jacob mengelkoch

2010-01-21T14:31:00.001-08:00

I've been house sitting for a week, and it's been a productive one. There's been a lot of new things in the works, all of which I'm excited about.

Most importantly, Philip Grey and I have started a wedding photography and video company called Imagine Your Wedding We're both very ambitious about our this endeavor. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Also, I've been shooting a lot of "personal" work. Normally I try not to post personal work because it is, in fact, personal. Not weird or anything, I just have lots of images that I like to keep. Anyway, here are a few that I've taken recently whilst away from my home.

Like I said, I am house sitting for my sister, and she has two cats and one dog.

The dog is a little bit too quick to grab a photograph of.

She has a pretty great sense of style when it comes to interior design. I'll be making some changed when I get home.

Every now and again when it gets cold, the trees freeze, leaving ice on everything.

And last night we got another little snowfall.

Exciting!

2010-01-06T20:41:00.001-08:00

Just launched a new project with my friend Philip Grey. We're going to be working together as a duo for wedding coverage in the mediums of photography and video. So far we've been getting positive feedback on the website, and I'd love to hear some more feedback!

2009-12-18T14:04:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick Christmas photo I did for my friends in the Rimbey family. You'll recognize Ben from various other photographs and blog posts I have made.

The past two weeks have been some of the busiest I have ever experienced. With work, Help Portrait (blog coming from that later tonight) and my Grandparent's 65th wedding anniversary party, I am a very tired man.

Light Testing

2009-12-08T21:05:00.000-08:00

My good friend Ben came over this evening and I asked him if it was okay for me to take some photographs as light tests in preparation for Help Portrait this coming weekend. I'm very excited about that event and am very happy to be able to be a part of it.

Of course, the iPhone

and the creeper.

Texas part 1

2009-11-20T14:24:00.000-08:00

Hello y'all. I have been in Texas for a few days visiting my girlfriend, Ashley. So far we have been around Austin and San Antonio, and tonight we are going to see New Moon. We'll see how that one goes.

Anyway, I've been really enjoying a vacation where I don't have a ton of stuff to wrap up. I get to kick back and relax until Monday when all that madness begins again.

Flying has always been difficult. I've had ear problems since I was a little kid and I was in fear of being in excruciating pain as I'd remembered, so the night before I did some research. Research=posting questions on Twitter and Googling a lot of things. In the end I put my faith in a pair of ear plugs that are supposed to reduce pressure in your ears during the pressure changes. Worked like a dream.

Ashley and her family hold down the house with five dachshunds (weiner dogs) and they are all super adorable and each have a lot of personality.

That guy there is known as Bumper. He's the most recent addition to the family. It's strange having small dogs around because I am used to this guy.

Ashley works from 3 to 6 Monday-Friday so I am spending a lot of time at this little coffee shop in Seguin called Chiro Java. They have a chiropractor in-house. Too bad the doctor is never in. I wouldn't actually have anything done, I really don't like when people touch my back, random fact.

This is the side of the very building in which I am sitting. (Chiro Java.)

The next building over

To wrap up the trip, tomorrow we're going to San Antonio and out to dinner with Ashley's parents and some family friends (of whom I'm supposed to be afraid. Nerve racking!) Sunday will be Fiesta Texas, which I'm told is a Six Flags-esque place, or maybe even an official Six Flags.

Oh and I have been eating a lot of Skittles

More Like the Movies

2009-11-01T22:40:00.000-08:00

This is at very least the fourth photo session I've had with these guys. They are really cool guys and we tend to have a lot of good photos.

Sounds like my next session with these guys will be next February, after they've recorded their new album and will be in need of some new promotional photographs.

These were taken in my basement studio, which is, at maxiumum, 15' squre. I really would like access to a studio where I didn't have to shoot super wide in order to get 5 guys in a frame. Hopefully have something in the works on that situation, and I'm hoping to get the wheels turning on that soon.

Words Versus Pixels

2009-10-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

In the back of my mind I always have this feeling about how I'd like to express myself. I'm not deep enough to make photographs my self expression, and that's not my goal. The goal of the photographs is to see what the subjects are saying, not me. At least for now.

