A Mission to Protect

    This morning I worked on my final major project for small format, for which I chose to photograph the Davie County Sheriff's Office. Both of my parents are lawyers, and I have grown up around the courthouse and everyone involved in the system. In light of recent events, I wanted to portray law enforcement officers in a way that is true to who they are. They are people just like the rest of us, and I have a great deal of respect for their commitment to protecting innocent lives everywhere. I know that modern news media focuses on a bandwagon approach to reporting, and I know that tragic and hateful acts are committed regardless of the circumstances. However I also know that targeting an entire group of people to place blame is only going to make things worse.

     I know it isn't much, but if I can make just one person change his or her mind about the humanity of law enforcement, maybe I can still make a difference.

The mission of the Davie County Sheriff's Office is to ensure a safe, caring environment for its citizens and visitors to live, work, play and raise a family; to reduce crime and to effectively manage any natural or manmade disaster.

Our mission will be accomplished with an unsurpassed level of vigilance and concern by utilizing all of the resources made available to us by cooperating with all levels of government and the citizens of this great County. We will provide quality Law Enforcement services based upon the highest ethical, professional and legal standards.

Mission Statement of the Davie County Sheriff's Office

Close, Personal, and Done

     Today marks the end of our 36 strangers assignment, and I have never felt more relieved in my life. I made the mistake of putting off shooting for most of the semester because I felt like I had all the time in the world. Wednesday morning, two days before the major assignment was due, I only had six usable images. I had around twenty total, but I hadn't gotten all of the personal information I needed to accompany the portraits. 

     I created a spreadsheet of each stranger's name, age, hometown, and interesting fact so that I could keep track of how many photos I had with each lighting requirement. Somehow it made everything seem a little clearer, and I now know how to keep myself in line during future work. As stressful as it was, I'm glad that it was assigned and proud of myself for refusing to give up. 

Procrastination is opportunity's assassin.

Victor Kiam

There's a Storm Brewin' Harry

     While taking pictures of Seth for my on location portrait assignment in small format, I realized that neither of us could be serious in front of a camera. After many creative solutions, including using a remote and turning away so that he could stop laughing, I wanted to see if Stormy could handle the lights. Starting outside the barn, I set of both flashes while Stormy remained completely calm. Seth moved her closer until she was in my frame. I adore this picture because Stormy is my favorite critter, and she put a genuine smile on Seth's face. I think it captures the joy they both bring to my life.

Windows & Windows

     This portrait of Emilee was actually an assignment for last semester's portrait lighting class. Unfortunately for her, the best light in my apartment is in the morning, so I woke her up in time to shoot at eight. I'm grateful that we can use fellow photography students as subjects because it takes far less time to explain turtling or windows at the waist. She was wearing a short sleeved shirt, so I grabbed one of my own flannel shirts. My flannel hung on Emilee in such a way that she no longer had windows at the waist, so I had to gather the back of the shirt with a binder clip. I felt ridiculous, but it was oddly comforting to know that I could find simple solutions in a pinch.

I used to work in a blanket factory

but it folded

     This is my favorite blanket, and I still don't understand it. I chose to use it in the fabric assignment for my product lighting class. I wanted to photograph it in a way that made it stand out for it's weird texture. I have no idea what to call this type of blanket, but it is the perfect horror movie night companion. It started storming while I was in the studio, which was oddly comforting. It had a way of keeping me calm when I was stressing about what I needed to do and how and when I was going to do it. I put off working on this project for a while because I thought it would feel like a chore, but I greatly enjoyed playing around with lights and modifiers without fear of creating a scripted scene to meet assignment requirements. The only thing I felt was difficult about this assignment was trying to figure out how to position the fabric without making it look like a raggedy heap. The picture above was after my temper tantrum, during which I angrily rolled up the blanket and threw it back down on the table. Much to my irritation, it looked better in a burrito than it did when I folded it. The second picture, however, was after I tried to fold it again and got my ring caught in the fabric when I was setting it down and I tried to smooth it out without refolding it. Again, it looked better than what I intended to do. 

     As Bob Ross taught me, "We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents."

Horsing Around

     I met my brother in Greensboro on Saturday for the 34th Annual Mustang & Ford Powered Show. We had a great time admiring every single Shelby for a minimum of five minutes and pretending to know just a little more than we actually did when we had to talk to people. I loved the atmosphere of the show because everyone seemed to have a deep respect for the history and tradition of Mustangs. I could have spent days listening to owners talk about modifications and fond memories of their cars and how much of their lives they invested in pursuing their own dream car. 

     My favorite cars were those that displayed a model of the car somewhere because it showed the pride owners took in maintaining every detail of the original condition. Most owners chose to leave their model cars either on top of the cars or inside the car where they could be seen without being stolen. The best placement of them all was under the hood of the Mach 1. The shaker hood provided a kind of spotlight on the model car, which also provided clear context for the hood design for those wondering why they can see the sky through the car. 

     I had a lot of fun with this photo because the detail in the model is so fine that it could be mistaken for a full scale Mach 1 in what could, in turn, be the world's most intricate showroom.

     Also I just really like Mustangs.

Are You Available?

     I had a product lighting assignment that was to be shot in only available light, which could either be outdoors or window light. I'm a huge supporter of air conditioning, as well as soft, directional light, so I chose to set up in my window at the apartment. I bought a thin sheet of black poster board and propped it up to create a curve that resembled a small cyc wall. The window was camera left, and I had a large piece of white foam board to camera right to fill in some of the shadows. I love the detail in the glass dip pen, and I liked how the smooth glass stood out against the surface of the box behind it. I set this up the night before and shot it as soon as I woke up, so I'm a little confused about why I used the settings that I did (f/14 @ 1/4  ISO320). I'm usually a morning person, but something was clearly not working for me at that moment.     This was the point at which I remembered the assignment sheet specified that we were not to use highly reflective objects such as glass. 

     Oops.

     I immediately went to the kitchen and grabbed my salt shaker and pepper grinder because I thought it would be clear what they were without being too traditional. I used the same setup, and I really like how it turned out. I was at f/7.1 @ 1/8  ISO160, which makes a little more sense than the first picture but not a great deal. I liked that the grinder had a smooth finish but still showed enough grain to clearly see that it was made of wood. I also kept the apple salt shaker in the background to show that the subject was a pepper grinder since it might just look like a wooden pear with a strange handle-ish thing sticking out of it. I thought if it was displayed as a set, they could be easily defined as salt and pepper. 

     Unfortunately I had forgotten them in my room when I left for school in the morning, so I was very confused when I started cooking lunch. It served as a friendly reminder that sometimes I can get a little too caught up in the moment.