Hello Astronaut
Grad school update
10 years ago
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Hello Astronaut
Hello Astronaut
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Soap box about weed
Before I start this rant, I want to say that I do not smoke weed. I have enough trouble staying out of my fridge without a lethargy inducing drug making me ravenous.
A Bag Of Weed - The best bloopers are here
So this is going on in California right now. In case you live under a rock and aren't aware, the state of California is in financial ruin, with a deficit between $12 and $42 Billion depending on who you ask. One of the proposed plans to fix this clusterfuck is to legalize and tax the use and sale of Marijuana. One of the arguments against this plan is that legalizing pot will lead to an increase in crime. While I don't myself smoke pot, I have at least a dozen very close friends who do. In the years I've known them, the only "crime" they've been accused of because of smoking weed, was getting caught with weed. None of them have ever gotten stoned and crashed their car into a minivan, hit their girlfriends, or stabbed someone. Those three acts were all real things that acquaintances have done while under the influence of alcohol however. Alcohol is legal. Not one person has ever overdosed from smoking too much pot. My freshman year I knew three girls who got alcohol poisoning. What I see as the problem with pot currently is that it is extremely easy to get, but to get it without a medical license, you have to deal with some seedy people. The illegal drug trade is what I see as the problem. If pot is legalized, and regulated, that puts a major thorn in the side of the drug cartels in Mexico. American prisoners incarcerated for marijuana cost tax payers approximately $1 Billion a year. Therefore legalizing marijuana would not only cut the prison population, and save tax payers billions, it also has the potential to generate billions in revenue if simply taxed. $1.3 Billion to be exact. So let's say that the California deficit is an even $20 Billion. Let's be generous to the conservative party and say that the pot tax could generate $1 Billion a year. We won't even figure in the millions that would be saved by not prosecuting legal adults found in possession of marijuana. That $1 Billion is money that could be saved for schools, after school programs, and the arts that Schwarzenegger has been forced to cut.
For me the bottom line draws out to this: I would gladly put up with a couple more pot heads out there if it means children in grade school get to have music class. Pot in California is already so easy to get, making it legal isn't going to drastically change the amount of users. I'm sure as hell still not going to smoke it. Making it legal is still not going to make it a lethal drug. Who knows it might actually make it less desirable. It's not that cool to rebel against your parents unless you can get in real trouble for it anyway.
A Bag Of Weed - The best bloopers are here
So this is going on in California right now. In case you live under a rock and aren't aware, the state of California is in financial ruin, with a deficit between $12 and $42 Billion depending on who you ask. One of the proposed plans to fix this clusterfuck is to legalize and tax the use and sale of Marijuana. One of the arguments against this plan is that legalizing pot will lead to an increase in crime. While I don't myself smoke pot, I have at least a dozen very close friends who do. In the years I've known them, the only "crime" they've been accused of because of smoking weed, was getting caught with weed. None of them have ever gotten stoned and crashed their car into a minivan, hit their girlfriends, or stabbed someone. Those three acts were all real things that acquaintances have done while under the influence of alcohol however. Alcohol is legal. Not one person has ever overdosed from smoking too much pot. My freshman year I knew three girls who got alcohol poisoning. What I see as the problem with pot currently is that it is extremely easy to get, but to get it without a medical license, you have to deal with some seedy people. The illegal drug trade is what I see as the problem. If pot is legalized, and regulated, that puts a major thorn in the side of the drug cartels in Mexico. American prisoners incarcerated for marijuana cost tax payers approximately $1 Billion a year. Therefore legalizing marijuana would not only cut the prison population, and save tax payers billions, it also has the potential to generate billions in revenue if simply taxed. $1.3 Billion to be exact. So let's say that the California deficit is an even $20 Billion. Let's be generous to the conservative party and say that the pot tax could generate $1 Billion a year. We won't even figure in the millions that would be saved by not prosecuting legal adults found in possession of marijuana. That $1 Billion is money that could be saved for schools, after school programs, and the arts that Schwarzenegger has been forced to cut.
For me the bottom line draws out to this: I would gladly put up with a couple more pot heads out there if it means children in grade school get to have music class. Pot in California is already so easy to get, making it legal isn't going to drastically change the amount of users. I'm sure as hell still not going to smoke it. Making it legal is still not going to make it a lethal drug. Who knows it might actually make it less desirable. It's not that cool to rebel against your parents unless you can get in real trouble for it anyway.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Saint Motel of course...
Saint Motel is releasing the fancy boy promos we did back at the holiday shoot, so here's a special peek at them in all their boy band glory! Eat your heart out Boyz2Men! Big things in 2010!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Tom Delonge
Tom Delonge photographed at the Forum during Blink 182 rehearsals for their summer reunion tour.
