Esten's Photography

A Post From New York

2009-07-12T19:34:00.001-07:00

Okay, I know I should be updating this and everything, seeing as I'm in NYC, taking photos, etc, but I really just don't have much time. That said, I feel that at least one post is necessary. Even if it is just four photos. More are coming soon, I promise. With more interesting stores/writing too, as right now I'm so tired I can barely type.

I was out with friends at the South Street Seaport when I caught this rainbow at sunset. I'm pretty sure everyone with a camera near the East River had it out taking photos of this.

The rest of the photos are from the pier at Coney Island. I've been there about three times now, and every time I like it even more. It's one of those places that seems to attract almost every type of person, no matter the background. Even though it may not be the place it was in the '50s and '60s, it still has the allure of the American golden age.

Later this week, I'll be posting a photoshoot I did with Caitlin involving a NATO gasmask. Get excited.

On Postmodernism

2009-04-14T20:32:00.001-07:00

This semester, I've been taking an art photography class in the MU Art Department. In the class, we have to answer questions on readings, usually involving movements in photography. The last reading (which we did this week) is about postmodernism. For those of you don't know me, I shoot a lot of film, use a bunch of old cameras and try to do often-stupid things with prints in the darkroom. Most people would probably consider me pretty 'artsy'. But one thing that has always bothered me about art photography is how defeatist it is. This is sort of my opinion on that way of thinking. Sorry that there aren't any photos here. I just felt that this kind of needed to be said.

Postmodernism is suggesting that all original photographs have been produced, and even if they haven’t, the culture we live in predicts the way we would create it. Postmodernists seek to establish the idea that the image is dead, and that we should move towards representations of this idea over the representation of a scene in and of itself.
Personally, I feel that this argument is self-defeating. Postmodernist photographers are erecting an artificial wall for themselves, and then proudly deconstructing it for everyone to sit and marvel at their ingenuity. It’s easy to say that there are no original images left to create when the dominant movement in the world of art photography discourages trying to create them; the biggest sin we can commit as photographers is agreeing with that statement and simply giving up on finding any semblance of the real to represent. Saying that our cultural conceptions color our perspective on the world is like saying we need water to survive. Of course they do, and that is simply the way it has always been and always will be. This is neither a bad thing, nor is it a good thing. It doesn’t mean originality doesn’t exist, it means we have to connect with our own reality in order to demonstrate anything original.
Now, the postmodernist’s argument would be that what we know as real is simply a construction of symbols and images, that we have no way of knowing what the real is. However, I feel that to deny that we can experience reality is a rejection of faith in humanity as a whole. For me, as an artist and photographer, the central tenets of postmodernism mean close to nothing. As long as there are stories to tell, as long as we are still human beings, I will continue to have some kind of faith in the image.

Thank god for photo-j.

Tulsa, I Love You

2009-02-27T13:32:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, I found a collection of two years worth of negatives that I thought I lost. Going through the photos, I came upon a bunch of images that I had either forgotten about, or just not looked at in years. I used to go out to downtown Tulsa and shoot street photos whenever I got the chance, back when I was first getting into photography. Many of these photos come from that phase, and I really am just now realizing how much I miss that. Columbia isn't exactly the best place to shoot street, but I'm considering heading out with my Leica this weekend, just from remembering how much I used to love to take those kinds of photos.

(Bus station)

(YMCA)

(Blue Dome district)

(Mayo motor inn)

(City courthouse)

(Inside parking garage)

(Bus station)

Most of these photos were taken two years ago, when I was first getting into photography. Which means I really didn't do the best job with archival washing these... so forgive the dust and scratches.

Shovel Ready

2009-02-27T02:39:00.000-08:00

Admittedly, this is not photography related. But as a journalism and computer nerd, I had to make a post about this. Over the last week/week-and-a-half, I have been working on a project at The Maneater to show exactly what projects Columbia is asking for funding for in the federal stimulus bill, and how much said projects would cost.
Finally, after one failed, overly-ambitious attempt, I ended up with the graphic that was published online today. As this is only my third project in Flash so far, it's not the absolute greatest thing in the world. But, it is the first interactive Flash graphic the 'eater has had and I don't think it looks too bad.
You can check it out at themaneater.com (and I recommend you do, the article is really great), and I've posted the graphic here. Any thoughts?

