Music Monday, Revisited.

I have a few more videos to share.

Do you remember me sharing Blue October with you? Yeah, you remember Blue October. They put out another album this year. Between this album and the previous won, the lead singer, Justin and his wife had a baby girl. They named her Blue. Yeah, famous people are like that sometimes. I discourage all the rest of you from following suit.

The new album has all their typical trademarks. Scarry songs and dark songs. It also has a couple he wrote just for his daughter. Including this one. Even if you don't like the band, check this one out. No actual video, just a picture with music.

Jump Rope
Blue October

Album: Approaching Normal
Recommend: Some good songs, try it on Itunes, but get this song.

Kicking and Screaming

I have been feeling Lilly kick for a couple of weeks now. Nothing to make a round stomach appear square, but I have loved feeling the movement and flutters. Occasionally, I push back to see if I can stir her to greater antics. All for the goal of Brian's experience, of course. (I would never want to provoke our daughter.) Brian maintains that I will regret this since soon I will be screaming and crying trying to get her to stop so I can get some sleep.

Panorama Series 6

I went to Draper Temple last Tuesday night with my friend Jon. We had a good time and took lots of great pictures. Here are the Panoramas from the series.

Panorama Series 5

I needed to pick a power tool up from my older brother in Taylorsville last Friday night. I Instant messaged Paige and asked her if she wanted to go to Salt Lake.  She replied 'For pictures? Sure!' Which is how I ended up getting these shots.

This Last one was interesting. Each individual shot in the image took between 20 and 30 seconds. It took nearly 15 minutes to expose the whole image. Consequently, the sky is more blue to the right of the Temple, and gets progressively darker as it continues right, and wraps back around to the temple itself.

Safe! Barely.

Many of you may know that this last semester was murder on me. I crossed the finish line a week ago Friday like an old clunker with bits shaking off at a measly 2 miles an hour. I have been rather concerned that an abysmal grade in math 1010 would require a repeat.

Second Semester grades posted this evening.

				Drawing I		A
				3D Modeling and Animation Essentials		A
				Intermediate Writing		A
				Intermediate Algebra Interaction Design		B- A

GPA to Date: 3.78

As you can see, I passed math, but the grade trashed my GPA. But I passed Math. On to semester 3. I am finished with all English classes, and have 1 more Math class to go. I now officially have enough hours behind me that I apparently am no longer a freshman, but am instead a sophomore!

Panorama Series 4

Did I mention that Paige and I went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open house about a month ago? Yeah, we did. These Pictures are a mixture of shots taken since March, but mostly from a group taken last Monday Night.

I would love to have the opportunity to leave you with an image that is not long to be seen. This particular angle is going to bo covered up by a bunch of condos. There are other places to get a similar angle, and I intend to find them, but never in the history of the restoration has there ever been an opportunity like this before. Only this year, in all of history.

VICTORY!

WE DID IT!

Today the American Fork City Council unanimously passed a new parking ordinance for the streets around American Fork High School! We have personally fought for this for nigh two years, and have dealt with it for even longer.

Starting on September First of this year, parking will be restricted to permit parking only, between the hours of 6 AM and 6 PM on days that the school is in session. Permits will be issued to residents and residents only.

The poor behavior of the students on and around our yards is finally at an end.

Argh!

The first days of school should be filled with anticipation, excitement, novelty, etc.
Not for me.
I spent uncounted hours this summer redoing my webpage. On Tuesday, I found out I no longer have "permission" to alter my folder on the server. Later that day, the server "died." Now no one has a working website...and frustration abounds.

Let's just say I spent 2/3 of my prep day today trying to find an alternative. New goal: Relax and enjoy the afternoon so that my new students don't see "grumpy" tomorrow.

Panorama Series 3

On the way home from Manti, I stopped by Provo. As always find a slightly larger version of these images by clicking them.

Panorama series 2

Did I mention that I just keep taking pictures? Yeah, they are not all at the same place either. Yesterday, Mount Timpanogos, today, Manti!

By the way, with this and the previous post, clicking the images will get you a slightly larger version of the picture. It's worth clicking. I'm not depressed, but I am still feeling insecure, so don't use them for anything without asking first.

Back in the habit.

