© 2010, Matthew Vanecek

Hello, all! Or at least, hello to that one person who might read this, besides me…
The last week has been pretty quiet (read: BORED!). Work has been really quiet. Home life has been pretty quiet, too. Photography life has been quiet. Everything has been so QUIET! It’s nice, once in a while. You know, take a Sunday and do absolutely nothing–no cleaning, no going out, no showering, shaving. Just, decompress. But when you have days in a row that are more-or-less that way (even with going to work), well, the mind just starts going crazy.

Well, a couple of things happened last week. My RAID unit decided to die. Luckily, it was my unit for intermediate video files, which are really really big. When I’m working on video projects, I convert all my camera files to an intermediate codec, and that RAID unit is the only thing big enough to hold all the files. So, I had to order a replacement. I have a Drobo S that should be delivered. Well, the Drobo S is a little more than a RAID enclosure. I think I’m going to have to rethink my storage configuration, and put my important files on the Drobo! Eventually I’ll build it up to over 10TB…

Also, Friday, I found out about this awesome seminar. I had looked at Creative Live a time or two before, but hadn’t bought anything (yet), and couldn’t catch the live seminars due to being at work. Well, Friday I found out Creative Live had been featuring Jasmine Star from Orange County, Ca. as the instructor. Creative Live had a couple who agreed to have their wedding provided by Creative Live and streamed live to the Internet. The idea was to do a live wedding photographer seminar. The cameras followed Jasmine around the wedding on Friday. She had already done a couple days worth of seminars with selected students. Saturday would be the photograph edit session, and Sunday the review. So, I watched most of Friday, most of Saturday, and all of Sunday. It was quite inspirational to see a professional in action. It was a real wedding, and she was doing real wedding photography. Lots of respect for the couple. It was really great to see how she interacted with the wedding party, and with the wedding coordinator. Every little detail was captured on video–the formals, candids, detail shots. Jasmine tried explaining what she was doing each step of the way–what she was thinking, what her experience led her to do. I have a brand new appreciation for wedding photography. I highly recommend this seminar–it is available for download or streaming at Creative Live.

So, I’m starting out this week on an up-note, I think. I really want to explore my creativity. I want my personal photography/video projects to be expressive and to tell a compelling story. And I want to pick up my guitar every single day. I feel a new drive to refine and pursue my dreams.

Thanks, Jasmine!

Please take some time to check out Jasmine’s blog, and head on over to Creative Live and see what they have to offer. They have more than just photography stuff.

Until next week, keep making images!

© 2010, Matt Vanecek. All Rights Reserved

Hello, again. Things have been pretty quiet lately on the visual arts front. I finished off a video for work. We had Yau-Man Chan (from UC Berkeley, and of Survivor: Fiji fame) in at work as the Diversity & Inclusion speaker this year. He was pretty darn good. I capture the video of his presentation. I wish I could present his video publicly, but I did capture it for work, as part of our photography club. So I don’t think I can post it. Oh, well.

The photography front has been quiet lately. I’ve mostly been keeping up with my personal 365 self-portrait project. I’m almost done with Michael Freeman’s book, “The Photographer’s Eye”. It’s a really good book; I may try my hand at writing a review when I’ve completed it. I’ve been trying to get caught up on stuff, including finishing the book I’m reading. I’m getting around to framing some pictures, finally. I dropped one off at Micheal’s for custom framing, and picked up some ready-made frames for some other pictures. It’s time to get some of my work up on the walls adding some life to those blank spaces. I do have some upcoming sessions, though, and I’m working on some photographs from a couple of burlesque events I went to.

Going forward with this blog, I want to make sure I post every week. I think Monday is a good day. As part of the post, I’m going to try an highlight a photographer whose work I like, or think is interesting. One such photographer is Jill Greenberg, AKA “Manipulator”. Jill began manipulating photographs as a child in the 1980s, and when Photoshop came out, she began manipulating digital images. Jill’s work shows in exhibitions in places like Rome, Paris, New York City, Los Angeles…check out her online gallery and see if she has an exhibit near you. Nothing in Texas (yet).

Go out and make some pictures!