Pushing Pixels

The view from the dock at Charles house on Mosquito Creek, near Bennetts Point, SC.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend some time on the coast at one of my favorite places in the world, my friend Charles’ river house on Fenwick Island.  The best thing about Fenwick is that it is private, and with the exception of about 5 houses which are all owned by members of the Baldwin family, it is completely un-spoiled by the meddling of man.  Wild, un-touched, and completely cut off, this is the perfect place for me to get back in touch with my personal vision, explore, and have an adventure fishing off-shore, and have deep philosophical discussions with others much wiser than I.

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Tags: beauty, boat, carolina, coast, creek, dock, marsh, natural, nature, palmetto, photography, print, river, shilouette, sunset, travel, tree, water.

I just wanted to make a quick post to let everyone know that I have not forgotten that this blog exists.  Things have been very busy lately, both shooting and business wise.  I’ve got a lot of new things that I’m working to make happen before the end of the year.  I’m making plans to start doing a lot more tutorial posts here on the blog (even some with video).  

Over the Labor Day weekend I started working with Marshall (the best web programer I know) over at Fun Sun Studio on version 1.1 of my website, and I’m really stoked to see what he has come up with.  I’m busy adding new content to the framework of the site, making design nit picks, and he’s slaving over a hot keyboard to make the changes like a champ.  Here is a quick preview of what we’ve got going on…

Goodbye Flash… Hello JavaScript… This is really exciting for a wanna be techno geek like me.  But I haven’t been spending all of my time in front of a computer screen… I have gotten out, and made some images lately.  Here are just a few that I shot the other night as the University of South Carolina opened up their season on ESPN’s Thursday night game, against North Carolina State (this is for Angie my new blog bud over at OH MY GOFF! who is a Gamecocks fan, but now lives in D.C.) I hope you all enjoy…

Above: USC starts their opening drive after receiving the kick off from N.C. State at Williams-Brice Stadium, in Columbia, S.C., Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008.
Above: South Carolina, quarterback, Tommy Beecher, right, takes a snap in the shot gun formation during their opening drive against N.C. State, at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, S.C., Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008.
Above: South Carolina, tailback, Mike Davis, 25, left, gets a fist full of N.C. State, corner back, Jeremy Gray’s, right, face mask, while trying to stiff arm.

Tags: carolina, college, Columbia, design, football, Gamecocks, stadium, usc, website, wolfpack.

It has been a busy couple of weeks.  I just finished up with some player portraits from Media Day at the University of South Carolina’s, Williams-Brice Stadium on Sunday afternoon.  It felt like it was 120 degrees on the field, and I was soaking wet by the end of it, but all of the players took my requests in stride, and I had a great time with it, and had the opportunity to make some nice images of some great student athletes.  I was caught in the act of shooting the portraits of new starting quarterback, Tommy Beecher, by friend and shooter, Drew Stewart of local NBC affiliate WIS-TV in Columbia, S.C., and according to his package from last nights newscast, I’m helping to contribute to quarterback, Tommy Beecher’s “Rockstar” status.  

Tags: carolina, football, Gamecocks, media, player, portrait, quarterback, SEC, south carolina.

Lately I’ve been taking my job a little to seriously, and it is becoming something I do to have an income, instead of something I love to do. But then again lately I’ve been taking life a little to seriously. I suppose that is the curse of making something that you love to do your career. In some ways its inevitable to just take something lightly as you get older, because you begin to realize that you need to be able to make a car payment, rent, insurance, food, etc… But when you worry about all of that stuff you tend to forget why you really started doing this in the first place. Perhaps its just time to stop taking everything so seriously, and start having fun again. Maybe then things will just fall into place. Who knows how everything will work out in the long run, and if we did know that… what would be the fun in living life. Its time to get up off of the couch and go explore the world, have some fun, and see what happens. Its time to take the point and shoot out, like I did at the beach the other day, because its more about the journey than the resullts. In that moment when I wasn’t thinking about shutter speeds, f-stops, and iso, so I get to remember the sunrise, instead of how I photographed the sunrise. I think the line from the movie is “Don’t take life to seriously, you’ll never get out alive.”

Peace

Tags: atlantic, beach, carolina, collage, east, folly, photo, stitch, sunrise, travel.

Last night I got to shoot an event that I never thought I would see, my alma mater (WKU) taking on the University of South Carolina in the first round of the NIT. It was a completely surreal experience. I don’t think I can count the number of times I’ve covered WKU at Diddle Arena in Bowling Green, Ky. as a student, and USC at the Carolina Coliseum or their new home the Colonial Center, as a freelancer.

On one hand I have spent my entire life growing up around the Gamecocks, and on the other I have spent the last four years of my life, eating, sleeping (or lack thereof) and breathing the photojournalism program at WKU. So needless to say both schools are very near and dear to me.

The first two things I saw when walking on to the court made me do a double take, first the all too familiar red towel, and second a very good friend of mine from WKU, Tyler Pelan, whom I hadn’t seen in over a year.

It was nights like last night that make me thankful that I am able to be a photographer, because of the relationships we have with each other, the love we all share for making photos, and the ability to be in the situation where you don’t have to pick a team you are pulling for because you have to stay “neutral” to document the assignment.

Aside from all of of the business stuff I am finally shooting again. Enclosed are two of my favorite shots from the game.

Tags: action, basketball, carolina, Gamecocks, hilltoppers, NIT, photography, sports, western kentucky, wku.