Oh happy day!

October 23, 2009 10:34 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

It’s a happy day, if for no other reason than I’m logged onto the internet at my apartment. That’s never happened before!

It’s also a happy day because I went to my favorite camera shop and picked up a CD containing scans of several rolls of film. You should understand: seeing scans of photos I’ve taken is like Christmas for me. Every time. Popping the disc into the computer and looking at those images for the first time, well, is just like unwrapping a Christmas pressie. Every time.

What did I receive on this particular Mini Christmas Day?

Among other things, I received photos from when I was with my brother Jonathan last week. He moved to Montana 4 years ago, and I have only seen him twice since. Because I enjoy documenting my friends and family, it was really important to me to get some photos of my brother. I wanted to make sure we’d have something to remember our day by.

I met with Jonathan at Otherlands. He was on the patio, having a smoke.


My bruvva at Otherland’s

Jonathan has two goals when he comes home: 1) Enjoy as much time as he can, with as many friends and loved ones as he can. 2) Eat his way across the Mid-South at all the restaurants that can’t be equaled in Montana. That means my normally health-conscious brother gladly guzzles gallons of sweet tea,  eats his weight in the white cheese dip at Mexican restaurants (who knew THAT’S something he’d have to do without in Montana???), and makes frequent visits to the BBQ restaurants that seem to dot every corner in this city (hey, he’s only home every couple of years. Why not live it up while he is here? And hopefully he’ll never see this blog and find out that I’ve shared with the world his Memphis eating habits.)


Can you tell I had to forced Jonathan to stand here while I took his picture at Tom’s?


I was pretty glad that the BBQ restaurant Jonathan chose that day was photogenic.

I wish I had more photos to show you. Unfortunately, the rest of the day wasn’t quite as photogenic as what you see here. But I don’t think I’ll need photos to remember going on a quest with Jonathan to find something zombie-related, something red, and something green for him to send to a girl back in Montana. Traipsing around Summer Avenue’s fine selection of thrift and antique stores with my brother will remain in my memory forever, even without photos to remind me.


(For those of you who like to know the technical information on my photos, the shots in this blog post were made with my Holga 120N and expired, cross-processed Fuji Velvia.)

Posted in: family, film photography ⋅ Tagged: , ,

Bazan!

October 19, 2009 12:51 pm ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅

If you were  to say to me, “Hey Amanda. Who’s your favorite band?”, I’d have a few answers for that question (I’m not good at having only one favorite. It’s a blessing and a curse.) My answer would go something like this, “Hey. Good question. My favorite band’s The Beatles. And mewithoutYou. And anything David Bazan does. In no particular order.”  I have already gushed about getting to see mewithoutYou (The Weiss Family) again back in August. And here we are, not even two months later, and I’ve just been able to see David Bazan. This made me so stinking happy. So, so happy.

Bazan could’ve played anything from any album and I’d have been stoked, because I don’t know if there’s a song on any of his records that I DON’T like. But I was pleased with the mixture of songs he did. A lot of the new album. Some from the EP. And some from his work with Pedro the Lion. I was quite pleased.

It’s nice when something you’ve so looked forward to meets and even exceeds your expectations. Thank you, Mr. Bazan.

(Pssssst. More photos from this show are HERE)

Posted in: band photography, update ⋅ Tagged: , ,

There was nothing for breakfast, and I was in a real jam…

September 25, 2009 2:44 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

You like my awesome pun I made in the blog title? I woke up yesterday to find that there was no cereal or other breakfast-appropriate food in my apartment. Rather than despair over this fact, I decided that when life hands you nothing for breakfast, you should make biscuits.


(Pentax K20D. Smc Pentax-a 50mm/2)

I have a dizzying array of photos and blogs that I am working  on for Shoot With Personality.  Tales of mystery and intrigue and magnicent adventures in the world of photography. Not really. I did attend Cooper-Young Fest recently and did some street-style photography, did a photo shoot for a musician I know, and I also acquired a “new to me” Polaroid-style instant camera, so blogs about those things (and more) are in the works.

Posted in: update ⋅ Tagged: , ,

J’aime les détails? Moi aussi!

September 18, 2009 7:03 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

J’aime les détails is  apparently French for “I love details.” Which I do. I don’t actually know French, btw, aside from “répéter s’il vous plaît” and “moi aussi”  – I remember that from the six weeks of French I took in 11th grade before dropping public school and becoming homeschooled. I only know this “I love details” phrase in because I am a member of a Flickr group by the same name. I love posting photos to this group because it made me realize how many photos I take are of details rather than of something in its entirety. I usually go in close to show just the particular part of whatever I am photographing. I could give you lots of examples of this (look at this week’s Bokeh Wednesday, for instance) However, I will show you with a couple of photos I took yesterday whilst on my break from work.

I was at Borders looking for a certain book (which they didn’t have in stock.  Boo.) On my way back to my car, I noticed something odd about a drain grate in the parking lot. There appeared to be something sort of hay-like wrapped around part of the grate. I grabbed my Pentax K20d with 50mm/2 lens and took a couple of shots.

This shot is alright. I liked it because I purposefully included the raised relief of  “Memphis”  at the bottom.

But, I like this version of the photo better. I got in closer with my camera for a tighter shot. I think it puts more attention on the bit of this grate that I thought was interesting – the grass or hay that was wrapped around the center. That’s what caught my eye in the first place and what I thought should be the more obvious subject of the shot.

So, for any of you would-be photographers out there, I highly suggest shifting your perspective from “the big picture” to the more fine details of whatever you’re shooting. It’s my favorite thing to do, and all you Shoot With Personality, Jrs. out there might like it as well!

Posted in: informational, shop talk ⋅ Tagged: ,