Shrew's News

Yes, I am pretty consistant are not posting for weeks or months. But in excuse I have this to say, "Etc." So here goes at catching up! I've been working as a photo stringer for the Alligator lately, leading to many different photo jobs than I would have otherwise shot. Such as the one on Wednesday when I was given the assignment of covering the execution of Clarence Hill at the Florida State Prison in Raiford. This was my first real hard news story to cover, making me rather excited to be there. And now I know what you are thinking after reading that statement, that I'm a terrible person. Well, this was my first chance to show I could cover the hard news and be ok. As well as mingle with the big dogs. TV stations from all over the state were there, along with photographers Tracy Wilcox from the Gainesville Sun and Phil Sandlin covering the story for the AP.

If I havn't forced you to look at the picture yet, here it is along with the story that James wrote about the events. He was actually a witness to the execution while I photographed the protestors outside. Alligator Article



On to other things, Friday night I went out on campus to take pictures. I like being out there at night with few people around and at 11:30 on a Friday night, there were plenty of people about, but of course no one trying to get in and out of the buildings I was taking pictures of. I decided to play with lighting using gels for the first time on exterior stuff. I'm pretty happy with the results, though of course I had to composite them together in Photoshop due to my owning of only one flash. The shots that resulted are the ones I chose to share with this post. It was great fun and I long to get back out and do it some more.

Any longer of an entry and I'd have to call this a short story, so I'll go ahead and stop here. Want me to post more often? Remind me that I havn't. Later Gators.

Puppies, Concerts and the Homeless

Recently my days have been pretty packed with working on my grandfather's property and finding opportunities to take pictures. Which makes me realize, I havn't updated in a while. The puppies over at my grandfather's are getting pretty big. People have been showing up to look at them for the last week or so, several have been sold already.

Yesterday, before heading downtown to take pictures at night, I was drafted into taking a few pictures at the Northdale Songs in the Park outdoor concert. It actually wasn't as bad as I had feared, the band played some nice covers of the Beatles and some other classic stuff. They just added a bit of a ska flair to the songs.
After spending about twenty minutes at the concert, I headed out with Raechel for downtown Tampa, where we wandered up and down Ashley Boulevard for about an hour and a half. While shooting, I met a homeless man named James. He was a pretty nice, easygoing guy, I didn't have any money to give him, so we talked while I took pictures. According to James, he had been out on the street for about a month since his parents died. During his story, the back of my mind stayed in disbelief, he didn't seem too dirty and if his parents died, was there no one else to take him in? But instead of digging too deep, I wished him luck and moved on to shoot at another location. I hope to update more, sorry for the delay.

Litters of Pups Everywhere

Another dog is pregnant over at my grandfather's house. She's due any day now, so that'll be two litters in the garage at once. This is the first time I've seen two litters there at once. I'll be updating with photos of them all. In other news, I uploaded my second shot for the decay duel. While hiking in South Carolina, we came across an old bike on the trail that had been abandoned and overtaken by the brush. So that made Bicycle Entwined. I've got some other pictures from that hike that I'll post tomorrow.

Moving Right Along

Good Day, today the lens I rented for the wedding showed up. A Canon 135mm 2.8 with Soft Focus. What is soft focus? Well, it's kinda like putting vasoline on the lens, only without the greasy leftovers. Not sure what I'd shoot with that. Anywho, the puppies are getting bigger over at my grampa's house, I snapped a few pictures today of the pups piled into a box while we cleaned out their pen. In photo dueling news, I got my first shot up in the Decay duel and Matias issued his first shot as well, you can check it out here. Be sure to check back for updatese. Speaking of updates, the first person I know to message me on AIM gets a dinner on me(Codeword, bonkers).

Tally it up.

Over the weekend I drove up to Tallahassee. It was good fun up there and I managed to get out and take some pictures downtown. The gallery can be found here. I've been compiling gear I need for my first solo wedding shoot. It'll be nice to finally have a tripod that can do everything I want it to. While the Campus photo duel is winding down on Pixelex, I decided to look for another, so I issued a challenge and Matias Romero picked it up. The duel will decay in general, those rusty motel signs along US 19 would work well, too bad I never stopped. Anywho, that's the update for today.

Photo Duel Update

It was my turn for the campus photo duel on Pixelex again. Since I'm at home, I'm having to go through previous shots and choose something to upload. This one is from the music building. I already used a shot from there, but felt this one was different enough to add to the duel. Check out the duel at pixelex here or the gallery of the duel here.

Puppies, puppies everywhere.

I realize, yes it has been a while since I updated, but that's usual. Recently I've been pretty busy working. Photos for this update are of puppies that were just born last Wedsnesday. I havn't been taking many pictures lately, these are really the newest. When I do get to taking more pictures, I'll make sure to get this updated with them. Hope these will sait for a little while.