"Put DOWN the camera!"

So this past weekend I went on a boat trip with some of my close friends. It was our last get together this summer as a group because a few of my friends were going abroad this summer. It was such a fun time just to be with one another and enjoy our company. We went sailing up to the San Juan islands and took the little dinghy (which is names Higgins by the way) and after we anchored the main boat motored to a complex of islands called Susha. There islands are only accessible by boat and except for a few are completely uninhabited.
Since we took a little dinghy to the island my friends convinced my not to bring my camera cause its way more expensive than the other ones we had and it could get dropped or get water in it etc. I was convinced. I was however allowed to babysit someone else's point and shoot. But we got to the island and it was amazing. We got to climb around on the large rocks and drift wood. We also found this beautiful trail that went around the edge of the island. On our way back to our boat me and 2 of my friends decided to climb up the hill on the side of the trail through prickly bushes and such off the beaten trail just for fun :P It was a big of a sketchy climb through lots of nastiness but once we got up to the top of the little hill it was breathtaking.
We sat there for waht felt like an hour just soaking up the beauty of God's wonderful creation. There was this wonderful aroma of uninhabited nature. The forest and the ocean combined to create this wonderful smell that cannot even be described. The view was beautiful, the sun was shining.
It was so amazing to sit on this beautiful island that was so uninhabited by anything else. I mena it was only accessable by boat for crying out loud. Being able to hear the wind rush through the leaves knowing the nothing was industrial and there were no roads and there was nothing fake about it was beautiful. It is like God's way of smiling down at us saying I love you so much and look at what I have done for you.
Because I did not bring my camera with me, I probably missed out on the best pictures of the trip which normally would bother me, but this time it didn't. I was able to sit there (in a tree) and just listen to God reveal himself to me through this beautiful picture he has created for me in this world. I realized as I was sitting there, that no photo would have justified the feelings of surrealism I had. Putting the image onto a computer screen in two dimensions seemed to be almost insulting to the beauty I was witnessing.
So I can only describe the importance of learning to appreciate the things you photograph every now and then. I get into what I call "photographer mode" and it's like I have blinders on or something. I seek the beauty out in nature as well, but sometimes there are things in this world that God has created that cannot be done justice through a photograph despite my best efforts. Some things are just better if you simply live and experience them.
I know not eveyone reading this is a photo-happy as me, but I still think it's a good thing to realize. Stop. Smell the roses as it were. Appreciate the beauty of God's creation. Walk around outside with your head thrown back soaking up the sky (look where you're going every now and then...I have had this end badly for me before :P) Some things about nature are so simple and so easy to take for granted in our busy lives.
As Ferris Bueller said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it."

Religion....now that's a touchy subject

You get to college and woo hoo no parents! No rules! No one dragging you out of bed on sunday morning to go to church.
Oh wait...no parents...no rules...does that mean I have to be responsible now? Dang. what to do what to do...
This is especially tough when it comes to issues or your faith. Will you fall away from it or will you stand strong in the face of change that goes with college. The choice is yours. You can choose whether or not to attend a church of your choice. No one is going to make you go. Whitworth doesn't even have mandatory chapels that we have to attend (which admittedly was a top reason for going here over SPU or Westmont for example) It's nice actually. I appreciate that nothing is forced on me. I went to a conservative Christian high school. We wore uniforms every day and attended mandatory chapel on tuesday. There were some things I absolutely loved about my high school, and some that made me want to claw my own eyes out as it were. I chose to attend Whitworth because it was a more "liberal" Christian school.
Freshmen year was difficult. I tried to find a church....didn't realyl succeed. my lack of transportation did play a bit into that. I started going to Whit. Pres. near campus. I found that I had missed church on sunday. This year thakns to more effort on my part (and friends with cars :P) I have found a church that I am now a part of. The college group is like family to me which is amazing to me. There are some things about the church that do not excite me as much, but it is such an improvement over last year that it is worth it. I love going to a church and recognizing people around me and having them love me for me.
I alsostarted attending Hosanna on tuesday nights this year. This is right here in campus evey tuesday night at 9:45. I highly reccomend it to anyone here. It is a student led worship that is honestly mostly singing and scripture reading. Being a person who loves music, I really appreciate this. I connect to God through music. My day is always improved by getting to sing my heart out with my friends at m side.
There's also chapel every tuesday thursday at 11am. These are usually about a half hour long and involve a few songs and a short manageable lesson by a different speaker. If this is all you can handle "church" wise then I highly reccomend it. Whitworth does not require attendance so it is your choice to attend.
Basically the choice is yours. There are many ways to stay strong in your faith even when youget to college. Unfortunately it may require more proactive behavior on our part but it is so worth it. For me personally doing even a couple of these things keeps me accountable in my faith. I don't claim to be perfect (in any way...) but whether it be a chapel I attend or church, or hosanna, it draws me back to what is important in my life. my faith shoudl always be at the center of my life...and in college it is super easy to get drawn away. I encourage all of you to be proactivce in keeping your faith alive in college. There will be so many things that will attempt to draw you away but there are ways to stay connected. Dont' lose the faith!

