Difficult Conversations, August 10th 2011
Goal #2 for 2011 (Read at least 3 Books) IN PROGRESS
Difficult Conversations was a book that all the RAs had to read over the summer. It was great. Very appliciple to what I’ll have to do in the fall. Very good info.
Actual Date of Photo: 7/20/11
Kreston and Bridie Wedding, July 31st 2011
Goal #17 (Get Paid to Take Photos At A Wedding) EVEN MORE ACCOMPLISHED.
Kreston asked me last summer to shoot his wedding while I was working at the pool with him. Technically he was the first to ask me to shoot a wedding for money, but since it was so far in the future, I had already shot a couple of weddings on my own before doing his. But this wedding beautiful. It was held in Umpqua, OR right by the river.
Actual Date of Photos: 7/9/11
Shopping With Mom and Aunt Janet, July 30th 2011
We have a little tradition where every summer we go shopping with mom and aunt janet. janet has really good fashion sense, and mom… mom has a sister who has really good fashion sense.
actual date of photos: 7/10/11
Born To Run, July 29th 2011
Goal #2 for 2011 (Read at Least 3 Books) IN PROGRESS
This book was soo good.
Part epic story, part running advice, part running history, part human psychology, part human development. All wrapped into one.
I had heard about “Born To Run” back when I was a senior in highschool. My cross country coach talked about it and some of the techniques it promoted (such as barefoot running) but only till now when I started hearing people talk about it again did I pick it up. It was really entertaining and interesting. I would recommend it to anyone with even the slightest interest in running.
Actual Date of Photo: 7/10/11
Beti and Lou’s Wedding, July 8th 2011
Goal #17 for 2011 (Get paid to take photos at a wedding) ACHIEVED.
This was the one. I was shooting solo as primary photographer.
And I got paid.
Fantastic.
Beti and Lou were awesome, just a really fun, happy couple, their day went awesome, and I even got to climb up on the roof of their house and shoot down at the festivities.
Definitely learned a lot of things at this wedding. I know I have a lot of improving to do, but I know I’m on the right track, and I know I gave them something that they will cherish for years to come.
Actual Date of Photos: 6/18/11
Beti and Lou’s Wedding Rehearsal, July 6th 2011
Goal #17 for 2011 (Get paid to take photos at a wedding) IN PROGRESS.
I got a job taking photos at Beti and Lou’s wedding in Long Beach, CA. Since it would be my first time shooting solo and primary I told them I’d come to their rehearsal, which would be held the same time of day, two days before the actual wedding. That way I could figure out light and get my bearnings. So this was the first part of getting paid to take photos at a wedding.
Beti and Lou were so much fun. Lou had a great sense of humor and Beti was genuinely sweet. They took me out to dinner with their kids (they both had been married before) after the rehearsal.
I even made a slideshow of the photos I took at the rehearsal and showed it to them on their wedding day beacause I thought they were awesome.
Actual Date of Photos: 6/16/11
beti & Lou slideshow (may take a while to load)
Recent Recap, Le’Quan, Eggs, Lens, Detour, June 30th 2011
So, I’m still getting the blog up to date, and these are some things that all happened close to each other.
6/6/11 – I made myself scrambled eggs. And then I ate them.
6/7/11 – Le’Quan Jackson made fun of me on twitter. So I took a photo of him smirking as proof and uploaded it to facebook.
6/9/11 – I got a new lens from Xuong Do. Its the 24- 105mm f/4.0 that he always uses at weddings. He gave it to me with the condition that I had to work of its value by doing photo-shoots for him and editing. Its a pretty good deal for both of us, because he has two of that lens, which means he’s getting free work from me, and I get to use the lens a ton before I even really put down the money for it. ALSO, one of my goals for 2011 was to get a new lens, and although I already got a new one, this still couts as completing the goal even more.
Soooo: Goal #22 for 2011 (Get a new lens) COMPLETED. AGAIN.
6/10/11 – My room at Detour
Actual Date of Photos: 6/6, 6/7, 6/9, 6/11
A Day at Newport, June 29th 2011
So part of my summer plans were to try and learn how to surf. I didn’t get it done today, but I got mighty close, and I did do a lot of backflips, so that means…
Goal #26 for 2011 (Do a back flip at least twice a month to not lose the feel) IN PROGRESS
Oh, Josh did some backflips too. And a back hand springs into a backflip. So he’s pretty cool too.
