Website Facelift

So I decided that my website needed to be refurbished. It was too simple and didn't offer much for viewers or myself. I was able to change a plan so now I have much more space to work with for uploading images; you'll notice a lot more pictures on there now. I will probably be posting on there more than flickr. But if you follow me on twitter I'll be sure to post and keep you updated. 

As far as my creativity, I can say that I have never been more inspired, driven, and conceptually processing with my work. It's hard at time because my mind gets over loaded with thoughts, but it's always better to have too many than not enough.

I will also be introducing you all to King. Very, very soon. That is, if he wants to meet you..

xx austin

Spontaneous Photo Shoot

I've been in the mood for a spontaneous photo shoot recently and decided to go out and do one this afternoon. It's been raining all day and we've been under tornado and flash flood watches. But, that never stopped me before :P So I took advantage of the river being high and shot some pictures with Jack.

 

 

 

xx austin

Spring's sweet cantata

So I have been greatly inspired by spring and all the flowers. I know there's flowers all the time, but for some reason this year it's hitting me stronger than ever. I just find them so amazing and beautiful. I've been picking them and making bouquets for everyone! The wildflowers are the best. Along with the numerous azalea bushes. Azaleas are so vibrant and have huge flowers, apposed to other plants. In Louisiana azaleas are very popular and easy to grow, thus they are everywhere.

Driving to school everyday I pass countless azalea bushes along with a few fields of wild flowers. Both of which I wanted to use to my artistic advantage.

" Listen, can you hear it? Spring's sweet cantata. 

The strains of grass pushing through the snow. 

The song of buds swelling on the vine. 

The tender timpani of a baby robin's heart. Spring. "  

                                                                           ~Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneide

I'll be 100% honest when explaining these pictures. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I found some gorgeous little nook in some forest with a field of flowers and perfect lighting right around golden hour. In all honesty I wasn't even planning on doing a shoot that day. Kameron and I went on a bike ride to some old places in our neighborhood (before I got my car we rode our bikes everywhere; all of my summer 100 pictures were taken somewhere in the neighborhood). We pulled up by the pool house and there were three azalea bushes with a bunch of flowers on it. I had the idea of a shoot with flowers for weeks but never had any specific concepts. So we just started shooting and we came out with this picture!

“Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence.
Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance.
Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence.
Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance.”

                                                                                  ~Yoko Ono

The concept for this picture came about almost the same way as the previous one. After seeing how well the first 'shoot' went we wanted to do another similar one before we called it a day. When we got to our houses, we live across the street from each other, there was a tree with white flowers on it. So spontaneously I built the "flower afro" or crown. The only problem, and major issue, with this picture were the mosquitos. They were eating the both of us alive, more so Kameron.

I really appreciated the contrast in the two pictures that I came across while editing. The vibrant colors in the first one and huge flowers, symbolizing spring and new life. Contrasted with the black & white photograph with the small bokeh flowers. Which symbolized winter and death. Winter/Spring contrast played a huge role in creating these images. Along with the special touch of Mother Nature ;)

If you couldn't tell, I'm having fun experimenting with different way of cropping and layering. My whole thing about spring is starting new; shedding my skin. I've noticed a huge improvement not only in my pictures but in the process of creating them. Both shooting and conceptualization of the imagery. One thing I wanted to do when thinking about blogging was to create a series of images depicting, or documenting, nature's finest gifts; flowers. I went our and collected a variation of different flower species, hence the image above. By the time I got home I felt like a florist! 

   
I hope you noticed the tiny little bug in the first picture! He must have hide behind on of the petals, too funny. When I went about collecting the flowers I came to a strange conclusion. I wouldn't have noticed this unless I did what I did. I never realized the connect that flowers have with my childhood. All the flowers you see above were collected in nearby wooded area near my house; all places I accessed on my bike when I was younger and first started photography. Going back to those areas made me remember playing back there and even taking some of my first pictures. 

As you can tell I decided to try a new font for this post.
Nothing against Courier, but Helvetica was fitting. 

Along with the new crops, font, and images; I will be giving the blog a 'spring cleaning' so to speak. A new banner and background, along with some new graphics. Very excited to share all of them with you! Until then, I hope you all get out and enjoy the nice weather and flowers!

xx austin

Jamaica, Cayman Islands, & Mexico

Hello! I haven't done a post in forever. My life has been so busy and hectic that all my free time was spent on myself. Lots of reflection and thinking, especially with photography. I am making an effort to focus all my attention towards photography and bettering myself. 

I had the past week off from school because of Mardi Gras, because of that I was able to take a cruise to three different countries. When we first arrived at the port I was very apprehensive. I'll be honest, I didn't want to get on. I have never been on a cruise, as a result I was very nervous and had a lot of anxiety. But once I was on and had my stuff settled I was fine. We left New Orleans on Sunday and spent the following two days at sea towards Jamaica. 

Waking up in Jamaica was really weird. We spent 48 hours at sea and that was the only thing you could see outside the windows. At night it was pitch black with no lights anywhere. It was relaxing and nice, but also very scary and almost lonely. There was no internet or cellphone service once the ship left dock so I had no connection to the world whatsoever. Being disconnected and put in the middle of the ocean with no other people around for miles was something I have never experienced.

We woke up at Jamaica and had to go through customs before we were allowed to enter the country. Once in we spent the day at the beach. We had Jamaicans play a variety of pop music on steel drums. Including p!nk, Katy Perry, Adele, Beyonce', and Rihanna. All the people there were so nice and friendly. 

We were only allowed so much time off the boat before it left for the next port. When we went back to the ship some of the military of Jamaica sang for us and escorted us out the port which was very nice to see. All the people we were encountered with were extremely friendly and helpful. It was a pleasure to be able to visit the country and I would definitely want to visit again.

The second stop we made was in the Cayman Islands. The water was crystal clear and bright blue. The pictures were not enhanced at all, the water was that color. We got off the ship and got onto another boat which took us out to the reefs. We snorkeled for an hour and found some really nice shells. After that we got to swim with stingrays on a sandbar. They were 'wild' and we got to hold them and feed them squids. It was very fun. Also a huge change from the "two finger" petting at the aquarium! 

The food was very good and the people were very friendly and nice and showed us many different things with the island.

The whole boat ride through the marina I was blown away by the architecture. The homes there were beautiful.

The last stop we made was in Mexico. I've never been in Mexico but I had the stereotype of it. I have to say, it is a lot different than you picture. But, at the same time a lot of the things I pictured were there. We had a tour of the Mayan Ruins which was amazing and very stunning to see in person. Along with the whole '2012' gist. But the walk from the cruise to the bus there were tourist shops. 

There were a lot of citizens standing on the sidewalks trying to sell you stuff. At first glance it was very sad and humbling to see these people beg from money and try to sell things, but once you walked by it became just plain annoying. They shoved the items they were trying to sell in your face and yelled prices in your face. When you said "no thank you" they became more persistent and would lower the price and follow you. It was scary having all these people in your face that wouldn't leave you alone. Aside from that the ruins were very beautiful.

It was a very enjoyable week and I got to shoot a lot, as you can tell. I didn't intend to have a post with so many pictures but I figured what the heck! When I got home everything was still moving. When you are on the ship you can feel it move because of the waves, and since my body was accustomed to that movement for seven days, I still felt like everything was moving. Which made me sick the first day. But it went away by the end of the second day. That was the only issue I had. 

For those who have never been on a cruise I would highly suggest taking one, even if it's the only one you will ever take. It's a great way to travel while staying safe. Also a nice way to get away for a week! 

xx austin