March: A Month on the Road and a Master's

This last month, I spent 19 days and 5,100+ miles on the road seeing family and friends on a trip to defend my Master's project at the University of Missouri. I'd hoped to make double up on the trip by photographing a project along the way and finding funding for the project. 

I didn't have enough time to fully research the project, though, and instead stumbled my way out of town the day after I cleaned out an old roommate's left behinds and welcomed a new roommate into the apartment. 

It was a lot of 4am departures and long days on the road, thankfully with my puppy as co-pilot. Los Angeles was a welcome sight by the end. While it was refreshing and heartening to see so many friends and family, it was exhausting always being on the move - drives lasting longer than actual stays. But it was what I needed to do, and I'm glad I did it.

I'd also like a week off the road, if I may.

Here's a couple of the digital pictures I took along the way.

(thanks for taking the time to read and look)

NEW MEXICO

AUSTIN, TEXAS

COLUMBIA, MO

Successful defense selfie

ST. LOUIS

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

DES MOINES, IOWA

 SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN

ALPINE, WYOMING

2016 New Years Resolution Retrospective

A year ago I New Years tasked myself with making better portraits in 2016. Portraits have long been a daunting task for me. Photographing people directly is hard, I'm awkward, and there was a complex about vanity and posing and what it meant to take a portrait that I struggled to come to terms with. At the end of last year, I struggled to find good portraits I had made. I struggled to find any that really made me feel anything.

I think I made good on my resolution. There's still a lot of work to be done and I can't say that everything here is amazing, but it was a process and I welcomed it more than I ever have before. This year, I'm not ready to say this is what I want to get better at about anything in particular. I still want to get better at making portraits, and even more so, I want to get better about asking people if I can make their portrait. I also hope to make more video projects.  

I made a great deal more portraits than this, but I tried to distill the selection down to the stronger ones and to include the various opportunities I had. Hopefully they're worth your time. 

Thanks for looking and happy new year.