DaScuda Photography Blog

Well another Friday of shooting random things. This morning US News and World report put out their list of top colleges/universities across the country. Many of the Maryland schools ranked really well, so I decided to pay a short visit to the beautiful campus of John’s Hopkins University today (#15 overall).

Well despite a minor issue of having my camera on the wrong settings for about 10 minutes, it all worked out pretty nice. The weather has been cooperative and inspiration to just shoot has been running high. That is the tough part, keeping the inspiration going without a specific assignment.

Gallery link & US News and World report link.

I decided to take a small stroll this morning around Federal Hill in Baltimore. I came away with a few good shots and headed home before it started to become too warm. It is nice to get out and enjoy a bright day without the oppressive summer time heat that usually accompanies it.

A couple of shots and as usual, a link to the rest of them. (gallery)

It is August 8th and I completed my first self-project for this blog. The song used was Miss Gradenko from the Police’s album Synchronicity. I guess I should add the lyrics in but as I said it was a quick rough idea and I actually used a couple of found images after spending some time trying to figure out how to get the imagery from my mind to the finished piece. As usual, the full size image can be found in the Gallery.

Over the weekend I decided to take a quick ride around the park. I’ve been working on capturing some stock images and various other things. My quick ride was only about 30 minutes on a Friday morning before the temps became unbearable. Here’s a couple images and as you know the rest can be found in the gallery.

If the weather holds up and stays nice… there will be more coming soon!

Ha! I never had a spam comment before, now I have. I really don’t understand why anyone would go through the effort or whatever to leave one. I know it’s probably a bot but still someone had to start the bot up.

On to more important things, still thinking about this mini-project, still need to figure out a good song to use but I sort of narrowed it down a little more. I know time is running out and thoughts of abandoning have crept into my head.

I also have some work I need to do for my friend’s stock agency. I really need to look at those guidelines again and see if I am able to post some of the pics here or not. Everything has a legality to it, contracts, permissions and what not. I think these guys were pretty open but at the same time I don’t want to step on any toes… simply not nice, plus it hurts.

Well after thinking about this “mini-project” a little more, I’ve come up with this.

• It’s going to be done in a photo-montage, originally I thought a triptych would work but the more I think about it montage would be more ideal, especially containing a mixture of found and created images.
• I’m going to have to find a song that I will feel like working with over the course of say 2 weeks. A song that I am familiar with and may have had some influence on my life somehow but not in the hokey stereotypical way (x happened to me when this song was on, this song reminds me of x & y) but in a more universal way. Which means I need to carefully select the song.
• Right now I have to give myself a time limit. Friday 8th of August, 2008.

I really enjoy the idea of challenging myself to get the creativity flowing.

Some weeks seem to be more busy than others. During these times, it lets me think about the influences that affect my art and photography. While some seem to be more obvious, like a particular master photographer or style of work, others seem to make sense, like a painter or sculpture and others seem to come from a different realm altogether, like a writing, book, poem or music.

Music to me is one of the most interesting muses. Some people say things like “close your eyes and see the music.” Well that’s one way of thinking of it as the sound waves push against the air, making vibrations which your ear interprets as a sound, whether good or bad. Some musicians have found ways to make some of the everyday sounds into musical compositions which give them a more pleasing effect. However, I should be talking about how these things influence my art not what other people say.

I am giving myself a mini-project. I will take a piece of music, digest it, produce an image and show how I come to that combined piece of work. It’s not the most creative of ideas, meaning it’s been done before but lately I’ve been thinking about it again. I also need a creative shot in the arm.

Well this was suppose to post last night… gremlins happen, so now I am rewriting this. As promised beautiful pictures from the rooftops of Fell’s Point, Baltimore.

Many many lights in the sky. These were shot with the 40D on aperture priority (f/5.6). Some of the shutter speeds were around 1/20 @ 1600 iso with the Image Stabilization on. I love taking night photos with available light, just getting the camera to hold still is the big chore.

The full gallery can be found here. Fireworks! (new window)

Well this is my first post on my creative journal. I said I was going to do this and now is the time for it to be done. So first things first, welcome and hope you enjoy your visit, please feel free to comment and give plenty of feedback. Feedback makes the world go ’round.

I was going to get this up and running for the 4th of July but as things had it I was pulled in multiple directions and haven’t had a chance to get the images from RAW into JPEG’s yet. That will be happening in the next day or two. A few need exposure edits but I am not going to sweat over them too much.

I won’t bore anyone with too many words and post a few images here and the majority in the gallery. Until then, have a good one.