Passion

Today I’ve been thinking a lot about passion. Passion isn’t determined by what you do but what you do is determined by your passion. Passion isn’t what you say, but what you say shows your passion.

this is my true passion:
as I’m passing through this life that is given
am I pleasing to the Christ that was given
on the behalf of sinners - flame

Your life will reflect your passions.

Sincerely,
~ A challenge to myself

A Hiking Journey

Time after time it seems like these posts tend to have a subject on how busy my life is and how scatterbrained I am in general. I try to keep things kinda different, so I’ll avoid that.

Instead of just talking about how busy I am, I talk about talking about how busy I am.

On to finer things: I went hiking with some awesome people this weekend. We went somewhere in the ozarks, but that doesn’t really narrow it down at all.

Ok, so group picture + ugly spider =

Yep, the spider was checking out the camera.

Fun times.  I love how spending a day in nature puts you back into perspective.  God is still amazing.  His might and power is above all my petty life issues.  God is higher.

For who is God besides the LORD? And who is the Rock except our God?  It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.  He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights.
2 Samuel 22:32-34

~ Jon

Upcoming incoming

I always feel accomplished when I can put together some of the thoughts that go through my head and form a concise idea. When I can take the all my questioning, pondering, interactions of life–basically my thought process–and be able to organize it into something intelligible, now that’s significant.

Right now I can only wish.  But life is life.  Thankfully it is not an end but merely a means to an eternity.  Life goes on, as always.

But anyways…

I’m shooting this guy on Saturday.  It’ll most likely be one of the biggest band’s that I’ll officially shoot for, as I don’t plan on perusing a career in concert photography.  As I found out with Dr. Dog, shooting more popular bands is a lot more limiting than shooting smaller bands due to the rule where you can only shoot during the first three songs.  This makes it a lot harder to just go with the flow and experiment with different shots but it also makes you work fast.  Then again, the band is super popular, so… that’s gotta add something, right?

Another thing that I’ve been learning about in publications is usage rights.  I’m used to just putting up my favorite pictures from the day, but now I’m having to think about it more.  I have to keep some pictures confidential so that a new newspaper or a new yearbook won’t have old photos.  It makes sense have usage guidelines for a publication, but it’s just another thing to get used to.

For now I can tell you that I’ve been taking a lot of portraits of people the last few days.  My studio has been ghettofabulous, but it’s been working.  These people all have something in common: they have a story.  That’s why I took pictures of them.  ;)

Enough random thoughts–here’s some photo.

A few pictures from the other day shooting for a one-man-Ryan-band.

Stay classy, errbody.

~ Jon

A week at 50mm

My project this week was to take my camera with me (most) everywhere I go. It was fun. I took a lot of people pictures that might not take much skill behind the camera, but I just like capturing personalities.  One cool thing about having a camera around whenever is that it’s easier to get good candids.  People will care less about you being there and won’t look at the camera as much.  When I get a picture that accurately depicts someone’s personality, I like it.

I used a Canon 5D for my camera of the week with a 50mm prime lens.  So the only zooming that I could do was with my feet.  Get closer to the subject or get further away–simple enough.  This is my favorite lens that fits my style.  Sure, the camera is five years old, doesn’t autofocus that great, can’t shoot great in low light, and has a messed up LCD screen, but I just love the pictures and it feels natural to me.

But enough of that.  I think for this week I’ll take my own (lesser) camera around and see what happens.  :)

All this people-picture-taking also gave me the idea of starting The People Album, which I kinda like.

That’s all I have to say about that.

~ Jon

Take Warning, take warning

I’ve been doing a fair bit of Illustrator work lately due to a class on it. Illustrator is a fun program that I’ve always wanted to learn, but never quite got the hang of. Having a required project to do puts learning into motion in a good way. :)

Which brings me to something that’s familiar to anyone that’s been around the art department here. It’s a project that all graphic design majors go through in one time or another–the road signs project. There’s not a whole lot to it, you just make road signs about whatever you want.

I chose to do it about the guys in my suite. Lame, maybe, but it’s what came to my mind. Whenever I do stuff like this, I prefer to err on the side of ridiculous. I wish that I would have added more of that, but I like how it turned out.

Zach, Shmandy, me, and the Wads.

The next project is to make a cool design for a statistic or poll.  You have to use a reputable source to get your information.  The Onion is allowed.  Thank you, Mr. Cox.

~ Jon