Polar Bear Plunge

2009-02-14T17:04:00.000-08:00

Today, Missouri Special Olympics hosted a polar bear plunge. If you're unfamiliar with the term, it means a bunch of people with more guts or less sense than me decide to jump into freezing cold water. In this case, it was for a noble cause, raising money for the aforementioned Missouri Special Olympics. From the crowd, they did quite well. There were somewhere around 285 jumpers. Now, the water was 33 degrees (Fahrenheit, not Celsius), so this was pretty impressive. Here are some of the photos I took:

Jason Vega of team CPD-Antlers parades his costume around the beach. For the event, teams dressed up in everything from sheets to suits.

Members of team "Cold as Sheet" jump into the water of Stephens Lake.

Courtney Hindman of the team "Hooters Girls" loses a balloon from her costume after jumping into the almost-freezing water.

Robin Fenical of team "Chilly Dogs" gathers a string toy fish from the lake after diving in. Awards were given to the most creative way to enter the water.

Scott Drochelman holds onto fiancé Cassie Shields as they plunge backwards into the lake. The couple plans to get married in June.

Members of team CPD-Antlers rush into the water near the end of the event.

Hope you enjoyed the post! There should be another one coming later this week.

Christmas with Caitlin

2008-12-19T22:46:00.000-08:00

Clearly, my girlfriend knows me well.

Leica IIIc (1946-47ish). Expect to see some photos from it soon.

FINAL PROJECT

2008-12-11T13:35:00.000-08:00

Multiple Flash

2008-12-04T14:04:00.000-08:00

Vivitar 283 camera left as key

Vivitar 285 high above camera for fill (1/4 power).

Santa!

Multimediaaaaaaaa!

2008-12-02T12:14:00.000-08:00

Probably one of the best soundslides I've seen in awhile:

http://www.mediastorm.com/0021.htm

When I had to find an inspiring audio slideshow, the first site I thought of was Mediastorm. This project is no exception. The photos are diverse enough to be interesting but cohesive enough to tell a story. The segmentation of the story into what feels like chapters (with each character) makes the nearly-14 minute length flow extremely well. The audio is well done, though I feel like the narrative should start earlier than it does. Overall though, the work is basically incredible and really reminds me of the reasons I wanted to do photojournalism in the first place: tell stories that have the ability to demonstrate some essential part of humanity.

Painting with light... AGAIN!

2008-11-25T09:39:00.000-08:00

Caitlin and I decided to go out to the sandpits just outside of Tulsa (in Bixby, for those of you who know the city) and do some painting with light. I just got a few new manual strobes, so I thought I'd use this to test them out... turns out, I only used my flash on a few shots. But, the flashlight stuff turned out really cool.

(all photos by Caitlin and me)

This was with a Mag-Lite and Caitlin's little multi-color flashlight.

Tree was strobed and multi-color flashlight'd. Grass was with the Mag-Lite.

This one is sorta morbid. But, I really liked the glow around her body.

This isn't painting with light so much as it's just open flash... but, I loved the color of the sky in this one.

Fill flash!

2008-11-13T23:35:00.001-08:00

Bonus points if you can guess how this would look without fill.

Still need suggestions on portfolio (see last post). Any help would be awesome.

Thanks!

Portfolio

2008-11-12T09:52:00.000-08:00

Hey, I just revised my singles gallery for my portfolio. If you can, take a look, leave me a comment with any thoughts/improvements/etc.

Thanks!!!

Painting with Light

2008-11-05T20:06:00.000-08:00

Here's our group's (Matt, Claire, Erin and me) painting with light shot.

Remember Today

2008-11-04T21:56:00.000-08:00

Regardless of what you may think about what direction this country might turn, today was important. Remember that.

In the Diner

2008-10-30T13:17:00.000-07:00

Caption: Grill cook Raydell Wright makes hamburgers during the lunch hour at Broadway Diner on Wednesday. Wright has been working at the diner for two and a half years.

Single flash, part 2: Direct

2008-10-23T13:30:00.001-07:00

This is direct flash! I had a much, much easier time metering for this.