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Bryant
This is my roommate Bryant. He modeled some jeans for the Glamour Kills shoot yesterday so I made him hold still for a second and snapped a couple photos of him.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Brittany Flickinger for OMGee Magazine
My favorite from the shoot, but cut from the spread.
Photographed for OMGee Magazine
Hair by Catherine Horn
Blog-o-Tips and shit.
Here is my list of the top five things I think all of you aspiring photographers need to do.
1. The biggest glaring reason I'm writing this is because WAY too many of you are using Flickr and Myspace as your "websites" Get a real website, or nobody, and I do mean nobody, will take you seriously as a photographer. They're great networking tools, but nobody wants to sift through your spring break photos or wall comments about how drunk you got last night, or how hot you look in your profile photo.
2. Use your REAL name! I mean your full name. Unless your name is like Ursula Flaberfatz or something, and you want to be a wedding photographer, in which something like "Special Moments Photography" is appropriate. Using your real name will allow you to be recognizable, and people can remember a name. Nicknames are another thing. I got stuck with Megan Picturetaker about five years ago in Montana, so it's on my blog, and myspace, but not my website URL. Most of my friends have nicknames, and they do just fine because they've gotten to a point where people recognize their name just as much as their nickname. Sometimes your name is John Smith and you're screwed, so come up with a creative solution, like John Smith Media, or John Smith Images.
3. Get business cards... and put a GOOD photo on them. By good I mean one that reproduces well in such a small format. Live photos are sometimes okay, but for the most part I find them way too busy. The more simple a photo on the card, the more I connect with it and am likely to check out the site. At the same time don't put a really beautiful landscape on your card unless you're a landscape photographer.
4. Stop using your camera as an excuse to be a jackass at shows. Just because you have that shiny new Canon Rebel doesn't give you a license to walk out into the middle of the stage while the band is playing, unless that band has given you specific permission to do so! I can't tell you how many bands complain to me about kids with cameras getting in their way at shows. I've said this thousands of times, but no one in that audience paid to see you on stage, they paid to see the bands and you need to respect that!
5. Stop working for free. You might live in your parent's basement, and not have bills but the rest of us professionals are trying to eek out a living. It's totally okay to hook up your friends once in a while, but if you get a rep for working for free, it sticks. I know this as a fact because every time I go home every band in Montana expects a hookup because I didn't charge when I was starting out. Photographers that work for free drive down the market so that no one can make a living. Think about how much your time is worth, and go from there. It is a job, the only difference is that we enjoy what we do from 9-5.
These are all my opinions, so take them or leave them. This is just based on some questions I've gotten from my formspring.com account. Feel free to click and leave me more questions for more blogs-o-substance in the future.
1. The biggest glaring reason I'm writing this is because WAY too many of you are using Flickr and Myspace as your "websites" Get a real website, or nobody, and I do mean nobody, will take you seriously as a photographer. They're great networking tools, but nobody wants to sift through your spring break photos or wall comments about how drunk you got last night, or how hot you look in your profile photo.
2. Use your REAL name! I mean your full name. Unless your name is like Ursula Flaberfatz or something, and you want to be a wedding photographer, in which something like "Special Moments Photography" is appropriate. Using your real name will allow you to be recognizable, and people can remember a name. Nicknames are another thing. I got stuck with Megan Picturetaker about five years ago in Montana, so it's on my blog, and myspace, but not my website URL. Most of my friends have nicknames, and they do just fine because they've gotten to a point where people recognize their name just as much as their nickname. Sometimes your name is John Smith and you're screwed, so come up with a creative solution, like John Smith Media, or John Smith Images.
3. Get business cards... and put a GOOD photo on them. By good I mean one that reproduces well in such a small format. Live photos are sometimes okay, but for the most part I find them way too busy. The more simple a photo on the card, the more I connect with it and am likely to check out the site. At the same time don't put a really beautiful landscape on your card unless you're a landscape photographer.
4. Stop using your camera as an excuse to be a jackass at shows. Just because you have that shiny new Canon Rebel doesn't give you a license to walk out into the middle of the stage while the band is playing, unless that band has given you specific permission to do so! I can't tell you how many bands complain to me about kids with cameras getting in their way at shows. I've said this thousands of times, but no one in that audience paid to see you on stage, they paid to see the bands and you need to respect that!
5. Stop working for free. You might live in your parent's basement, and not have bills but the rest of us professionals are trying to eek out a living. It's totally okay to hook up your friends once in a while, but if you get a rep for working for free, it sticks. I know this as a fact because every time I go home every band in Montana expects a hookup because I didn't charge when I was starting out. Photographers that work for free drive down the market so that no one can make a living. Think about how much your time is worth, and go from there. It is a job, the only difference is that we enjoy what we do from 9-5.
These are all my opinions, so take them or leave them. This is just based on some questions I've gotten from my formspring.com account. Feel free to click and leave me more questions for more blogs-o-substance in the future.
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