Avoidence of Perfection

Jasmin on Flickr.

Jasmin from UMBC was quiet but pretty awesome. She was a lot of fun and provided some great observations throughout the trip.

We found this awesome swing on nature conservationist Joel Rosenthal’s property, it was the perfect spot for her portrait.

Shot with 35mm Fujicolor Superia X-Tra 800 using my Nikon N70 with a Nikkor 24mm f/2.8D.

Daphne on Flickr.

I finally started to go through some of my film from the Alternative Breaks trip to the Gesundheit! Institute I took back in march. It was a really interesting trip and I met a lot of really cool people. I’m going to share some of the shots I got here on Flickr.

Pictured here is Daphne, an artist and really fun person. During the entire trip she had a great attitude and quickly became one of my favorites on the trip. She has a great sense of humor and had some really great insights to provide about the work we were doing on our trip.

Shot with 35mm Fujicolor Superia X-Tra 800 using my Nikon N70 with a Nikkor 24mm f/2.8D.

Jarabe Tapatío on Flickr.

For Rutgers University Student Life’s end of the year staff celebration, they brought in an authentic mariachi band. It was quite impressive to hear their music and still more impressive to see the dancers demo jarabe tapatío, also known as the Mexican Hat Dance. I actually had never seen any of this in person before, so I was pretty amazed by it all.

Shot with my Nikon D5100.

Face Off on Flickr.

“Hurricane” Shane Burgos vs. Aldo Oranvil during Lou Neglia’s Ring of Combat AMXVI held on May 4, 2013 in North Bergen, New Jersey.

Got to check out some amateur MMA matches with some friends the other day. It was pretty interesting stuff and it was cool learning more about the rules differences between amateur and pro. The fights were pretty intense, and though I would have liked more punches & kicks than holds, the fights were also pretty entertaining.

‘Murica on Flickr.

Watching this dude dance around draped in an American flag at the Alesso concert the other week was pretty awesome. I always love seeing people break out flags at shows, it’s just such a fun way to celebrate.

Casino Lighting on Flickr.

I’m trying to convince myself to shoot more again and share more of my photos here, even if they are just snapshots. Not everything you shoot can be the greatest thing ever, get thousands of views or favorites. I always tell myself to avoid perfection but I have found myself heavily judging every photo I take, culling down so much that I have barely shared anything this year.

So starting now, I’m just going to put my quarter in the slot and see what I get.

About the image:

A group of us went out to Atlantic City for my friends birthday. I always felt like casinos have really interesting lighting, I would love to do a full shoot in one someday. While we were waiting for all of our friends to get there, Elyse was just sitting there and I was loving the way the light from the slot machine was billing the left side of her face. This was also a good shot for re-familiarizing myself with my XZ-1, which, sadly, I haven’t used much this year. I know there is quite a bit of noise, and the image is somewhat blurred, but I really like the way it came out.

Alesso on Flickr.

Alesso playing at Rutgers University on April 19, 2013 as part of RUPA’s Beats on the Banks concert.

Beats on the Banks on Flickr.

Had to get one of those obligatory shots with the crowd in front of the stage… And by one I mean I have about 200…

Alesso playing at Rutgers University on April 19, 2013 as part of RUPA’s Beats on the Banks concert.

Goats Have Strange Eyes on Flickr.

Seriously though, square pupils are so strange.

Shot with 35mm Fujicolor Superia X-Tra 800 using my Nikon N70 with a Nikkor 24mm f/2.8D. Negative scanned with the Wolverine F2D20 film to digital converter and edited in Photogene for the IPad.

Senses Fail on Flickr.

Senses Fail at Rutgers on March 28, 2013.

Shot with my Nikon D5100.

Reflection on Flickr.

It’s always important to take time for yourself and look inward at your decisions and path.

Adam WarRock on Flickr.

A couple weeks ago now, Adam WarRock (www.adamwarrock.com/) came to Rutgers to shoot a music video for the Geek Week song he created for us. It was a really great experience working with him and his videographer/photographer friend Joey Miller (iamjoeymiller.com/). What I was really impressed with was how loose they were everything and how the shooting just seemed to flow so naturally. Their openness to ideas and trying things out was so much fun. I really hope we get to work together, and hang out, again in the future.

Practice on Flickr.

I know I have been shooting incredibly infrequently lately, and I am really sorry. Work and life have been keeping me busy, and the winter is the worst for getting out and shooting.

Recently we have started training our new crop of interns. My office is now hosting about 32 interns in total, focusing in fields like design, web development, video, social media, and, of course, photography.

Jami, pictured here, is one of our multidisciplinary interns, learning design, video and photography. We decided to start her off with a T3i to get some practice and learn about how to adjust the settings of a DSLR. Can’t wait to see some of her practice shots.

Wonder on Flickr.

I really love Alex’s expression. She is somewhere between amazement because of how cool sparklers are, and the fear of being burned by one.

I know it’s soft and out of focus, but I was a little impressed by the E-PL2’s ability to get this at ISO 200.

Shot with my Olympus PEN E-PL2 with Panasonic Lumix G 20mm F1.7 ASPH.

A Kiss in a Sea of Sparklers on Flickr.

Following the ceremony of Eric and Paul’s wedding. It was like a scene from a movie.