Kansas Weather

It had been storming pretty consistently this week in Manhattan. Here are some of my favorite shots from the heaviest part of the weather.


This was probably my favorite frame from this storm. Anyone who knows me knows I have a strong attraction to dead tree silhouettes against interesting skies. This living tree with dead branches kept my eye fascinated.


Just a cool frame showing how intense this storm was. It was very dark on campus.


While shooting the storm I ran into my friend Rick (see post below, three down).


While cutting through a building to keep my camera from getting too wet I saw this wet chain through this long skinny window. So I waited for someone to walk by to give it another interesting element. I actually had to wait a while.


This is one reason I love my campus grounds in the Summer time. Everything is so colorful and beautiful.


I came home and the sun came out, but it was STILL pouring rain! Made for an interesting frame.

Big 12 Vacancy

This is the final edit of my Big XII neon sign illustration. I went out in downtown Manhattan to find a brick wall that would look good for this package. I tweaked my original edit to have an illuminated X because at this time there are only officially two teams leaving the conference. I also reduced the illuminating features on the unlit part of the sign (thanks for the critique Jon). The paper didn't end up using this edit but I really wanted to see how it would have looked so I redesigned the front page with my illustration instead.

What the paper had...


What they could have had...


If you want to read more on this here is a link to the story:
http://www.kstatecollegian.com/news/texas-declines-pac-10-offer-league-remains-with-10-members-1.2274786

If you are interested in trying this tutorial here is a link to the one I followed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGDkai7RTC8

***Note: I tried to get the links as ACTUAL links but for some reason I couldn't get them to work, if I figure it out I will redo them.

Tree top tilt shot

While skating around campus I noticed these kids playing frisbe. There was a tree near by I had climbed the day before to take some self portraits so I thought it would be cool to grab my makeshift tilt-shift lens and climb up to see what I could get.

My name is Rick

This is Rick Violette. He is a retired power plant worker who hangs out on the K-State campus to pick up his paper. I first thought it was because he enjoyed campus but when I asked him he didn't respond how I expected him to. He basically said he came to campus because he knew a few people that worked there, so I assumed he came to visit with them, yet again I assumed wrong. Rick told me even though he knows them he doesn't come to visit them. He went on to say he didn't even know why he even stayed in town. After concluding he was just a grumpy old man who came to campus because he had nothing better to do we began chatting. Rick had plenty of stories to share with me about his life including his time in the marines, his childhood neighbors, his family, the secret to gambling on dog races, and of course baseball (the topic every old man has a story or two to tell). I soon lost track of time in my conversation with him and eventually realized we had been talking for an hour and a half. Having gotten to know Rick for that extra time I decided my conclusion was not accurate, but I still can't say for sure what his reasons for hanging out on campus were. I finally OFFICIALLY concluded I have no idea why but Rick Violette is an interesting person and I regret my initial opinion of him.

Navi Jordan

This is an edit I did of one of my cousins that is a big Avatar fan. Thought it'd be fun to try to do.

Fire's Fickle Fury

This is a long exposure of a small fire we made while hanging out on the porch last night. I added a brightness contrast mask and a colorized saturation mask.

Kansan Lights

Last night we hung out on my porch as the sun went down and made the most beautiful colors in the sky. The only photo that I added some saturation to is the middle one of the power lines down the alley, and only a little since it was just a less interesting part of a very interesting sky.

Lieutenant Dan

I met and shot the actor Gary Senise down at Fort Riley. He was performing a USO concert with his band in honor of Children of the Military Month. He is a pretty chill guy, he even recognized a soldier he had met two years ago in Iraq at one of his older USO shows.

Happy Earth Day

This is an illustration I did for a story about earth day.

Up in smoke

I was riding around with a friend, Joel, shooting stuff for a PR assignment about irrigation and water stuff in the land North of Manhattan and came across this fire. I wanted to shoot it then I saw the guy starting the fire and HAD to shoot it. The flames were SO HOT! At one point a turkey flew out of the flames, sadly I didn't have my telephoto handy, but this shot came out so well I don't mind.

Star trails by fire light

Another photographer, Sara, and I went cruising around looking for a place to do star trails one night and once we got around the Tuttle Creek lake we noticed that on the other side of the lake there were prairie fires so we set ourselves up across the lake from them. We were worried that the fire might blow out the trails but wanted to give it a shot anyway and it ended up working out really well.

Blooming Darkness

All the blossom trees bloomed recently and this was just a beautiful shot, one of my favorites to this day. It didn't take long for the blossoms to fall off either so this was a one opportunity frame I am glad I found.

April Sky

Just some great frames of the sky just after sunset.

Denis' Lament

After K-State's loss to KU in the Championship game for the Big XII conference Denis Clemente walked back to the locker room with his jersey in his hand and his head hung low.

Jordy Nelson

For anyone that doesn't know, Jordy Nelson is a wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers. He used to play for K-State and I picked up a photo for a feature on him to go into the K-Stater magazine.

Hell hath no fury

This is an illustration I did as a secondary for a piece on the roommate from hell.

A stop or two down

Just a pretty sky underexposed.

Starlight, Starbright

Long exposures on my roof.

Checking My Blind Spot

Out of focus light reflected in a car mirror.

Moon Lit

On my way home after work one night I saw this beautiful moon lit cloudy sky.

Konza

These are some shots I got out on the Konza as the sun went down.

She Has Hair in Her Face

Just one of my favorite studio shots, I like the emotion, how you don't really know if she is happy or sad or anything really. This is just one of those photos I could look at for a long time.

History Returns

These are some of my shots from the KU vs K-State game this fall where the Wildcats beat the Jayhawks. I like the faces and the little bit of blood.

Dirty Dancing

This is a shot from a music festival called Country Stampede. I was up to my knees in mud at one point, but come on, how cute is this?

Framed

This was a shot to go with a story about the progress of the construction of an apartment complex. I climbed to the top of a five or so story tower that pretty much had nothing but scaffolding inside it to get this shot, very worth it.

I wonder what kind of singer he is... Gangster rap?

This is a shot I got at a Christian band concert. I was getting the same boring concert shots everybody gets until I noticed the lighting behind him was in these rectangular shapes. I set my flash to 2nd curtain sync, meaning the flash goes off twice in one frame (A weak burst at the begining and a stronger one at the end) and I aimed horizontally at the lights, fired, and twisted vertically to the singer. This was the end result.

Awesome Timing

This is a shot I got at the KSU vs OU game this fall. Whenever there is a kick off these guys fire off these guns and I timed it perfectly!

EMAW

These guys painted "Every man a wildcat" across their chests for the KU vs. K-State football game this past fall.

Rhino

This was taken after a tornado passed through Manhattan, KS the Summer of 2008. When I went to get this guy's information he asked if I wanted his real name or his nick name to which I answered "Real name", to which he quickly replied "I'm going to give you my nick name." He pointed to a tattoo on his arm and said "Rhino!"

Camera Obscura

This is a shot where I blocked out all light in my room except through a 50mm lens attached to my window. This projected and inverted image of my back yard onto my wall that I could focus. I set up a 10D on a timer with the shutter button taped down on a bulb exposure for about 7 hours.

Leafy Life Lines

These are some macro shots I took of two different leaves. I don't have a macro lens so I did the "flip the lens" trick and placed them on a soft box to light the cells of the leaves.