Now for the real advice

So in thinking about the title of this blog I realized that college is not all about the technical stuff. There is a fun part too.
Take for the example the endless pranks. You should have helped pull off at least a couple pranks by the time you should graduate. It lightens people's mood and helps you let loose. There are the little things like switching your roommates dresser drawers, or emptying the entire contents of the three hole punch on your roommates head (which my lovely roommate was nice enough to do to me about an hour ago and did not make me quite so happy). However there are also the bigger and better pranks. Once that require preparation. One such prank was pulled by my college group at church. On saturday night we "forked" the youth pastor's lawn and left notes informing them of the prank war being initiated by the "mature" college group. It was a great success pulled off around 3 in the morning on saturday.
This did involve cars and late nights. However pranks can be pulled within the comfort of your dorm room! Take for example one that a friend of mine and I pulled on another guy in our dorm. While he was out we popped a good 40 bags of microwave popcorn and lots of air popped corn as well and filled our friends wardrobe with it! It was fantastic really.

The last bit of advice I have for you refers to a certain game played within dorms known as Assassins. It is a game made essentially to produce mass paranoia. The goal is not to be eliminated by your assassin while eliminating your target. You can be eliminated with one witness. I fell victim to this rule by not being paranoid enough. The game started at midnight on Sunday night. I got my target and was looking them up on stalkernet and facebook. At 12:06...I was studying alone on first floor (my first big mistake) and in comes my assassin (identity unknown to me), and I was eliminated from the game six minutes after it started. I learned that in the game of assassins you must alwayws be prepared. Even the second it starts. I was going to start being careful the next morning, however that ws what killed me in the end.
So the moral of the story is: They are out to get you and they will strike at you when you least expect it. Ergo...always be paranoid!

A handful of advice to freshmen regarding housing

First, regarding hosing. As we near the ed of the year the housing lottery looms in the back of our minds. Who will I room with? Where will we live? Something you definitely want to think about earlier than later. Just today I saw someone's facebook was advertising that they were desperate for a fourth person to be in their quad for the housing lottery which was taking place tonight! I can say that is an easy way to be left without a roommate or be thrown into a less than ideal rooming situation. I was lucky enough to love my roommate freshmen year and we will be living together for the third year in a row next year in a theme hosue. Specifically the "Experiencing the Decades" theme house! Wonder what that means? Stay tuned next year for our monthly activities.
All that aside however deciding who to live with is a big decision. Some people are great friends but would be horrible roommates. Consider everything when looking for a roommate because there will be a lot of "togetherness" whether or not you like it.
Also, where will you live? Personally I have lived in Warren and Duvall. Hall and Pod style set-ups. All the information the school can provide you with is right here. Look through it and decide which set ups look nicer. Personally I loved living in pods more than halls. I feel like I have more community than I had in Warren. But don't take my word for it, everyone's experience is different. Talk to your friends and see what they know about the life and community of each dorm (each one is unique and different). You will also want to look in the middle of the HUB on those housing lottery days and notice which rooms are available or not.
When it comes to the night of the lottery there's not much you can do about the order. As you may know you will be placed in order of how many points you and your roommate ahve combined which is determined by how many credits you have. Then withint those subcategories you will have a random lottery number. Fortunately for me my roommate is an overachiever and had lots of running start credits so she had more points than normal. I had a really good lottery number. We pretty much had our pick of what we wanted. I couldnt' say the same for the people in back on the line sadly. But all you can do is hope for the best as you watch on the giant overhad screen as the rooms you were hoping forget slowly crossed off the screen crushing your hopes for next year (or so I've heard :P). Good Luck!

