Idea table - 10/24/14

I do have this single image to share. It was from a video I was about to shoot with my friend for our Youtube channel. We were still coming up with ideas for videos, pretty much based on what we did to keep ourselves entertained throughout an 8 hour workday.

To sum it up, we would make up a story and tell it to the other person attempting to get them to crack. I believe we based it on already existing IP and parody the elements until the other person figured it out. We called it “totally original” and I think recorded multiple but I only got around to uploading one of them. A shame really, I need to see how much of that footage I still have left and put it out there.

Our backdrop for this video is where this image comes from.

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That way the audience knows, this is where we have our ideas.

Lego - 8/4/14

The camera got packed up for a while after the graduation in the last post. As I mentioned the house I was living in went into foreclosure, during the summer of 2014 I worked on moving into my own apartment. Not quite for the first time, but this time without the bugs that the first one had, which is why I only stayed in that apartment about 2 hours overall and moved back into my dads house the year before.

But that house went to foreclosure, I packed up and moved in with my girlfriends parents for a month before my apartment was available. Moved in on my own and started walking to work. Not as a choice, because I had found out my car was real fucked. They couldn’t do an alignment because of the… I want to say barrings. It was wearing tires down to steel wires really quickly, so to try and keep that from becoming too much of a cost I would walk about 2 miles along a highway access road to work. Always thankful for the rides home after work, never once did I have to walk back in the dark.

It was during this time period that I was trying to be more creative, the Youtube channel with my buddy was coming to an end, he was going back to school and wouldn’t have as much free time. So I started out on my own, I came up with the name Qwoft after several hours of googling to see what had already been taken. The goal was actually to create Youtube videos of different kinds. But I would set this aside for almost a year before I came back to it.

I’m assuming one of the ideas I had was lego stop motion, because I have attempted in many times over the years. So the images I have must have been from a test I was trying out. Also some kind of joke that I’ve long forgotten. It seems to be a series of images of different Lego character heads on a Batman body.

1/20 - F5 - ISO 3200

1/20 - F5 - ISO 3200

1/15 - F5 - ISO 3200

1/15 - F5 - ISO 3200

1/13 - F5 - ISO 3200

1/13 - F5 - ISO 3200

I had bought a set of small LED lights from Neweer that I was using here. Not bad lights honestly, 160 LED dimmable battery powered. Came as a set of two with little stands that I balanced on bar stools to get them up to table height. Still have and use these lights. Looks like a got the pair for $65.

What really interests me is this last pair of images, this I’m sure was for a joke I sent to my buddy. I’ve completely lost what it was or what I did to it after this. I’m sure I would have photoshopped in some text. But who knows. Some things are lost to time. Like memories long forgotten, only able to remember fragments of the experience. Kind of the whole point of this blog is to try and get up to current postings so I will actually be able to accurately record experiences and have something to look back on.

1/25 - F4.5 - ISO 3200

1/25 - F4.5 - ISO 3200

1/60 - F4.5 - ISO 400 - I find this last one to be the most interesting, the change in light tells me I cranked up the dimmable light and probably removed the orange filter from it

1/60 - F4.5 - ISO 400 - I find this last one to be the most interesting, the change in light tells me I cranked up the dimmable light and probably removed the orange filter from it

Bit of a shame I didn’t know to widen my depth of field a bit to get both of the characters in focus. But I was just starting out, still only attempting without learning anything first. Which itself is learning to be fair.

Showing off the new camera - 3/18/14

It had been about a month since I’d purchased the camera. I’d recorded the videos as I planned and even taken shots of a likely once in a lifetime event. Not everyday that you get to see the aftermath of a lightning strike, let alone right in your backyard.

These are my thoughts now, at the time I’m sure I was just thankful the tree didn’t damage the house in any way. As that would have been a headache to deal with. Not that it was my house at all, or even was the mortgage currently being paid. It was going into foreclosure after my father was forced into early retirement and couldn’t keep up with it. Plus I think he was ready to start over somewhere new. INC as it turned out. Beautiful place. More on that later. After spending 30+ years in one place, I can’t even imagine it. After a few years in this apartment currently I’m ready to pack it up and leave.

But to the photography portion of this, just days after the tree incident, the family had come back on one of the many trips to pack and move things up to their new place. Judging by the photo archive, I must have shown them my new purchase. The youngest sibling took to it immediately and I have these lovely images.

1/60 - F4.5 - ISO 400

1/60 - F4.5 - ISO 400

1/60 - F4 - ISO 400

1/60 - F4 - ISO 400

1/60 - F4 - ISO 400

1/60 - F4 - ISO 400

Honestly there’s several more of these. But you get the point. I also managed to get this image of my dad, which cracks me up.

1/60 - F5 - ISO 400

1/60 - F5 - ISO 400

After this the camera wasn’t brought out for another month, until my girlfriends graduation concert. Where she had to perform with her instructor to friends and family. I believe this is the equivalent of a thesis paper? Not sure, I didn’t go to college.

But that did give me a bit more experience honestly, they had rented a huge church for the concert. Friends of the family I believe, but the experience I gained was just how loud a shutter is in a dead silent room. Or even during the music. It was honestly bothersome and I record video more than I took images.

Oh, and also a shot of my shoe.

IMG_1995.JPG
1/30 - F5.6 - ISO 3200 - 4/12/2014

1/30 - F5.6 - ISO 3200 - 4/12/2014

I did also wind up taking images of the group for the reception afterwards, but not my family and I’m not putting those on here. Looking back at the image now there’s plenty I would do differently. Framing wise I would have stood up or gotten on a step to get on level, light wise I would have used an off camera flash to try and light up some of the dark areas. Even a shot from behind showing the audience would have been cool.

But these are thoughts coming more than 5 and a half years later. I’ve done a lot more with a camera since then.