It’s 21st of October, 2008. Let’s see what this means – hmmm, it’s almost the 4th of November!!!!!! A tad bit excited I know haha. But what’s even funnier is that this person who’s excited never gets a gift; I think I got my last birthday present when I was about thirteen. It’s okay though I’m not wishing for a Nikon D300, or a Billionaire Boys Club Tee, or an Ed Hardy Tee; it’s cool I don’t need a gift for my birthday. 
Today’s Post: Use It And Just Photograph!
Just like I started years ago in my high-school I’m back to photographing portraits of my friends. I don’t think this is every going to change, as boring as it is I love making portraits; who knows where this will take me someday. First step to making a boring portrait exciting is to find a person with Jamie’s energy! lol Much love Jamie, btw I miss ya! Give me a call babe. The second step of making your portrait interesting is to put something interesting in the photograph. An example is homeboy’s shirt in the photograph.
I called over a a few friends including these two shown in the post and told them that I wanted to make some portraits; the hood way. I didn’t have access to a softbox or strobes or reflectors but I had a moment of memory that I wanted to capture of my friends at SCAD. More important than that I needed these portraits for my first class on digital photography. I place a chair next to the wall, I took a lamp from Target that cost about $10.00, photographed the images and stripped the color using photoshop. It was a simple shoot.
Looking back at this these photographs as I update the article I probably would have used a beauty dish above with a sock on it at 45º using it as a hair light, a softbox to the frontside (left or right) and the strip-box to the opposite back of the subject and a reflector held at the waist of the subject bouncing light back into the eyes. However I need to make the images using what I had.
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DT.
I’m settled in Miami, Florida now. This image was a balcony at the Savannah College of Art and Design; I miss my hommies in Savannah and I’ll always have mad love for them. I’ve been running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off lately; I’m actually writing this between my break of my ADFed club meeting at my new university, Miami International University of Art and Design. I don’t think this place will ever replace the connection I had with SCAD, but I’m in Miami and closer to home now!
I decided to post this photograph because earlier, about a few hours ago actually, I showed it to president of the Photography Club at MIU. He saw my work and told me that he loves it. I appreciate the love but I’ve been hearing people tell me that they love my work years ago and I want to push it so much further.
Gad damn I’m so happy that I’ve had Timothy Keating as a professor at SCAD. Professor Keating showed me how to start making photographs instead of taking them. I titled this photograph the, Jumping Lights. Looking back at it every memory, the smell, the temperature, the light level (that’s weird Dwayne), EVERYTHING runs through my mind.
There’s nothing to photographing an image like this one, you can do it do. All you need is a tripod and the basics of photography. Here’s $25.00 from me: set-up your tripod, place the camera on it and remember the higher the f-stop the less light that comes into the camera, the lower the f-stop the more light that comes into the camera.
Remember when you were a kid and your mother took you to the food-store/ grocery-store at night and you squint your eyes to at the over head lights in the parking lot? That same light burst effect that you saw when you look at the light is the image of the light the camera records with a higher F-stop and a lower shutter speed. I think this one might have been something like F-22 and 1/4 of a second at ISO 200.
Go and have some fun and show people your work.
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DT.
Okay the blog is in motion! I believe in having a hustler’s spirt. I believe in going out there and pushing as hard as you can. Even if it’s a simple thought that leads to an action. My goal when I started this blog was to meet new people on the internet. I want to make people feel good about themselves and inspire them to be as nutty as I am about photography and creativity. The ultimate is to get as much people as I can before my time is due, to feel passionate about what they do similar to the way I feel passionate about my photography. I don’t know where this blog is going to go but I’m in for the ride. I hope people feel me and realize how much photography and pushing the creative mind means to me.
Today’s post – The Burning Bush
I photographed the image of the burning bush in Savannah GA about a year ago or so. I will always remember the personal story that goes along with this photograph. There’s nothing worst (other than being dead) than being sick to the point you can’t walk out of bed. I’m wasn’t a huge medicine fan until I witness really being sick, on my own. It was my second year of college, I flew back ill from a Texas Tech football game in Lubbock Texas; my sickness got worst when I got off the plane. Even thinking about how sick I was makes me feel blahhh.
What made me feel even more sick at the time was the thought of not being able to go outside to photograph. Perhaps the real sickness is being a bit too passionate about photography (is there such a thing?). With a few sips of Gatorade after God’s sent Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup and my doctor’s prescribed, “you are allowed to feel high medicine”, I some how, made it out of my bed of my dorm to photograph this image. I’ve titled the image the burning bush. The burning bush reminds me of the dark days I’ve spent my last few days at the coldest winter in Savannah GA, the lonely nights but most important the joy I get from setting an f-stop, iso and shutter speed. Hopefully now that you’ve read this you see why we are going to connect because you love photography as much as I do, get out there and keep on shooting!
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DT.