I've always enjoyed writing things, and in eighth grade I tested for English at the level of a college sophomore. I never really tried much in my writing classes though, because I saw no good come from it. Words would get typed, printed and graded, end of cycle (rinse, repeat.)

Recently I've noticed that writing has been a good way to give myself an ultimatum. Whether it be with a daily to do list, writing on a white board for overall goals or quotes I enjoy, or random sticky notes places all over my iMac.

Maybe I was looking too closely for some kind of reward for writing. I wasn't looking for personal happiness, but recognition. Lately I have been trying to rid stresses to make my personal life a little bit more enjoyable. My girlfriend Ashley, even though she probably doesn't realize it, helped me realize that I want to start "using my words" to push my creativity, and relax a bit from it as well.

All in all, I hope that I can keep up with writing things here and elsewhere for my sanity, organizational purposes, and fun.

Senior-Melissa

2009-10-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

Melissa is a senior in High School and a girlfriend of a brother of a friend. Yep.

I woke up the morning of the day and saw snow. Everywhere. Luckily, by the time 4pm rolled around it was mostly gone, but it was still pretty cold out. Kudos to Melissa for toughing it out!

Keepin' Busy

2009-10-14T20:12:00.000-07:00

The last two days have consisted of a photo shoot during a pillow fight, visiting Minneapolis College of Art and Design to see Dick Durrance speak (which was AMAZING,) and a shoot down by the river. In a van, down by the river. Get it? It wasn't really in a van though.

10/13
Originally this shoot was going to be outside at a park, nothing too special. Day of, I get a text from the vocalist saying they bought two feather pillows and are going to cut them open and smack each other with said pillows, and I am to photograph it.

I am pretty sure that I have found feathers in my laptop bag, camera bag and everything else. Also, I'm sure I'll find them for a long time.

Anyway, I saw Dick Durrance speak later that night. It was really awesome, there were a lot of people watching and his story was fantastic. Back in the day he was going to take a camera down the Danube River with a couple of friends. They decided to pitch it to National Geographic, they took it and eventually hired him as a staff photographer. Nat Geo doesn't have staff photographers anymore, and I'm pretty happy I was in the same room with someone who shot an extremely well known cover for the best mag around. I can't find the photograph online, but I'm sure you've seen it.

I head home, pet my dog for awhile and then I think I'll try to sleep. I decide to watch the Annie Leibovitz documentary Life Through a Lens in it's entirety, and didn't get to sleep until about 6:00am because I had so many ideas flowing through my head. And maybe it's because I had to Rockstar Guava energy drinks that day. Hopefully next summer pans out to everything it could be.

My next shoot was supposed to be at 8:00am, but seeing as how I went to bed at 6:00am and turned my alarm off when it went crazy at 7:00, it was delayed. It would've been a bigger deal but it was for my good friend Ben and his musical project Something Satellite.

I certainly love doing what I do.

2009-10-09T07:21:00.000-07:00

Hunt for Inspiration

2009-10-06T12:32:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been finding myself searching for inspiration. It's easy to find on the internet, but for myself to get truly inspired, I have to physically see something that I can touch, things that other people have created. It helps me set goals and gives me motivation.

Luckily for me, I live a little less than an hour North of a beautiful city, Minneapolis. This city holds so many great things and it is a very architecturally beautiful place. The past week I've spent about 3 days just driving around Minneapolis mid-day. If I had picked a different time, there would be tons of traffic and it would have been frustrating. Mid-day Minneapolis is the ideal city for me.

Oh and my dog sometimes helps me out

Angela

2009-09-06T22:17:00.000-07:00

senior photos taken for my niece, Angela. it's weird that she is my niece because she is pretty close to me in age (she's 17, i'm 21.) she's graduating, therefore i am was given the deed of taking her senior photos.

welcome back.

