beautiful decay: decrepit house

I took these photos sometime in the spring, probably late March or early April, if I remember correctly. I don't think I ever used any of these images for a photo critique because they weren't quite printing quality due to some lighting issues. However, images always look "better" when they're shrunken down and viewed at just 72 ppi, so I figured I'd throw them up here since I was always fond of them (regardless of poor technical execution).

This one was by far my favorite. Who leaves aquarium rocks in the middle of a room?

the ben miller band live at mojos 10.28.11

The Ben Miller Band came up from Joplin to play a show at Mojo's in Columbia, Missouri. The band's bluegrass/folk, Ozark Mountain sound is unique and awesome. Think "O Brother Where Art Thou" but way more dynamic, unique and relevant to today's music listeners.

The follow are some images I snagged of the guys.

The lead singer brought his own spotlight that illuminated his face a way that was reminiscent of Norman Rockwell. I totally dug it.

first concert shoot

As you might or might not know, my boyfriend, Devin, is the bass player for a totally rad band called We Live in Public. The two guitar players/singers, Matt and Jaeson, had been writing original songs together for years and playing venues as a duo, or sometimes a trio, under the name A Perfect Fifth.

Matt Olson, Jaeson Day, Devin Burrow and Zach Denison (on the drums in the back)

critique: power project

While taking intermediate photography, our professor gave us three one-word assignments. Public. Private. Power. The assignments were open to our interpretation of what the words meant, which was great. However, it also allowed us to keep a focus when searching for subject matter.

I turned in the following images for my "power" project.

d.Ro photo blog goals

To whom this might concern:
(read: my mother, my boyfriend or my future self looking back on this post)

I'm establishing this blog as a way to track my progress as a photographer-in-training.

My technical knowledge of the media and subsequent experience using it is pretty limited. Although I've always been interested in photography, I never fully learned how to do it properly.

Upon entering my senior year at the University of Missouri, I finally enrolled in a beginning photography course dedicated to gaining a knowledge of and respect for darkroom developing techniques. In my final semester I studied intermediate photography, a course that taught me how to use a SLR digital camera and then edit my images realistically in Photoshop. I plan to write more specific posts about what I learned in these courses as I develop my blog.

I graduated in May with a full-time marketing job waiting for me. Similar to many other recent graduates, I was ready for a break from academia. As such, I spent my summer reclaiming my free time by making a number of short road trips to see family, friends and, of course, concerts with my boyfriend. Consequently, the Nikon D3100 I bought for my digital photography class sat unused for most of the summer.

Last week I nearly had a panic attack when I realized October had snuck up on me so quickly. It's been almost five months since I've been productive outside of work (read: improved myself for my own benefit). I basically realized I should reallocate the time I spend marathoning "Lost," "Desperate Housewives" and "30 Rock" on Netflix every night to doing something significant.