The Not So Secret Diary of Ryan Leach

To the Fair to the Fair

2011-10-26T18:49:00.002-04:00

We went to the fair over the weekend, it was fun, though pretty much how the fair always is. Since I don't really enjoy rides we only hopped onto the ferris wheel, but we tried some of the fried things. We had fried pumpkin pie, fried smokes, and a buffalo chicken strip fried in pancake batter rolled in jalapeño crumbs and served with syrup. Also a fletcher's corn dog but that's sort of a given. I've got my first batch of images for Marriott done and I'll be mailing those out as soon as I get an address and the next shoot is scheduled for the 4th. My on location shooting has been awfully busy, I've scouted 6 locations and done a photoshoot at a local gas station. I'm going to have to finish editing those tonight to turn in tomorrow. I dunno, sometimes I feel like I have an awful lot of assignments going on between school and the freelance work I try to pick up. It's manageable for now but I'm certainly looking forward to winter break, especially since I'm taking summer classes.

Hello there!

2011-10-14T18:14:00.003-04:00

Previous quarter ended, got 2 A's 2 B's. Overall I'm happy. This quarter is exceedingly busy, I'm currently juggling a full load plus three freelance jobs. And despite being too busy as is I still check the job board every single day for new opportunities. I picked up some studio gear from an auction of a closing studio, and I just finally got in a backdrop stand so now I'm looking to produce some work at home. (The pictures above are when I was checking out the lighting gear to see how everything is working) Speaking of shooting last night I woke up at some point, got onto my phone, made a note that reads "old truck fog machine for smoke mechanic is hero" and while I *think* I understand what I meant I'll never know for sure. Taking an on location photography class, the assignments we're being told to do within these time constraints are kind of crazy but at least the professor is reasonable about it. Last night we had a one week assignment extended to a second week. Tonight we're going to a high school football game, or at least we'll try. OH! There's a Dairy Queen that opened up here, man I need to watch myself or that place is going to put 20 pounds on me. Speaking of which I've been trying to eat better, I want to have a long healthy life and my current eating habits don't support that. It's really hard sometimes but mostly I've been sticking with it.

Relevant

2011-09-08T17:30:00.001-04:00

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

So very, very busy

2011-09-08T17:27:00.002-04:00

As it stands I have 20 images due in 2 weeks. One of which I have already in progress, the other is brand new and I have no idea how I'm going to get that done in time. I have to shoot 8 people in their workplace, and getting 8 different businesses on board with enough time to shoot them is just crazy talk. I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to get everything done.

Some stuff

2011-08-02T01:22:00.002-04:00

Classes are going well. Rocking A's in all of them so far. Got a 93 on my first photoj assignment that I thought went terribly. Got some requirements for my only big paper this quarter for my writing class. It's 40% of our grade, and I'm doing a research paper on nuclear energy. It's four to seven pages. That's like being handed a good grade. The last research paper I did ended up around 11 pages I think? Midterms are next week, with one of my exams coming up on Wednesday. Feeling really busy with homework, even though most of it is just photo stuff or studying. Other than that I wish I had a little extra spending money to go eat out more than a couple of times a month. Also the dog and cat are being as crazy as ever. Going to have to get Olive fixed sometime this month and I'm dreading having to pay for that bill. Ugh. Hope things are going well for anyone out there reading this. Also! My final project for photoj is going to be at an animal shelter in Dallas that I really like. It's a really nice no-kill facility so it should be pretty enjoyable. Also thinking about shooting something already for my photo essay assignment. Should be pretty good and I'm excited to shoot it.

Procrastinating

2011-07-24T20:16:00.003-04:00

So I'm writing this even though I should be writing a page and a half essay about some quote from a self described "redneck dyke" something or other. Basically she's super classy and trying to assume to know what art is and what art does. Though that's mean to say because art can impact anyone regardless of who they are. I'm just being bitter because I hate trying to expand on things that don't need to be expanded on. It's like if someone asked you to write an essay on the quote "The sky is blue". Anyways, classes are okay. I dropped and received proficiency credit for my lighting class because that turned out to be incredibly basic. I got yelled at by someone my age in the studio because I didn't curl the cords to their specifications and then had the audacity to ask if no one had ever shown me how to do this despite having been doing it for six years now. Sorry I use my fingertips to roll the cable rather than using my whole hand I guess? I honestly don't really like the studio there anyways so that's a bummer. It's just set up really differently from OU's who had a system that worked really really well. Writing is kind of boring, but it'll be my last english class ever. Photojournalism is very eh, I did very poorly on my first assignment which I turn in tomorrow. I just feel really creepy just shooting people out trying to do their errands or something. I just need to power through 9 more classes of it. Photo history is probably one of the best classes I'm taking, it doesn't seem particularly challenging while remaining interesting. But we watch too many videos. Both classes so far we have watched a video in. And portraiture is okay. I'm looking forward to the lectures, just not so much the assignments. The more I shoot the more I dislike shooting people and the more I just wish I could shoot objects or landscapes or architecture or something. I also wish I had all of my friends from Ohio here to take pictures of. I miss them.

