week 8

Someone was watching me while I took this and it was really awkward.

-Alison

This is my boss.

Sincerely,
Matt Smith

Shot lots film this week, it's getting developed right now so I may end up replacing this later in the week. I need to get back to really exploring, I have been looking up abandoned and vacant property around denver lately and will probably start exploring that. I have also been applying for schools this week, it's been exciting and anxiety ridden. But mostly exciting. I also have been reading a lot this week, I  always forget how fun it is to escape into a story.

Ty

This is the beautiful Lauren. 

Danièle

Self portrait in a field of pricker bushes.

Jenn

A video I've been working on for quite some time now. This was shot entirely on the 8mm iPhone app and has taken months to complete.

Joe

Week Five: Night

"Addiction" by Matt Smith

The most congested freeway in the USA is the 405 in Los Angeles. The road seems to always be at a stand still while driving. From the view of an over pass, however, this highway is moving at warpspeed. Skaters are, by nature, adrnaline junkies. I once heard a speech from the pop culture icon Dr. Drew, in which he stated that "extreme" athletes have a much higher chance of developing drug addiction. The desire for danger and risk in this photo proves this statement to me. The image was actually a fluke. The goal was to have my friend stand motionless, but by mistake, he thought I said that the photo was over, thereby liberating him of his rigidity obligations. Even though he was free to do as he pleased, he remained on the ledge, amping on the rush of cars beneath him.




this is my night photo due to the freezing cold weather and my lack of motivation to stand out in it to take my picture. School is killer right now but I am determined to press through and create some better work in the next few weeks. Taking it a day at a time and trying to enjoy this college craziness.

-Chase

When this theme was suggested I knew exactly the kind of photo I'd shoot: Dark, abandoned, desolate. I had the perfect location in mind. It started raining as I headed downstairs to shoot. Although the photos look creepy, I felt so at ease in this park... I spent a part of my childhood living nearby. The sense of familiarity never leaves.

- Danièle

When we decided on the theme night, so many ideas rushed through my head. The one that I really couldn't shake was how much my idea of night has changed over the past year. Almost exactly a year ago I decided to follow my childhood dream and move to California, after about 5 months I developed pretty severe anxiety and began having panic attacks several times a day. After what was probably the most grueling month of my life, I decided it was in my best interest to move home and deal with this. It was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made and upon coming home, though my general anxiety weakened I began to panic almost every night at sunset. The beginning of the night terrified me, but I had, and still have no idea why. For months I had to be in a room with no natural light during the golden hour just to avoid the panic, I felt trapped inside of this illogical nightmare of my own mind. I am happily and slowly returning to life as I previously knew it, but I won't ever forget about the little bubble I lived in for so long.

To get this shot, I took the shot you see and overlaid it with a photo of the stars because they looked incredible last night. I also used a fog machine to create the glow.

-Ty

I'm a sucker for long exposures & experimenting so this theme was really fun for me. I went shooting in a huge warehouse on Monday night and it was so nice to just explore in the quiet and dark of the night in this big, old warehouse. For this photo, I used a shot from the warehouse and another from doing long exposures with sparklers. Obviously, there are no sparklers in this photo because I just used the trees.

This week was ridiculously hard. Every night had me in emotional breakdown. I'm just exhausted. So many responsibilities and things to learn. But it was so nice to end the week with my mom coming home, water color painting, developing film and spending a bit of time on learning some new chords. Even though it was a rough week, I am abundantly blessed with so many people that pray for me, love me, encourage me. I made it through this week!

Can't believe next week is week 6...

-Alison

Wow, sorry for this.

The theme for this week was night and I had a really cool photo planned but the weather didn't fully cooperate. Maybe I'll try again in the summer when the nights are warmer and less cloudy. I took this last minute on saturday night before going to an 80's themed roller skate night (which was awesome just in case you were wondering). I don't really like this photo as a whole but I do really like the shadows.

Saturday was the first day all week that I got to sleep in past 8:30am...

Hope you all had a more restful week than mine :)

- Christie

I know I'm posting this a bit late. I took this photo after work last Sunday. Standing under a streetlight in our driveway. Our neighborhood looks so sleepy and homey at night. January in Massachusetts and no snow. I love the nighttime and this photo was a challenge for me because I'm so used to shooting with natural light.

This week was my first full week of classes and I also worked five nights. Still rocking my waitressing uniform in this picture-- black pants, shoes, hair up.
Jenn

Week Four

This is my home wave at its best. I dream of mornings like this. Waking up at 7, grabbing coffee, and seeing this when i get to the beach is my favorite thing ever. This was Sunday morning and i had a sprained wrist. No surfing. Looking at this picture makes me smile at how perfect the wave is and cringe that i wasn't out there. I know, i put the wave in the dead center of the frame which generally is a no no in terms of composition but i really don't care. Its a perfect wave and why should I?