Actual Date of Photos: 6/5/11
Mom and Dad’s 25th Anniversary, June 28th 2011
GOAL #10 for 2011 (Do something for every one of Mom and Dad’s Monehly Anniversaries) IN PROGRESS
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Today is my Mother and Father’s 25th ANNIVERSARY. They are amazing and I love them very much. Whats really cool is that Mom and Dad celebrate their anniversary MONTHLY. They just do the little things often as a way to appriciate each other in their day to day lives. I think this is awesome because I personally believe that anything you want to get good at, whether its taking picures or, well, being married, you should practice everyday. Mom and Dad set an awesome example of that and I am so blessed and honored to have them as my parents.
LOVE YOU MOM AND DAD!
note: it is one of my goals for the year to awknolodge Mom and Dad’s monthley anniversary. So far this year I have called them on every 28th and talked to one or both of them and wished them a happy anniversary.
Actual Date of Photo: This one was taken last year, 11/18/2010
Backflips with Josh, June 24th 2011
Goal #26 for 2011 (Do a back flip at least twice a month to not lose the feel) IN PROGRESS
My last backflip post left off in march. So now I will update you on backflips from april through may.
4/4 – Did a backflip at skit practice (for a while they were going to try and put a backflip into skit, but it ended up not working out.)
4/8 – Did backflips out on Wilson field during an RA football program.
4/15 – Did a backflip for Xuong as he was teaching me how to pose people.
4/18 – At the river front in Corvallis as Phil and I were practicing our Mr. Spartan sthick.
4/19, 4/20, 4/21, 4/22 – Mr. Spartan Rehersal
4/23 – At the Mr. Spartan Pageant
5/24 – At the RA closing banquet
5/31 – With Josh Sorosky, out in the Davis Quad.
Actual Date of Photos: As stated above
Mr. Spartan Photo-Shoot, June 12th 2011
GOAL #12 for 2011 ( MC the Mr. Spartan Pageant) ACHIEVED (more elaboration)
The day of the Pageant I took the Mr. Spartan crew out for a photo-shoot. It was the last group activity they did before the pageant, and I think they’ll cherish the photos for the rest of their lives. This is why I put MCing the Mr. Spartan Pageant on my list of goals for 2011, because its such a special time.
Actual Date of Photos: 4/23/11
Ride Your Unicycle to Class Week, May 30th 2011
Goal #23 (Ride my unicycle to class for an entire week) ACHIEVED
It was getting close to the end of the year, and I knew this was on my list of goals for the year, so rather than procrastinate and save it for the fall, I decided to get this one done spring semester. It took a little extra planning because riding my unicycle is a lot slower than longboarding, especially when going all the way to Dodge (the film school). But I left early for classes and got to everything fine. The hardest part was actually the chafing that I got from the unicycle seat. The more I rode the more I realized that riding a girraffe unicycle is kind of like lifting weights; if you don’t do it very often, you’ll get really sore really quick when you try and do it a lot all of a sudden.
Anyway, happy to cross this off of my list of goals for the year. It was a pretty fun one. Lots of people say hi to you when you’re on a 5ft girraffe unicycle, and a couple of the photos I’m posting were taken from peoples camera phones and posted on facebook. It was a good week.
Oh, and a couple of people also really wanted to try it out. I let them at their own risk. Included at the bottom are a couple of photos of Stephen Comp being very brave. He got maybe a half a pedal before falling off, but he was good at falling, so all was well.
Actual Date of photos: 5/2 – 5/6
Picture Printed Out Really Big, May 25th 2011
Goal #24 for 2011 (Print out one of my pictures really big) ACHIEVED
Who knew that you could print out a 20X30 print at Costco for $10? I had to do it. It accomplished goal number 24 for the year and is also a great room decoration.
Actual Date of Photos: 4/27/11
Mr. Spartan Dance Rehersals, May 22nd 2011
GOAL #12 for 2011 ( MC the Mr. Spartan Pageant) ACHIEVED (more elaboration)
The week leading up to the Mr. Spartan Pageant rocks. The guys and girls start practicing their dances up on stage, they start figuring out their skits, and the pageant starts getting pieced together. I loved watching from the stands as the guys polished up the dance. This was also when Phil and I were writing what we were going to do up on stage during the pageant as MCs.
