The Roaring Five-Years-From-Now

This was past of an art history project, the assignment was to create an educational product that could be sold in a museum gift shop to teach people about a particular movement. Hence this art deco desk calendar. It's chock full of all kinds of lovely prints and fantastic information about the era, the art, and the legacy of art deco.

Poster in this image is © Art.com and Steve Forney. Used non-commercially in an academic setting.

I'll Make You a Pizza You Can't Refuse

There's a pizza place nearby with a mafia theme. Their current menu doesn't really suit their restaurant - it's built around buffet and delivery orders, but finding a way to order the pizza you want is a bit of a mess. It lists all kinds of things you don't need to know while in the store and things that don't do you any good outside the store, like the contents of the salad bar and the drinks available at the drink fountain. Here's the original for comparison.

I redesigned and streamlined their menu, turning it into a tear-away notepad. The focus was on user experience, and I wanted a design that would be easy for the customers and cooks to interact with. This menu explains everything you need to know about building a pizza with little pieces of mafia theming sprinkled throughout. I also redesigned the logo while I was at it.

Let It Out

Oh punny titles, when will you stop being amazing?

There's a lot of grain in this one, because when I was printing it I needed to bump the contrast way up. But I like it. It makes the plastic feel rough and the torn wall paper feel gritty. It's a good feeling for this kind of photo.

Significant Form

My most recent project in photography, setting up staged shots of objects and using light to bring out interesting aspects of their shape.
The meaningful qualities of their appearance.
The notable parts of their figure.
Their substantial construction.
Their compelling framework.
Their suggestive model.
Et cetera.

Crazy close-up and extremely contrasty hammock. The construction reminds me of a fishing net, and the fact that all the crazy vibrant colors didn't carry over adds to that association. There's so much motion in this one with that one simple twist.

I tied some rope around a bottle and put a flashlight at one end of that bottle. This whole set would have a very nautical feel if it weren't for all that branding on the cap.

Monochrome Photo Week! Day 7: Jericho

The title is a little grandiose, but I think it contrasts well with the cinder block 'n gravel aesthetic. And speaking of contrast, I love the shadow detail in this one. All the subtle cracks and crumbles.

This is part of my final portfolio project I'm working on, documenting functional decay: things in a state of falling apart yet still doing what they're intended to do. I chose to make my portfolio on this specific point in the lifespan of a functional thing because it's a weird concept but one that kinda fascinates me and that I already have a bunch of prints of it.

And with that, Monochrome Photo Week comes to a close!

Monochrome Photo Week! Day 6: The Road Not Taken

An overgrown path! This was one of the first projects we were allowed to crop, and I decided that a 1:1 ratio suited the composition better than a 4:5. Highlights have been blown out to give a coarser feel to the texture of the weeds.

Monochrome Photo Week! Day 5: Bursting

Lots of interesting imagery going on in this one. Trees reaching up and over the fence, overgrown flowers casting shade on an old dusty path. And a gate, broken off its hinges, leaned up against the fence, making the garden at once open yet obstructed. The highlights have been toned way down to give it a soft, twilight feel.

Monochrome Photo Week! Day 4: Sparks Fly

A little more abstract today. This was one of the first extended exposures I tried. What you're looking at is a little clockwork toy that shoots sparks as it rolls around. In this photograph, it created a neat little trail of sparks moving in and out of focus.

Monochrome Photo Week! Day 3: Closing

An aerial shot of a local library just before it closes down for the day. A couple folks, some cars, a suburban skyline. Feels very hometown.

Monochrome Photo Week! Day 2: Old Rubber

Don't ask me, I'm just as confused as you are.

Monochrome Photo Week! Day 1: Up in the Rafters

I'm sorry, blog. I've been ignoring you lately. Things have been happening so fast that I lost track of the time. But I'm gonna make it up to you. We're gonna have us a Monochrome Photo Week! Because I've got all this black & white photography! That I've been hoarding! Instead of attending to your needs! I am the best blogger ever.

These are rafters. Have I earned back your trust yet?

Elegance Molders

My most recent print, and my favorite of the first roll I shot. It was originally way underexposed, so I had to do quite a lot of contrast trickery to get to looking alright. Here's a part of that process.

Soft Needles

Printed my first proper print today!

Our instructor didn't want us cropping the image for whatever reason. I like it. The soft edges add to the natural feel. And that depth of field is just scrumptious.

Making First Contact

After a week in photography class I'm finally starting to learn if I can take pictures!

Today we went into a dark room and developed some film, of which I have the first few samples. They're a bit hard to see and a few of them are pretty terrible, but I'll be posting the finished products from this roll when they're ready. In the meantime, have some blurry thumbnails!

Shoot the Zombie

 

This is a quick, silent animation I threw together in an hour. I had a whole storyboard put together, and I've since recorded some voice bits. I might put together the full thing yet, but in the meantime feel free to watch this version and learn the joke ahead of time so that the official release holds no meaning to you whatsoever.

Prairie Snapshot Week! Day 7

I think it's fitting that we end Prairie Snapshot week with a sunset. This was a lot more fun than the last week-long event, mostly because I felt like I actually had something to say about the subject matter. On top of that, I've been making stuff over this past week to ensure that I'll be able to keep the daily updates rolling for a bit longer.

I hope you enjoyed Prairie Snapshot week, and I'll see you tomorrow!

Prairie Snapshot Week! Day 6

The sky is badly washed out in this one, but I feel like it adds to the balance of the shot. This is Kansas, where the skys are empty and everything of substance stretches infinitely along the ground. Trees, telephone lines, barbed wire fences, worn gravel roads, fields. All following the gentle ebb and flow of the unending plains.

Prairie Snapshot Week! Day 5

Garage and tool shed. It's sort of a plain picture, and I wish I had thought to move something into the shot to act as a more direct subject, because the contrast running from top to bottom is really cool.

Prairie Snapshot Week! Day 4

My grandfather was a cattle rancher. Part of his brand was a lazy heart, which in cattle branding terms means a heart lying sideways. Think <3.

The rusted heart in this overgrown pile of scrap was part of a sign on an old pasture gate. The other half of the brand is possibly still in that pile somewhere, but I've never been able to find it.

Prairie Snapshot Week! Day 3

The yard behind the shed. Items pictured, listed from top left to bottom right passing through upper middle and dead center with branching paths leading to the northwest, southwest, and southsouthwest, respectively in a counter clockwise direction: Mechanical lawn mowing tractor attachment, gasoline tank (on stilts) and propane tank (on ground), bale of chain link fence, rusted barrel, detached tire face, assorted wood and metal.