First day(s) of school

Busy busy busy. Isn't everyone? I've been wildly snapping away like an alligator at fresh meat, only that the fresh meat is good pictures and I'm not an alligator.

Yeah.

So I have a lot of (what I consider to be) good pictures to post here, and I'm going to release them slowly so that I don't overload people who can't take too much photography at one time. That, and I want to have a slight buffer in case I run into more stuff to do. These images I took half a month ago, on the 16th of August when Conserve School was just starting and everyone was running around, trying to figure out their schedules.

As promised, pictures.



Two of the students who were obviously happy to be back at school although probably not so giddy when posted as nametag-hander-outers, hugging (I caught them at their booth). Ever since the picture of the man in the airport (see below), I have become increasingly interested in portraiture, and this picture is part of my foray into that intracate act of lighting, emotion, and personal flair.




On that subject of portraiture and cool lighting, I present you with this image of two of my good friends. I put this one in all its unsaturated goodness up because of the way the lighting is harsh and reminds me of an old snapshot taken at some long-abandoned summer camp. My friend Eliot Frost argues that people use black and white to make pictures look artsy when they in fact are not. I say that removing color from an image is a tool that can improve a picture's artistic value by forcing the viewer to focus on something other than color, like texture or contrast. Color is a strong force in photography, like it is in any art, and removing it brings up many of the subtle details that were skipped over like a small red flower stealing the scene from a crumbling wall.




This picture, I must admit, was taken by my good friend Dick Fickling. I let him borrow my camera for a few minutes and he managed to fill most of the two-gigabyte CF card with images mundane and extraordinary. I think I may take a little time in Photoshop someday with this picture, as it could stand some brightening up to bring out the emotion. I suppose that's the problem with lots of backlighting.



This ethereal spectere is in fact my speedy photographer friend, Dick. You'll see in the future several long-exposure shots of people and things. Fire at f5.6 30sec is amazingly beautiful, as the time melds the licks of flame together into one solid glow. I have yet to figure out what the white scratches are that float over his shoulder in the picture above.




My friend Stephen McVerry is responsible for this portraiture. This is me, for those of you who don't know what I look like. Not much to say about this picture, but McVerry snuck up on me with my own camera and grabbed this one during that first day of business.




This picture I took as it was foggily drizzling down on this beautiful campus. I decided to go for a walk with my camera on the second day I was back (there wasn't much else to do), and saw an excellent thistle with nothing around - good fodder for a shot with small depth of field. I must admit I played with the color in Photoshop to bring out the purple hue of the flower. Sometimes purple just isn't purply enough.




Whoever can remember the name of this impish fellow should post it in the comments, as I can't seem to remember. He stands on our school's founder's estate, and lights the path from the main driveway to the main house. His eyes are really what do it for me, though - he looks deranged and weather-beaten; he is definitely not a tame one.




I'll leave you for today with this shot, because I wanted to show off the awesome view that is right outside my bedroom window this year at Conserve.

More pictures soon, as I start to sort through and throw all the good ones in a pile to post.

--Erty