I Do

I Do, a photo by meagan.porter on Flickr.

Wedding Stationary Photoshoot, attempt number one.

I'm bound and determined to make my own wedding stationary for our upcoming nuptials. It's not because I'm cheap, although that part is pretty persuasive ($800 for 100 invites? I don't think so). I'm embarking on this project for two reasons: first, it will give me a chance to experiment with new techniques and figuring out how to do lighting and secondly, I honestly don't think that anyone can carryout my vision as well as I can.

Let's start with the latter. After spending the last six or seven months receiving wedding magazines, wedding junk mail, wedding spam, and other litter courtesy of the wedding industrial complex, I really feel like, more than anything else, mass produced invites are impersonal. Sure, you can get super fancy ones but they also have a super fancy price. I would rather personally carry out my vision than try to communicate it to someone else and run the risk of being disappointed. This way, the only person I can be upset with is myself if something doesn't go as planned. And not to brag, but I'm typically a genius at making things work.

My Christmas Card Photo Shoot was a dry run for what I wanted our invites to look like. Simple, meaningful, gorgeous lighting. John and I met because of our mutual love of Scrabble, so I knew that our wedding stationary had to incorporate that in some way. I've uploaded three other decent photos to Flickr that may or may not be used in save the dates, invites, wedding programs, etc.

As far as the former goal with this project (learning new techniques and lighting), I have to say that I failed miserably on my first attempt. I did the shoot in about an hour (actually while John and I were waiting for Obama to tell us why he was interrupting Celebrity Apprentice) with similar lighting to the set up I used for my Engagement Ring Photo Shoot. I was basically just dinking around, to be perfectly honest. I have no formal training; I read half an article on the Internet about lighting, thought it sounded like it would work, and set to it. I used a few lamps I had laying around the apartment and some tracing paper, again, not interested in investing any money into making this work. I also used the ambient light in our apartment, which comes from hanging track lighting bouncing off brick walls, giving it an orangey color. With little idea as to what I was doing, I pretty much stood there for an hour rearranging lights, watching how light hit what I was trying to capture, swatting away the occasional cat, rinse and repeat.

I say that I failed in my first goal because the only photos I ended up liking were taken with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone. This accomplishes goal number two in that it achieves the look I want, but it fails at goal number one as I feel like the Hipstamatic is doing all the work in this situation, not me. Anyone can use a cool app or do a cool effect in Photoshop. How do I achieve the look I want in the field with my dSLR? That's what I need to be working toward and hopefully in accomplishing that goal, I can further refine the look that I want.

More to come. For now, check out the rest of the set.

Talking it Over

Talking it Over, a photo by meagan.porter on Flickr.

These ducks were seriously hesitant about whether or not to jump in Monona Bay. John and I walked through Brittingham Park this evening on our way to dinner on Park Street. Even though we've lived in this neighborhood for nearly a year, we hadn't yet visited the beautiful park only a block from our house. It was cool and breezy, more April weather than June, a far cry from the over 90 degrees it was yesterday. We walked along the bike path and came across this rickety dock holding its own against the choppy waves. I think there were six ducks relaxing on it when we walked up; two jumped in right away and four seriously thought it over before plunging into the cold water.

I love the photo above because it looks like the duck all the way on the left is trying to convince the other three, "Hey guys, come on. It's not going to be that bad." And the Hipstamatic makes everything look epic.

Just Another Day at JTG

Jimmy's To-Go, Reedsburg, Wisconsin. Circa 2009. Taken on my iPhone.

My parents are wrapping up the end of another successful year today, so this post is very appropriate. This photo was one of those rare moments that makes me confident in my photographic eye for scenes, people, interesting things. I love every element of this photo: the worn-looking picnic table in the foreground, the hot dog stand in the background. And I don't know who that guy is, but he's posed just perfectly in his foundry uniform, waiting for lunch.

I love it so much that I even put it on the cover of my book, Jimmy's To-Go: The Beginning, that chronicles the first and very successful year of the Jimmy's To-Go saga.

Self.

Taken in my apartment parking lot at 7:30 this morning with the plain old front facing camera on the iPhone4.

A good self portrait is hard to find. There are few I've taken that I've ever been happy with. The photo above is unedited except for some creative cropping to get rid of an unfortunately placed light post. I think the early morning light was hitting me just right, casting a golden glow and making cool shadows. Everyone looks beautiful in the right light.

The sun has been rising later and later here in Wisconsin. It's depressing. I love the fall weather but I can't take the decreased daylight, waking up on Mondays when it's still dark out to head to the Indy. And it's like fall came without warning this year - all of a sudden its been chilly and dark and all the leaves are turning. I'm not complaining about sweater and scarf weather one bit, just everything else that comes with it.

Time to bust out the crock pot for our constant winter mulled apple cider and rum.

In Order to Maintain the Integrity of the Berlin Wall

Taken at the Newseum, Washington D.C.

I, as a rule, hate museums. Doesn't really matter what kind of museum - art museum, history museum, spy museum, science museum, you see the pattern. It's just a building that houses stuff, and you go there to look at the stuff. I disagree with this concept, and I also have a very short attention span, so generally, I don't like museums because it's hard for me, philosophically speaking, to appreciate all of this stuff.

However, I loved the Newseum, and not just for its catchy name. I mean, how can you not love a museum that has the First Amendment printed six stories tall on the outside? The First Amendment worshiping is repeated throughout the building.

Anyway, journalism is something I fell into. I never intended to be a reporter, to work for a newspaper. And here I am, two and a half years later. Until the Newseum, I'd always seen it as a job, a digestion and regurgitation of facts.

At the Newseum, I felt a kinship with journalism, and the significance of what I had considered a routine job finally dawned on me while I was there. Everything about it started to have meaning after that; I felt connected to history, and I felt the true responsibility and gravity of what it means to be a journalist.

Anyway, I took the above picture when we first got there. I thought the signage was pretty funny.  :)