The End of an Era

Well this is it. The end of my self-taught photo career. I am now fully enrolled and participating in a photography class at the University of Illinois (where I'm going for my Bacholer's in Mechanical Engineering). I made a hard decision and am selling (possibly to family) my Sony DSC-H5.

I badly desired the camera so I would be able to delve further into photography than simply pointing and shooting. It guided me through good times and bad times, it rarely left my side. Most of my friends now know, and probably have memorized it's exact size and shape. They certainly know the flash. It opened so many countless opportunities for me and got me my first published photos at the U of I iHotel. It changed my life and will always hold a place in my heart.

I am moving on to a Canon Rebel XSi. I should be happier I know but the camera is too expensive but without going into major details I am, by all means, forced to buy it. I know there's worse things in life than getting something better than what you wanted but there's unseen circumstances occurring.

So here's to you Sony DSC-H5 and all you've given me. I'm going to miss you dearly, with your sleek style, aggravating manual settings, and especially your glorious wide angle lens.

Self-Portrait Reflected in a Mustang

Another "Cool Cars Under The Stars" photo, except this time a bit newer. My favorite car is the Ford Mustang, especially pre-1973 and post-2005. This one's colors were fantastic as a deep black with red stripes. BIG fan. The sad and rather ironic thing is I have been less and less knowledgable of cars since engineering started getting tougher but it was the reason I went into it in the first place. C'est la vie, je pense. Anyways, I like this photo because it is pretty humorous to see myself in such a hunched position (I'm 6'4) and I am wearing my favorite hat from Scotland.

Alone

I needed a break from sorting through hundreds of wedding photos so I indulged myself in some more layering/texturing/exposuring blending techniques with this photo. It's a tree (obviously) on a lakefront near where I work. I got bored the other day and decided to pull over and take a few photos. There's no point in putting the exif data because it's all messed up because the image is blended and flattened, etc.

The original can be seen here: ORIGINAL.

Speaking of originals, I promised a few people the originals of a sunset HDR I took and I'll try and get those up tonight with an edit.