Starting classes tomorrow

2011-07-11T00:32:00.003-04:00

I'm starting my new classes tomorrow. Mondays will be the worst, with 8 hours of class. Other days will have 4 hours each with the exception of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'll be taking a lighting class, a portraiture class, a photojournalism class, a photo history class, and a writing class. I'm nervous about the course load of having three different photo classes but I'm hopeful that things will be okay. Worse comes to worse I'm going to attempt to get things done either after my classes end at 5 on most days while staying at the building, or on the days I have free. Though I guess that doesn't make sense to say that because if I didn't get it done on any of the seven days of the week I don't know how it would be done at all. I would hate to have to do everything on the days I have free because I imagine I would just feel overwhelmingly busy. Dad would love for me to be busy every single day but I do enjoy my days that I don't have anything to worry about.
Creative work is vastly different from general homework. It's absolutely mentally taxing in a unique way and entirely stressful but extremely rewarding in the end. Or at least it's rewarding until you look at your work a few days later and drive yourself crazy because you think "Oh I should've done X and this is terrible because I didn't". I'm hoping that eventually I'll be able to let those things go instead of them just piling up and driving me into a state of not wanting to create anything else.
I'm most excited about my lighting class. Lighting is one of those things that if you get really good at it you can produce some really amazing work. And while I feel like I have all the techniques I need for most applications I'm very excited at the idea of learning something new or refining the skills I already have. Also if someone could finally teach me how to properly use some speedlites that would be amazing because I have one and oh my god do I hate that thing. Do you like the god awful effects of on camera flash? Have you ever wanted it to be intensified tenfold? WELL NOW YOU CAN. After that I'm most excited about portraiture. Again I've done a lot of portrait work for classes in the past but never a class that was specifically a portrait only class. Kind of a shame, I felt more comfortable with the group I was with at OU and being with a bunch of strangers here will pose issues with finding people to take pictures of and to feel confident in the critiques. I'm also nervous about coming into the school with a significant amount of hours under my belt. Teachers will expect students to have been adjusted to how things go there and I'll be trying to get situated for the first couple of classes. But besides that I'm kind of eh about my photo history class, it's interesting but I'd rather not have to take a class on it, much less multiple ones. Writing and photojournalism I'm not enthusiastic in the least about and I'm glad they'll be over soon. Writing isn't something I really care for and photojournalism just isn't a section of photography that I enjoy doing or looking at. I think quarters last 11 weeks, the first week is typically a week where much work isn't done and the last week is finals. Also you have midterms, but those are a lot of work if they involve actual exams. Otherwise you have a lot of work that you'll typically get done the week before or something. What I'm trying to say is I'll only have about 9 classes that I'll not be looking forward to. So that's about as positive as I can be about something like that.

I'm looking into gear rental companies in the area however they all need equipment deposits in full and I simply can't afford that. I fear that now with these classes I won't have any hope of having time to spend working on anything but my classwork. We'll see. One of the things I want to rent most of all is a tilt-shift lens. It's sort of a special application lens and I want to create a special project with it, however they run ~1300 dollars. I rarely have that much in my account and it's difficult to establish any savings. The lenses are typically used for architecture photography to correct distortion associated with looking at buildings through a lens. (The same distortion you and I see, as there's a lens in our eyes!) However you can manipulate the correction to cause some unusual effects, like this.

I'm also really needing a new monitor, this one we've had since I was in middle school and it shows. It can't hold a proper color calibration and it certainly doesn't have consistent brightnesses across the entire screen. I drool at the thought of having a nice new shiny thing on my desk to stare at all day, but I'm teasing myself until I can find some cash. I'd also like to have a few alien bee strobes for a home studio. And a paper roll for a backdrop. Alien Bees aren't expensive, as far as strobes go, and paper rolls are extra cheap for what you can get out of it. Alien Bees typically run a few hundred dollars for some of the lower end models, and paper rolls under a hundred. Lower end models of strobes typically aren't a hinderance, especially for still life work. The differences between lower end and higher end models generally are the power of the flash, the number of settings for flash power, and the recharge time between the flashes. So like I said, in a very controlled environment like a still life shoot these aren't issues. Anyways I've gone on long enough. I'll probably write another post sometime after this week of classes is over. Oh also Kelsey ran out of gas on her way to work the other day. I would make more fun of her for it than I do but apparently her gas gauge isn't working properly and she had no indication it was going to occur. Anyways, that's all for now.

New School

2011-06-24T19:09:00.003-04:00

I've been getting things wrapped up at the school I'll be attending starting in July. It's the Art Institute of Dallas. It's probably the first time I've been excited about taking classes since getting accepted to OU. In the meantime I've been looking for more jobs without much success, I've applied to a handful more but never gotten any replies. We also had to get our entire septic system replaced recently but I'll find what Kelsey wrote about it on her blog to put up here. She has a way with words.

Also, this.

2011-06-09T18:22:00.001-04:00

What You've Missed

2011-06-09T16:21:00.002-04:00

Welcome back to my not so secret diary. Could you imagine if I had made it the not so secret dairy by mistake? That's something I would do. Trust me. So in the picture above please note the yawning cat. The cat in question is Kelsey and I's new cat Olive. We've had her for a few weeks now and she has grown super fast. Kelsey and I joke that she "levels up" every night and becomes a stronger and bigger cat. Because the two of us are secretly pretty nerdy. Though maybe it is harder to tell about her than me, given I spend a chunk of time most weeks with an xbox controller in my hand. Speaking of the two of us, we've been together for 16 months today. While a lot of people would be like "Oh I felt like I met her yesterday lalala" hell no not me. I feel like we've been together for 16 months and those months have been AWESOME. She found a part time job at the Wylie library and she loves it quite a bit, and I'm admittedly jealous of it as well. I've been looking for a job and haven't had much luck. I'm either over qualified for anything I'm interested in, or just not qualified at all for any retail position above a cashier. In the meantime I got Aunt Barb's banana bread recipe (I'll email you soon) and I went a little crazy and made a little over half a dozen loafs. Most turned out great! One was way undercooked for some reason and was a definite failure. In school news I'm finally leaving the community college out here and I'm heading to the Art Institute of Dallas. It's on the quarter system so all of my classes I took previously should transfer better, and all of the course loads are major focused. So that means I won't take one photo class and then like three philosophy courses. Instead it's something like 3-4 major classes and then one gen ed class. Most gen eds I already have completed so at this point it's just going to be whatever I have left after everything transfers over. Hopefully I don't have too much longer to go till I get a degree.