Firstly, in regards to our last post, No, you can't have the original. My wife is getting it. In relation to that, Cherry would be fine Jake, thanks for the suggestion. (I kinda thought maple would be nice, but....) Also, yes I knew about that talent, I already have several framed pieces around the house, no I will not be changing my major. Now on to the main topic.

I had almost forgotten how much I loved photography. I think all I needed was a challenge. THERE is an interesting statement. Now you will wonder 'did he get back into photography because he found a challenging aspect, or because he felt threatened?'

I have been rather on the depressed side lately (Algebra may have been involved). But right at that crucial moment when you find yourself lost and confused, I felt the overpowering urge to take pictures. I have not stopped since last Friday. Additionally, I have found great enjoyment in photo manipulation. Specifically in Photo compositing. I have been taking several images in a row, and then stitching them together in Photoshop. Here are some samples from last Friday.

Making these vertical panoramics was rather fun,


But somehow they just lack the emotional impact of a traditional panorama.

Besides that, the traditional panoramas have the ability to be manipulated even further with some funa nd entertaining results.

Drawing Final

We were given 2 objects to draw, with the instructions that we could use all or part of these 2 objects in any arrangement. But we had to use the whole space provided, and could not fill it with just 1 part of one object. The example our instructor showed us was an abstract drawing featuring parts of the objects inserted in a not quite random way. I've never been a fan of abstract, so I decided right away that mine had to be realistic. Well, MORE realistic.

The two objects we were given were the guitar and violin seen here.


The moment he started describing what had come into his head when his college instructor had explained it to him, a distinct image began to form in my mind. His was abstract, mine was not. I had this very distinct thought, that sometimes we are thrust into the spotlight before we are ready. (hence the broken violin bow.) So here you have it, my vision, for one of the first times ever, pulled straight from my head and onto paper in much the same format I imagined it.
Monday, upon asking my teacher if he had any final thoughts on it, he stepped behind me to get a good look and muttered (wow) under his breath. And he knew what was coming.

Full Value Drawing.

Our second to last assignment in class. The only requirement was that it had to have black blacks and white whites. I got great reviews on this one.

The 2 items I used here are a sony digital 8mm camera on the right, and an ancient wind up 8mm film camera on the left. I thought it was a fun pairing. the image is drawn from above looking down.

Shadow Massing

Ever hear of Shadow Massing? I had not before I had done it. In shadow massing, you look at a still life scene, then you try to break down the shadows into percentages of black. 0% for example, would be where you have no shadow. 100% would be where you see no detail because it is to dark. Then you divide the shadows into three zones. 0-25% you leave completely white. 25-50% you draw as a 50% gray. All that is leftover you do as 100% black. The end result is rather abstract. Were were given a shadow massing assignment in which we were to include 4 items of our choice.

During the peer review session the teacher called mine incredible. The only fault he found with it was he did not feel my half gray was actually 50%, for which he docked me one point.



The abstract effect is kind of lost in this format, as the camera picked up every bend in the paper. I'll try to get a more accurate shot later.

Last Semester

All of this posting of computer projects reminded me of an image I made in class last semester. I meant to post it then, but rather forgot. Completely. I thought I'd share it with you now.

There is a type of image known as a vector image. Unlike normal images, in which every pixel in the file is defined as a specific color, a vector image is a mathematically defined map of curves, lines and colors. This means 2 things. First the image can be scaled up and down at anytime without losing clarity. Second, making something photo realistic is more of an artform than with a true image.

In our class, we were required to do an image based around camping with certain objects included. Not to boast, but to show you how overboard I tend to go, most of the images looked like first time efforts using Microsoft Paint. Here is my contribution. (note - though the original one was vector, this is a standard Jpeg for space reasons.)

10 Minute break.

I figured I'd take a 10 minute break from all my studying. Summer semester finals are upon me, and I am swamped. I wish to share with you the current project that is nearing completion for the xbox. Starting Tomorrow or the day after I will show you what I have been doing in my Art class. I'm rather proud of the last 3 homework pieces.

So back to the xbox. After the last piece, it should come as no surprise that what I made next was some sort of a launching platform. This one I did without being asked for. I just really wanted to do it.