2009-09-06T00:37:00.000-07:00

so my last blog post on this blog was made roughly 5 1/2 months ago. that's quite the absence, but i'm back. i've tried various other avenues for blogging (tumblr, wordpress) and for some reason i can't seem to find one i am happy with. eventually i will have to buy one or have one made, but that's pretty low on the to do list. i have to actually start blogging before that becomes an expense.

so here i am, it's almost 3 in the morning, i'm watching locked up raw on MSNBC and writing a blog.

life has been pretty busy lately, and i really like it that way. i have gotten a promotion at levi's and i'm working 40 hours/week there, going to school full time (all my classes are online,) and shooting as much as possible when i have a day to breathe.

this blog is going to become a huge priority for me because i definitely need a place to throw out words i have, whether they are relevant or not. i have an online publishing class that is really focusing on blogging (most of our assignments are blogs,) so hopefully i'll be able to get into the groove of things.

photo update tomorrow,
much love

"I hope you're doing okay."

2009-02-28T22:33:00.000-08:00

yeah, it's been a week for my family and i. i woke up this morning to my mom coming into my room bawling. her best friend's son passed away last night. she spent the day there comforting her friend, my mom would do anything for this lady.

last monday my uncle (my mom's brother) went into the hospital to have his kidney removed because they found cancer in him. the surgery went pretty well, (they severed an artery but were able to catch it before anything horrible happened.) he's going to be getting out of the hospital either monday or tuesday and we can only pray the spots on his lungs and liver somehow disappear.

earlier this week a distant cousin of mine passed away, and he will definitely be missed. he's the kind of guy that walks into a room and the mood brightens because of the personality his body language has.

wow. life is such a confusing thing. we pray that these things get better, but sometimes the will of God isn't the same as our prayers. all day all i could think about was my mom's friend, linda. she's that lady who has been in my life since i can remember, and has always been one of my mom's closest friends. her son had some pretty rough times, but recently things were getting better, but now he rests.

i'm sitting here, typing this, and i just put my hands to my head. that's all i can even think to type right now. pretty close to speechless. please pray for linda and her family, and my family too if you've got the time.

sheesh

2009-02-16T10:54:00.000-08:00

last week was insane with school, had to do 4 papers and a test, now this week I have an exam and a powerpoint due, a little exhausting but that's what happens when you take 15 credits and you're not used to school.

did a little shoot with my friends in trace the skyline last week, they are continuing their band as an acoustic project instead of full band, they're heading out on tour this week for two weeks, check their myspace for the dates www.myspace.com/tracetheskyline

2009-02-07T10:23:00.000-08:00

it's been awhile, and i'm not very good at keeping this blog up to date, but i'm going to try and be better about it.

since the last time i've updated.....

heck yes! my website is fully functional and full marketable, i love it! philip grey designed it and i'm extremely appreciative and super super pumped about it, what a pro! his website is www.philipgrey.com, check it out, i believe it's under construction but it still has a sweet jump page.

i've been shooting a lot lately, and i'm getting happier and happier with my images. i'm runnin off to a shoot now, more to come later!

2009-01-23T15:25:00.000-08:00

I think I need to look at this photograph every time I get sick of Minnesota because every time I seem to travel down Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis and it renews my love for the city. I may want to move away for awhile for school and having fun, but I feel this city will always be the place I come back to.

did a little shoot today for a guy who's band's name is The Cloud Hymn. He's a friend of a friend, and a good guy to hang out with. He's currently enrolled in law school at the University of St Thomas, and told me he spends 4-5 hours per night studying. Madness.

2009-01-19T22:25:00.000-08:00

today I shot a band called More like the Movies

i've known two of the guys in this band for awhile, they used to be in a band I shot promos for pretty consistently, and that's how we arranged this. They recently had photos done by the great Sara Kiesling, but wanted to release those when their cd is released. So, for the time being, these will have to do.

This shoot went relatively well/smooth. My good friend Ben was there to help me out a bit, because I wanted to try out some new stuff lighting wise and what I wanted to do would have required a boom arm that I do not have, so he acted as one. for this particular shot my head/camera was basically resting on his arm as he held the ab800 above and pointed down at the subjects. The only bummer of this shoot was when my sb800 got knocked off it's stand. things a tank though, and still works perfect.

