Back at the Studio

...Studio One-to-One Photography at The Woodlands Mall

It's fun as always.

So Comes the End of Fall 2008 Semester

So finals are upon us all and I am currently spending my life at the PCL in an attempt to learn a semester's worth in 3 classes. It seems like every semester is just an insane rush of fun and extracurriculars and drama and everything else BUT studying and when it finally comes to the end, I'm always in a huge marathon cram to make up for my shenanigans.

I'm really feeling for Vin right now, though. Organic Chemistry... Calc 408D... and nothing to look forward to but even more intense classes in the future. Don't worry, you'll make it to med school, buddy.


Bumpin' PCL night life:




This semester's been a real kick in the ass. A whole slew of things went wrong. Losing a few friends (some my fault, others not), bad girl decisions, and the economy completely fucking my family and me over, to name a few.

However, the bad must always be considered with the good. This has been the best semester so far for me at UT. I've gotten really close with old friends (Alicia and Lauren, this is your shout out) and I'm starting to recognize potentially really long, fruitful friendships with people I've met here over the past year. I feel very accomplished about the awesome network of people I'm surrounded by. Weekends are never dull, weekdays are cushioned by campus encounters with friends, and the apartment has been host to countless get-togethers and mischief.

And I really can't say enough about The Daily Texan gig. Damn. I know a few of you DT photogs have run into my blog so I'd like to say how much fun it is working with yall. Working for the paper has taught me a lot about photography, and my own abilities as a photographer, not to mention what I've learned about journalism and print. I've gained a lot of self-confidence about my work, and can really see this as a defining chapter of this young hobby of mine.

Forgive me if I sound weirdly sentimental, by the way. I haven't been taking pictures for very long so every little thing that happens is still awesome and noteworthy. And yeah, it totally makes me feel good to get praise from my family and friends. It's awesome that I've found something I like doing that I can share with people I love.


Here's to another wacky semester at The University of Texas at Austin. Fall 2008, you were kind of a bitch... but we had a hell of a time, too.

I close with two snaps on my way to the PCL today.



Cheers!

Christmas, Graduates, Birthday Blazin'

This was a nice, fun weekend before finals week. I probably should have studied a little, but I don't regret taking it easy and having a great time with all my awesome friends before the shit storm of this week.

We had a small Christmas party to celebrate putting up a tree.




Hannah is pretty and awesome. We worked at a portrait studio together for a time.


Felicia graduated this weekend. The college of engineering ceremony must have been the most concentrated group of super smart, hard working students ever.



Roommate Adam's birthday was on Sunday. His only requirements for a good birthday was a big smoke and a good movie. "Superblunt" was made and enjoyed with Pan's Labyrinth.

Walk Around Campus

Hell yes. I finally got around to editing these snaps and I'm really pleased with how they turned out. The other day I got motivated to stretch out a little and take some pics and it seemed like for at least that day my photo-block disappeared.







I'm destined to grow up to be a bird photographer.

Thanksgiving 2008

Food. Family. Friends.

More Party Pics...

Honestly, I haven't been doing a whole lot of personal work recently. I'm not really sure why, maybe I'm just giving myself a little bit of a photo break. This is the reason there have been a string of party picture posts on this blog.

21st Street Coop Anniversary Party

I dont' know how many pictures I have of me looking like this, trying to explain how to work the autofocus on my d40.

Halloween

At this moment, Texas is getting raped 29-13 by Texas Tech.

BUT... at least Halloween was kickass.

Facing Left

Two quick portraits.

Alicia


William

First Football Assignment

Holy cow. Saturday's game against Oklahoma State University is the greatest time I've ever had at a football game. I was standing at Texas' end zone when the band played "The Eyes of Texas" and I couldn't help myself... this particular photojournalist, with a giant lens on a monopod and equipment strapped all over his body, raised his horns and bellowed the alma mater without reserve. Being on the field, watching and documenting the #1 Longhorns do their thing was such an incredible high.













I love football. I love it i love it i love it. I love my school. I love my friends. I love being a photographer. I love everything I'm doing and everything that surrounds me.

Hook 'em fuckin' Horns.

Study

This week has been deceptively easy-going. I only had one thing due... a one-page response on a chapter for my cognitions of animals class. I've been trying to motivate myself to knock out chunks of studying a day but it's not going so well.
It's pretty funny though, the chapter I wrote about this week for psychology was about learning and memory: long and short-term memory etc etc... psych 101 stuff, but it was pretty ironic that what I was studying was telling ME how to study...

Repetition and rehearsal... fascilitates information passing through working memory and eventually being stored in reference memory for long-term retrieval...