It's more than mechanics.

T-BOTS pep rally, February 19, 2013.

Senior photos, May 25, 2013

Why is my first photo so underexposed? I don't know, Smith. I don't know.
It was from forever ago. I can't remember now.

But that's not what this blog is about!

I can't say I've taken any difficult photos lately, and I don't think I can talk anymore about the mechanics of a photo if I tried. Let's face it, I'm a senior, and I'm at a changing point in my life. The last thing I'm thinking about is "how can I make a photo look like this?" I'm just in the process of getting the photos that will mean something to me now that I'm about to go out on my own.

This blog is about how photography has been one of the biggest life changing things in my life.

First, and most true, is that photography has made me a much more open and social. I can communicate with people much more easily to get an idea of what they need or want from their photos. I have much more patience when I'm working with others, but I'm also confident enough to instruct and lead when need be. I think that's a great skill to have all around.

Second, photography has helped me grow relationships with some of the best people I know - people who help me learn and grow not only as a photographer, but as a person.  Not only do I get to interact with other people who love and genuinely care about the same things I do, but I get to meet interesting, new people who have these endlessly fascinating stories that I get to tell.  The pictures above are actually to illustrate a very good friendship/relationship that I've gained from my photography. My friendship started with Caleb thanks to a photography assignment. I met him because I'd gotten sick with strep throat and I didn't get to shoot Into the Woods the way I wanted to. So instead of shooting, I went to assist the junior photographers when they needed it. I ended up sitting near Caleb, and he started telling me how he was CEO of the T-BOTS, and how, even though it's actually a very accomplished group for the school, they never get much attention. We hatched the idea that I would follow them around and take photos of everything they needed. So when they needed someone to shoot their pep rally, I jumped on it. I followed them to competitions, and I even followed them after competitions when they needed team photos, or had meetings, and when they got recognition from the school for their achievements. I spent a lot of time with Caleb, learning how to competitions worked so I could know what exactly happened and how to get the photos they wanted. We obviously ended up with a friendship/relationship that extended outside of photographer/subject. The best part is that he isn't the only one - I have a good standing relationship with that entire team, and that's started a relationship between THS Photography and T-BOTS that I hope will continue now that my time with them is over. I hope they always feel welcome to use us for their photos, because they are a very grateful group and they're great to work with. They were my first brush with the "photo story" kind of assignments. I'm grateful for my experience with them, and they've definitely bettered me as a photographer, and as a person.

Even though I might not be the BEST technical photographer. I may not always get an award winning shot. But I love what I do, and I know that, as long as I have a camera in my hand, I'm going to be happy. I'm proud to be able to tell people's stories for them, and to capture their moments. That's an awesome feeling.  I hope I always get out of photography what I do now.

Caleb's Award

Baseball Frustration

I was shooting for my brother's team, just for practice... and I knew I needed blog photos. So I start trying to take these baseball photos as the sun is going down, and it's hard. But I saw this moment coming, so I composed and got ready for it. And then the kid that threw the ball threw it a little too far to the left and I missed the kid catch the ball! It was super upsetting to me! This would've been a great moment, with the kid rushing to home at the same time the kid as catching the ball?! UGH!

I was so frustrated! SO. ANGRY.
But hey. It is what it is. Reminder, for the rest of forever: WAY. MORE. HEAD ROOM.

Pirate Single Photos

First, I asked to do this purely as a favor for the parents because they never did team photos. I figured I could use it as practice, and they aren't all that great, but I wasn't exactly prepared to do it, either. I happened to have my camera and they asked me to take them, so I said "Sure, why not?"

I didn't do the best job here, but it was a really good chance for some "real world" photo practice. The lighting was horrible because it was just late enough in the day that the sun was casting ridiculously large shadows, and I had no flash. So here's this kid and the sun is on home plate, and there would be parents in the background even if there wasn't. I'm rushing to get these done before the game starts.

AND I THOUGHT IT WAS GREAT! Because... maybe the pictures aren't exactly perfect professional quality, but the parents are really happy that they have these photos now! I had some experience with a "Hey, can you get this whole team shot in 15 minutes," and as it turns out, yes I can. They're getting the photos for free, of course, so this was purely good for the experience. I really loved working with the kids, and the rush, and getting the chance to do this kind of work!

Pirates Team Photo

Again, I was super rushing, and the sun was ridiculous... so, I rushed these kids to get in a formation, and the coaches jumped in the back. Naturally, the white guy was right in the sun.

There was pretty much nowhere to do this photo correctly with the time I had. But I made due, and at least got something that looks halfway decent.

For future reference, and a personal reminder: DON'T SHOOT INTO THE SUUUUN.

A Lesson in Posing

I realized, as I was trying to pose for my own senior photos, that I had NO. CLUE. HOW. TO. POSE. PEOPLE. We do photojournalism in this class... I forget how to do posed photography, for sure.

It's a reminder that I need to look into the more artistic aspect of these photos, because I know posing and portraits can definitely tell stories too. It's difficult to take a picture of someone looking comfortable when they are posed, and it's even more difficult to make yourself look comfortable.

