Camera Shop
The idea of having a camera shop that has a hangout vibe is something I’d love to do someday, doubtful it would happen, but the idea of it sounds amazing. A bunch of tables set up with cameras and conversation.
this camera shop (from Google) is from my hometown, unfortunately isn’t around anymore.. I bought my first camera here. It was a film camera, the canon elan 7 I think it’s called, I still have it so I’ll have to take a photo of it for the blog
Print Shop returns in the coming days
This upcoming week, likely Wednesday, the print shop will be back up and running! The prints will be available in different sizes and paper types, I don’t want to just keep things high end, I want to have affordable options as well
A Photographic Breakthrough
make more make more make more
I haven’t been able to photograph as much as I have in many years, much of it was just time being gobbled up.
"If you want to be a creative person, then you’re gonna have to be creative in how you put your career together. There isn’t a path. Part of the creativity is making your path." - Alec Soth
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Street Photography with Chase Jarvis K-Swiss shoes
I got the new Chase Jarvis shoes from K-Swiss in the mail yesterday, and went to Cleveland to shoot photos and make a short highlight film featuring the shoes:
Congrats to Chase on these, it’s for sure a BIG deal for the creative space. To me, it makes total sense for a shoe company to have a photographer, or a filmmaker, or a writer, etc. to have a signature shoe. I hope to see more collaborations going forward!
Stairs Of Chaos
I feel like this a photo of the inside of my brain, so much going on, different levels, wiring everywhere, doorways, and windows. I have been photographing a lot and really enjoying it, I have a new photography program i’ll be announcing in the new future.. currently planning out some photoshoots to create a portfolio.. and possibly a separate website for it! The domain for it is secured.
Also, I’ll be releasing a new YouTube video either later today.. if not today, definitely will be a part of tomorrow mornings blog post.. there will be a steady stream of YouTube videos coming soon, i’ve been filming a decent amount of content, but having had the chance to go through the editing process. I need to nail that down, but also have been taking advantage of the beautiful summer weather we have been getting in Ohio, so i’m trying to take advantage of that!
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I’d rather be blogging
Actually had a great time out golfing, was the first time out in a few years. I’d like to take on a photography project documenting the local golfers.
This post is from my phone, making sure the blog is current and on time for the 7am post. Been shooting a lot, I do plan on getting some blog work done this afternoon, and then it’s back out for more shooting, which I’m excited for!
July 4th adventure
Our July 4th adventure actually happened on July 3rd since that’s when we got to hang out for it, we just went out and enjoyed the great outdoors. There is a park near me that has been taken over by the metro parks that I haven’t explored since that happened… and wow, i’m so excited to start going often! So many great photos to be had there, and a great location to take people to be photographed.
I was really stoked to find this waterfall spot below, it seems like its a easy find but you have to go up and around to see this spot, I wasn’t even aware I would have a sightline to the waterfall until I did
Some video was shot on this adventure as well, so stay tuned for that!
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Identity
I have been focusing a lot of making my time as meaningful and purposeful as I can, being more deliberate creatively, I think slowing things down will make for much better content, which I have noticed since I started this blog. I want to get back into doing various photographic series as well… reviving the early pandemic startup of “photographic case studies” under the name The Shadowgraph. All of the content will be ran through my normal platforms. The Shadowgraph is basically a name for branding to maybe get my foot in the door when I normally couldn’t. I’m not sure if that makes sense as I wrote it, I should make a video explaining it.
also, the film Identity… is a classic.
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two in one
I’m going to start making more videos that also show photographs, some will be like this one, under a minute.. which is good for sharing on other platforms as well. I also want to make videos where i’m telling some type of story mixed in with video out photographing and showing photos.. stay tuned!
* side note - today was a different post, and noticed for some reason the 7 am post was not up… I accidentally scheduled it for 7 PM :/ so I switched it to the video I finished editing this morning, sorry for the 2 hour delay on getting a post up! Now ill know to double check the AM/PM situation
Safety Tips When Approached - Street Photography
This is the first of many videos to come, here is a not so funny but funny but not so funny story of editing this video… I’ve always had issues with editing videos on my MacBook Pro, I have a pretty recent, fully spec’d out version.. and i’ve always had the spinning wheel issue, and with this video it was terrrrrible! so much time was going by, and then exporting was brutal.. I knew this was even worse then normal.. so I busted out the google machine and searched this problem (side note - I took this exact MacBook Pro to apple do it feeling like it was going to catch fire and similar lag issues and they rebooted everything, which did help some, but I still have to run a third party fan app to help the cause) so I stumbled upon a YouTube video that had similar issues, and said if you have google chrome installed.. even if not in use, will cause Final Cut Pro to not function properly………….. guess who has been using chrome. The unfortunate part, is that I figured this out 4 hours later than I probably should have, this video should have been a simple situation, but took pretty much the whole afternoon into the evening. But the fortunate part, is that now I know what to do.. also, after research during these long loading times, come to notice that many video content creators are still uploading in HD instead of 4K, so i’m going to start doing that for most of the videos going forward as well. I for sure want to add the video element to the blog, but It has to be efficient to keep things going and not bogged down, my plan for today was to load up on prepared content… and this is all I got done… but, I did learn a lot today, which will prepare for upcoming posts.
