An annoying trend I’ve noticed in certain film shooters is an elitist attitude about their medium. It’s as if since film is “original” or “more real” then digital it’s better.

This is not true.

Photographers chose their medium because of style, ease of use, or personal preference. They chose what works for them.

This is the thing about shooting film or digital: it’s just another medium. Some painters prefer acrylic, some prefer oil. As artists, we work with the materials that we create best with. If it’s digital: fine. If it’s film: fine. But whatever works for you doesn’t make it the best. Or at least not the best for everyone else.

So if you’re an aforementioned elitist: shut up.

Lately I’ve been thinking about land/cityscapes.

In search of summer, Katrina and I ended up on the roof of a parking garage.

For the record I think it’s really funny that Dick Cheney pulled his back moving boxes. That man should be in jail.

I’m excited for Barack Obama.

I got the chance to go to Cassandra Barney’s studio yesterday with some friends. She made us cookies and talked about art.

She knows how to treat art students.

I try to be unobtrusive when I shoot, but a camera can still intimidate. Since her husband is a photographer, she wasn’t phased by my camera at all.

Anyway, she’s hella rad. Check her stuff out here and her blog here.

This is Trace. If you frequent the blog, he’ll be no stranger to you.

Trace came over the other day for some shots so he’d have a reference point for a self portrait.

With self portraits like this, a lot of art students will draw from a mirror. They usually end up with a photo of themselves looking really concentrated?/pissed. Hopefully these photos will help avoid that.

Anyway, he’s a really good illustrator so when he’s done with his assignment we’ll post them.

The last two are my favorite, but I’m stoked on all of them.

A few weeks ago I got the chance to shoot and interview Andrew Smith for Square. It was a good experience not only because Andrew is a super nice guy, but because I really liked talking to him about his work.

Andrew works with found objects (usually junk) to create new works. Some of his most famous pieces are rolling ball sculptures (which are kind of like Rube Goldberg machines).

One of my favorite quotes from the interview is this:

“A lot of artist have a deep emotional, metaphorical or poetic meaning behind their work. My pieces don’t typically have that. I’ve told the people who ask that if anything I’d say the purpose behind my artwork is that it doesn’t have a purpose. It’s just the raw creativity and fun.”

I like the idea of making something just to make it. Art for arts sake.

Learn more about Andrew’s art by checking out his interview in Square Magazine or going to his website.

From time to time I got back through my catalog of work. I look for photos that I might have missed or ones that I might want to process again. I like doing this because it’s nice to see how my style has changed and how my skills have improved. This is especially relevant in my color work as I’ve become a much better color photographer in the last 6 months or so.

The first image in the set above is a picture that I didn’t quite know what to do with the first time around. I initially didn’t put any work into it, but the other day I looked through the photos I took of The Crylics and gave it another go. I’m glad I did, because I’m quite happy with it now.

In this set of Noya the black & white photos are the original processing with the color being the recent experiment.

As you can see in these photos of Haleigh, sometimes I process the color photos multiple times. It’s good practice to see what I like.

So why is this post tagged in the “Learning” category? Because you should be doing this too. If you’ve got a color photo that you really like, see what happens and turn it black & white. If it works: great. If it doesn’t: fine. Ether way you should be asking “Why does this look work/not work?” What you’ll learn will be invaluable.