Note to self: Look for poses prior to doing portraiture from now on. That would probably be helpful...

My best friend's photos.

Taking photos for Casey is always one of my favorite things to do, because she's my best friend. We already do everything together, so when I'm taking her photos, I'm not just taking them for her. I'm taking them for me. I'm taking photos of the way I want to remember her. I'm not thinking "What is the best shot?" I'm thinking "What's going to be most telling about her? What's going to show her personality, and her unique beauty?" It's not necessarily about the mechanics. It's about what will make her feel the best when she sees them. That's what I love about taking pictures of my best friend. It's a good experience to have, because that's how I think that's how I'll need to look at all of my subjects when taking their portraits.

Caleb's Sr Photos

Okay, let me just say that these were so difficult to take because he is TALL. He is 6'4". I am 5'5". I did a lot of fancy position to take his photos...

****FINISH LATER****

Prom Photos

ISO: 400  f/7.1  SS: 1/200

Instead of "Charlie's Angels," they were "Katie's Body Guards." Hahaha.

ISO: 400  f/7.1  SS: 1/160

ISO: 400 f/8.0  SS: 1/200

Hannah doesn't like being touched, can you tell?

ISO: 400  f/7.1  SS: 1/200

Their parents went to prom together, so they needed a picture together!

ISO: 400  f/7.1  SS: 1/200

Ryan and Krista, Autumn and her date, Hannah and her date, Heath and Autumn, Caleb and Katie, Jenny, Casey, Kendall and Kenneth, and Heather and Alex

ISO: 400  f/5.6  SS: 1/400

I ended up dating the T-BOTS CEO... oops. I guess photography does make lasting relationships.

ISO: 400  f/5.6  SS: 1/400

I obviously didn't learn a whole lot from these photos, but I always love taking portraits for dances and such. c: I figured this would be a great thing to blog about because my group for prom was mostly people who I met because of shooting T-Bots. :D Except for Casey and Jenny, I became close with these people because of my work for PHOTOGRAPHY! Like I said, lasting friendships and relationships with these kids. :) They're my favorite people now. I spend more time with these guys than anyone. I love them.

We had so much fun taking pictures! I had fun teaching some of the kids and parents how to use the camera so they could take photos, too. Being the trainer has done me good!

Still Life, Mason Jars

ISO: 200  f/4.0  SS: 1/250

While this picture wasn't actually hard to take at all, I had issues setting it up because I DON'T KNOW HOW TO TAKE STILL LIFE PHOTOS! I am a photojournalist. That's it. I take photos of people, doing what they do. That's what I enjoy. So this was REALLY hard for me to just come up with a concept.

It started out as different seasons in a jar, but none of those turned out well at all.

I just kept telling myself "Foreground, middle ground, background." But I couldn't figure out how to do that either. This was pretty much the closest I got. I don't have a whole lot against this photo, but it's definitely not the black and white glass either.  :c Grrrr.

The editing was difficult too. Getting the jar to contrast the background apparently didn't work so well. The background was actually white at the beginning, but now it's purple. Weird.

EITHERWAY, it turned out okay. I think I should rework this photo again sometime.

The Town That Dreaded Sundown

 Photo by Claire Norton

I didn't take this photo, and as a matter of fact, I wasn't even supposed to be here for this photo.
But Casey and I were walking around the park and saw flashing, and wanted to see what was going on... BUT it was a good thing we did, because it was our photographers, and they were having trouble with the flashes. c:

So we actually had to help set up the lighting on this one.
I can't remember their original set up, but once we got there, we had MacKenzie move behind the tree, moved the angle of the front light, and put a third light to the right of them. We learned how to use Master and Slave settings on the lights because we had no Pocket Wizards. It was really difficult because we couldn't figure out to set them all separately, but we got it! :)  The hardest part of this photo was just figuring out how to set it up. But we were proud because this photo is almost entirely out of camera, and we were proud of the lighting.

Still Life - Black and White

ISO: 1600  f/11.0  SS: 0.4

This was a really easy photo, honestly. I took a large black piece of paper and put two white pieces on the page to block out the black.  I put a glass of water in the middle and positioned them so that I could see the colors switched in the glass.  Originally, I'd wanted a smooth glass so that the colors would just switch, but the textured glass ended up adding something to the abstractness of the photo.
I lit the glass from the left with an Alienbee. It started out really yellow and dim, so I brought up the power up until I was getting the actual black/white colors.

On Lightroom, I made the blacks REALLY black, and the whites REALLY white, but that was about it! This was actually a photo I'm pretty proud of. :) I love it.

OOooOOOooOo...

 ISO: 800 f/5.6  SS: 1.0

 ISO: 800 f/5.6  SS: 1.0

This is a photo I've been wanting to set up since I bought my star projector!
This was a pretty simple set up, and the only difficulty I had was figuring out how to go about exposing us and still getting the starfield in the background.  It turned out to be easy enough.