-Matt Smith

-Chase

it's been a really long week. breakfast dates, class, materialism, birthday, surprises, snow storms, remote, worship, serving, weekend services, leading. i turned 19 on friday and it's about time. i'm starting to pick up my guitar again. & i got my remote! so this is my first self-portrait with my remote and i plan on doing a lot more. i guess i just chose this one because of all the bokeh. i love my 50 f/1.4!

till next week...
Alison

This wasn't the photo that I intended to use for this week...
I was still at home in Washington during the first half of the week and we had a huge snowstorm so I took advantage of that and took a selfie in the snow. It didn't turn out how I wanted it to so I decided to reshoot for this week, maybe I'll revisit it later. On tuesday, I flew down to California for my spring semester of university. Classes haven't started yet but I've been super busy catching up with people and getting ready for my sorority's recruitment. All of that on top of the crazy rain we've been getting lately is why you get this less than stellar photo today.

- Christie

I took a lot of pictures this week, not too many of myself though. I returned a christmas present and bought myself some studio lighting. It has been so fun to be able to play with and mess around with lighting in the comfort of my home. I am also getting excited about the rest of my life for some reason this week. This project has really reinvigorated my passion for photography. anyways, i hope everyone has a good week!

-ty

I have not been giving this project the effort it deserves, and I am making a promise to myself to change that. It snowed this week, I worked four nights (as usual), and my semester starts tomorrow. Everything is so transient. Tonight I drove home from the grocery store in thick fog and slushy rain. It was beautiful.

jenn

It rained today.

As much as I like this, I don't really think I'm challenging myself enough or going outside the box with my photographs lately. I want this project to consist a lot of my sister so I can practice, but I think I might try to actually get back into self portraits because those tend to test my abilities more. I don't know, I don't know... But it's 2012 I may as well make some significant effort.

-Joe

Ever get that feeling when you just know that you met somebody for a reason?

- Danièle

Week Two

Tomorrow I start college back up again, and I'm nervous and excited all at once. Hoping this semester opens doors and challenges me and teaches me a lot. I am finally taking classes that pertain to my major and I cannot wait to dive into it all. This was the last picture I took in Texas before I came home this week to Nebraska. I love Texas sunsets.

-Chase

We had a good sized swell this week with waves approaching 20 feet in some areas. This photo was shot just as the waves were starting to fill in. I love the Venice Pier and spend a large portion of my free time on this structure. There are no stores, bathrooms, or restaurants; just fisherman, lovebirds, and locals. Its simplicity makes it beautiful. I cant remember the settings exactly but the shutter was set somewhere around 1/6 of a second to capture the waves.

Matthew Smith

This first week of the new year has been a strange one for me. When my family and I returned from vacation, most of my friends had already gone back to colleges while I still have a couple more weeks off. It feels very weird to be in my home town without all of my friends from high school here with me. It's basically just me and one of my best friends here so we plan on spending a boatload of time together this coming week. Hopefully we'll get to do a photoshoot together :)

- Christie

What is this picture of, you ask? It's a hand of worship, helping, healing, & justice. 45,000 students gathered for the cause of Christ to bring freedom to the 27 million trapped in slavery. We raised 3.6 million for human trafficking, Obama declared January anti-human trafficking month, & Goggle recently donated $11.6 million. CNN did a story on this. Go watch the video here. So unfortunately, The Georgia Dome was not allowing DSLR's for the Passion conference. So this instagram photo will have to suffice. To see more photos from my trip & keep updated, you can follow me on instagram here. Among several other things, God revealed to me that if I was going to travel the earth for my own enjoyment, I might as well spread the Gospel while doing that. So, I'm just following after Him and right now I am going to finish up my certificate, go to Moody and get a biblical certificate and start doing missions. God knows if I'll do it all my life or just for awhile. Maybe I will use my photography to bring light into the darkness. Travel the world and bring all this darkness out into the light: show people how ugly this world really is. I'll be going to Haiti in May [God willing], maybe Dominican Republic in June...I don't really know where He's going to place me.

I'll be doing some longer blogging every week. If you'd like to check that out with every photo, go to my Flickr.

-Alison

Alright, so I've decided that my 52 week project isn't going to be self portraits but rather mostly of my sister. I never take enough photos of her and she's actually fantastic to take photos of so that's my plan. Hope everyone's New Year is going well so far.

-Joe

This morning my brother left for 6 months in Spain, knowing he was leaving I went out early this week to shoot. I was on a walk with a friend when we stumbled across this lake and she said she was going to try walking on it. I am generally a pretty cautious person, to the extent of one of my new years resolutions being "be more reckless", so it took me about five minutes of her walking around before I went on the ice with her. After running onto the ice with her, we spent all of golden hour on the ice and my camera never really my hand. 

If you want to see more pictures from the ice click here. 

Not quite sure what to say here. Bunny is named Nuvula and she is really sweet. She belongs to someone I live with and this morning before work I was shooting these and some of my housemates filtered through the dining room (literally the only wall in the house that gets good sun!) and we were all laughing about me posing topless with the bunny. I also took some selfies with a cat we've been house sitting named Pizza (maybe some of those will end up on my Flickr or Tumblr over the next week or so). Full moon tonight! 

jenn

I was apprehensive about posting this photo, partly because I'm not wearing much and partly because it was only the first shot of the 40 or so that I took that day. I guess sometimes when a shot feels right there's no point looking elsewhere. 

- Danièle