There are a few more shots from this I'll be posting, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

2009-01-16T14:51:00.000-08:00

tomorrow my good friend mike is getting married and I'm the best man. Awesome! Now I've got to do a speech. I've got about a paragraph done and I've read online that best man's speeches are only supposed to be two to five minutes in length, and I know I can talk for that long. Hopefully I don't make a complete idiot out of myself. Plus if I do, everyone will just know earlier.

2009-01-13T22:23:00.000-08:00

i'm working on my 365 project. this is the first pic i've been real happy with for a couple of days so yeah.

website is partially up right now, i'm so anxious to have it up! I can't wait to show everyone when it's finished.

school is okay so far. my two teachers on monday nights are foreign, so it's a bit difficult to understand them speaking, but tuesday night's teacher is awesome.

2009-01-09T10:14:00.000-08:00

wow it's been awhile since I've updated. now I'm sitting here, waiting for the shower to warm up and about to go run some errands before the weekend is in full swing. I'm charging batteries, making sure everything is where it needs to be, then heading out to Eau Claire to shoot a wedding for a guy who's band I've shot a few times. Originally it was supposed to snow 2-5 inches last night, but we didn't see a single flake. Good news to me.

it's the new year! and I've been working on a lot of things photographically. I've decided to re dedicate myself to a 365 day project in which I'm hoping to push the creative portion of my brain to new levels/limits. I don't want it to be a normal, oh snap a shot kind of thing (which a few days have already been,) I want it to stand out in some way, where I'm doing more than just using Camera Raw 5.0 to edit the shots.

next monday I start school again, full force this time around. no 6 credits for this guy, we're talkin 15 this time around. I'm extremely excited to start class, which is kind of weird. I'm just really motivated to get my school work done, get the associates degree out of the way and then hopefully head somewhere warmer for awhile. maybe get a bachelor's degree sometime. we'll see.

here's a little bit of what I've been up to. happy new years all.

xmas list

2008-12-17T17:29:00.001-08:00

it's all i want.

2008-12-10T22:30:00.000-08:00

I've watched this movie so many times over the past few days. it's super inspiring visually, and really provoking emotionally. I kind of want to put it in the same category of american beauty, even though it isn't very much the same. yeah, it's funny, yeah it's sad, and yeah its deep. I kind of think the point of the movie is that money doesn't always mean everything. it's super good and i'm watching it again for the however manyith time right now. go watch it.

2008-12-08T18:29:00.000-08:00

So another weekend was spent in eau claire. More like a night. I worked friday from 10-2, took off from there, got to eau claire, did the shoot w/ the new science and then hung out with some friends. next morning, wake up, get a deposit for a wedding and then head out to do the our judgment shoot.

that one was a toughy. we went to a really cool location, but it was FREEZING outside. I set up, shoot about 8 frames and then we call it a location. From there we go inside this "mall" thing that is mostly wood workers and other stuff like that, and I don't bring lights because we don't have clearance for that. After we walk around I decide I need to ask permission because this place is sweet, it's like an old warehouse or something. the guy who's "shop" we shot right outside of was totally cool with it. I have a feeling these people don't see much business on saturdays. I plug in my Alien Bee (lighting) into my Vagabond (portable power) and it started setting off the flash rapidly. My guess is the vagabond was too cold and just started freaking out, so I plugged the light into the wall and no problem, we have a photo shoot. wham, bam, thank you mam we are done. and then I drive home and work from 5-915. sweet weekend!

2008-12-02T22:29:00.000-08:00

this is an intersection I go through basically on a daily basis. it's about a mile away from my house and about 90% of the time I'm at this intersection I take a left.