First, we set it up so that the projector shined onto the black paper from the side. We positioned ourselves out of the way of the lasers. After a few shots with a shutter speed of 1/250 and a flash to expose ourselves, we decided to try with a longer shutter speed. We moved it up to 15 seconds, which made the star field totally white and overexposed. So we moved it down until eventually, it ended at 1.0.  We put the Alienbee on 1/32 power so that us ghostly white ladies would be visible... When the flash went off, that exposed for us properly and allowed for us to not have any movement, and the 1sec exposure made it so that background was still visible. So horray! Here they are. :)

I am a T-BOTS slave.

ISO: 800  f/5.6  SS: 1/160

I'm going to start with the technical part of this photo because I have to, but this is not the purpose of this blog.

They asked me to take their 2013 team photo. The only difficulty with this photo was that they pull ranks in T-BOTS. Therefore, Mr. CEO had to stand in the front. And Caleb is ridiculously tall. Plus, the pole in the middle was obnoxious, and they wanted the robot. They are PICKY! But I basically put this here so I could complain about.

However, the real thing I want to talk about is that I am a T-BOTS slave. I take every photo they need now. I am called for team photos, member honors, competitions, parties, you name it. My lesson with T-BOTS is not anything technical. I feel like the lesson I'm learning from working with T-BOTS is more of a personal lesson, but one very vital to my growth as a photographer. Up to this point, I have been a photo-taking robot. No pun intended. Emotionless, uninteresting, non-story telling, and just not very good. But my T-BOTS photos, though they may not be award winning, are the set I am most proud of from this entire year. That spawns from the experience I got from working with them. I've built a relationship with this team. It's not just a head-nod in the hallway because I talked to that one guy that one time and I feel obliged to acknowledge him. No, no. I've become good friends with the members. I hang out with them outside of school. I talk to them every day. I'm invited to their meetings. I'm invited to share their special moments and special occasions. I even have a shirt with my title of "Honorary T-BOTS Member/Photographer" written on the back. They are grateful to have me around, and I love being around them.

That's really helped me in my photography. I get to celebrate with them, and grieve with them. I get to tell their story and give them memories for years to come. And by gaining a relationship with this team, it's bettered my photography. I have insight into how to tell their stories. I have insight into how to present each member in their own unique way, and I'm really proud of that. They may not be the best photos in technical quality, but I have captured each and every one of them in their essence, be it Caleb's professionalism or Hannah's attitude, and I'm proud of that.

So actually, I'm not a slave. I'm a friend. And that's every bit worth it. :)

Oklahoma City Regionals - TBOTS (Photo story)

Senior T-BOTS members test the robot before competition.

T-BOTS members Hannah Klopper and Krista Petty

A member makes final adjustments before competition.

T-BOTS members send the mascot to coach their first practice match.

T-BOTS members "Dougy" when they are announced in their first match.

Matt Crawford and Christian Pennington control the robot during a qualifying match.

T-BOTS drive team celebrate after seeing the score from a qualifying match.

T-BOTS members problem solve when their robot failed during qualifying matches.

T-BOTS team members cheer on the drive team from the stands.

T-BOTS drive team celebrate placing 3rd in qualifying matches.

T-BOTS CEO Caleb Strutton "proposes" to an alliance team.

CEO Caleb Strutton stands with the team's alliances during alliance selection.

T-BOTS drive team converses with their alliance teams.

T-BOTS plays a match in finals with their alliance.

Christian Pennington panics after the robot stops functioning during finals.

T-BOTS drive team returns the robot to the pits after losing in finals.

T-BOTS, Making it Work - Dallas (Photo Story)

ISO: 1250  f/5.6  SS: 1/250

A volunteer "inspector" comes to unwrap the robot before competition.

ISO: 1250  f/5.6  SS: 1/200

The T-BOTS test their robot for movement using an Xbox controller.

ISO:  1250  f/6.3  SS: 1/200

The T-BOTS fix their wiring with a member of team 4206.

ISO: 1250  f/6.3  SS: 1/200

Senior Alex Walker drills a hole to install a safety feature on the robot.

ISO: 1250  f/6.3  SS: 1/200

T-BOT CEO, Caleb Strutton, and member Matt, get help on pneumatics programming with another team mentor.

ISO: 1250  f/14.0  SS: 1/250

T-BOTS CEO, Caleb Strutton, talks with the inspector during the final inspection before their first match.

ISO: 1600 f/2.8  SS: 1/125

T-BOTS CEO, Caleb Strutton, checks the wiring to the robot before competition.

ISO:  1600 f/2.8  SS: 1/125

T-BOTS drive team wait anxiously in queue for their first match.

ISO:  1600  f/2.8  SS: 1/500

The robots line up for the beginning of the match.

ISO: 1600  f/3.2  SS: 1/250

T-BOTS drive team member, Christian Pennington, panics after realizing their robot is not moving.

ISO: 1600  f/3.2  SS: 1/80

The drive team awaits the final score after a deeply disappointing match.