Erica

The break between semesters has given me time to take on some senior photos.

Erica is a senior at my high school alma mater and will graduate next spring. She has been practicing multiple forms of dance for years and is now an instructor at her dance academy. We're going to shoot once more later in the week for pictures of her in full ballet costume.



God bless, Erica!

hearing back from hearst competition..

Yesterday I got a letter from Hearst Journalism Awards; I placed 19th out of 86 entries across the country in the "Photojournalism I" (Feature/Portrait/Personal Vision) competition. I'm really excited! My friend Neil, a recent Central grad, took 7th!
Here are my entries.

december commencement

Jake and Sean also shot the commencement ceremony, and there is a slideshow with work from all three of us online at CM-Life's website. Neil also graduated this day -

art is hard

A few frames from a class soundslide assignment earlier in semester -

Zoey Brunk, 24, labors over silver earrings, a piece for her sculpture class for a ceramics Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, Nov. 11 at North Art Studio at the corner of Washington and Preston Streets.



"N'art" is the popular alias for North Art Studio, where Zoey and most other BFA students work late into the night many times a week.
To see more images from this project, check out the flickr set.

almost-triptych and the finished website...

I've been working a lot on final projects, etc, this week. I made a [really basic] website - check it out here - for my Intro to Online Journalism final, and this is how I laid out some of the images on one page. I like how they work together.

lights in the streets downtown!

There was a parade of lights in Mount Pleasant today! Convinced Neil to shoot it. (Jake may never forgive me that the trifecta was only 2/3 present, but he was busy story hunting in Beal City - watch for sometime this month on his blog!)



Borrowed Sean's 50 mm manual lens and was able to make a few things work out - at least, I'm kind of in love with that second frame. He was so sleepy...

why don'tcha come on over, valerie?

...lyrics, "Valerie," The Zutons.

surreal, real life

It's been a long week and the next seven days probably won't be easier - but there's beauty everywhere.

Found this on the surface of the library pond on the way to a rather discouraging art crit. It's my solace for the day.

Goldfish swimming in the sky...every so often I catch things like this and remember why I believe what I do, and why I want so much to be a photographer. Glorious.

audio poles of the upper peninsula

One night, two very different sets of sound back to back...welcome to the U.P., eh?


Caitlin and Steven of Eve's Attic, an independent-label folk trio (third member, Dan), play an original acoustic piece Nov. 27 in Steve's basement in Iron Mountain, Mich. (Cait and Steve are good friends of mine from high school.)


Chris Uhazie of "Thrust," a rock covers band based out of Iron Mountain, Mich., picks bass Nov. 27 at the Spread Eagle Club in Spread Eagle, Wisc.

portrait diptych

While looking for a last story for 422, I went to New Hope Assisted Living Center and made a few pictures, talked with two women there. Not sure that's where my story is, but I like these two frames together.

Marian Hutchins, 93, eats dinner Nov. 23 in her room at New Hope Assisted Living Center, where she has been living for about three years. Marian, maiden name Sheehan, was born in Isabella County and grew up on a nearby farm, where her son Fred, 65, now resides. After attending Central Michigan University to became a teacher, she was married at 24 years old and in 40 years' marriage to her husband, Raymond, had six children. Today Marian enjoys knitting, reading magazines, and watching television, especially Jeopardy and The Price is Right.