Midterms

2010-10-11T22:52:00.003-04:00

Classes are going well. Making decent grades but I've got a busy week including a 5 page paper and a bunch of photo stuff due. Dogs got sprayed by a skunk recently. That was the worst thing in the world. I nearly was sprayed last night. I would not enjoy sleeping outside, certainly not in the thunderstorm that blew through last night.

Starting Fall classes again

2010-09-04T11:03:00.002-04:00

My Fall classes have started, taking my last english class, my last history class, a web design class, and architecture photography. This is one of the shots I took for the first assignment. Make a couple of Bs for my summer classes. My girlfriend is moving down here at the end of the month and I'm really really excited about it. It's like starting a new part of my life or something. Feeling like this semester will go well, I'm missing OU, but things are better here. Can't find a job, a guy I've been working with for about six years now just got laid off. So not really feeling optimistic about that stuff, but hopefully I'll get lucky with something soon.

I've been shooting!

2010-08-14T01:33:00.002-04:00

I've been shooting for a home health care group. Borrowing a few lights from my old instructor and I'm going to do some work that I've been brainstorming on for a while now. Looking to add about 3 photos to my still life collection. Also wanting to take a nice big horizontal of something that would look nice printed and up next to my kitchen table in my eating area. I'm thinking of making sort of a triptych (Three panel print) to hang up there. Either a landscape, architecture, or really simple still life would look nice up there I think. Also need to keep in mind the colors of the picture so it doesn't clash with the color of the wall. Which reminds me I owe everyone a few photos of the house. I'll put up a couple soon, promise. Going and seeing Bodies later today which should be cool, looking forward to it thought unfortunately no photography is allowed.

Oh Hi

2010-07-12T16:06:00.002-04:00

Helloooo. I've been pretty busy lately. Moved into my own house that doesn't seem like it had been cleaned since 1999 so I had to clean that up for two weeks and then my girlfriend flew down to visit for two weeks and now I'm here! The house is just finishing up being painted and the studio room looks awesome, a neutral grey on all of the walls so I can do some studio work in there that I'm super excited about. I'll post up lots of pictures when it's done. Also had my first day of classes again today, not enjoying having homework but it's nice to be working on something while I can't do anything at the house.

Non-Photo update

2010-04-27T17:00:00.002-04:00

So I'm at home in Texas now, I've been doing a bit of shooting to add a bunch of new content to my portfolio. Obviously right now I'm strengthening my architecture stuff, and after that I'd like to start working on portraiture or still life. I've been filling out an application for the community college here so I can take some classes before transferring over to a new school a little east of here. I'm going to be moving into my own place in June, and I'm really really excited about it. My parents have been getting on me about getting a job, and I have been trying, but I've been stubbornly holding out for a photo related one. I wish the economy would just get a little better, all I need is one opening or one solid connection and I *know* I can get myself a solid position. As much crap as I give myself for everything I do (I give myself A LOT) I know that my work is good enough to get a position somewhere. I'd really like to be at a magazine, something like Texas Monthly would be perfect for my interests. But if this photo thing doesn't work out I have no idea what I'll do with my life. That's one of the reasons that I'm glad I'm at home, I feel like once I get a degree if I don't have a plan B lined up then I'm kind of screwed. I'm just trying to sort everything out. In the meantime I've been taking pictures and volunteering at the museum three days a week, just trying to stay busy and out of the hair of everyone else.

Escalator

2010-04-27T16:44:00.000-04:00

I don't think I'm done with this one, I just don't know what else I want to do with it.

Just Kidding

2010-04-27T11:58:00.003-04:00

Got it done a little faster than I thought I would. There's really not a big difference in the untouched one below, I just saturated the orange staircase to contrast with the cooler tones and touched up a weird scan line that was running down the center of the image, unfortunately I had saved my original retouched version at JPEG size when I wasn't thinking and had to redo all my work.

Next Project

2010-04-26T18:08:00.001-04:00

Here's the next photo I'm working on. A lot of dust in this one too, though it isn't as noticeable. Should be finished in a few days.

Finished. I think.

2010-04-26T18:02:00.002-04:00

I think I'm done tweaking with these images. It took about 10 hours of work over the course of two days. Each pane of glass was smothered with dust that I had to take out of the image and that consumed 90% of the time. After that it was just an hour of messing with colors and toning.

Hassy

2010-04-21T03:41:00.002-04:00

First frame is my first photo taken with a new camera I'm borrowing. It's great to shoot film again. I just scanned a bunch of it today, and need to edit it later on. I looove the bottom frame, I need to clean it up a bit.

Doing some shooting

2010-04-06T15:40:00.001-04:00

Did some shooting over the weekend but it was with a film camera so I probably won't know if I got anything really worthwhile until next week. I'll put up some photos then.

Final Project

2010-03-15T13:31:00.005-04:00

Had to create a pair of calendar pages that illustrated the number nine while carrying a September theme.

