Bryon and Jenny George

I went down to Mankato this weekend to visit my family and to attend my brother's wedding. Personally, I'm not a fan of winter (and I've stated this before), but this wedding was truly a perfect winter wonderland - plenty of snow on the ground, temperatures hovering in the low to mid teens and bright sunshine glaring off of the ice in the parking lots.

All of the relatives were there - many of them I had not seen in years. My brother Adam, his girlfriend Amy and his little boy Adam Jr., flew up from California to visit. My brother Chris, his girlfriend Randi and his two boys Hunter and Caleb, drove up from Wisconsin to be with everyone. Aunts, uncles, cousins, family friends... it felt good to be home; it felt good to reconnect.

I captured many good moments throughout the ceremony and the reception. Unfortunately, most of my images are bright in the foreground and dark in the background, thanks to the built-in flash on my camera. Even if I had the SB-800 (which I want, badly), the pictures would not see much improvement. It didn't help the reception room was very dark to begin with. The photographer Bryon and Jenny hired for the wedding was using a Nikon D300 with a SB-600 flash attachment and zoom lens, unfortunately, she did not take any formal wedding pictures with any other strobes from what I could see. Her photographs probably would not look much different than mine. The photographer left the reception around ten o'clock with over 800 images for the day.

All of my images are the unedited versions; I will post the edited versions another time (when I have the time to edit them properly). I love the first photograph of Jenny, who was crying even before she reached the alter. She could barely read her vows through the tears - it was so cute! I highly value capturing the natural moments in my photographs even if they aren't always flattering. For instance, notice how my nephew Hunter is choking my cousin Tiffany in the third photograph. Completely natural, especially his smile.

Okay, maybe not the choking part...

Human Landscape Project

In my color photography class last semester, we were assigned a project to explore the human landscape with our cameras. The purpose of the project was to capture the human influence in any style, as long as it could be visually relative to the traditional landscape photograph.

I decided to approach the project from two different angles - one which directly related to the assignment, and another that in a literal and actual sense truly influenced the natural landscape. All of the photographs were taken with my Nikon D90 DX with the 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED AF-S VR lens (it's the kit lens, however, I'm a big fan of the glass in the Nikon lenses). The first four photographs explore the idea given in the class assignment. I truly loved the reversal in the image of the RV, where the landscape is actually printed on the side of the giant gas guzzler.

The second photograph is a picture of an auto body shop located in Minnetonka, Minnesota. The old brick building shown in contrast with what is being left behind is fascinating. The color is so seductive, yet I can't help but feel the building is very dirty on the outside. The third photograph is also in Minnetonka and it used to be a skating rink called Cheap Skate (whatever happened to those...?). The geometric shapes and angles of the building could be calculated with a long tape measure and a compass - it's an example of almost intrinsic design.

Stepping away from the outside for a minute, the fourth photograph touches on an idea brought up in the first few pictures: the idea of patterns in man structure and influence. The organization is a little unnerving, and it feels like I'm looking at a giant forest of trees all lined up in rows from above. The fifth photograph illustrates the "biological footprint" if you will, of man altering the environment for decorative purposes. It couldn't be more simple, yet it's so destructive.

The last four photographs explore the idea of man removing nature and placing it within a man-made environment while still trying to achieve a natural order and landscape. What better place to photograph that than in a grocery store? I love how the shelves are arranged to find things easily, yet it seems like the consumer is walking through a row of dirt with the seeds and plants sprouting around them. When I look at the picture of the nuts in containers, I really feel like I'm through a field of beige wheat.

The sixth photograph keeps my eye trained to the bright colors of the peppers, but the idea of vegetables being removed from the ground and placed in a controlled environment which is watered on the hour every hour is so fascinating to me. It's the same thing for the seventh photograph of the nuts. Perhaps it really only is design, but it's not accidental.

The final photograph reminds me of trees - man altering nature so that one essence of nature becomes another. Paul Shambroom, the instructor for my color photography class seemed pleased with my work. If you haven't seen his work, you should check him out at his website. I'm a big fan of his "Meetings" project (which is a beautiful photo book as well), and his photography in "Nuclear Weapons" is eye-opening.

Critique in my Senior Advertising class went well today. My group partner Michael Simon and I have been collaborating on ideas for The One Club competition this year. We presented the thirty possible ad campaign ideas and our teacher Kathy Umland loved what we had to share and is excited to see more from us next week.

I'm happy all of my classes this semester can be easily managed and relate well to each other. On tonight's agenda: trivia at Tuttle's at nine thirty.

NEED Magazine

The brakes on my car went out yesterday morning. Thankfully, they didn't decide to fail when driving out to Medicine Lake to see the Art Shanty event... ha!

It's back to the grind at MCAD. My morning class on Wednesdays features the lovely musings of Kelly and Stephanie Kinnunen from NEED Magazine - I believe I'm going to be excited to attend every class because I learn something new each day... not just about the magazine, but also about all of Kelly's near death experiences. Our first assignment was to write a paragraph about the future of magazine publishing, and I chose to write about the most recent issue of Esquire, which also happened to be the very first issue of Augmented Reality Esquire. Learn more about it here.

Unfortunately, I discovered NEED Magazine will be closing its doors in a few short weeks as the owners of the company move on to greater endeavors. The issues are a fabulous read and there's always something inspiring, so please check out the website or pick up a copy of the magazine. If the stories don't inspire someone, surely the photography will.

I've always loved the logo of NEED Magazine. Have you noticed something is missing?

This semester will not be exclusively photography, however I will be posting my past photography projects from MCAD as I continue to edit them. This spring will be focused more on advertising and graphic design... but that's not a bad thing - being different and switching gears always provides new perspective. Focusing on building my portfolio in other ways can open new doors and create new opportunities.

Excited? You bet I am.

Art Shanty Event

New semester with new classes! I will be diving into graphic design, magazine publishing, advertising, art history and sculpture in the 3D shop this semester. For my Intro to Graphic Design class, our first project is to design a poster for an art shanty out on Medicine Lake in Plymouth, Minnesota.

What is an "art shanty"? Well, a shanty is basically an ice-fishing house. You throw in some art (or in most cases of the shanties out on Medicine Lake, something local and educational), and you get an art shanty. Thankfully, most of them were heated and did not actually have a hole for ice-fishing.


My fellow group members were excited to see the Tiny Shanty, where everything was... well, tiny. The designer of the Tiny Shanty said they had an accident with some magic shrinking dust. We have chosen to design a poster based on the experience of the Tiny Shanty. You can learn more by visiting their website.

We also made special appearances at the Teepee, the Science Shanty, the Dance Shanty and a few others. To learn more about the other places we visited, visit the Art Shanty website and learn more about the event.

This weekend was not the best weekend to head out on the lake - we spent the rest of the afternoon discussing the project and watching Futurama waiting for our socks to dry. There were cracks out on the lake and just walking to the site proved to be incredibly slow, wet and slushy. I'm planning on another trip next weekend and more pictures will come, which is surprising to say, because I loathe winter. Especially after today. I was continuously being reminded of trenchfoot.

Too bad about those Vikings though... not that I'm complaining. I'm a Packers fan! What a beautiful kick, right through the center.

I saw it coming from a mile away. I wonder if Brett Favre will be on for another season with the Vikings. Watching him play today made me think... it's nice to know some things never change...