Random Photo Adventures with Kat

My friend Kat and I went out on a random photo adventure after lunch today, just because we felt like it. Kat knew of this cool old barn somewhere out on Old Plank Road (waaay out on Old Plank Road) and this guy had the coolest junk just sitting this barn. This is my first slideshow with Soundslides, so enjoy!

WARNING: DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH RITZ CAMERA

I felt I needed to let all my fellow shooters about this. On Thanksgiving I found out about an online pre-Black Friday deal on ritzcamera.com. The deal was sweat. Buy three Sandisk 4GB Extreme III CF cards for $60, send in the mail-in rebate, and get $60 back. Three free 4GB CF cards? Sign me up!
I received the order confirmation shortly after, and then about a week later I received another email regarding my order status that stated they were currently out of stock, but would ship my cards to me as soon as they received another shipment. At this point, I still felt relatively at ease.
Then another week passed. I decided I should check the shipping status on their site. When I punched in my order number, the response came back that my order had been canceled. I didn't receive any communication that this had happened and no reason for the cancellation was given. My first response was to check my bank account to make sure they had at least put the money back. The original transaction from when I ordered was gone, as if it never happened. I wrote an email to customer service that has yet to be answered.
The next day I was perusing sportsshooter.com and looking into a message board thread titled "Very disappointed in service". I didn't even think it would be related to my problem, but I still like to be awares of people who conduct bad business. Sure enough the entire thread consisted of people who had also been equally screwed by Ritz Camera. A few lucky ones had talked to customer service reps and managed to get some cards out to them. One even provided a contact phone number, which I quickly dialed, politely explained my situation, stated that I knew some people were still getting the cards, and asked if anything could be done.
The answer was no.
Debbie Whitecotton, the contact that was on sportsshooter.com, simply flat out refused to fulfill my order.
I understand the concept of supply and demand, but it's just bad business to send someone not one, but two order confirmations, a week apart, and then cancel the order without notice. I hope Ritz Camera folds with the bad economy.

Adv. Techniques: Final Project Sneak Peak

Will, Val, and I are putting the final touches on our final project Soundslides. Here's just a sneak peak at one of my shots included in the project.

Adv. Techniques: Multiple Flash

Michelle Froese, Public Relations Manager of the Univeristy of Missouri's Student and Auxiliary Services reads excerpts aloud from "Tales of Beedle the Bard" to students in Brady Commons during the book's midnight release party on Wednesday. The book serves as a companion piece to J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Adv. Techniques: Slideshow examples

http://acraftphoto.blogspot.com/2008/03/humvee-tv-with-soundtrack.html
Humvee TV-not bad but very timely. Audio is kind of harsh though, but understandable since he probably recorded it from a loudspeaker

http://www.picturemultimedia.com/photography/as/dcprotest/dcprotest.html
Bad audio, pictures stay up for about 10 seconds, I'm not a fan.

Turkey Break Pt. 4

Turkey Break Pt. 3: Sassy

I had planned on taking a ton of photos of my one year old nephew, Brayden. But sadly, my sister and Brayden were too sick to make the seven hour trip. So I've been taking a ton of photos of my parents' dog, Sassy.




This sequence is called, "What happens when the ball goes in the shoe". She probably would have still be digging for it now if I hadn't given her mercy and pulled the ball out for her. It was hilarious.

Turkey Break Pt. 2

ITS NOT EVEN THANKSGIVING YET!

Turkey Break Pt. 1

I'm gonna take a lot of time over break to focus on my photography, mainly with nailing exposures. I picked up a freelance gig from the athletic department to start things off.

CPOY Craziness

Rita and her eyeball candy...and crazy eye glasses


If Jimmy was this crazy on Wednesday, it's scary to imagine what he was like on Saturday.


Rita, Rick, and Jimmy sort out a slight storage problem


Rita and Travis have a discussion


Jimmy tries to get some sleep


Beth tired...


You think we like to drink coffee? Really, bad coffee?

Remember that day I was really annoying with my camera?

Adv. Techniques: Fill Flash

University of Missouri groundskeeper Alicia Ciolli tills the soil in a plant bed near Lowry Mall on MU's campus. Ciolli is part of the Herbaecious Plant Department, which is tasked with taking care of the many plant and flower beds across campus. "It's different than the lawn mower jockey type people." Ciolli said.

Another Busy Weekend

Saturday was a pretty busy day for shooting. I was at it from 8-4. Here's some selects.








I had a hard time stopping the divers for some reason, crappy lighting, whatever. So I just went with some blur for flair.











So no going Trick-Or-Treating at her house...

Adv. Techniques: Color Correction

....I still don't completely understand this.

8 Cameras, a ton of flashlights, a cabin, and a bunch of photojunkies

For lab in advanced techniques we trotted out to Rock Bridge State Park, cooked out, messed around, had a bunch of laughs, and then had even more when we did the actual lab work. The assignment is called painting with light. Using long exposures, flashes, flashlights, and a lot of people manipulating those lights we pulled this off. Not too shabby for a bunch of kids out freezing their asses off while trying to take pictures.

Adv. Technique: Single Flash pt. 2: Bounce

Adv. Techniques: Single Flash pt. 1

Anjali in the studio

Poked my nose in on Esten and Anjali shooting their metal and glass, and started snapping off a few shots during prep. The girl knows her way around piping.

Adv. Techniques: Metal and Glass

I shot the glass half of this assignment.

"Hot Shots"


"Fire and Ice"


Little bit of trouble with getting the right amounts of rubber cement but still cool stuff.

Busy Weekend

Hell of a weekend for taking photos. I probably shot somewhere around 1200 images starting on Thursday night and ending on Sunday. (Note: these are all quick and dirty processed photos so apologies for them being off color or grainy)

The newest resident of #1 Bright Star, Stanley.




Friday night I drove to Nebraska to see some friends and shoot the football game. I ended up in a corn field maze. A corn field in Nebraska? No way!




Poor, poor, Huskers. They didn't stand a chance. But they're special people by these photos.





Jeff packing up after the game. Exciting. Random. All of the above.


Drove over to Omaha before heading back to Columbia and visited my sister, brother in law and nephew. Oh hey, this is the first time Brayden's made it on here! He looks happy to be here, no?