Shooting for the Whitworthian takes you to new places

Shooting for the Whitworthian is truly a job. We get assignments every week and have specific deadlines that must be met. It's a crazy thing sometimes. Normally it's manageable, but sometimes you're assigned to shoot an event that you just don't have time for but have to b at anyway. I suppose it's good practice for the real world where deadlines are tighter and even more intense.
This week should be exciting though. I shot the dean's dialogue tonight in Weyerhauser. While shooting a lecture can be the absolute kiss of death photographically it did force me to go to a lecture I may not have other wise thought about going to. I mean there are only so many pictures you can get of people talking and discussing topics, and not moving, and talking and did I mention there's very little to photograph. All this to say after I get my picture I get to sit and listen to the actually lecture which today was a discussion on Whitworth and it's stance and approaches to censorship. It was really exciting to hear some of the Whitworth faculty talk about how they approach the topic in their own departments because there were people from five different academic departments.
This is a talk that lots of people would have probably enjoyed, but not as many went to as I think should have. This was another example of how working for the Whitworthian has made me more aware of what's going on on campus. I get assigned to shoot everything from softball (which I shot this weekend and have the sunburn to prove it) to lectures, to dances and concerts.
This week I have been assigned to potentially shoot a Death Cab for Cutie concert down at Gonzaga, which you can get tickets for on their website (although that is still tentative because they are working on getting photographers in with fee tickets and such still) and I have also been assigned to cover the Luau on saturday. both are things that I might have wanted to go to but may not other wise have gone to. Either because I was lazy or just too plain poor to go. Oh, did I mention that you get into things for free as press. So this is my shameless plug to convince everyone to work for the Whitworthian. There are all kinds of jobs. Editors, copy editors, writers, photographers, graphics people and more. There is something for everyone. And it is great experience, it gives you the inside scoop on what's going on at school. For me as a photographer I get to see my pictures in print and it is so rewarding to overhear someone say "wow that's a cool picture" at one of my photos and know that I took that picture. I have been to so many more events and lectures than I normally would have attended. The experience is worth the frustration that can sometimes come with the territory. But then again, nothing is worth achieving if it isn't hard work now is it.

Just for fun

So when I was at home i swung by Pike's Place market and took some pictures. I took a picture of this piece of fruit then photoshopped it to look like it could be either a lemon, orange, lime, or grapefruit. I would like to see if anyone knows which one is the original picture.
I posted this on facebook a few weeks back and it drove many of my friends absolutely crazy trying to figure out which one was the original.
Leave your guesses :)

Barefeet

Working for the Whitworthian you find out about all sorts of events that you wouldn't always know about. One thing that all the photographer on the paper were encouraged to shoot was people going barefoot for the whole day all around campus. Many people were walking around without shoes and at 12:15 in the HUB a group of students gathered to walk a mile around the loop as a demonstration for their cause.
This was all started by TOMS shoes who have come to campus and sold their shoes on campus to students. Each pair sold sends a pair to a kid with no shoes.
As a photographer this presented an interesting opportunity to get shots of people's feet. That's something you don't shoot as often as photojournalism is all about faces. Me and one of my photographer friends were out shooting this walk around the loop and we thought the best shots would be from ground level to show the bare feet of the people walking. It was especially perfect when we found that they were going to walk right over a giant cut out of a foot that had been taped to the ground in the lop advertising this day to campus. The writing on the foot reads "Fact #1 In some developing nations, children must walk for miles to food, clean water, and to seek medical help"
As it stands I'll turn in my shoot to my editor and we can hopefully see this or similar shots running in next weeks Whitworthian. Until then, check the Whitworthain website to hopefully see the story sometime soon and also for news updates posted daily.

Let's start with some bad news shall we?

Well I went home this past weekend for Easter. Home for me is Sammamish, Washington about 30 minutes form Seattle. I brought a friend from southern California with me cause he had nowhere to go for Easter. It was a great weekend. I love spending time with my family and going to my home church for Easter.
Well unfortunately while I was home and at church actually, my entire camera bag fell and slammed into the ground. From about 5 feet in the air. Fortunately my camera itself survived. But the lens was not so fortunate. The filter I had to protect my lens shattered (so I guess it served it's purpose) but the aperture blades were thrown all out of whack and you can now see them when you look through the lens. While many of you have no idea what I'm talking about. the picture shows what you see when you look through the lens. Simply put, those triangular shaped pieces should not be there and you should be able to look through the lens without obstruction.
This being said, I cannot use that lens at the moment. Fortunately I have the kit lens that came with my camera to fall back on but it is not nearly as good as the broken one. I shall work on getting my lens fixed, or look into buying a new one. In case anyone is looking for a good photo site to buy gear off of that has a good reputation and decent prices, try this website that me and some of my photographer friends use.
So from now on my photos will be coming from a subpar lens until I get my old lens fixed!