Actual Date of Photos: 4/18/11
Mr. Spartan Backstage, May 21st 2011
GOAL #12 for 2011 ( MC the Mr. Spartan Pageant) ACHIEVED
I am actually pretty proud of this goal. I really love Mr. Spartan. It was the highlight of my high school career and created some memories that will never leave me.
For those of you who don’t know what Mr. Spartan is, it’s a four-month long fundraiser my highs chool does to raise money for the Mario Pastega House and the Good Samaritan Cancer Center in Corvallis, Oregon. They choose 10 boys and 10 girls (plus some head-coordinators, a treasurer, and junior girls) who are role model students and put on an extravagant marathon fundraiser that culminates in a pageant with dances, talent skits, and the crowning of Mr. & Ms. Spartan. When I was a senior in high school I was runner up.
Last year I took a week off of school at Chapman and went back to MC the pageant because I had really wanted to since finishing up my year. That was an amazing experience. I pretty much got to do the whole last week of the amazing fundraiser over again with the class directly below me, who were still close friends.
Here are the blog posts I did on it last year:
http://nathanworden.wordpress.com/2010/04/25/mr-spartan-2010-pageant-april-25th-2010/
http://nathanworden.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/the-pageant-april-26th-2010/
http://nathanworden.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/mom-segment-april-27th-2010/
http://nathanworden.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/more-pageant-photos-april-28th-2010/
This year I wasn’t sure if they would want me to come back again. The seniors this year would have been sophomores when I was a senior, and I was getting a little bit more disconnected. Regardless, it was still an amazing way to connect back to my roots, see my high school again, have a purpose, and add to the atmosphere and energy of Mr. Spartan, so I told myself if they’d take me again, I’d do it.
And so that’s how it got on the goal list for 2011. I thought if I want to do it enough to fly back up and MC again, then I might as well make it a goal. Stuff that goes on the goal list has a much better chance of actually happening.
Anyway, there were some amazing things about this year’s Mr. Spartan group (including getting to MC with Phil Campbell, who was a contestant last year when I MC’ed) and I’ll be blogging more about it in the next couple of days. For now, these are pictures that other people took of me and Mr. Spartan stuff the day of the pageant. Consider it the appetizer for all of the photos that I took.
Some of these are from the photo-shoot I did with the Mr. Spartan group the morning of the pageant, some are from backstage from Phil’s iPhone as he live tweeted the event (haha) and some are from right after the pageant when I posed with my parents and Phil.
Actual Date of Photos: 4/23/11
Auspicious Set, May 2nd 2011
Goal #13 for 2011 (DP an AP at Chapman) ACHIEVED.
For those of you not used to film lingo, “DP” stands for “Director of Photography.” Or in laymen’s terms, the camera man.
My goal of being the head camera operator of an Advanced Production at Chapman stemed from the fact that the sooner you hold key positions on these more advanced sets, the sooner you start being able to use the best resources that Chapman has to offer. Oh, and you also start meeting the most talented directors, sound mixers, etc. In general people don’t start DP or editing or directing APs till their junior year, but after this production, I will have both edited and shot one.
DPing is also good practice for my photography skills, plus a bunch more stuff you have to worry about. So its kind of a nice break from the still stuff.
Vick Ravindran was the director of this Advanced Production. It is called “Auspicious” and it’s a cute story about a couple that are arranged to be married by their parents.
We shot on my 7D, and used Arjun Prakash’s shoulder mount, follow focus, and monitor accessories.
Actual Date of Photos: 4/1/2011
Xuong Do / Internship with Happy Photos, April 29th 2011
Goal #8 for 2011 (Get an Internship) COMPLETE
Of course, at this point, my internship with Xuong Do of Happy Photos is still on going, but it is official and I have been shooting weddings, and so this goal has been achieved.
This internship with Happy Photos is one of the best things that has happened to me all year. With Xuong (Pronouced ‘Song’) I am more of a camera assistant / second shooter than an intern. I go to weddings with him and different shoots and back him up. I have learned more from Xong than from any class I have taken at Chapman this year.
I get personalized, one-on-one training from Xuong that I couldn’t even get from a classroom and touts its ‘personalized’ education as one of its strongest points. Xuong will trust me to get shots of the groomsmen at a wedding, and then afterwards go over my shots with me and tell me what I can improve. He will tell me why a certain shot isn’t good enough to present to the Bride and Groom and what I can do differently next time to fix it.
