Looking Back

 

 

 

 All of the previous pictures were taken awhile back– at my father’s Ranch, actually. If I went back now to take pictures, I would probably be shot and thrown down a mine shaft (wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened). The last picture was taken at an resevoir we call the Yellow Jacket. It’s named aptly so for the numerous Yellow Jacket Wasps that live there. Even in the summer season, the Yello Jacket tank is damp, and moist. The wash there is almost always running, even though the past couple years it’s slowed to a trickle. In this image, I like the presence of the tree roots. I also like the cleanliness of the wash, It’s usually murky and filled with cow feces. This picture was taken during the monsoon season, which accounts fo the greenness of the plants. Typically everything is dead out at the ranch. The second picture is a clearer representation of how the Oro Blanco Ranch usually looks. Bleak, desolate and dry. Surprisingly, the picture is void of cattle (must’ve moved them to Chilton’s). I like the texture of the grass, and even though that grass caused many a fire at the ranch, I always loved the tickle of it against my ankles. The first picture was taken at the Ranch during spring, when marigolds and poppys cover the hills. It’s actually a beautiful sight, I just wish I had gotten a picture of it. 

 

Goin’ to California

 

 

 

 

The first two images were taken while “Going to California”. In the second image I love the texture of the clouds, and in the first, I love the intense green color of the trees. The third image is of a blooming catus– and it is from awhile back, when I did a lot of nature close-ups. 

From Flora to Fauna

 

 

 

 

All three of these images are of nature and they represent the freedom of it. In the first image there is an expanse of sky and a immense amount of cacti and trees reaching for it. In the second image, it is the tail end of a rattle snake, coming out of it’s burrow, and the third picture is of it’s head. Thank Pentax for 300mm lens. 

Early Morning

 

 

 

 

All three of these images were taken on an early morning walk with my dog. The lighting in all three is kind of dark and musty. On the third image, the dew on the branches is a slight cliche, but overall I like the compostion of the image– the foreground is blurry, the middle ground is in focus and the background is blurry again. The second image was taken after the first and third, as it is lighter. You can see snow on the mountains, and I like the idea of the dead tree reaching up into the sky. The first image is kind of filler… just a tree and a wash.

Indian Wells Pacific Life Open

Novak Djokovic

 Rafael Nadal

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

 

These pictures were taken at the Indian Wells Pacific Life Open. All of the pictures are of Professional Tennis players who gross over millions of dollars every year. For the Indian Wells Open the prize money was 3.6 million dollars for the Men’s side and 2.1 million dollars for the Women’s. I was seated in the General Admission Section of the Stadium, which is very far up(at the very top). So being that far away and taking pictures, they aren’t the best quality.

Circus Freaks Act VI

 

 

 

These pictures were taken at the Mythos Dance Performance at the U of A. Most of the pictures are blurry and grainy do to lack of light though— but the images still capture the primal beauty of the performance.

Circus Freaks Act V

 

 

 

Thses pictures were taken at the Mythos Dance Performance at the U of A. The couple who were doing the acrobat dance were essentially ‘mating’. The pictures are blurry and grainy do to the darkness of the Dance Hall. If I were to take these pictures over again I would be closer and have a tripod.

Circus Freak Act IV

 

 

 

All of these pictures were taken at the Mythos Dance Performance at the U of A. The saturation in theseimages is very high and it adds to the myhtic quality that was emplified in the show. Unfortunatly, the pictures have the same problems as the previous posts— being blurry.

Circus Freaks Act III

 

 

 

I took these pictures at the Mythos Dance Performance at the U of A a while back. All of these pictures are reasonably creepy, but they all have the problem of being blurry. The Dance Hall was very dark, and I was seated in the aisle in the far back. My ISO was all the way up, which acounts for the graininess, but I didn’t have anyway to stabilize my camera, so a lot of the pictures came out blurry.

My Own Private Army

This is also a picture of my brother— except with his riot shotgun in my face. This picture inspires a sense of fear, and I love how my brother’s eyes are hard and cold. The image is filtered in photoshop, to make it stylistic and blurry. 

The picture is my brother and one of his friends. This was taken a few days after his birthday, for which I bought him the gas mask that he is wearing in the picture. His friend was so enamoured of the gift that he went out and bought himself one! The picture was taken in the hallway at my house, and both of the weapons belong to my brother, as does the camouflage. I filtered the image in photoshop and layered it to get the surreal effect. I was going for stylistic– something that you would see on a poster. I like how the editing affected my brother’s camouflague, it looks more like tiger stripe camo now than the new pixelated camo. The affect of the filter on the hands was something I was exceptionally pleased with, because it looked like someone drew it, which was what I was looking to accomplish. All in all, not something I would ever want to encounter in real life. 

This is also a picture of my brother in my hallway. Same day, same story, different image. The Nuclear explosion in the background comes from here. This is just something I thought would be humorous, and it was. I love that my brother is doing the peace sign in the image– it makes the picture satirical, and it makes him seem more humanized, while the gas mask produces the opposite effect. The blacked out eyes and the hidden face dehumanize him– more of a monster than anything else. The reflection is scary… The concept of witnessing your own demise as the last thing you see is chilling. But, in the end, the image produces an ironic message using black humor. Mission accomplished.