When Dan Stewart tells you to update, you do it.

These past three weeks have been absolutely insane to say the least. A few Sundays ago I had to make a split decision to drive 10 hours to St. Louis, meet up with a band I'd never met before to go on tour for a week and make a documentary. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life. The boys of Child Bite are now part of my family, and I love them immensely. Although I returned to a ridiculous amount of catch-up work, almost getting evicted and having to go right back on the road for a wedding in Chicago, it was all worth it. In fact, I just realized this, I haven't been home for a weekend in over a month. It's starting to get ridiculous. I haven't really even thought about the fact that I am indeed graduating in less than a month. Wow.

In other news, throughout my adventures, I have met some amazing people, one in particular that I am both excited and very scared about. I am learning not to need to be in control. It is

 helping.

I know none of you wanted to read that, so here are pictures!

Kevin feeling the breeze in his briefs downtown Ann Arbor. 

Underwear bubble head I don't even know.

My favorite image from the wedding in Joliet. The entire wedding was in an old Amtrak station.

She was pretty.

Dammit I really love veils.

So I went to Ann Arbor this weekend and hung out with some friends. Signs happen.

Turns out this "Festifools" event thing was going on. Jack looked dashing in his slip in my opinion.

Sesame Street?

Uh oh nipple-os! Kevin walked about half a mile downtown with just that t-shirt and his underwear on. He's far more confident than I am.

Wait, is that Carey or Matt Berninger from The National? Both? Maybe.

Ok so jumping around. Child Bite played a show at The Blind Pig with Man Man. Zach was drunk, and tickled Danny. 

MORE JUMPING! Crazy house show outside in Austin. Hosted by 14 year old kid.

Christian wrestling an alligator in Stanton, Missouri.

Dr. Cell Phone downtown Austin. Taken while the van was stopped at a red light.

Most of my 8 days were spent like this.

More drunkenness at The Blind Pig.

Zach all done up as a zombie in San Antonio. Our bud Lawrence is a makeup artist for Ripley's Believe It Or Not. BELIEVE IT!

Clancy and Lawrence bounce bellies in San Antonio.

The best damn mustache east of the Mississippi belonging to Danny Sperry.

DAD! BEARD! SAN ANTONIO! AWESOME!

Alex from new friends Sohns.

Christian plays a mean sax and sings a mean song.

Return From Divine Inspiration

MPPA 2007 was a dream, probably one of the happiest times of my life. I was awarded Honorable Mention in Multimedia for my piece "An Honest Look". It truly was an honor that my silly piece would strike a chord in the judges' hearts, and that they could overlook all of my "technical difficulties," especially considering that there were 19 finalists and who knows how many shows submissions. Props to Merissa, Alex, Ryan, Brett, Sophie, Jessica and Holly for placing in this year's awards!!!!

Although the award was fantastic, the knowledge I gained this year was way better than any trophy, (yes, even one of Keener's, ok, so I wish I had a Keener trophy, so sue me.) Speaking of J. Kyle Keener, he is amazing. He gave me the best advice of my life, completely understood where my photography was coming from, and is hilarious to boot. Ryan Wood, Erik Holliday, Elizabeth Conley and my former professor Brett Marshall, (all of them placed in the contest!) helped me out immensely as well. Lastly, but not leastly, (yes I know that's not a word,) I got to chat with one of the judges, Chad Stevens of Mediastorm and he basically changed how I think about multimedia. Seriously, how can life get better?

So, I got back today, was dead tired, but I had duties, a band shoot for my good friends Those Transatlantics. Keener told me I should try to do a whole shoot without taking a single right or left weighted photo, since I do that too much, (completely true.) He also taught me a lot about posing and interaction in portraits. I tried to showcase his advice in this shoot.

Mother Son

I did some mother/son portraits for my friend Kate today. Her wish was for them to look as if "Vogue was doing a parenting issue." These are actually some of the best photos I have ever taken, in my opinion. Unfortunately, my camera died right in the middle of the shoot. If anyone can loan me about $1,000....I'd really appreciate it.

Stepping Out Into Unknown Lands

My first ever video project. Please be kind.

Cars Dying and Class Going

So...this weekend I was supposed to go down to Indiana to shoot my very first video documentary. Of course, my car had other plans. The heat died, what does come out of the vents smells like burning rubber and the power steering has completely left the building...or motor...ok.

Well anyway, I decided to stay in Ann Arbor and just do the documentary on my friend Kevin, who is a very talented artist and musician. He took me to class with him at U of M, and it was probably one of my favorite days ever. 

First Timer

So, I have started a blog mainly to converse with other artists/photographers about art/photography. I hope this blog will maintain that purpose and not become ranting about random things or other such non-essential writings. However, I do listen to NPR an average of 3-5 hours per day while I am at work, so I'm sure some stories will creep in.

As anyone who would read this would know, I got my camera back after a seven month hostage situation with Canon. I missed it immensely, and have been shooting like crazy since I got it. Here are a few of my favorites.

I quite like this one of Brad. It was taken with my new Canon 50mm 1.4 lens. I am worried, because I think I might love this lens far too much for my own good, and I really need to watch myself to make sure that I don't shoot at a golfball-sized aperture just for the hell of it.

I think a lot of photographers rely too much on fancy schmancy equipment to make their photos great or asthetically pleasing. Light, mood, composition, technical aspects and of course content are what make great pictures. I've seen plenty of photographers that have the best equipment in the world but can't take a good photo to save their life. Insert anger here.



Here's another photo from the same night, this time of my friend Caitlin. Posed, yes, but I think it still has artistic merit. I find that my favorite photos are those that are either very clean and streamlined or very geometric and busy, in a structured sort of way. I don't like many photos in between these two categories, which is probably a shortcoming of mine that I need to work on. Everyone can probably expand their artistic horizons in some respect, I am certainly not an exception to that rule.

Yesterday my roomate Jessie and I went on a nature walk so she could take some photos with her new camera, (Nikon, traitor.) Although I despise 99% of all nature photos, when I find one that I love, I get really excited. It's so incredible to me that a photographer can make something that is so ordinarily beautiful or just ordinary and make it something else. I tried my best not to fall into taking kitsch, huge aperture, obnoxious shots, but it happened, and there was much internal chiding. However, I had one shot that I loved, that I will end my post with. Love to you.

-Nicky