Xuong also did a shoot with me as the subject, going through the different poses he has grooms do, so that I actually feel what he is having his clients do. That way I know exactly what to look for and what to get the subject to do. Talk about hands-on learning! I am so thankful for this opportunity to learn from someone who makes a living as a photographer and watch what they do and how they do it.
Another awesome thing about working with Xuong is seeing the business side of photography. Xuong has made pictures his livelihood, and so he has to stay on top of all the back-end processing, dealing with clients, taxes, prints, etc. Xuong has made it clear that in order to survive, we have to be all about customer service. If the client asks, there isn’t anything we can’t do (and if we don’t know how we learn real quick.)
I’m making a list of specific things I’ve learned from Xuong, but I’ll hold off on posting it until the end of the school year so it is complete.
Until then, here are some shots of Xuong in action.
Actual Date of Photos: 3/19/2011
Photo Wall Completed, April 25th 2011
Goal #29 for 2011 (Cover a wall in my dorm with photos) COMPLETE!
This took a lot longer than I expected, but now that it’s done, my room looks SO FREAKING COOL! It’s like having Your-Life themed wall-paper. I love waking up in the morning, opening my eyes and seeing my friends, family, and adventures covering the wall opposite to me. This was definitley one of the best goals of 2011.
The photo wall also serves as motivation and inspiration for me to continue working at becomming a professional photographer. Every time I apply for something, whether its the event photographer at dodge or an internship with Happy Photos, I think, “Hey, I’m qualified for this, psssh, YEAH I’m a photogpher, my whole ROOM is covered in photos.”
It’s quite the confidence builder.
Another thing I really like is I’ll be out and about at Chapman talking with someone I haven’t seen in a while and then I’ll go back to my room and my eye will be drawn to a photo I have of them. It’s like the people I see recentley pop out a little more from the hundreds of other pictures in my room as if to say “Hey! It was good seeing you today!” I think its really cool that all the people in my room are people that are also part of my daily life.
Actual Date of Photos: 3/25/2011
Back Flip Goal Check-in, March 25th 2011
Goal #26 for 2011 (Do a back flip at least twice a month to not lose the feel) IN PROGRESS
So here’s the check-in for March AND February as far as back-flips go. I did’t do a back flip check in post for February, so I’m combining it with March’s to get caught up, and so you know I’m still on track to achieve the goal.
2/21/11 – Did a back flip in the Orange Circle when I was taking photos and climbing buildings with Scott Stedman, Sam Hemman, and company. (Thats what the picture is from)
2/25/11 – Did a back flip at the DJ Earworm concert, which was held in the Hutton Sports Center at Chapman University.
3/6/11 – Did a back flip at RA group process with Josh Sorosky while we were on break. It was right outside of Henley Hall
3/27/11 -Did a back flip at Delt’s Skit practice. (I know according to the date of this post the 27th would technically be in the future, but I’m adding this on the 30th, so yeah, I’m not telling the future, this already happened.)
So there, all caught up for February and March. 2 back flips a month. Going strong.
For a complete list of all of my goals for 2011, go here: http://www.wordenphotography.com/category/goals-for-2011/
Actual Date of Photo: 2/21/11
New Lens 70-200mm 2.8, March 22nd 2011
Goal #22 for 2011 (Get a new lens) ACHIEVED.
I got a huge discount on the Canon 70-200mm 2.8 lens from my internship boss, who happens to be able to get great prices on lenses straight from Canon. This lens that I got is the premire lens for weddings, shows, events, pretty much anything where your subject is doing anything but posing for you. I’ve already used it a ton at my photo job at Dodge, and I’ll be using it a lot more at weddings.
Actual Date of Photos: 2/25/11
Pan-o-rama fail, March 18th 2011
So, in an attempt to complete Goal #4 (Learn how to do Panoramas in Photoshop), I did a full circle of the fountain in the middle of Old Towne Orange, hoping I would be able to learn how to piece them together in photoshop. Unfortunately, when I got to my computer and had the fantastic Josh Sorosky, telling me how to actually do it, it turns out I made a couple of strategic erros.
In order to do a good Panorama, you want the vertical shift of your camera to be as little as possible. Meaning having your camera on a tripod is going to make things easier. Which I didn’t.
And the other mistake, which is actually the real kicker, is that I didn’t keep the camera on a single point. Since I was moving in a circle around the fountain I didn’t quite have a central point to work off of, meaning that there would be some natural errors where my circle would be imperfect.