Heading back home for a while on Friday, I'll probably get there on Sunday.

Final Product

2010-02-27T04:32:00.003-05:00

Touched up for dust, repaired the torn seaweed, color corrected, removed the tail end of the salmon, removed dried fish juice from the back end of the plate. About 3 hours of post, 1.5 hours of shooting.

Rough Cut

2010-02-26T23:39:00.000-05:00

This is what I have shot for this week's assignment. Haven't gotten around to editing it yet, this is just what the camera has spat out. I'll put up the edited version for comparison sometime later.

Egg Reshoot

2010-02-26T00:44:00.002-05:00

Reshot my egg assignment. Also got a hookup for my medical tool things. Will reshoot last week's assignment soon. Very, very cold here.

Photo from this week

2010-02-24T22:18:00.000-05:00

Not a big fan, but it'll have to do. I came up with a better idea while in the studio, but I need to get some medical supplies to do it.

Adventures from the dining hall!

2010-02-17T20:45:00.003-05:00

Not even joking. Unbelievable.

Photo

2010-02-16T20:09:00.003-05:00

You know the drill! Quite pleased with this one. Was able to finally get back and think simplicity while focusing on composition without having to fret over all the technical issues.

Photos

2010-02-10T17:10:00.004-05:00

We had to do two images this week. One for black line and one for white line lighting. Wasn't terribly happy with the lighting with the shot glasses, but the tower fell over and shattered on the floor after four images so I had to end the shoot early.

Blizzard

2010-02-07T05:39:00.002-05:00

A giant blizzard went through the Northeast over the weekend and dumped a ton of snow in Ohio. Except in Athens. It's like the storm just went around Athens, and dumped everything everywhere else. While I'm glad I'm not snowed in with three feet of snow like some people are I'm a little disappointed after all of the hype of "6-10 inches". Had a shoot with some glass objects on Friday, unfortunately the shoot ended early when a tower of my props fell over and shattered on the ground. I got about 4 shots out of one of my compositions, and I hope I can salvage what I have in Photoshop to make it presentable.

Birthday

2010-01-29T22:31:00.001-05:00

I'm 21 now!

Photos

2010-01-28T20:55:00.001-05:00

The egg is totally lame I know, but I like the concept so I'm going to reshoot it. Might reshoot the olive oil too, just redo the composition. Aaaaand I like the newspaper abstract, so I'll leave that alone.

Check this out

2009-12-09T00:49:00.003-05:00

I was floating around the internet and found what seems to be the first photograph ever taken of a tornado. Looks extra creepy if you ask me.

Found one from 1927:

Green Girl

2009-12-08T13:38:00.000-05:00

:|

2009-11-16T01:59:00.001-05:00

Series

2009-11-15T17:53:00.003-05:00

Here are the photos I'm submitting for my six photo series. The series is my final project of the quarter.

Photo

2009-11-05T21:06:00.002-05:00

Here's this week's. Assignment was "Two or more". Had to break out a fourth light for this one. And the non-stop giggling from the models was a little difficult to work with.

Schedule for next quarter

2009-11-05T20:59:00.001-05:00

I'm not really looking forward to my Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Haven't shown my face in a while

2009-11-03T15:26:00.002-05:00

A photo from a few weeks ago at a Spi (Society of Photographic Illustrators) meeting.

Wednesday

2009-10-26T12:35:00.003-04:00

And here's the photo I plan on submitting on wednesday. It was a new thing for me. I don't normally shoot blondes, I don't normally shoot super colorful things, and it was a new lighting setup. I like how it turned out.

Last Week

2009-10-26T12:33:00.001-04:00

I went for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow theme. Turned out pretty bland.

Panoramic

2009-10-18T20:00:00.001-04:00

Here's a panoramic from our New York trip this summer.

Cold

2009-10-17T01:02:00.003-04:00

Thought I should upload a photo that wasn't fashion. Things are okay here, exams got moved back late so that kind of messes up our Thanksgiving schedule. But whatever. I've only got two more Thanksgivings to do with this schedule. Looking into taking classes over the break so I can get out of here on time. Though I'd rather have an internship. Maybe I could do both. We'll see. It's getting cold up here. Possible snow storm on Sunday. Boo to that. Other than that whatnot, things here have been fine. Just getting homesick and can't wait to be back.

Photo

2009-10-15T19:50:00.001-04:00

Here is the photo I turned in yesterday. I got what I was going for, concept wise, but technically I did poorly.

Photo

2009-10-07T13:30:00.001-04:00

For fashion accessory. Gary said it wasn't an accessory but I disagreed. Made an A-/A- on last week's assignment.

Photo

2009-09-29T17:35:00.002-04:00

Here's the photo that I am submitting for critique this week.

I want to try this

2009-09-25T08:53:00.002-04:00

Photo

2009-09-23T12:15:00.004-04:00

Here is the photo I submitted for critique today.

Home Page

2009-09-23T12:14:00.002-04:00

A good home page for your browser is:

aphotoaday.org

It's one photo a day, pleasant way to get going.

Wonderful.

2009-09-22T00:40:00.002-04:00

Lamebook.com is filled with just the most magical people in the world. Go check it out. Don't stay too long or it might give you a headache.

Back At School

2009-09-07T18:12:00.002-04:00

I'm back at school living in the same room as I did last year. We have nine new people in the mod. Not sure how I feel about most of them. I've talked to a handful and they seem alright. Not sure if they have the charm that the ones last year did. Guess we'll see. I've been having some weird trouble talking lately. Words and sentences come out jumbled up and slurred together. Not sure why that is. Maybe it's just because I'm so distracted with some other things going on that when somebody does try to talk to me my mouth just doesn't kick in fast enough.

