Shooting fashion/fantasy assignment

I shot my fashion assignment for Adv Portraiture this weekend. Julie was my model and a blast to work with. It was a beautiful day to shoot. There are some things I would like to tweak but given as how I have been so focused on photojournalism, it was fun to mix it up with some fashion. I was going for the modern day twiggy look. I would love to work with Julie again, and I had an awesome assistant Demetrius along for the shoot. He graduated two years ago and has a big future ahead at Western Kentucky, a school known for photojournalism. Check out my flickr stream...

Most know Vincent Laforet for his tilt shift work now, and his editorial work. I found a photo essay called "The Carrier" that was done in 2003. Vincent was "embedded" on the USS Abraham Lincoln in the heat of the most recent war on Iraq. He put together a beautiful collection and decided to make it more about the people on the ship, instead of the "war" that was being fought on the boat. The average age on the ship is 21, and they work fourteen hour shifts, seven days a week for nine months. This is a great article to read, and do some research on more of Laforets' work, its great.

Friday Night Football

Congrats to North Forsyth for a big win tonight over Northview. Winning this game guarantees a spot in the playoff for North Forsyth. I had a great time shooting the game and the stadium was filled with excitement..Check out more images from the night on my flickr page.

New blog!!

Make a note! I am moving to wordpress, my web address is www.agardnerphoto.wordpress.com

Wordpress has a lot of great tools and layots and gives me the opportunity to have a bit more control of my blog. I am looking forward to getting everything up and running. Thanks for reading!!

One of todays great questions: Why Blog?

I found a great article on sports shooter about blogging, why blog? and the anti bloggers...

One of Today's great questions: Why blog? by Jim Mcnay...Check it out here!

I was on sports shooters website because tomorrow night I will be shooting football again. I would really like a football shot in my portfolio and if I dont get it this time around, its too late next season.Tomorrows day will determine if the home team I am shooting will make it into the playoffs so it should be full of emotion and action. Its going to be a chilly one, but I love being on the field and once you start shooting you get numb to it all. Good luck shooting this weekend everyone!

Spencer Platt

The last few weeks have been a lot of research on different photojournalists, styles, and techniques for shooting photo essays. We have a big photo essay in 5 weeks, and I have a certain vision for it I want to follow through with. Today we watched a movie that featured work from Spencer Platt. A few months ago I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Platt, getty images photographer and world press photo of the year winner, see that image here. He worked quickly, quietly and kept to himself but was not afraid to get inches from his subject. I remember looking over and he was only three inches from someones face. I have realized I need to take that same risk and approach people with a purpose but be aware of my surroundings. He did not miss a beat. I have a great respect for the work he has done, and in the photojournalism world he is at the top of the game.

Mac fans beware

Being a mac fan myself, it is good to be cautious of all the cool new toys. There are some great ones out there, and then there are the scams. Being a techie guy, my husband tries to keep me informed of all the scams out there and sent this link to me about . There are tons of reliable great sources out there to buy equipment, just be careful and know there are bad ones to. It is a shame you cant get what you pay for, but we do invest a lot of money and if you pay for something, you should receive it.

Read the article on the scam here

Check out the scammers website for yourself, warning purchase at your own risk. Not sure this product even has a point, but someone is making money!

Out with the old & in with the new

Photo by last year graduate Demetrius Freeman

The last two days have been full of hustle and bustle at school. We have been working hard on our holiday portrait set and will be all finished tomorrow. We have also had a lot of visits from the graduates from last year (photo above) , who are picking up all of their images that have been hanging in the media gallery the full year. All of the recent grads (photo below) have been there to put up their current work. Its beautiful and BIG! It gives me hope and excitement that our day is coming too. It is so much fun to see the new work, its a breath of fresh air for a while. You can see a lot of the work on our photo website or come by and see it in person at the school!

Photo by recent graduate Ryan Tyrl

Sleep..who needs sleep

I have decided that I will not sleep until this quarter is over. I have a feeling I am definitely not alone with this one. I have learned a lot about time management and how to prioritize. If I have time to go to bed, I lay in bed thinking what to shoot/edit/blog/ the next day. Its been a fun ride, I just have a feeling I may need to start drinking coffee or buy these glasses for class...

European Vacation!!

Wow...Europe has no idea was is going to hit next september. Today Mrs. Harkins told us a few of the locations for our study abroad program next september. Our photo dept gets to travel with the culinary dept for 11 days. I cant stand it, this is far worse than any christmas excitement! I am going to pack my bags now, sit on the curb and wait for september to come! Germany, Switzerland and Italy are part of the trip with opportunities to visit other places on our "off days". Looks like we have a lot of research to do to keep us busy the next few months. Dig deep people and help send our photo dept. to europe!

I cant wait to hitchhike with chelsea. World here we come!