Hate to break it to you, but yeah, its true. I’m not perfect.
Rats.
This error isn’t insurmountable, but it takes a skilled panorama-editor to fix, and wasn’t really the best first-try learning material.
So instead I’ll keep you posted on the next time I try a Panorama, which hopfully will be more successful because I will know how to set it up better.
The rest of the night turned into some more building climbing in the circle and hanging out with Scott Stedman, Sam Hemann, Casy Bruce, and Jacob Fletcher. I got a cool HDR shot of the fountain too, it’s down at the bottom.
Actual Date of Photos: 2/21/11
My First Car, February 27th 2011
This. Is. My. First. Car.
Goal #28 for 2011 (Get a Car): ACHIEVED
His name is Trooper. He is a 92′ BMW 3-Series. I bought him from my boss’s wife at my internship. They have two kids and a two-door was getting to be too small.
The funny thing about Trooper is that he is stick-shift.
I don’t know how to drive stick.
So why did I even consider buying a car I wouldn’t know how to drive?
I dono. I guess it was just one of those things where I thought I’d pick it up quick if I had to. And I had to.
Drivng Margie Do (my boss’s wife) back from Triple-A was probably one of the most embarrassing experiences of my life. She immediately picked up on the fact that I had no idea what I was doing and had no confidence whatsoever in getting us home. But instead of taking over, we had a quick crash course (literally) in driving stick, and I got my first taste of driving stick out on a busy road.
From that time I’ve had a couple lessons from friends and can saftley say I am comfortable driving stick. There was a really scary week at the beginning but now that its over, life is good.
Some other bonding experiences I’ve had with Trooper:
– Something was wrong with his anti-theft alarm, and so it would constantly go off as I was driving down the street. Got a lot of really weird looks on that one.
– Drove to Beverly Hills belting Lady Gaga in thick traffic on my way to a modeling audition.
– Stalling in the middle of I-5 when traffic got really slow, and then taking about two minutes before there was a chance to get started up again.
– Having the battery die on the second day I had Trooper andnot being able to find his battery in order to jump him. (Its in the back as opposed to under the hood)
Actual Date of Photos: 2/7/11
Orange Circle HDR, February 13th 2011
Goal #5 for 2011 (Learn how to do HDR Photography) EVEN MORE ACHIEVED
So, technically this goal was already achieved, but the quality of my first HDR photos weren’t up to par with my expectations. These ones are.
The difference? I spent more time making sure they were focused, put more effort into keeping the camera still during the 30-some exposures, and then after I created the HDR image, I brought it into lightroom and did more enhancing. The result: An awesome, epic shot of the Orange Circle, and the Alley we climbed up to get to our vantage spot for the shot.
This was a lot of fun, not only because of the HDR but because it reminded me of being back home and climbing buildings. Scott Stedman and I shimmied up a pipe at Starbucks in order to get on the roof of the building so we could take the shots. Something about climbing in urban areas is very exhilerating.
Actual Date of Photos: 1/31/11
HDR with Scott Stedman, February 11th 2011
Goal #5 for 2011 (Learn how to do HDR Photography) ACHIEVED.
Scott Stedman lives in Henley Hall at Chapman and is a music composition major. But he is also majorly good at photography and cinematography. When he saw I wanted to learn how to do HDR, he hit me up and offered to show me how.
HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. I’s a phogtographic effect achieved by taking a ton of different photos of the same thing all with different exposures, from really light to really dark. Then when you combine all the photos on top of one another you can see the highlights from the over-exposed shots and the shadows from the under-exposed shots. The effect looks cool because it’s something the naked eye can’t do; seeing both highlights and shadows in detail at the same time.
So the day before the semester started we climbed to the top of Jim Miller Parking Structure and shot down on Henley. I didn’t do a very good job with my first HDR experience, but I can tell you that we have tried it since and pretty soon you’re going to be seeing some AWESOME HDR on the blog.
If you are the impatient type and want to see some AWESOME HDR now, go check out Scott’s blog, cuz he posts faster than me:
http://www.scottstedman.com/?p=280
http://www.scottstedman.com/?p=292
http://www.scottstedman.com/?p=313
I took two HDR shots, one of Henley, and one inside the parking structure, the rest are just of that night.
Actual Date of Photos: 1/30/11