John Clark, a night custodian at Hickman High School mops the main entranceway on Wednesday night, long after students had left. “I love my job,” Clark said. “Love it, love it, love it. Simple as that.”

Single flash, first take

2008-10-21T10:53:00.000-07:00

Well, I took around 50 shots, and this is basically the only good one I had. Near the end, I was getting the exposure more accurate, but moments are hard to come by when you have to wait for your flash to recharge to full power.

Cutline: Stephens College sophomore Caitlin Harris burns a bra to encourage breast cancer awareness on Wednesday, Oct. 15 on Stephens College campus. Harris’ said she was attending the event due to the death of one of her favorite teachers from breast cancer.

Metal/glass

2008-10-16T12:22:00.000-07:00

Metal and glass! (Technically, I had glass... the metal's just for fun)

Lit on a light table, one light under the table bounced off the ground to diffuse it, and a softbox behind the table.

Classmate portrait!

2008-09-30T13:29:00.000-07:00

I decided to go with my original image for the select... I just liked the tones on it a bit better than my retakes.

Valerie Mosley holds a locally-grown green pepper to her face. Mosley, described as a "food nerd" by her younger brother, worked at Wild Oats, a natural food store in Tulsa, Okla, for five years before attending the University of Missouri to study photojournalism.

Slides

2008-09-28T21:03:00.000-07:00

I went to the Heritage Festival and the Pinnacles with some friends last weekend and brought some of my film cameras. The Pinnacles were crazy; I almost fell of the side of this huge cliff. So, all-in-all, it was a good trip.

Photos? Of course.

This is Chelsea. Chris and I asked her to pose, and she just randomly did this.

It's fall! This photo looks way better before it was converted for the web... the color just isn't as vibrant.

There was a bunch of people at the Heritage Festival just making their products as people watched. It was cool stuff. I love the skin tones on this photo... Kodachrome is just great for that.

My exposure was a bit dark here, but I love the old-timey feel of this.

Opine me!

2008-09-20T19:41:00.001-07:00

Valerie is currently at the Missouri Photo Workshop, so I had to shoot my classmate portrait project for Advanced Techniques a bit early... Since I have so much time, I'd really like your help. This goes for all of you, those who are in the class and those who aren't. I have to submit one photo for the select. First of all, I want to know which one you think I should pick. Second, if a picture would be better with a reshoot, I have a limited amount of time next Monday in the studio to redo it, but only if it's absolutely necessary.

Also, for those of you who aren't familiar with Advanced, the photos are all .jpgs, straight out of camera with cropping as the only edit. I can't (A) shoot raw or (B) edit levels or anything like that. So, keep that in mind.

Lighting: Softbox on the right, reflector high left.

I'm leaning towards this one as my select, but the right side of the face is a bit hot. There's still detail there though, so it shouldn't be TOO big of a deal. I was also thinking of shooting this again on a white background. Thoughts?

Lighting: Softbox right, reflector left, red-gelled light in the background (even though you can't see it).

Lighting: Same as previous.

Please, tell me what you think.

Happy Schwag

2008-09-18T08:24:00.000-07:00

NOTE! If you hear random dialogue when you open this page, this is where it's coming from. Just hit pause. kthnks!

I'll post some uncropped stills from this soon... until then, enjoy!

The full version can be found at move.themaneater.com, along with the actual article. Also, if you live in Columbia, it's the cover story of Move magazine, which should be available pretty much everywhere.

Just catching up

2008-09-07T21:59:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I recognize how long it's been since I've updated this with any of my work other than that last copy test thing. So, here's a collection of stuff I've done recently.

I got a 30D about a month ago, and one of the first things I did, naturally, was take photos of Caitlin. She found my fedora and we did a portrait shoot using a reflector and natural light from my window.

Kinda looks like "A Clockwork Orange".

I keep saying that I'm working on a photo essay over Hissom, a center for the treatment of the mentally disabled that was abandoned 20 or so years ago, but I really can't find the time to conduct the interviews. Until then, here are two photos from the shoot.

I used a D3 last weekend to shoot some stuff for my meter calibration/copy test assignment. Here's one of the photos I used... it's in black and white here, but it was shot (and turned in) as tungsten-balanced.