Okay. So.

2009-07-26T23:29:00.002-04:00

Here's the rundown of what's been going on. I got stuck around with no job and no work this summer. I tried to get something going at a handful of places but the ball never got rolling at any of them for various reasons. So that sucks. I was wanting to be doing something like that this summer. Other than that I've started to diet and workout. I've been losing weight and slowly getting into better shape. I started off doing five pushups at a time and now I'm doing thirty in a row. So that's something worth mentioning I guess. I'm doing basic workout stuff and kickboxing. The kickboxing is fun. I'm leaving for school the first week of September. And I really need to figure out my parking situation. Other than that things are just about the same as they have been. So that's about it.

You darn Fullers

2009-06-25T04:32:00.001-04:00

Thanks to you guys I passed out after doing blood work today. Fell right off the table.

Home

2009-06-17T15:46:00.000-04:00

Home again! Until early September at least.

There is a large truck outside my window

2009-06-06T12:22:00.001-04:00

Melt yo face

2009-05-30T19:32:00.001-04:00

Grad school.

2009-05-30T18:48:00.002-04:00

Is it too early to be thinking about it? Frankly I don't want to go to grad school, I just want to get to work, but these days a bachelors is basically a high school diploma and a masters is a bachelors and a PHD is a masters. If the trend continues I can only imagine that your children's children will have to be in school until they're 30. Why has education become so valuable? Am I the only one who values industry experience rather than extra schooling? Being educated is one thing, but having to take years of classes filled with information that you'll likely never use is something else entirely.

Deer

2009-05-30T18:08:00.001-04:00

Photo of the week

2009-05-26T05:04:00.001-04:00

20 photograph 360 degree panoramic. From the middle of our football stadium.

Almost Home

2009-05-25T19:17:00.001-04:00

2 more weeks of class, 1 week of finals.

Oh look at that

2009-05-19T16:25:00.002-04:00

I got published. D Home, May/June 09, page 42.

And I have a photo of a lamp on page 68.

Oh, hey.

2009-05-19T16:23:00.001-04:00

I got a 96 on my watch photo. Which is the highest photo grade I've ever received. Interesting.

Photo from this week

2009-05-18T21:26:00.002-04:00

I think it turned out well.

Hot Pockets

2009-05-16T23:14:00.002-04:00

"Hot Pockets: A hot lunch for less!"

For less what, Hot Pockets?

Less money? Maybe.

But tell me how much my insides pay, Hot Pockets, answer me that.

Hard Drive

2009-05-16T19:49:00.001-04:00

This is a graph of all the data on my hard drive. Blues and reds are my photo files, greens are applications, yellows are video files, the rest is just misc whatnots.

Watch Photo

2009-05-12T19:02:00.000-04:00

My watch photo was in the running for best of show today. That's good.

2 Photos

2009-05-12T02:45:00.002-04:00

The watch is what I'm turning in tomorrow. The picture of Melissa is one I did tonight. Don't think I'll be turning that one in. But it's one from the shoot.

Dogtime

2009-05-12T00:46:00.001-04:00

Yeah. Dogs.

Palmer Fest 09

2009-05-10T04:17:00.003-04:00

Palmer Fest is the second largest party at OU. It got out of control this year. Read the article, Athens Police Department's statement, and check out the photos at the link below.

http://tinyurl.com/ry7uvx

This Week's Photo:

2009-04-28T03:03:00.002-04:00

Portrait of a faculty member, I did my logic professor.

This weekend's photo

2009-04-20T03:52:00.002-04:00

For a fashion on location shoot. I like it.

Recent photo shoot and other things

2009-04-18T06:40:00.000-04:00

Just sent this email to my mom, pretty much explains how things have been for the past week:

Portrait didn't go great. Very generic horror story. Got out to Strouds run Sunday night with her and her friend and I get set up. I was using my car lights to light the area because there aren't any lights in the area. I got set up and fired off about 9 frames, took about half an hour. And then the car battery died. Then one of the girls cell phones died. Then I didn't have any reception. Then the creepy noises in the woods and the lake started. I was ready for the monster to come out and eat me. I was ready for the chainsaw to start running and for us to be chased around by a chainsaw wielding maniac. Etc, etc. Killed the car, let it juice up for about 10 minutes or so, then got it to barely start up. After that I just said we're getting out of here. I couldn't get the top 2/3rds of the photo to look remotely usable anyways. So I had to shoot the next day, trying to run with the theme of her love of Obama. Did not turn out well, but I had the photo due in like 13 hours and I had to get in something. If I had more time I likely would've Hope'd her portrait. (You know, the Obama "HOPE" poster?) If the grade turns out bad I'll think about reshooting it. I'm not even sure if she'd be willing to be a subject again, I know I'm not. I have a fashion on location shoot to do this weekend. Fashion is my least liked photo subject. Trying to work with what I have, when it comes to my ideas. A lot of the things I come up with call for marble floors and top notch suits. I have a goodwill that I'm not fond of spending money at for one time use things and a campus that has a definite lack of marble. My imagination is just too spoiled I guess. How dare it think of all these expensive things and tease me like that. Our bathroom here in the mod has ants. I told Allison a day or two ago about it. I'm not sure if the exterminator has come taken care of it or not. There are a couple of ant corpses here and there, but there were some when I saw all the live ones too. The still life I did for the first assignment got a 90. It was the only A in the class. It was Josh's (the profs) favorite photo, he loved it. It only got a 90. The average grade of the class was a 74 and there were some really good photos in the bunch. It's going to be hard to get good grades in that class. I think I'm drawing the line at a 76 before I reshoot assignments. Higher if it's for a product shot. But I think Josh likes me. I stayed after one class to ask him about some stuff and we talked for a short bit. He's a cool dude. Was offered to help him out on a shoot this past evening, but I turned it down. Would've had to play bodyguard for his equipment from all the drunk people he was going to be shooting in a bar. It's "Blackoutfest" (Get so drunk you black out, fest) and drunks have a real piss poor impact on my attitude. I wouldn't be a ray of sunshine to work with. But I checked out my dream camera from the equipment room the other day. You know, the top notch stuff they have here? The camera I've been waiting two years to use as I suffer through the basics of basic stuff? They checked me out the wrong camera back. The one that requires a cable to be used with it, otherwise it doesn't function. They don't supply you with the cable. So there was my dream camera (Well, close. These days it's starting to get a little dated. But only a little) in my hands and I couldn't use it. So. Awful. You know what the camera tells you when it won't fire for any reason? It blinks in the viewfinder: "-no-". The camera told me no. The camera talked back to me. I wasn't ready for sass like that. That was one of the things I stayed behind and talked to Josh about to get figured out. We laughed a bit about it, called several things ridiculous, and that was about that. Next time I'll be checking out the proper equipment. I wish there were more product shots this quarter though. 4 portraits, 3 products, 1 wildcard. Already did the wildcard and 1 portrait. Have an idea for a product, we'll see if it fits with the guidelines given later. If not I'll try to do it on my own regardless. Have you ever tried Tab soda? It's made by coke. It's basically just a diet coke, except quite bubbly. I've lost just about all of my desire for actual coke these days, I've just been swapping that out with crystal light packets instead. I just wanted something bubbly so I picked up the Tab. Like I said, tastes like diet coke, just very bubbly. Here's to hoping this next shoot goes well, a bad one throws off my groove for a few days. I've noticed the longer I've been doing photography the more my shooting relates to my groove. Speaking of groove, new Big Bad Voodoo Daddy album comes out on the 21st. Totally picking that up. Gotta have my swing music.

Here

2009-04-13T02:31:00.005-04:00

Melissa made a video about me. Sit back and enjoy the Journey. (See what I did there?)

Nelson Market, I hate you with every fiber of my being.

2009-04-08T21:31:00.003-04:00

Once upon a time a hungry Ryan decided to go to the market for food. Hungry Ryan decided a Lunchable sounded good. So he got one. He got back to the room, opened his Lunchable with great excitement to discover the cheese was covered in mold. The Lunchable had yet to expire, but clearly something had gone awry along the way. For some reason when I went downstairs to get a bottle of water and the cute girls waiting on the elevator said they liked my shirt all I said was thanks. It wasn't "Thanks, what floor do yall live on?" it wasn't "Thanks, I like your shirt too", it was my mold filled fog that made me say only "Thanks". Nelson Market, I blame you.

Well, I suppose...

2009-04-06T01:30:00.002-04:00

I GUESS I'll update yall like I said I would. Basically my classes are pretty good. Not a big fan of my Journalism 133 class because it's basically English except without the reading. It's just grammar. Boo. We also have two quizzes per week and one exam every other week. That's a lot of work. Then comes a retake of Logic, totally going to rock an A in that one this time. Then a Photoshop class and a commercial photo class. Photoshop should go well provided I stay on top of my technical assignments which I think I'm going to get a jump on tonight since I'm wide awake and not really doing anything else. And photo class.... Oh photo class. This is the first quarter that I finally get to use the medium format equipment. That's like, the really professional stuff. It feels really good to finally be doing something that's useful for my career. Unfortunately they'd really like us to start purchasing equipment like that, however they do offer their used equipment at heavily discounted prices at the end of the year. I feel really fortunate that I don't have to pay for things out of my own pocket often, and I genuinely dislike having to call up Dad to say "Oh hey, I need money", but I just don't have the means to pay for some of these things. Including computing power, which also needs a boost. The thing is about the medium format cameras is that about 15 photos equals a gig of hard drive space. Bare bones lowest amount of photos we'll shoot for a single assignment this quarter is 30. So that's a minimum of 2 gigs per shoot, and I've only got 12 free currently. I really need to move up to an upgradable system. But that'll just wait till later. It'll be likely that I could get a rocking student discount. Also, explanation for the photo, I went and saw Monsters vs Aliens in 3D. It was very good. Very funny, and the 3D wasn't really gimmicky. It really immersed you into the movie rather than throwing things out of the screen at you. So you should all go see that. Tunnelman out.

And done

2009-04-06T01:27:00.001-04:00

Play a game and spot the differences with the previous image! I can't remember the last time I had an assignment done this early! (Not due till Tuesday!)

Working

2009-04-06T00:05:00.002-04:00

It feels good to be working again.

Hunchback of Notre Dame

2009-03-31T15:41:00.002-04:00

I don't recall if I mentioned this before or not, but how on earth was I allowed to watch Hunchback of Notre Dame when I was a kid? I saw it not long ago and oh my god is it the most depressing movie I have or what. Hi my name is Quasimodo I'm horribly disfigured but a good person on the inside. But society, and the other two people in the movie, (Including the love of my life) don't accept me for who I am on the inside. Instead the attractive lady runs off with the attractive man. Fantastic.