EPIC update

2008-12-02T11:20:00.000-08:00

wow it's been way too long. many pictures have accrued, and many stories to follow as well.

hmmm where to start!

well, "tis the season" has officially begun in our great tundra of Minnesota. Here, it snows late, but it snows hard. As I drive to work on county roads, I see cars going 25 miles an hour in a 55 mph zone, all while lines of cars who are eager and ready to get to work think it's my fault. Then there are always these bad boys

ahh the great side dump'r. spitting rocks up left and right, these menaces are all over these county roads, but we've become accustomed to them. We coexist.

on tuesday, the 18th of november, I left for eau claire to visit with some friends and then take a little road trip out to milwaukee.

ahh a good two and a half hours after I leave, I am welcomed to eau claire. traffic was horrible, but music always has been a cure for long drives. there is this little bus station in eau claire near where I had plans to meet some friends that has always fascinated me, it's got a very calm aura to it, while it still feels gritty.

from there, I met with some friends at a cafe in downtown eau claire to work on homework/hang out. little did we know there was an apple orchard in the acoustic cafe!

after this i stay over at phils, the kid i'm sitting next to on the left, and we watch some conan o brien and kick it for a bit. I wake up at 6 the next morning, shower, and hit the road over to my friend kyle's house. it took me awhile to get there because google maps was a little out dated on some of eau claire's roads or something but got there and figured it out. from there we hit the road, and about 40 minutes into the trip was our first pit stop. PEE BREAK!

so basically here is how that night went.

kyle and savanna were playing a show at the rave in milwaukee, on a side stage, opening for Secondhand Serenade. We get to the venue just fine, and get checked into the hotel fine too. Everything is peachy. It took me awhile to figure out where I was staying but his parents invited me to stay with them at their hotel, which was super super nice, and I was very appreciative of that. So everything is good, right? yep. Now we get to the juicy part of the story. we're at the show, I've got house pass on my right thigh (very very bad sticker, starts peeling off very easily,) and I'm standing outside, on my phone. As I'm about to walk in, I notice it is gone. After a few minutes of searching I conclude that it must have blown off when I was running across Wisconsin Ave, which is a really busy road and not exactly an easy spot to find anything. From there I text Kyle and ask him to see what he can do, along with texting my friend David who was at another show that was being held at the Rave. After about a half hour David comes down and we may have, what you call, "snuck in." This is great, but I got into the wrong show. After about 25 minutes of sitting there, David and I wander around back stage and I find myself in the right show. Kind of hectic, but it works, right?

from there random "you had to be there" moments happened, and lots of good times were had.

the next morning instead of our intentional waking up time of 6, we wake at 930. a little bit crappy but oh well, it still works. from there we drive down to lake michigan and take some photos and I took some video too, I miss that great lake. get it? it was a good time, and for the first time I honestly missed living in Wisconsin.

from here we head to madison and it takes forever to find the street we're looking for but we saw some pretty interesting things along the way. the thing I love about madison is how everyone rides around on scooters, it's really funny.

from there we locked the keys in the car, made a couple extra stops, and did a lot of hanging out. I arrived home at 9:10pm, instead of the attended 12pm, but that's okay with me.

don't you just

2008-11-10T17:21:00.000-08:00

love the feeling of not getting any hours at work, getting paid a little more than half of what you made at your last job, and the drama the ensues?

Don't get me wrong, the people I work with are awesome, but it's not paying the bills. I need another job, and that totally sucks because in case you haven't heard, the job market is horrible.

Just trying to keep my chin up and my camera focused.

whew

2008-11-09T07:24:00.000-08:00

Aaron's senior pictures are finally wrapped up and I'm loving the track shots. Totally what I was going for. Today I'm off to meet with a bride who's wedding is next Saturday to work out the details. After that? All kinds of awesome.

what a day

2008-11-06T08:14:00.000-08:00

Gotta love hanging out with old friends.

sigh

2008-10-23T14:07:00.000-07:00

"Shake it off.
Pick yourself up, they say.
Your life fell apart in your hands, and you've got the scars to prove it.
It's not the first time, and they're getting deeper.
Pull it together.
Button up your shirt.
Roll down those sleeves.
Don't let them see how you've coped.
More and more your demeanor looks like quicksand.
It seems like your giving up on everything you worked for.
It's pulling you under.
It's gripping around your throat.
Life can be overwhelming, but don't turn your back on the strongest crutch you've ever had.
They have always been there to brace your fall.
Wave goodbye to the past.
You've got your whole life to lead.
It's time to gain some ground."

august burns red- composure

i'm posting this because of the lyric
"more and more your demeanor looks like quicksand"

it's fitting.

puppy time!

