2010

its Almost 2010! I’ve already begun new years resolutions, starting a journal for songwriting/thoughts and preparing to apply to put up my pictures at a certain coffee shop. Haha actually, I just realized you can see some of the frames in the bottom right corner of the first picture up there. More on that later.

What are your New Years Resolutions?

Thee Partyy

Here are some shots from Denia/Karla's winter break party!

 

Oaklawn Cemetery

Here are the results from the cemetery shoot today! The Sprinklers were on for half the day, and we thought we were locked in at the end of the shoot haha, but the photos came out great. Still learning to gauge visually what speed and F-stop I should use, my skills are definitely improving with all of this practice. Quick tip, using a low f-stop while having a person close to you with an interesting background makes the person stand out very well.

First Photoshoot

First try at portraits in awhile, i'd say they went quite well! That was a wonderful afternoon.

I've been itching to photograph a "Skins" house party. Too bad those only happen in Britain haha. Also, exciting news! I finally have all the equipment I need (tripod + sigma super wide angle lens) to fully unleash my potentiallll. Expect to see work with lots of long exposures, two more photoshoots,  light graffiti, and timelapse photography very soon.

Artwalk/Broken Places/Biggest Post Ever

Artwalk had some pretty interesting people. I swear one woman was carrying around a fake baby in her stroller, then a guy who looked EXACTLY like Dennis Hopper from Blue Velvet approached me and asked if I had found Jesus.I didn't sell any prints, probably because they were huge 16x20's, but made a lot of new interested contacts. Actually, in the two days after art walk about 120 new people read my blog, which is really exciting!

What I realized from art walk/the vendor next to me was that cute handmade headbands sell like baked bread haha. The headbands were very well made, and I know most if not all of my female friends would love to buy one of these. Here's the etsy website where you can get them.

www.secondcycle.etsy.com

After displaying my photography at art walk I've been really productive with my work. As I said before i'm focusing on people now, so i've taken a couple of pictures of myself (they are on lookbook/they were pretty hard to do by myself) and soon i'll be photographing two great friends who are going to model for me. For those who don't know what lookbook is, its an online, invite only community where people post interesting photos of themselves/ what they are wearing. Looks gain popularity by the number of people that "hype" them. Click on the HYPE link to go to lookbook.nu and hype me! Next time I will definitely have someone photograph me instead of using the camera timer.

HYPE

HYPE

HYPE

Next, a couple of photographers and I have gotten together (This was David from the Jaxscene blog's idea) and decided to photograph the "Broken Places" In Jacksonville. Here's My take on that theme.

And here are some photos that did not fit in the "Broken Places category, but warrant posting on the blog. Interesting Story about the last photo; I kept on running into that couple that day and when I saw them sitting there I couldn't help but include them in the photo. the photo came out so beautiful, I kinda wish I would have given them a card for my blog so they could see it. Anyways i'll be posting up/actually doing those photoshoots soon and feel free to comment!

-Alex

Swing Tree

Hello there friend, heres a picture I took just today. Theres a magical time in the day (as the sun rises and sets) when some things just look AMAZING. Seriously, set your camera on a stabilizing surface and take pictures right before the sun sets.

I should be able to visit a graveyard this week and get some good shots to put up.

Oh dear Santa please bring me a tripod so I can take perfect pictures right before the sun sets/rises!

ARTWALK PREVIEW!

Hey there, I will be at the Artwalk this Wednesday November 4th in Hemming plaza right across from the main library! And I am pretty sure i'm getting another photo in the Spinnaker. Next step, artshows and possibly riverside arts market. If you want any of these 16 by 20 poster prints they are all $20 dollars each, and you can get them at this coming Wednesday's artwalk. They would be great for decorating dorm walls, any walls aand you'd be supporting a local independent artist.

Here's a link to information about the first Wednesday artwalk

P.S. this song makes me want to Indian dance around a campfire, Which hopefully will actually happen. Maybe this summer or when it gets warm again?

http://neonized.net/uploads/stuff/2009/sueltas/glad%20delorean%20remix.mp3

Die-in for Darfur

Here's a couple of shots I took of the Die-in for Darfur at UNF. This "Die-in" is a form of expression where the people lying on the floor visually represent the casualties in Darfur, bringing awareness to the lives lost through complacency and inaction.
Project peace hosted this event, and their group profile mentions, "As the world stands by, 330 people are killed every day in Darfur region of Africa's largest country, Sudan. Although the US government has declared this a genocide, the massacres are still ongoing. To date, as many as 400,000 have been killed and over 2.5 million have been displaced."
What a visually arresting and effectively thought provoking display.

-Alex





Heres a link to the group that hosted this event.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=174876979186&ref=nf

Bangers and Mash

Helloo there. In the near future I will be focusing on two themes in my photography.

People, and Broken places in Jacksonville.

Pictures of me will probably be posted to lookbook, but i'll post them here as well.

Anyone have any ideas about interesting abandoned/dark/gritty places in Jacksonville or anything else let me know by commenting!

credits to Nat for that picture in memorial park. Also, a picture I took of the memorial park statue (picture at the top of this blog) is featured in the UNF newspaper this week!

On a more random note Devendra Banhart released his latest cd on Warner Brothers?wtf

O well I am still modeling my tattoo on his.

For those curious the tattoo is going to be two red bands around my left forearm. (a play off of Banhart's four red bands on both). They symbolize balance and, most importantly, my other half that I have yet to find. Or maybe i've found her already and haven't realized it? Could be.

NEOOOON

So last night I went down to TSI to see Neon Indian! The band before them, Awesome New Republic(from Miami), was pretty good too. Their songs had lots of vocal harmonies and synth arpeggiations. Very pleasing to the ear.

Neon Indian's music was delightfully lo-fi and spacey. Due to this i'd say, the crowd was really moving and at one point Alan Palomo(frontman for Neon Indian) said "you guys are crazy" after watching some of the people dancing/waving around like seaweed in a rip current. Neon Indian's set was pretty short, but I guess it would be since they don't have that much material yet.

I Spotted Reggie Youngblood (front man for the band Black Kids) in a green hoodie with his asian? gf, while a remix of a black kids song was playing. Oh the irony. Also the music they were playing in between the two bands was the Twelves 90 minute mixtape they just released about two weeks ago. Good choice there.

Summary:

Even though I felt like Antoine Doinel walking the empty streets down to the river walk while I was waiting for TSI to open, i'm really glad I went. I met some very interesting people there. Stupid flu is still killing my activeness, i've been coughing all over the place.its gotten so much better though. I really should have brought my camera to creep on people so I could have pictures to go along with my stories. Anyways, i'm a huge fan of Neon Indian now(secretly more so than VEGA just cause of their lo-fi, warped tape sounding goodness)

P.S. that song playing is a Neon Indian track (Deadbeat Summer)

P.P.S. I swear I never bring my camera when I need it. Lesson learned. My camera will be permanently attached to my body from now on.

Oink Oink

This week has been something else. I have the flu so i'll be staying home and taking Tamiflu for awhile. Yes that's the medicine they give for swine flu. I started getting the chills as I was watching Blue Velvet in my film class, and when I got home yesterday I felt too dizzy to stand up. There were some really awkward moments in that film where I could literally see my class squirm and laugh uncomfortably haha.

Also, two more things.

1 ) www.nycblanks.com is legitimate, I received my American Apparel hoody and red striped shirt today

2) I will be at November's Artwalk in Hemming plaza next month!