if he could locate his strobe...  The image above shows Derek returning to the Mini without it.  It was a downer in an otherwise really beautiful and photographically fruitful day.

We're already planning a shorter trip for next week.  Something with less mileage to maximize the photo experience. . .

Not Good Enough

In a world where there are so many aches and pains brought on by outside forces, why is it that we beat ourselves up most of all?  It seems that we hold back many times because we feel that what we've done isn't good enough to show others.  We fear ridicule, or criticism, or rejection.

I think it may be the rejection that might be the worst of them.  Ridicule can be hurtful, true, but the source should always be considered.  Criticism, then should be taken with open mindedness and candor.  If it comes from a respected source, then all the better to get their wisdom and accumulated knowledge as well as insight into what may be improved.

But rejection... Rejection hurts.

I think it's all the more painful when the rejection comes from within; when I reject my own work even before it gets to be ridiculed or criticized.  That's the core of this piece.  It's a metaphor of what we all do to ourselves at one time or another.  It may not be in photography, or painting, or sketching, or baking or any other 'artistic endeavor.' It may be that we beat ourselves down as parents, as neighbors, as friends, as workers...  We don't spread our wings as far as they can go because we don't want to be rejected by those who don't fly as high as we might.

This isn't always the case for everyone - there are those who laugh boldly at rejection and follow the beat of their own drum, so to speak - thumbing their nose at their scoffers.  Those people are successful. They may not be altogether 'famous' by how the world now measures fame, but they are true heroes who should be emulated.

I will keep trying to silence my internal rejector, and help my naked creator stand strong, clothed in the light of pure creativity.  Now, to take some images....

"Not Good Enough" Multiple images taken with Canon 7D, ISO 400, f/9.0,
AWB, 24mm focal length. Manipulated with PS5. ©Carlos Paradinha Jr.

Taking Ad-Vantage of the Situation

School started with an avalanche.  Yes, an avalanche of homework the likes you see rolling mercilessly down Mount Everest onto sad climbers who just wanted to see the sights from the top of the world.  So it would only make sense that with five new classes all requiring their own flavor of assignments, a couple of classmates and I would drive on a photo hunt in order to get images for our mutual, and not so mutual classes.

Derek (http://adventurebyderek.blogspot.com/), his dog Kody, Mike (http://www.bluesunsetdesign.com/) and I got shoehorned into my Mini and set off... at 5am.  Well, I set off at 5am to get Derek and Kody.

From there it was a short jaunt to the ferry and over to Seattle...

The ferry ride was alright, and since it was a Saturday, and very early at that, there were hardly any other riders on board.

We picked up Mike at his place right around 8:00am and traveled east.

It was a long trip, to say the least, but we did escape the rains that I heard came down on the western part of the state, pretty much all day.

Our first stop along the way was for brunch.  We detoured off of I-90 into Snoqualmie Pass where we fueled up (ourselves, not the Mini) for what we might face ahead.

Snoqualmie, WA 1/15/11.
Sony CyberShot - Auto settings.

Mike letting people know we were still alive...
Sony CyberShot-Auto settings

Kody - waiting to be let out..!
(©Mike Monaghan)

The Clown Car.
(©Mike Monaghan)

Kody had this way of wrapping himself around my legs...  lol
(©Mike Monaghan)

From Snoqualmie we ventured farther east -

Ponies grazing near Cle Elum, WA. Sony
CyberShot - Auto Settings.

Derek capturing the horses ninja style.
Sony CyberShot - Auto settings.

Derek is definitely not inhibited by his surroundings
(©Mike Monaghan)

Kody loves the cooler temps!!
(©Mike Monaghan)

Though I don't look happy, I was, honestly.  I do like this shot, though... lol
(©Mike Monaghan)

Once satisfied with what we could glean from the area as far as images, we moved on and made it as far out as Vantage, WA (hence the title of this post).  In Vantage there's a last vestige of a petrified forest that once took up the entire area.  Sadly, the remains of that forest are under locked boxes so those desiring to take a bit of ancient history back home with them don't obliterate what's left of the site.

Derek & Kody ascend the hill at Vantage / Ginko, WA.  The petrified forest
is here, though there isn't much of it left.  I'm sure this was a lush paradise a
few thousand years ago...
(©Mike Monaghan)

Mike bravely captures a dinosaur on film at the (closed) gem shop near the petrified forest @ Gignko, WA.
Sony CyberShot - Auto settings.

Me with a dramatic sky in Vantage / Ginko, WA.
(©Mike Monaghan)

Derek and I seemingly looking for "something."  Looks like Nowhere, doesn't it?
(©Mike Monaghan)

After we spent our photographic opportunities at the forest, we headed back towards the setting sun, and a spot that Derek wanted to shoot before the sun actually did set.  We arrived at the Snoqualmie Falls as we had decided from the onset of the trip.  Sadly, the rain had gotten to where we wanted to be and made what we wanted to do nearly impossible.  We got a few shots of the area, but not what we had hoped.  One of the passes that lead down to the river below the falls was blocked, seemingly for repairs unti the spring... of 2013...

This totally captured our dynamics - Kody's looking for a place to run, Drek is spying and plotting where and how he can traverse a flood swollen river beneath the Snoqualmie Falls, and Mike is *not* happy to be in the rain...
Sony CyberShot - Auto settings

The Snoqualmie Falls.  There was a report that downstream there
was flooding and some damage from the melting snows and heavy
rains lately.  Definitely not a good thing, though the falls are
a spectacular sight...
Sony CyberShot-Auto settings.

All in all, it seemed that Derek had a *very* good idea to travel east and away from the storm system that buffeted the coast and western regions all the rest of the weekend. Had it not been for his idea, we wouldn't have gotten much of anything done at all "in our neck of the woods."

The trip was a success on several levels; the execution of a tentative plan; the coordination of several people with diverse expectations, visions and schedules; the handling of less than optimum conditions for a long road trip; the meshing of different personalities and merging of ideas into a cohesive unit that made the most of a day.

We brought meaning to carpe diem.

New Year, New Quarter, New Creations

Happy New Year, everyone...

I hope that the first couple of weeks of 2011 has been a great experience for all who read this.  I also hope that if you have made any resolutions that you have been successful in keeping them so far.  Though sometimes seemingly silly or mundane, I've found that resolutions help one keep promises to one's self.  That's important.

My resolution for myself was to be more creative.  I think I can keep that one - or at least I HOPE I can.  We'll see as the year goes on, right?  The true judges will be those who view what I create and either deem the creation worthy or unworthy.  I can promise I will do my utmost best to be worthy.

School has started again for the Winter Quarter of 2011.  Yeay!  I do have a lot of homework already and the first week isn't even over yet.  With Digital Illustration, Lighting, Photographic Design, Survey of Photography, and Art History I on my plate, it's going to be a very busy quarter.  The bar has been raised and I welcome that advance.  I have some VERY good classmates who are filled with their own visions and a passion for their craft that in a lot of instances surpasses mine.  I'm really psyched for this quarter.

As the weeks roll on, I'll be putting some of the completed assignments here for you all to see.  I think that sharing some of the assignments with you may help others who are inspired to create will do so.  I mean, if *I* can do this, so can some of you...  ;D

Composite image - Model taken with Canon 20D, f5.6, ISO 100, AWB,
27mm focal length, studio lighting with remote flash using reflective
umbrella and medium soft box.  Background taken from web;
Waterfall Link: http://www.wallpapersdb.org/original/88/
Ruins Link: http://ronhubble.com/images/commissions/roman_ruins_right.jpg