Time for a Change

Hey everybody, Im switching over to wordpress because I feel I have more control over there. All these post will appear there, it is just a nicer looking site. The new URL is davidhalloran.wordpress.com. Ill probably leave this up for a while but I will continue my blog at the new site.

Breaking Free from the Studio

Here are some of the mass amount of photos I shot this weekend. It was a very productive weekend, photographically.

I wanted to use up the "blood" and Kristen was kind enough to model in the 40 degree shed. Speaking of Kristen, go check out her newly created blog at kshawphotography.blogspot.com.

"A sword is never a killer, it is a tool in the killer's hands."

It has been a busy week for me. I went to Austin over the weekend, did some light painting, and had to photograph a series of images that conveyed an emotion. The title is a quote by Roman philosopher Seneca.
On the way back from Austin on Sunday there was a great sunset between Coleman and Sweetwater. I pulled over and Kristen and I snapped a few pictures of the vibrantly colored sky.
Here is an abandoned house Morgan and I painted on Monday night. Good thing its still too cool at night for snakes. This was a paradise for them.

For my emotion I chose fear. I love the old school cinematography in horror films and I wanted to recreate that. After a night of shooting in Kristen's backyard and half a bottle of fake blood in the studio, I came out with some images that I think are some of the best I have shot of people. The guy in my pictures is Joseph and I had not met him before the shoot. He was great to work with and wasn't too shocked by what I was photographing when I told him over the phone. I switched the roles of Joseph and Kristen because I thought that it had a different feel and story based on who the "killer" was. The final image was shot in Kristen's backyard using her camera because it can control a flash wirelessly. If I hadn't already invested so much in Canon gear I probably would switch to Nikon after using her camera.

Short Bus

Went back to Justiceburg tonight with Morgan and this time actually went inside the houses. It looks like there was a battle in there because dishes are scattered all over and the cupboards are all open. the couch was destroyed and the bathroom was left in ruins. Clothes still hanging up and in a smaller house there were newspaper clippings still posted to the walls. I found a newspaper from 1962 and that was probably the last time anyone lived there. The people at the house behind us decided to start shooting guns after the sun disappeared. This town gets weirder every time we go back. I finally got the shot I wanted of the bus but I know I could do better, we were frozen so we didn't stay real late and it was also a school night or I would have gotten the shot I really want. Guess I will have to go back.

Snowboards & Dragons!

My last assignment for Portfolio class not only introduced me to medium format but also got me back into the studio. It was a much more enjoyable experience than last year when that was what my entire class was based on. Having a better understanding of how light works makes the frustration level drastically drop. I got my friend Rachel to come in with her snowboard and she was an excellent model as always. I thought the snowboard idea would be interesting since there is no place to snowboard in or near Lubbock and it was very fitting for her personality. In addition to portraits, I also need to shoot some still life. Most of what I shot were artifacts from my travels in Europe (the dragon incense burner) and a box of marbles that I had. I used to think still life was easier but it is much more tedious because you are constantly tweaking the objects and trying to get the light to hit just right on the tiny surfaces. With Rachel I just had to tell her to lean forward a bit or something along those lines. It was just a little difficult to move her when she was strapped on to the board.

I hate how the colors are dulled when I put my photos on Blogger.

Just Checking In

Here is some stuff from the past weekend that I thought would be good to share. Enjoy.

A Little Variety

Going ghost town hunting with Morgan has quickly become a grand interest for me. I have been researching places and mapping them out in my free time and it isn't even what I am supposed to be working on. Last week we drove out in search of a few places and were surprised by the people we met. Both ladies we talked to knew Wyman and were some way connected to him. They were both very nice and helpful. We gained a few connections and now have contacts in Afton and Peacock which should hopefully gain us more access than the average college student. After a long day of driving we stopped in Clairemont at an abandoned jail to see how we could photograph it at night. Talk about chills. There is still the original holding cell in there. It was even scarier at night when I was in there by myself with the door shut trying to fill the room with light. Unfortunately non of my night shots came out well but here are a few from the trip.  We also found a derelict group of houses that were a lot of fun to try and paint.  I will be going out there again soon to reshoot.




Here are some shots from Wednesday (playing in the studio in portfolio class), Thursday (Kristen and I went out to take pictures of the space station going across the sky), and Friday (Kristen and I borrowed a medium format camera and went to a playground).

The Wyman Experience

Back in May I took a two week long class at the Texas Tech satellite campus in Junction, Texas.  Basically the class consisted of two weeks of running around the Texas Hill Country with the State Photographer of Texas, Wyman Meinzer, and Jerod Foster, another teacher at Tech.  Both are amazing photographers and were able to teach us how to utilize natural light and that laying down in front of a rattlesnake is one of the coolest things ever.  I learned a lot from this class and since taking it my photography has greatly improved.  I use techniques I learned during my time in Junction every time I go out to shoot.  This especially helped when I was in Europe.

I spent a good part of today down in the basement of the Mass Comm building scanning slides from Junction.  It took me 3 hours to scan 40 slides and another 2 to transfer the files from the archaic G4 Macs to my external hard drive (I was a model for my friend Kristen while I was waiting for everything to transfer).  Here are a few shots from May that might sum up some of what we did.  All are Fuji Velvia 100 except for the rattlesnake picture, that is digital.

Tempting Death

      Here in Lubbock it sleeted, snowed, and iced from last night all they way until late this afternoon.  This created hazardous conditions for just getting around time but was no reason to keep me from shooting.  Luckily, Morgan had the same idea.  We hopped in my car and made the treacherous journey out to Justiceburg since it was the closest ghost town we knew how to get to.  The drive took forever because I could go over 50 and at some points on the highway 30 was too fast.  

The abandoned buildings we had painted last week had a shimmering layer of ice on them and there was sleet piled up around the area.  It was interesting seeing these places during the day.  One of the houses I looked into still had late '50s/ early '60s era clothing hanging in the closet.  Here is a shot of one of the buildings we painted:

We walked around a bit more and I got to get a closer look of the bus that caught my eye when we first arrived on Friday night.  The outside was still bright yellow but the inside was all rusted and stripped of just about everything.

As we were leaving, a building in the brush caught my eye so I turned down a small path and we came across the old school and playground that we were unable to see in the dark.  There was a very eery feel to the ruins of the school building.  Definitely going to come back here for some night pictures.  It was creepy during the day, i can't imagine what it will be like after the sun sets.

I wanted to go out tonight after the sun set but when I went out to get in my car i realized i wouldn't even be able to make it out of the parking lot.  Better luck next time.  Here are a few more from the trip.