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Getting the reps in
I moved back to the fuji x100 series during the pandemic, I loved the previous versions I had, and always seemed to just miss having one.. I didn’t realize how important that decision was until the mask/restricted days of the pandemic ended. Actually being able to go out with the fuji x100v has got me so excited to go photograph… You often hear that its not about the gear… technically, sure. But trust me, having “a big F off camera” for me, doesn’t even compare to the thrill of shooting with the x100v.
a couple weeks ago I went out shooting and had technical camera issues, they were just various settings that I would bump and change… this settings could be dealt with and no longer would be a problem in the menus, when I was on location I was like whhyyyyy… I came to realize I hadn’t even hit 1,000 shutter count with the camera yet. Now my camera settings are dialed in, and my shutter count at the time of this writing is at an even 1,700. single shots, I haven’t even put it in burst mode yet.
Also, this week calls for rain… every. single. day. which, is probably a good thing, I can get a lot of blogging prepped, videos made, and if its not a pure on sketchy storm, considering going to photograph in Cleveland during rainy conditions.. I’ll keep you updated on that.
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new social layout and additional workflow
I’ve been wanting to add something to my square template style layouts for a while now, if you scroll through my instagram, you’ll find some attempts at ideas, but I wasn’t really into them. I decided to take a different approach, a signature with the logo, so I busted out my Wacom tablet….. and spent 45 minutes getting this signature right… this was after telling myself I need to be more efficient. I do think that was time well spent though, since I plan to have this be the new look.. instead of just black bars, make it recognizable.. and showing the logo is a big plus for brand recognition as well.
I also have begun the process of submitting my photographs to be licensed, and while doing that, has actually made me photograph even more. Giving myself the assignment of making photographs to submit, and not just trying to find a gem of a photo every time I go out.. which is asking a lot, has been fulfilling. I've come to love photography even more, which his scary.
pretty sure my inner circle thinks I'm out of my mind, and that’s okay with me, as long as my camera is with me.
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This Got Awkward
I’ll be making a video about this situation, and what I was doing during the process of dealing with a stranger that approached me that is good advice to go off of. I’d say that video will be available on the blog early next week.
But I did just upload the entire clip of this situation for the Patreon supporters!
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Socials At The Lake
I’ve had this feeling of wanting to go to the lake, I haven’t been in a few years due to the pandemic, I didn’t go on the beach but just wanted to see it, hear the sounds and just take in the vibes. I was out photographing in the streets a few blocks over, with not much time to spare.. I figured I would stop by, and before I left I made a post on instagram.
I also want to thank Elizabeth Thomas, who has been a big supporter of mine, she made the above graphic to share with her community.. if you’ve been listening to Photographiliac Podcast lately, you certainly have heard her on the show. She is from Texas griding the Realtor and creative space. Check her out in instagram
Don't delay an idea
I found a wall about a month ago while I was out photographing that I liked, I was alone and was thinking of taking a self portrait in front of it.. the wall was brick and was painted in a way that had a look like the shining
I decided to find someone to photograph in front of the wall, not find someone as in a stranger in the street, unfortunately this wall was in a alley, and this particular town.. very few if anyone is walking around, and this approach if it were to happen probably would not go over so well… “hey can I take you down this alley you didn’t even know existed to take a photo of you?” Suuuuuuure. So I had a couple people in mind to contact, messages sent, time continued on without a planned out shoot so I decided I should go back to at least shoot a self portrait, and I decided to film the process.
Unfortunately when I got to the scene, the wall had been tagged with graffiti in such a way that it was worthless to shoot in front of, This wall space was not large at all, kind of a corner wall next to a door.
Here are some clips I filmed outside of the process of going to get that self portrait..
The lesson learned here was to make something. I could have either shot a portrait or made some type of photograph of the scene… take the picture. Delaying something like this with nothing, doesn’t make sense. but lesson is learned for sure!
take the picture! make the thing!
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