Shooting for a feature

So, it took two weeks of shooting, and 7 contact sheets turned in, for one image to be selected. But it only takes one and I keep telling myself that. This is one of the contact sheets I turned in and my teacher selected one of the images from it. Cant wait for critique tomorrow should be a fun one to see what everybody shot.

No recession here

Here is a video I made for my Multimedia class this summer. We had to create a "statement" video, and I decided to do mine on Alpharetta and the non-recession. I strongly believe that as long as we have h2 hummers, apple computers/iphones and 800,000 homes we are not in a recession just a displacement of money. Check it out!

Impromtu Photo Shoot

The neighbors came over today to grab just a few headshots for a modeling event they have this weekend. They went to a casting call last weekend on whim and they all three were asked to come back for the second call with lots of different agencies. They were so much fun to shoot with and it turned into a little mini photo shoot. We had a great time and my husband gets an A for some great assisting. I shot with Photogeonic Strobes and a 50mm 1.8

Lily's Run

A few weeks ago I set out to shoot my feature for photojournalism. I found out about an event near my home that was a 5k event for an 8 year old little girl named Lily. She was recently diagnosed with advanced neuroblastoma, a cancer in the abdomen. Just a few weeks prior she had started school and was a cheerleader in a youth league. I went to the run not sure what to expect. The place was packed and full of energy with bouncing tunnels for the kids, a live band, lots of vendors and a few falcon cheerleaders. In the middle of the event the forsyth county fire dept brought Lily to be with her family. This part was unplanned and a big surprise to most. With a weakened immune system she is not supposed to have close contact with others outside her immediate family. She spent most of the time in the truck waving to friends but made a special appearance onstage to sing a song. She sang "The Climb" from Miley Cyrus, one of her idols. There was not a dry eye in the crowd, including myself. Its hard to shoot and cry at the same time. I met many of the family members towards the end of the event and they couldn't have been any kinder and thanked me for coming. Lily has such a fighting spirit and is ready to conquer this. Her family lives by the phrase "Anderson Power!", their last name. I am very moved by this little girl. I am not sure if it is her love for peace signs and neon green, or her willingness to move forward acknowledging she has a long road ahead. I don't complain about being tired, or having too much to do anymore. I hope to have her same outlook in my life. I had the priviledge of meeting "Aunt Kristen" a few days later and showing her the video. I will remember this for a long time.

French Fries for Amy

So I was hit with writers block...what to blog today??? Classmate Amy suggested french fries, due to the large plate of fries people at our table were sharing for breakfast. I was a little hesitant trying to figure out what french fries had to do with photography. Well, it turns out that there are hundreds, yes hundreds of stock photos to sell of french fries. Who knew french fries would be such a hot photo commodity but apearantly I am missing out. So thanks Amy if I run out of photography options my fall back plan will be french fries. :)

Digital Photo - Buyer's Guide 2009: Storage | DPmag.com

Digital Photo - Buyer's Guide 2009: Storage | DPmag.com

Check out this great article and links to digital storage solutions. As photographers we are faced with a difficult tasks of managing thousands of files that could crash and be gone in an instant. With film, you at least had a hard copy and then the negative. The negatives are the hard copy now and it is a great idea to have a smart backup plan to save your images for a very long time. I lost a laptop, had a hard drive crash and two thumbdrives go out on me all in one year and I am so thankful to have backed those images up. Looks like as we go into our second year I will need a secure and trusty plan for backing things up!

The Atlanta History Center: Dia de Muertos

Today the Atlanta History Center hosted the Dia de Muertos celeberation. It is a day celebrating the generations past. The center describes the day as " an ancient festival rooted in Mexican heritage and serves as a way for families to remember their deceased loved ones and to celebrate their children and the continuity of life." The food smelled wonderful, the music was great and it was a beautiful day. Overall a fun experience and would recommend everyone to catch it next year.

Dia De Muertos and an Iranian convoy protest thing...

Thanks for the title D. What a day. We have an assignment in our photojournalism class that is called a feature. A feature is a lighthearted newspaper type photo that tells a story in itself. I headed out with classmate Damian to the Dia de Muertos celebration at the Atlanta History Center. The day of the dead is a hispanic celebration to honor those who have died. Click here for more info on the history. We had a great time at the event and got some fun shots. What really takes the cake is just a few minutes after we left we noticed red, white and green flags. It turned out to be Iranian flags on 20+ cars. We caught up to them in a parking lot when they stopped to regroup. I told them we were photojournalism students and damian quickly handed out business cards and started taking names. They put us in the middle of the caravan with them and we paraded around Atlanta for an hour and a half protesting Iranian President Ahmadinejad and the current Iranian regime. It was a great experience and at the end of the caravan we had the opportunity to stop and meet the people who organized this and swapped info to continue shooting at some of their events. I love days like today, set out to do one thing and end up with something completely different in the end. I really cannot wait to see everyones feature photos.