Update on my classes tonight.

Back Again

2009-03-30T19:28:00.001-04:00

First day of classes. I'm looking to knock this quarter out of the park.

Rawr

2009-03-16T17:10:00.001-04:00

Finals week, yo.

That'll be all.

Casa Nueva

2009-03-08T10:26:00.001-04:00

Had a one and a half hour wait last night. We went to the Diner instead. We'll call up a reservation for another time.

Casa Lopez

2009-03-07T07:35:00.002-05:00

I went to a place called Casa Lopez not long ago up here in cold old Ohio. It tries to look like a Tex-Mex restaurant, and it sorta succeeds. It just feels really forced from the moment you walk in. If they toned it down things would feel more authentic. Menu has your basic Tex-Mex items, nothing really stood out to me. I ordered up a basic burrito with ground beef. One thing I would like to point out is that the chips and salsa ran out and never got replenished. That was the first time in my entire life that I had not gotten my chips and salsa refilled. It was very off-putting. Isn't endless chips and salsa an assumed part of Tex-Mex dining? Anywho. I got my burrito and the whole thing was really bland looking. A plain white tortilla topped with a melted white cheese. Wasn't aware I was going to be dining on an albino meal. I cut into the burrito to reveal the contents. They looked bland. The taste was as you expected at this point, bland. The meat wasn't seasoned, and the rest of the contents just really weren't impressive. The veggie bits of it were fresh, but that's about the only positive thing I can say. I had to order my beans separately and pay extra for them. Another thing I'm not a huge fan of. Rice and beans should come with your "combo" meal. No exceptions.

So all in all, a let down of a restaurant. Though I didn't have much hope, I'm a bit far north after all. I'm hoping to check out another place tonight, Casa Nueva. (I'm shocked that turf wars haven't broken out, all these Casas floating around the same town) I took a look at the menu, and I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand some of the items sound pretty good, a variety of salsas (Though some are decidedly northern, not a whole lot of spice going on) and your basic Tex-Mex items abound. On the other hand there are a lot of items that I feel like they should do away with. Sandwiches, pizza, variety of other things you don't go to a Tex-Mex restaurant to eat. Simplify the menu guys. I'll let you know how that goes if I can get a crowd together to dine with.

Worked all morning

2009-03-06T11:40:00.003-05:00

I spent a chunk of hours this morning going through my photos and setting some aside for a new website. (Oh my! Is he actually talking about his major? Was thinking I'd never see the day!) I've got 41 photos set aside, for three separate categories. I only have about 19 of them on this drive here in Ohio. I'll have to pull the rest from a different drive when I get home. Then comes the task of actually figuring a website. I don't even know where to start with that one. It's going to be a fun ride.

ANOTHER plug?

2009-03-06T11:38:00.002-05:00

http://m-pennington.blogspot.com/2009/02/backdrop-magazine-shady-journalism.html

Don't hate, sometimes I just like what others write! In this case it's my friend Melissa that's behind the keyboard, go check it out. I wanted to write something about the issue as well, but she puts it better than I could.

Oh CNN

2009-03-03T15:25:00.003-05:00

I always do a double-take when I realize I'm not reading The Onion.

MY PANTS ARE FALLING

2009-03-02T00:06:00.001-05:00

If you haven't been following my (not often updated, admittedly) weight loss, I've lost six pounds so far. And my pants are falling off. It's wonderful and horribly inconvenient at the same time.

Future

2009-02-26T01:24:00.003-05:00

To be completely honest I'm not real sure what's going to happen with me in the future. I'm working hard to make my family proud, and to make a name for myself. But you never know what life is going to throw at you. Every night in the shower I go over the same "game plan" that I formed in my head months ago. It's one of those worst case scenario things, if I wound up in a bad spot how would I fix it? It's detailed, down to my diet and days I would relax. I know it sounds ridiculous to have days set aside to "relax" in your worst case scenarios, but I feel like it's important. If you get too stressed out you'd only find yourself in a worse place. I can't ever tell if I'm being pessimistic or realistic by thinking up these plans, even though the plans generally take an optimistic tone. Although I can imagine myself in a bad spot, I always remember that I have friends and family. As long as you have that, everything will be okay. I try to tell myself that every night, to remind myself that no matter what happens I'll be okay.

Notepad

2009-02-26T01:21:00.003-05:00

I'm thinking about picking up a notepad to write random thoughts down in. Some of the things that pop into my head can be straight up absurd. I'm not really sure why I want to do this. Some things I'd rather forget, but I have this nagging sense that I should be saving EVERYTHING. Maybe that's why my room becomes such a mess sometimes. Though I tend to blame it on imaginary gnomes that come in while I'm away and throw stuff around. Trust me, sometimes it seems like a perfectly logical explanation. Especially when you come back after 5 hours of studying only to open your door and say "I JUST CLEANED THIS PLACE TWO DAYS AGO".

Comic worth looking up

2009-02-26T01:17:00.002-05:00

http://www.allancomic.com/

This is a webcomic. It's about a boy named Allan. I think he's 17-18 now. It's interesting because it's an autobiography comic, which means these are things that are really happening in his life, real friendships, real breakups, real stories. And as everyday as some of it is (Chores, school, etc), there's something really fascinating about it. I found myself cheering on Allan in his dating adventures, feeling bad whenever a bad thing happened, and feeling a real sense of connection. He might have had a more "adventurous" high school experience than I did, but it still feels real, and that's because it is. I managed to get through all 250 strips that have been done so far tonight, so it's not that long.

