Finally!!

08.30.09
Originally uploaded by lisascho

A night photo!!! Something about this photo makes a part of my photo self feel restored... I think it's mostly because it's my first real night photo in years. Yes, I took this with my little green Fuji FinePix, but I like the composition and the lighting. I feel good about the past few days of photography. I still have my 35mm film to be developed, but getting my SLR out and getting some night photos on the blog are really helping me feel better about my photography. Soon enough I'll get more technical and get into the nitty gritty photography that I so desperately want to get back to...

In other news you'll have to forgive the missing blog days and short entries that have happened/will happen this week. This whole moving thing is turning into a real fiasco. This morning we showed up to move and the tenants were still practically living there. Furniture and stuff still everywhere! And they were planning to leave it! They didn't seem to understand that when you move out you don't just leave what you don't want behind. We had to push everything back. And now I'll have to take time off work. Which was the whole point of moving early.... I cannot miss work! Anyway, thankfully mommabear is here to help and take care of me and help make me feel less stressed out. She also got a hotel room for us so I don't have to look at the packing and mess that is my apartment/life for a night and I get to sleep in a comfortable bed :)

Packing

08.29.09
Originally uploaded by lisascho

Today all I did was pack and clean. Tomorrow I will pack a little more, move, clean, and start unpacking. My mom is coming up which I'm excited about. It will be nice to have her around to help.

Anyway, like I said in the last entry I'm exhausted and need to rest up for tomorrow so this is going to be short. I'll be back to normal soon... I hope, ha.

08.28.09

08.28.09
Originally uploaded by lisascho

I took this waiting for the bus on Friday night. The days are getting shorter... Fall is here. On a plus, Friday I broke out the SLR and took 4 rolls of photos. When I get them developed I'll get some up here :)

Speaking of which, I'm exhausted from packing so this is going to be short. Many apologies.

Today Felt Like Fall

08.27.09
Originally uploaded by lisascho

I took this on my way home from work today. There was a lot of traffic today. I'm not sure if it's because I actually left work on time today or that it was due to Ted Kennedy's Funeral Procession, the sox game, or the fact that college students are already moving. It was probably a combination of everything.

Anyway, I was crossing the BU Bridge and we stopped long enough for me to whip out my cell phone and get this picture. I think it's pretty decent quality for myself and I really like the shadow and composition. I only wish the the person exiting the picture had actually ended up in the picture, but the lag time on my cell phone's camera isn't exactly high tech. The glare on the window could be photoshopped out, too I guess. Anyway I like this one a lot... it's making me feel a little bit better about my composition.

As much as I am sad for summer to go, today's weather made me excited for fall. The air is always crisper and clearer in the fall and the colors are amazing... I can't wait to photograph it all.

08.26.09

08.26.09
Originally uploaded by lisascho

I call this "another late night," because this is the 3rd night I've stayed more than a few hours late. I'm not complaining. The work is interesting and I like it. It's just frustrating because I have so much going on outside the office...

Anyway... I like the reflections and how your eye shifts focus between what's a reflection and what isn't. It's the view outside and looking in from the window at my desk. And there's me with my little green camera.

I was hoping to get some good night photos with my SLR in the neighborhood before we move, but I don't know if that will happen. This place has been my home for 3 years and I love it so much... It's so dynamic at night, especially game nights! I think the pictures would be great. I just don't have the time to invest. Just like me to leave everything to the last second...

08.25.09

08.25.09
Originally uploaded by lisascho

I didn't post yesterday because i worked at 12 hour day. I also forgot my camera at home so this was the best shot of the day... It's not very creative or evening all that interesting, but since I'm moving soon, I thought it was appropriate. It's the stains on my ceiling from leaky pipes. The leaking started this summer with all the rain we had and the management company never fixed it (surprise, surprise). But after this weekend it will no longer be my problem :)

Mondays Are Always a Drag

08.24.09
Originally uploaded by lisascho

This was taken from my office window this afternoon. I think I picked the wrong time to start this blog. I'm so busy at work and with moving that I don't have the time I want to spend taking pictures... It's getting frustrating. Soon enough I guess.

Anyway I took this around 7:00ish after some crazy afternoon rainy weather. I like the color and the lighting on the clouds. I think the composition could be a little better with some cropping, but all in all I like it.

Hurricane Beach Day

08.23.09
Originally uploaded by lisascho

Today I went to the beach with some friends. Hurricane Bill is just off the coast so the weather was nice enough for a few hours in the sun, but the waves were like nothing I have ever seen in Massachusetts. I wanted to post a picture of the waves, but this one was more interesting than the waves. There is a lot going on in this one. There was a lot going on in all the other pictures and this one seemed the best quality and most interesting. I think I'm just overwhelmed by the camera... I can't seem to focus. I could say that subconsciously the hurricane of things happening in this picture is a metaphor for the hurricane that was causing the insane riptide and waves... haha, or maybe not.