2008-10-20T06:22:00.000-07:00

Haven't had a dog since last october, and now I've finally got one. He's a 10 week old Labradoodle who has yet to be named. This past friday my mom, Eva and I drove an hour and a half away to go pick him up at a breeder. So far there have been a few accidents, some biting and a lot of cute puppy moments. this dog rocks.

2008-10-06T23:22:00.000-07:00

so it's ben, again. his yearbook is doing a page on him and his music stuff and I got to do the shoot for it. Editorial shoot, right? haha.

tomorrow I have a play date with my friends Kill Your Ex, we're shooting right before their show at the skatepark in Rogers, MN.

Make sure to check out Dustin Snipes. If you don't know this guy, know him. His photography is absolutely breathtaking. Normally I find sports photography quite dull and bland, but this guy is so talented, he was definitely born to do this. plus he has an awesome blog.

2008-10-01T22:24:00.000-07:00

so theres the self portrait.

yargh.....

2008-09-24T21:48:00.001-07:00

so lately i have not been happy with my photography. the last band shoot i did i was very meh about, and i just got an email from the record label saying that they want a re shoot. i just need to take some time and really work with the lighting i'm using and post production and spend more time lining up shots/scouting locations. i am going to sit down tomorrow and spend a lot of time on a self portrait until it is lit perfectly, exactly how i want it.

wish me luck.

2008-09-19T20:36:00.000-07:00

"Just take it in stride.
One breath and I think I feel free.
All we can do is strive for the best thoughts,
the best feelings, the "warm fuzzy" feeling.
As a child, I believed these all came to me due to the process of living.
Grab the wheel right now, and make this life yours.
Walk with me.
Leave your disgusting fever.
Take this life - make it yours.
Forgotten are the days of wandering pointlessly in my dreams.
Carry me with your wings."

August burns red lyrics to Endorphins.

Today/yesterday took a pretty stressful turn because I found out I needed two new tires for my car, which is never cheap. It ended up being cheaper than expected, but i was still left with a $266 dollar bill just waiting for me to sign. Fortunately I got back a senior that I had thought I lost to a lame portrait photography company, so I'm doing that on tuesday (weather willingly) and yeah. Hopefully things with money will start turning around a little bit here. Working at levi's is fun and all....... but I gotta get that money somehow.

Grab the wheel right now, make this life yours

ugh

2008-09-18T13:18:00.000-07:00

this is a shot from a set I did for this couple Kyle and Ciera. I've known kyle for a long time and ciera is a photographer, so it was a good time.

So I want to fill you in on something that I find extremely frustrating.

People who flake on photo shoots. I have had this shoot booked, and rescheduled 4 times, and now he decides to go with David Banks Studio. www.davidbankstudios.com. one of the most generic, boring and lame photography studios in this area. I'm not saying I'm a great photographer or building my ego, but honestly this is a tad ridiculous.

Seniors, bands, portraits, everything falls through. Maybe I need to just take it to heart and up the game with my photography, which I'm already working on, or I need to try and start dealing with other people.

How frustrating.

2008-09-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

Ben came over for a little myspace shoot yesterday because I got my alien bee, and here's my favorite shot from it. to me it's got kind of a sarcastic funnyness to it. today i've got a shoot with a band called meridene out of eau claire wisconsin, so it'll be a good ol' drive out to wisconsin.

i haven't been to wisconsin since I moved back, so it'll be interesting to go back there. at least it's just to eau claire and not milwaukee.

2008-09-10T09:23:00.000-07:00

so i got an alien bee yesterday, and i'm pretty excited to start using it. tomorrow i have a senior shoot, and hopefully i'll be able to use it. otherwise, I've got a shoot on sunday that I'll use it for. I've got to interview/do a portrait shoot with a teacher at ARCC in the next two weeks, some guy emailed me about shooting at his restaurant, aaaaaand yeah. hopefully all this pulls through.