Plugging another blog

2009-02-20T22:23:00.003-05:00

http://showyourconcern.blogspot.com/

A hilariously depressing look into the mind of our children.

Jared/Melissa/I went to the Columbus Museum of Art today. In one of the kid's sections we found binders full of worksheets children had done in the past. In one of the binders the worksheet theme was "Show your concern". Kids had to illustrate what their concern was with the world. The results really show you what seems to be on children's minds these days. It's awful, and hilarious. So we decided to make a blog out of it. Go check it out.

Goodfellas Provides Good Eats

2009-02-19T16:00:00.002-05:00

The Goodfellas Pizza here in Athens has a Twitter feed. I found it the other day when they started following my updates, so I followed them back. It's a business that uses Twitter as a business actually should, as a way for them to communicate and care for their customers. In the morning they'll usually provide updates about when they're making their dough and rolls, then let they let everyone know what the slice of the day is. They'll even advertise special deals that you can only find on Twitter, today it was about free cookies! After I finished my delicious meal I updated my Twitter to mention what a great lunch it was and we (Brian and I) got a "Glad you liked it!" from behind the counter! Goodfellas uses Twitter as a way to interact and get feedback from those around Athens. Today then asked about contest opinions, then thanked us for feedback. It's a great pizza place here in town that really deserves some attention. Show it the love. You can find it near the intersection of Court and Union!

Winterized

2009-02-18T16:09:00.001-05:00

I think I've been winterized. Today I went out to class when it was about 45 degrees and overcast. And I thought it was pleasant. What has happened to me? This used to be impossible to tolerate, now I want to go out hiking in it. So bizarre.

More Strain on the Dining Halls

2009-02-18T14:52:00.003-05:00

There's more strain on the dining halls today as the paper announced the closing of another one. The article also mentioned that at the end of the year the "Super" meal plans will be replaced with "Flex" meal plans. What does this mean? This means I have to pay $100 dollars more per quarter for a feature in a meal plan that I don't want to use. The close of the dining hall will likely put more strain on the others down here. The lines are already going out the door at peak hours. Peak hours being anything that could be considered normal times to be eating at. Unless I want to eat my dinner at 4:30 I'm going to be stuck in a nice long line. The Flex meal plan is equally stupid. It's the exact same as the Super meal plan (Which allows you to use your meals at a market (At the unfair value of $6 per meal)) but with the added benefit of making you pay $100 for "100 Points" that you can use at ONE building on campus. Not a single other location. The current building, Baker, allows you to pay cash, Bobcat Cash, or the point system for the food served there. What's the problem with just not forcing us to spend the 100 extra dollars per quarter and just letting us spend it in cash if we want to utilize those services. It's just another way for this university to milk every nickel and dime out of you. Great to know that I'm paying for our president's pay raise! What's worse about this is that I wouldn't have even known about this if it hadn't come out in the paper. Great to know they announce this information to us through an email or something.

A Cool Time Waster

2009-02-17T16:16:00.001-05:00

http://smas.studioludens.com/

Puts creation/consumption of various things in visual form. Anything from new stars to how many phones are bought per second.

Scratch Off

2009-02-16T21:27:00.001-05:00

I bought a scratch off ticket. I lost. When I scratched all of it off to see what I COULD'VE won I discovered that it was actually impossible to have won. There weren't three of anything! Those liars! Oh well. A dollar down the drain. For one buck I shouldn't have been expecting too much, eh?

Coraline: Delightfully Weird

2009-02-15T19:09:00.003-05:00

Coraline is hands down the strangest movie I have ever seen. Despite being so weird I thoroughly enjoyed it. There's one element of the story that I could've done without, but the rest of the movie makes up for it. The story is about the girl, Coraline, who moves into a new home. She finds a small door that at night she can travel through into another world, same as the normal world, except her "other" parents bend to her every whim to make her happy. Of course she finds out soon that not everything is perfect about her other mother and other father when they ask her to sew buttons into her eyes. Which leads me into my next point, this movie is creepy, creepy, creepy. I wouldn't bring my children to see it, but that shouldn't stop you from hiring a babysitter so you can see it yourself. However, if you feel like your children can handle seeing people with buttons for eyes, and you'd like them to never play with dolls again, this movie might be acceptable for them.

A Kiss of Spring

2009-02-10T11:11:00.002-05:00

We've had a touch of spring weather for the past few days. It's been nice. Today we have 100% rain. It's not freezing rain, it won't turn to ice as soon as it touches the ground, it's not mixed in with snow flurries, it's real rain. Unfortunately a cold front swings through tonight and plunges us back into the 30's. I just want winter to be over with.

Vegetarian Adventures

2009-02-08T02:30:00.002-05:00

I tried out something new, if you'd like to read the brief tale about it, head over to the new side-blog.

http://healthyhurts.blogspot.com/2009/02/smart-dogs-my-vegetarian-product.html

My Weight Loss Blog

2009-02-04T03:14:00.001-05:00

http://healthyhurts.blogspot.com/

Starting day for my workout and diet is Monday. Those interested in following just keep checking the blog I've got linked above.

Side Blog

2009-02-04T02:46:00.003-05:00

Hey guys I'm actually going to set up a side blog. It's really time for me to buckle down and start losing weight. I'll set it up and put up the address here, you'll get to follow my workout stuff and any gripes about healthy living. I'm even considering doing it partially as a video blog. I'll post up the address as soon as I get it set up.