This was shot with a 70's Vivitar 70-210 f/3.5 Series 1 lens... I am just totally blown away by this thing. It's very unique... it almost feels like it's designed to be a soft-focus lens when wide open, as it's mostly sharp but has this kind of soft distortion that makes portraits really, really nice. The lens was Caitlin's, but I own one in OM mount (and I bought an adaptor for my EOS after using hers for maybe 3 shots).

I do a lot of messing around with astrophotography, and that weekend was no exception. This is somewhere around a 20 second exposure.

I included parts of my house for perspective.

Finally, I went out yesterday to shoot the sunset at a lake on the MKT trail. It had just been pretty cloudy, so the light was doing some cool things coming through the clouds.

(That photo's definitely best viewed larger on flickr)

I rarely get landscapes I'm happy with, so it was a pretty nice day, overall.

Welcome to Advanced Techniques

2008-09-03T17:15:00.001-07:00

For all of you who read this that aren't MU Photo-J kids, I'm in a class this semester which focuses largely on lighting. It's called Advanced Techniques in Photojournalism, and posting images on my blog is requirement for the class. Which means, you're going to be seeing a lot more of this sort of thing.

Mood lighting

Credit: Dorothea Lange

Stump-the-chump

Credit: National Geographic (photographer not listed).

We decided that the lighting on the second one was likely a single strobe with some surgery lights, accounting for the blown-out hand and directional shadows.

Expect a post with more of my work soon. Adios!

Scenes from rural Oklahoma

2008-07-10T20:43:00.000-07:00

Due to the holiday weekend (and my own laziness) I didn't update the last Thursday or Monday. To make up for it, here's a huge post of cool stuff. I got a new 35mm camera that can use all of my Canon lenses (an EOS 3), so I shot a few rolls of slide film (Provia 100f) through it.

Over the weekend, Caitlin and I went up to meet my family at the lake. Our house is near a town called Zena... the town itself consists of a church, an abandoned store and a similarly vacant gas station. There's literally nothing there. There are, however, plenty of trees.

This was just the first part of the most eventful walk I've ever had up at the lake. People pretty much just throw their trash everywhere... there's even a large pile of various random trash right next to a "No Dumping" sign.

This puppy craves attention. She belongs to a local farmer who used to raise fighting cocks before the State banned cockfighting. Now, they raise goats (I think?). Anyway. This and another dog followed Caitlin and me throughout our walk. After getting about halfway back to my house, we saw that the puppy had raw, nearly bleeding skin on its paws from the hot pavement. Seeing as this alarmed both of us, I ran back to the house and grabbed our ATV while Caitlin stayed with the dog. We eventually took them back to their house and drove off.

These were everywhere. The vibrant yellows really drive home the point that this is finally summer.

If you were ever curious what 90% of the midwest looks like, here you go. This was taken on a highway between Grove and Miami (pronounced My-am-uh). As boring as it looks, this is often my absolute favorite scenery, if only because of its familiarity.

After going down highway 59, we intersected Route 66 outside of Afton. This car was part of a huge lot of classic cars in various states of disarray and rust just on the side of 66. Some of them looked recoverable, but most looked like the typical Oklahoma classic car: outside on blocks and rusted over. Kind of a shame.

This was one of the ones in better shape.

When we got to Afton, I stumbled around the downtown area's many burnt and abandoned buildings. This place was likely some kind of school in the past. The building looked like a disaster scene, but with elements of the surreal. This random overturned desk wasn't the only odd part of the two-story wreck; in the next room over there was a huge swastika spray-painted on the wall. Scary, for a town with only 1,100 residents.

I found the single most interesting place in the town after climbing through a broken window into what used to be a TV repair shop. Old, broken TVs and electronics were scattered across the entire shop... or at least what was left of it. The ground was covered in broken glass, pieces of wood and other debris.

Apparently, a bunch of the buildings in the town burned down and were left abandoned. I can't say when or how, but the burn marks on the files here make it apparent that this TV shop was a victim of the blaze.

As we left, a man sat in front of one of the buildings downtown, smoked and played with his dog. His building was connected to the destroyed TV shop, so I would guess he lost some of his business in the fire as well. Regardless, we petted his dog for a bit then left the town, headed back home to Tulsa.