Costco

Costco, for those of you who don't know, is a wholesale super store. It is a suburban American tradition for my family and this year we found ourselves there on black Friday (in the afternoon). Costco does not give discounted deals on black Friday because everything is on discount all the time because it only sells bulk items. As my Dad likes to say (taken from the Bernie Mac Show, RIP) "Blessed in Bulk!" The main reason we went is to take my sister's boyfriend Satyajit, who was visiting this year and who is originally from Indian. He had never experienced Costco before but had to do a case study in one of his graduate school classes and was very interested in seeing what the big deal was. He was very impressed by American consumerism to say the least. In all the years I have been going to Costco with my family I have never once taken photos inside. I guess I had never wanted too or I guess I did not think I would be allowed, but this time I just took my camera in and began snapping away. My Mom told me that one of the workers was giving me the evil eye but since no one actually approached me I kept taking photos. Sometimes as a photographer you just have to keep taking photos even if you might be asked to stop and you will wind-up with gems like this.

Statue in the Garden

I'm back home now and one of the first things I did was go to St. Augustine with my Mom. My Dad was in Texas hunting deer so we went to visit what I like to call "Dad's Statue." Its not actually his statue but he did the landscape design for the installation. The statue was donated to the Lightner Museum by Mardee Jenrette and was sculpted by Frederick Hart. My Dad also did the installation for another Frederick Hart sculpture in Atlanta Georgia, that one being of former president Jimmy Carter. Every time I go to St. Augustine I like to go by and visit this statue and it is nice to see how well it is being maintained and how well it has been received by the community.

Museum Details

Since the new SCAD Museum of Art (discussed in a previous post) is now open I have been taking lots and lots of photos and I decided to continue developing my collection of architectural details. These are two details that I have been able to gather so far. One is of the main steps leading up to the main entry way in the courtyard between the museum and Eichberg Hall. The other shows the glass south gallery wall with wooden shades that connects to the planter bed and the wheelchair ramp. The design of the museum is very elegant and modern and I think these details show that pretty well. Also the use of color was important and how the colors of the wood and the plants contrast against the grey of the concrete. Also the brick (which peeks its way into the photo on the right) plays a big role in the courtyard. The brick came from the old building that the museum renovated/replaced. I am so glad that they finished the courtyard and museum this year because I get to enjoy it for the remainder of my grad year.

Veterans Day

Veterans Day 2011. 11-11-11. Savannah Parade. It was by complete coincidence that I ended up walking by the parade this morning. I had just finished a visit to a local architecture firm as part of a field trip for one of my classes. I wanted to take a different way home and I ended up walking down Broughton Street and that was where the parade was going on. Normally I am not a fan of parades but this one grew on me because the more I watched the more thankful I became that we have brave men and women who are willing to risk their lives to protect our country. I don't usually think about this fact because I don't really keep up with the daily news or politics, but when this massive wave of marching soldiers came walking down the street towards me I realized, maybe for the first time, just how many people it takes to safegard our lively-hood. It goes without saying that freedom is not free, so today I say thank you to our troops for all they do to make sure that the rest of us are safe. It is certainly something that I could never do and I will never again take that for granted. Thank you Veterans, you are truly real life heroes.

Perspectives - Up till December

Hey all! My gallery at Episcopal in Jacksonville, FL is still up. It will remain up until December and even though I am still stuck at school for a couple more weeks I am very excited to get back home and see it a few more times. Several of my friends here in Savannah have also mentioned that they would like to see it so I might have a big caravan of people coming down to see it and hangout after, which would be awesome. The gallery is open when school is open and is in the Berg Gallery in the Munnerlyn Center. The above image is a panorama of the gallery during the reception. We had a pretty good turn out of people and a constant flow of traffic, which made the night very fun and dynamic.

32nd Annual College Photo Contest

I just entered the 32nd Annual College Photo Contest hosted by Photographer's Forum and Nikon™. I certainly hope that I get some feedback from this one. If it was something were you could go vote for me on-line I totally would give you the link but my fate is up to higher powers I guess, so keep your fingers crossed for me. K-Thanks! This is also the first really big contest I have entered and I submitted 6 different images (the example image entitled "Parking Garage" being one of them). This image was taken in Savannah and is a part of my Monumental Architecture series. This is the first one of that series that I have posted on here so I will post some more later. I'm rather fond of this one because of how mundane the subject matter is and how that only makes the photo that much more powerful. It is just a regular parking garage in the downtown area and I have heard several people comment on how ugly they think it is. Funny thing being that is what inspired me to take a photo of it. I wanted to prove that not everything that is considered "ugly" is in fact....ugly. You just have to be willing to look at it in a different way. That is what I seek to do with my photography; to present unordinary views of everyday places. Hope you enjoy.

My Own Worst Enemy

This past weekend I worked on a film project with my roommates and friends titled "My Own Worst Enemy." Dawn, my roommate Phillip's girlfriend, is a sound design major at SCAD and she had to do a film project for one of her classes and she recruited me to be the production stills photographer (to be honest I kinda recruited myself). Dawn wrote the script and it involved a huge paintball battle so we had to travel out to Low Country Paintball in Ludowici, GA. We had a blast filming the movie and shooting paintballs all over the course. The filming took place over two days and I think we did a great job with the project, especially considering that not a single one of us is a film major. I'm very excited to see the finished product. This shot is the group shot of the entire crew. It was the smallest film crew that I have ever worked with, but it was also one of the most efficient I have ever worked with too. Also, I think this is the first photo on my blog that actually has me in it. I am the one on the far left kneeling. That being said I still technically took this photo (self timers and tripods come in handy).