2008-09-06T06:10:00.000-07:00

This is the guitar player of Sky Eats Airplane, thought it was a pretty good laugh.

Now I'm watching something about the chupucabra on discovery channel, pretty crazy stuff.

off to a senior shoot now, photos will be up later hopefully.

haha

2008-09-04T04:35:00.000-07:00

i don't know if you can read this but this is Portia de Rossi's IMDB page, and her "STARmeter" went up 19,333% last week after her and Ellen DeGeneres got married. Sadly, it is down 98% this week. Much love to www.imdb.com

oh and a disclaimer, in my iChat window, someone was saying "i didn't know she was gay," not saying it in a negative sense!

photography 1

2008-09-03T21:08:00.000-07:00

this is what happens when you know about aperture and take photography 1

class is starting to speed up a little bit. we got our first photo assignment, and it's to go shoot a building that looks very ordinary, but shoot in in a very unordinary way. not sure where i'm going to shoot this yet but i'm excited about it.

i'm pretty sure there are two people who have touched cameras in my photography 1 course. it was pretty ridiculous, but our teacher seems to be very thorough and hopefully i'll learn a thing or two.

tomorrow i'm going downtown to the RNC to catch some photos of the protesters there and hopefully not get maced, wish me luck!

2008-08-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

Day 3.
This is my dad's old saw that is collecting dust in our back room. It's probably been around just as long as I have, if not longer. Still works great, and gets used every now and then, but for the most part just sits in the back closet, building it's character.

Day 4.
I was in the target parking lot, driving my mom's car, waiting to trade guitars with a friend. This was the day my mom had her surgery, and I would have taken a picture in the hospital, but it just didn't feel right bringing my camera in and taking photos when everyone is so distressed. everything went fine, and now she's doing great.

Day 5.
first apple computer. second workspace. the end

Day 6.
took some pictures up in clearwater, and there was a chair in this tree. where i shot was a total little fishing community, and it was amazing. i love the rural lifestyle almost as much as i love the urban lifestyle, if not more.

2008-08-18T09:54:00.000-07:00

Day 1

Day 2

I decided that I wanted to challenge myself and do a 365 day project. I don't want to have 365 pictures of myself, so I'm going to do different themes every week. My first week is black and white, and I've got a few other ideas for down the line.

Day 1.
At my friend Ben's. His mom runs a day care, so they have tons of toys and kid's books sitting in their basement, and this was in the closet there.

Day 2.
The Ramsey Municipal Parking lot. I was driving home from my good friend Mike's after we did an NFL fantasy draft, when I saw the amazing parking garage to my right. At first I was a little hesitant because I've heard horror stories of people walking around with tripods, someone calling the cops, getting yelled to get on the ground at gunpoint, but I thought it could be an adventure. To be honest, it wasn't exciting at all. Probably 10 cars passed me in 45 minutes of walking/shooting, and the one police officer I saw noticed I had a camera so he kept moving.

Today I work at Levi's again, and I'm enjoying my job. It's fun to finally be around more people that are relatively my age. Plus there are a bunch of awesome pants!

Tomorrow my mom is getting some pretty serious surgery done to her neck, and it's a little nerve racking. The surgery has an amazing success rate, but you can't help but sit uneasy. I'm sure everything will be fine.

2008-08-15T23:17:00.000-07:00

2008-08-15T20:35:00.000-07:00

so it's been quite awhile since i've updated this thing, so here we go.

in the past week i have registered for school, gone to the mall of america, gone to uptown, and started working my job at levi's.

today i folded clothes for a good 5 hours or so, and it was quite the party if i do say so myself.

a few days i was at the mall of america with my friends phil and amber, and it was a good time. it included, and was not limited to: underwater world, best buy, walking across the mall a few times, and urban outfitters.

this was us on the conveyer belt tour of underwater world. this is the biggest indoor aquarium in the world, and it's really amazing. even for someone who is afraid of water, I can really appreciate this.

