Reflection: blog 1

I've been reflecting a lot on the process of photography and how I have grown with it, and continue to. I feel very lucky to have a creative outlet like this, and I've decided that I'd like to start posting a few old photos and a few new photos as often as I can to help better reflect on the process of things----and because I'm cleaning my old hard drive and am finding a lot of interesting things.

For those of you who know me well enough, you know that I'm a big fan of growth and phases and the creative process in general. I reflect probably much too often when I notice something has improved or maybe not improved but changed in some way. I sit and wonder about the process even though I know the answer is just time.

I started taking photos when I was really young, the same way most kids start taking photos-----flowers, trees and a whole lot of added contrast with a sepia tone filter.

When I became slightly more serious about taking photos in high school, I was lucky to have my little brother around as a subject. When he was younger he was much more tolerable to my experiments with slow shutters and portraiture. These days he isn't as tolerant.

(My brother, Andrew, photographed in June of 2010)

Like most photos I take, I remember some sort of personal detail about the moment. The photo of Andrew and the ring of fire around him was taken when I started learning about slow shutters. I remember not being happy that the only pitch dark place within reach was the small bathroom downstairs in my house. After I had finally gotten the shutter speed right (well, kind of) I was happy about the wallpaper in the bathroom. It's always nice when you go to make a photograph and something you didn't think would be a helpful attribute becomes useful.

The portrait of Andrew was taken with my boss' 70-200 I had at home for a brief moment after shooting golf. I was really excited about the compression it created.

I haven't photographed Andrew in a while asside from maybe iPhone photos when I'm home, but I'm supposed to take his senior photos soon.

In drastic comparison, this week I photographed Vlad (pictured below) as well as some brothers playing with confetti outside The Columbus Museum of Art.

I met Vlad, pictured above playing with his farrot, Queso, earlier this week. I went over to his house after work to talk with his dads about adoption and foster care---something that has been on my mind lately. Vlad is one of 4 boys that was adopted out of the foster care system and into the Hoffman family.

I saw the Bernard boys playing with confetti when I arrived at CMA looking for a feature photo before my soccer assignment on Sunday, October 25, 2015.

I've noticed that I have gotten in a habit of trying to use harsh sun spots to my advantage and also shooting a lot of things at a very wide and low angle. I'm not sure the sun spots have worked out in my favor, but I do like the wide, ground-level angle on this confetti shot.

In comparrison, here is an outtake from a portrait shoot with Ohio State freshman tennis player Francesca Di Lorenzo this week where the low angle did not work as well.

I'm not really sure if this concept of sharing new and old photos will be that helpful, but it's nice to reflect regardless. In my mind, the outtakes are some of the most important photos to go back to and reflect on.

Thanks for looking!