Change is Good

After much consideration, I have decided to switch up my blog a bit; though I've liked using Blogger, Wordpress has caught my eye and I am officially changing over!

With a new outlet comes a new name: Keeping Composure. I was inspired by a quote by photographer Matt Hardy: "Beauty can be seen in all things; seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph."

Please visit my new blog at: www.keepingcomposure.wordpress.com. There is plenty more to come!

Lunch Break

I had a longer lunch break yesterday at Copper, and decided to get the camera out and take a walk. This is where I work (in the back of the Copper Sports Center):

Center Village at Copper is my home 5 out of 7 days a week (and when I decide to ride, that makes 6 days!). This year's been a great year - we've already doubled the amount of snow that fell during the entire season last year. I could do without as many brutally-cold days, though.

To the right of the Eagle lift lies the gigantic super pipe, a great place to people-watch (though you won't see me going through the pipe anytime soon). West lake freezes over in the winter, and Chubs (read: best sandwich joint ever!) rents out ice skates to guests looking for a new skating experience.

It's days like these that I feel pretty darn lucky to live and work where I do.

What a year!

Looking back on 2010 is bittersweet. I spent half of it in my last semester at Webster University, and the other half in a new home - in a new state. I left something so familiar to find something, well, very different. But I can't deny that I've had a great year: I've been in numerous photo shows; I got to do some logo work; I made it into a juried show at Arts Alive! in Breckenridge; I edited copy for the upcoming Spring issue of Rocky Mountain Bride magazine; I did some poster design work for FOB Summit County; and on top of it all I found a great job at Copper Mountain Resort and got to spend the holidays with friends as close as family.

Sounds pretty good to me. Can't wait to see what this year has to offer!

Not so black and white

I finally made it out to capture some Aspen trees, on what may likely be the last weekend their leaves are intact:

As I followed the trail back to the car, something more intriguing caught my eye. Sections of the trial were closed off due to clear-cutting. Stumps stuck up all over what once was a lush expanse of trees. On the other side of the trail, piles of lodgepole lay across the now barren land. A sad sight, to say the least, no doubt attributed to the pine beetle. No solution to their infestation is better than another, but one manner of attack has been eliminating the dry, dead trees altogether. On one of the most beautiful Fall mountain days, the Aspens were definitely a strange contrast against the stumps of dead Pines.

Where am I going, and what will I find?

Three weekends ago, I woke up on a beautiful Saturday morning and decided I wanted to go for a drive. Didn't know where or how far. So I started driving farther north on Highway 9, the only other direction in Summit County I hadn't yet explored. Perfect day for a short road trip: warm sun, cool air, and pretty empty roads. The land became more and more flat - and brown - and about 1/2 an hour in to the drive I started looking for somewhere to turn around. And then, as the road curved west, a beautiful blue caught my eye. I had found Lake Heeney, a refreshing sight among the otherwise monotone drive.

On my way back I shot some photos. The road trip was, in the end, worthwhile: I drove somewhere new and found something I liked. A lot.

Landscapes

Although we haven't been able to explore too many places, we did go on a hike that overlooked the beautiful Dillon lake. We live below the dam at one end of the lake.

That being said, sometimes I don't need to go further than our backyard - or back porch - to see a beautiful landscape. Here is our view at sunset looking out at the Dillon dam, with Keystone peeking out in the distance.

Little Monsters

After 13 awesome - and strenuous - months, it came time to say goodbye to two furry kitties. Really, they just moved down the street from me. My roommate moved, and so too, did her cats. We got them just a week after having moved in to a new apartment:

Izzy

Bella

There's nothing like watching a little kitten (or puppy, for that matter) grow during its first year. As sisters, they couldn't be more different. Bella is a lady. She's very, very quiet, even when she speaks. She takes her time getting to know somebody new, and will rarely tolerate being held for long. Izzy is everything Bella isn't: loud - very loud, needy, a monkey of sorts (climbing up and onto the staircase railing), playful (really, she plays fetch!), and will fall asleep in anyone's arms after ten minutes.

My roommate had let me choose one of their names. She was going to name one Isabella and call her Izzy as a nick name. But I told her I might call that cat Bella, which would get confusing if one cat had two names. And so were created their names, Izzy and Bella. (And no, I did not name Bella after Twilight! She got the name of my favorite cat, my aunt's cat, Bella.)

They've grown from barely tackling a size six flip-flop to overtaking a size six shoe box. In their worst of moments, they truly were little monsters. In their best of moments (like when they were sleeping), they melted a long-time dog-lover's heart.

"Make me a Latham"

I had the joy of spending an evening with two of the greatest people I know: Tim Latham and Leah Bend. Their big day is finally here - Leah and Tim are tying the knot in downtown St. Louis at the Thaxton!

Since freshman year of college, Leah has been one of the sweetest, kindest, truest friends. I was excited to shoot her engagement photos and finally meet The Boy - Tim. After just half an hour with them, it was easy to see how perfectly they complimented one another.

Finally, all of the planning and waiting and stressing boils down to one day - today. And I only have one piece of advice (that I found last night on the way to the rehearsal):

Exposed

The end of the year in The May Gallery at Webster University is always reserved for the Senior Show. This year, "Exposed" features a group of 16 senior photography majors, which makes for a variety of work to display.

The show opened last Friday, May 7, the night before graduation. A big thanks to everyone who was able to make it, and for those who couldn't or haven't yet, the show hangs until the end of July.

My series on dashboards seemed like an appropriate - and fun - final show to work on. It started with two photos that I took on two separate road trips. We spend so much time driving, that whatever sits in front of us on the dashboard inevitably has a story behind it. My red bull has been in my car since the day I turned 16, and I started to always notice what people had on their dashboards or hanging on their mirrors. I hope to continue this series for a long time to come.

Highlight of last week:

platinum prints!

I arrived to a relatively slow day at my internship on Friday thinking it was going to be a long day. Boy was I wrong.

Another intern and I were introduced to the studio's darkroom, and before we knew it we had started a full lesson on platinum printing. The best part: the owner of the studio took us under his wing for the morning and went through the whole process with us. We saw everything from mixing the chemicals for an emulsion, brushing it onto the paper, working the light machine and developing the print.

What really intrigues me is that he starts with a digital file, makes adjustments for contrast in the computer, prints out a large negative and ends up with a darkroom contact print. Kind of goes to show that just because we have so much digital technology doesn't mean darkrooms are unnecessary.

It doesn't take long to remember why I fell in love with photography in high school. There's just something magical and irresistible about a darkroom.

The way he sees it...

... is the way I see it.


Elliott Erwitt, photographer and member of Magnum photos, once said, “To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”


As a rising photographer living in a visually-packed (excuse me - overloaded) society, I often find that the ordinary really can and does excite me. My hope is that this blog will be a place for me to share the way I see and how I interpret everyday happenings.


The little things, the details and the unexpected all keep me intrigued and motivated to shoot more. Some may say I'm easily distracted; I might be shooting a person and quickly find myself focusing on his vintage bike in the background, which is leaning against the characteristic brick wall at the front door.

Well, I say I am thoroughly aware of my surroundings, and as long as I'm there, why not capture the surrounding environment as well?


 We are surrounded by images in the media: television, magazines, newspapers, billboards, point-of-sale, packaging... the list goes on. With hundreds of images bombarding us from left and right, it's nice to be able to step back and enjoy the details.