Classmate Project Part 2: Video Interview
This video was the second part of my classmate project for Advanced Techniques in Photojournalism. We all had to ask each other the same question– “What is the weirdest food you have ever eaten?” The point was to get people comfortable with video cameras, video lighting and editing. Enjoy this brilliant piece of cinematic art: […]
Dog Days of Early March
So my next assignment in Advanced Techniques is the single flash assignment. Normally, I avoid using a flash at all costs. I like using ambient light and I think a flash is distracting and I usually prefer blending into the background. But, since I don’t really have a choice with this assignment, I headed out […]
POYi Judging Concludes; Winners Announced; John's Social Life Returns
Photo Credit: Uriel Sinai / Getty Images Well, its has been a fun 3 weeks but the Pictures of the Year International (POYi) judging is finally over. This means my life is back to a normal schedule and I no longer am spending 8 hours a day in a dark room updating the website. It […]
Advanced Techniques Class: Spicing Things Up
This is the last studio assignment for my Advanced Techniques in Photojournalism class. The assignment was to shoot metal and glass because both of these surfaces are shiny and reflect light in all directions (and teachers like to torment us). I would like to reiterate that I am a bit on the unexperienced side when […]
Advanced Techniques Class: Classmate Portrait
The second assignment in my Advanced Techniques was the classmate portrait. My partner was fellow grad student Michelle Peltier. I think the studio is big and scary because until last week, my studio experience was a bit lacking. It was fun to experiment with different lighting setups (see diagrams below). It is very hard to […]
66th POYi Judging Begins! My Social Life Ends!
If you want to know why I am not answering my phone, answering emails or seeing the light of day, it is because I am sitting in a dark room for the next 3 weeks updating the Pictures of the Year website during judging. That sounds like a terrible thing, but it definitely isn’t. I […]
UnBELIZEable
UnBELIZEable… Haha, funny title, look at me. I only wish I could have made that up. However, that phrase is printed on every t-shirt, bumper sticker, key chain, coffee mug and trinket in Belize. Its good for gift shop business when your country’s name can be used as wordplay. Anyway, it is about 16°F here […]
A different view of the inauguration
This is really amazing. Photographer David Bergman took a 220 image, 1,474 megapixel image of Barack Obama’s inauguration last week using a cool device called the ‘Gigapan.’ Basically, you put your favorite point-and-shoot camera onto this robot, play with some buttons, and it automatically takes a grid of photos that can be stitched together into […]
New Years in Munich
I was lucky enough to spend New Year’s Eve in Munich, Germany at the Hofbrauhaus and then the Marienplatz/ town center at midnight. I can only describe it as being in Times Square…. with the added element of fireworks being shot at you from all angles. Sure, you could spend New Year’s Eve watching the […]
Merry Chrismakwanzika!
To get you in the holiday spirit, here are some photos from the “Magic Tree” in Columbia. Get ready for a blast of color. For some reason, my camera survived and didn’t explode from sensory overload. Clark W. Griswold has nothing on this guy. This crab apple tree has over 75,000 lights lining every branch, […]
Final Photo Story– DONE
I completed the final edit of my photo story on Marvin Sapp. I posted it to my main website because WordPress doesn’t let me post Soundslides. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FINAL EDIT It is done and turned in, but the story will probably continue. There are still photos that I want to get, but […]
Marvin the Great
I have had the great pleasure of following around Marvin Sapp for the last 2 1/2 months during the corn and soybean harvest. At 76, an age when most people would be comfortably retired, Marvin is still active as ever in the day-to-day operations of his farm in McBaine, Missouri. In his own words, “It’s […]
McBaine Burr Oak at Night… Again
What did I do last night instead of study for Comm Law?? I went back to the big Burr Oak Tree in McBaine to take some more photos. The tree is lit with one of those police style MagLites and the road is lit with a little LED flashlight. It is amazing how quickly the […]
Kansas City Adventure
In all the years I have lived in Missouri, I have never visited Kansas City– only driven through it. I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun I had there. In a day, I went to Arthur Bryants BBQ, the Power & Light district, The Plaza, Kansas City Star, the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art […]
Nighttime Photo Fun
I was bored the last couple of nights and decided to entertain myself by running around the countryside taking night photos. There has been a pretty full moon lately which provided some nice fill light. The photos were lit with a big MagLite as well as an LED headlamp that I normally use for camping. […]
McBaine Farmers
A few shots from my final project in Fundamentals of Photo J class. I am following 2 farmers in McBaine, MO during the fall corn and soybean harvest. More info to come later when I feel more in a typing mood:
Rounding out the political coverage….
Barack Obama came to town last night and I got to shoot it (along with every other journalist in this town/school). I have always said that Mizzou is sort of a mixed blessing. Sure, it is one of the best journalism schools in the country. But, that also means when something big happens in this […]
Ultimate Fighting = Ultimate Photographs
For my sports assignment, I went to photograph “Battle at the Blue Note 8.” It is an Ultimate Fight match or “Mixed Martial Arts” match that takes place in a caged ring. “Ultimate Fighting” is actually a brand of Mixed Martial Arts and is confused for the name of the sport (including by me). Mixed […]
Friends in High Places
To continue my week of doing crazy things and getting away with it, I got to climb on the Tiger Hotel sign today. Ever since I arrived in Columbia, I have been praying that one of those big neon letters would burn out. When lights burn out, someone has to go climb up the sign […]
Knowing When to say When
So I was just sitting around doing nothing tonight and feeling pretty worthless. Then, I hear thunder outside. Oh goody! That means lightning too!! I have always had an obsession with photographing lightning. Maybe it comes from my fascination with storms– one of the reasons I like living in the Midwest. I grabbed my gear […]
I Smell Elections in the Air…
I will start off this post by saying that secret service agents have very strong grips… Read on to find out why I know that… I love being in the middle of political rallies. This is a historic election and it’s great to be involved in it. I have covered McCain a couple of times […]
Empty Promises
I guess I will start out this blog just like everyone else does with sad excuses about why I will not be posting everyday, why I am too busy to post, etc etc. I tried to start a blog during my freshman year of college, but abandoned ship 3 months later. I think it is […]