This reminds me of when I studied abroad Italy and our professor sent us out with 8 or 10 rolls to shoot just to get a feel for our aesthetic and to see how we see... all my frames were just filled with stuff and people and things... the shots were overwhelmed. I haven't really touched a camera with the intention of working on my photography since I got back from Italy really and that was 4 years ago. I sort of lost my voice, or my eye, or whatever you want to call it. I need to refocus myself and the lense and what I am trying to capture. I think getting out with my SLR soon will help. Point-and-shoot digital cameras are great, but I never think about what I am shooting. My memory card can hold 1500 frames at 5MP per picture. My shots are more thoughtful when I only have 36 exposures per roll and only 4 rolls... I need to force myself to think more about what I am shooting.

You'll have to excuse the quality of these images for a bit. As I just said I'm trying to focus and my compositional skills so for now the quality will suffer just a bit. Once I feel more confident in the aforementioned I'll get into the quality...

Also, please bear with me while I figure out the layout of this blog and the best ways to get the photos to work... I think I've got a good format figured out for the time being.

Till Tomorrow -

Party Photos...

08.22.09
Originally uploaded by lisascho

The 22nd was a hard photo day. I got my hair cut in the morning, but didn't feel like posting yet another self portrait. Then in the afternoon and evening I went to a party. While there were a lot of photos to choose from I didn't take all of them and it was a party so I wasn't really trying too hard to work on the composition of the photos... Anyway this is the winner. I feel a little weird posting pictures of people without their consent, especially since I don't know all of them very well, but I guess that's a liberty I am going to take. Plus this is for my art and I took the photo... but I guess that's a philosophical discussion for another day.

Day Three on Four

08.21.09, originally uploaded by lisascho.

After viewing the quality of the photos that blogger hosts/posts I decided to start a flickr account to host the photos I'll be posting. Still not the best quality since it's all on the web and things get lost in translation and I don't know anything about html, php, or any other web posting stuff. But I think it's better than uploading them to blogger... Anyway, I digress. Here is day three - another self portrait... I'm tired, my whole life is kind of a stressed, messy transition right now (moving, growing up, etc.) and I think this a pretty good visual description of what's happening right now.

On a plus, today, I bought a 4 pack of kodak 800 color 35mm film! I'm gonna go out a few nights this week to practice with my SLR. It's been so long since I've touched it, sadly, and I want to get comfortable with that again. Ultimately - I want a DSLR, but that's a lot of money away from where I am now... so for now it will have to be crappy quality, while I brush up on composition. Someday I'll be back to both.

Day Two...

So. The blog....

It's day two...

What does all that gibberish I said yesterday mean???

Well, I know it was vague. What I really need is a kick in the pants to get my creative self back in my life... so much has changed, so much is still changing, constantly change (hence FLUX) moving, not staying the same and I've stopped creating. I've even stopped appreciating. I haven't been to a museum or a show or anything like that in the last year. Well with the exception of Philip Johnson's Glass House, but that's it. So - what I am getting at is that this blog needs more of a purpose and more structure than just a "record the little things that make life better" or "documentation of my first real steps in adulthood."

Last night, in that moment of post-conscious and pre-sleep I decided a photo-a-day blog would be the best way to "document" and "record" and "appreciate" all this stuff.. It's the one tangible thing I can think of that will force me to create... Photography is zen for me. It's the one thing I can do for hours and hours and never get bored or be easily distracted from. It needs to be a deeper level of photography, though. I need to make photos, not just take pictures. So to 'kick start' that is what I shall do... take pictures and post one photo from the batch every day for the next year..... August 20, 2010 here I come.

Naturally I can't make a decision, but since it's the first day I shall allow myself 2 photos and let you choose the better. I actually took a lot of pictures to get myself here.

1 is a self portrait, which I feel like I should post on day 1. It's cliched, but appropriate. I like the light in 2. There's a little meaning to it that I don't know how to describe quite yet. If you're wondering 2 is the light from my bedroom reflecting on our hallway wall...

So without further explanation - here you are:

1

2

The Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with One Step

Everything is changing.

When I move to my new apartment in 10 days I will be changing my driver's license over to Massachusetts and will, officially, have no ties to 'home'... Boston is, officially, my new home. I'm officially an adult. I guess...

In the past year I have fallen into a I'm-never-going-back-to-school funk and it's definitely been weird. There have been ups and downs and all arounds, but all in all I've sort of just been floundering. I mean I have a job, I pay my bills, I go out, I still travel a little, I've discovered new friends, and I have reconnected with old ones. But I just feel like there's a new journey starting, but in a way I am standing still. Time is moving forward, but it's whizzing past me in my place.

So, this brings me to this blog. Why have I joined the millions of people out there who think someone is going to care about their driveling gibberish on a random web page...? I need something (someone, eventually?) to hold me accountable. Instead of overwhelmingly contemplating the meaning of the rest of my life and asking is this really it?? I have decided to proactively stop those thoughts. Life is so much better for me when I look at all the little things that are going well, so this blog is going to be a record of those little things that make my life better. It will also serve as documentation of my first steps in adulthood... until recently I'm pretty sure I was crawling, but now that I'm wobbling around on shaky legs things don't seem so scary.

I'm ready to run....