in the true fashion of blogging

2008-08-07T18:15:00.000-07:00

i shall lead you else where.

i read this article today about how to catch a potential boss' attention by doing things out of the ordinary and in a more interesting fashion. It's a pretty cool concept, and I really like it. Doing something different to stand out among the crowd of people who all have resume's, who all have cover letters, and all want a job. So what should I do? Go to my next interview in a banana suit? maybe..

here's the link to the article.

i really need to finish working on my camera bag....

national geographic

2008-08-06T12:57:00.000-07:00

national geopgraphic is the best. hands down. their cinematorgraphy is absolutely gorgeous and their content is the some of the most entertaining stuff ever. I'm watching a show about a 10 mile bridge that connects denmark and sweden together on a budget of 3 billion dollars. It's partially a bridge, partially a tunnel, how epic is that? they had to build their own ISLAND to accommodate to the air traffic.

anyway, yesterday I did a little photo shoot for my friend's solo project and it's pretty much exactly how I wanted it to turn out. I could have used a little more light in the eyes and on the legs, but other than that, i'm really happy with it. my flickr's turning into something I'm very happy with.

10 years ago

2008-08-05T15:50:00.000-07:00

10 years ago was the worst day of my life. it was the day that my dad moved on to a better place. I can still feel how empty i felt sitting down on the couch and knowing i just lost my best friend. my dad was the most important thing in my life, as dad's usually are to their 10 year old kids.

I never felt mad at him, never felt mad at God, just kind of felt like it was something that happened and there's nothing I can do about it, so why get mad.

Honestly, I never address how I feel about it. I've always pushed my feelings away because whenever I even say the words "my dad" I start choking up. It's not something that sits well with me.

I get a little jealous of other people's dads and their relationship. In the past 10 years, I haven't had a dad to celebrate father's day with. I haven't been able to buy my dad a "world's best dad" coffee mug for. I have to look at things that he owned and remember how amazing he was and how half of my life I don't remember when he was alive because I was so young. I miss him more than anything I've ever felt.

Since that day, it's been hard to find a male figure that I really trust. Whenever I seem to find one, they seem to become greedy or something else happens, and it's really frustrating.

Today I didn't go to the cemetery. I can't take the site of my father's grave. Carved into the stone is a race car, a few carpenter tools, the dates august 31st, 1948-august 5th 1998, and families names. I can't stand being near it and all the sorrow that flows through me each time I'm even near the church at which he is buried.

This isn't the right way to deal with it, but I'm dealing with it.

warped tour. sighh

2008-08-03T22:45:00.000-07:00

i woke up this morning at phil's house and got ready for a day at warped tour. luckily he decided to come with me, but it was not an easy decision. hit up target, starbucks, and then the road. about 30 minutes into our drive we hit heeeeeavy traffic, which was caused by warped tour. it was only a symbol of what the rest of the day would bring.

all day it was overcast (which I'm actually glad about,) and a little bit boring. When we first got there, we thought we were being forced to park 2 miles away, so we parked and started walking. In the walking process we missed norma jean :(. 2 miles later, we get to the front gates where I go to the press/guest list, on which my name is nowhere to be found. Luckily the lady was totally awesome and helped me out by giving me one anyway. that's when the music started and the day all kind of runs together in a blur. there were a few good bands that I saw, including:

family force 5, angels and airwaves, the devil wears prada, 3oh3. not quite as eventful as I'd hoped, but still a decent time.

to me, this festival is kind of a lost cause. it's okay for a little while, but really gets old quick. After you've been to bamboozle, cornerstone, and sonshine, warped tour is really no big deal. I get really sick of seeing all the "free hugs" shirts, but that's a given at any music festival. It's more so the attitude that comes with the majority of warped tour-goers. The booths with pot leaf necklaces and bandanas and the "I heart SLUTS." Maybe it was the seemingly unavoidable four letter word/attention grabber t shirt that is now the status quo. When I sat down for a rest, I lowered my head and said a prayer because i was getting so frustrated.

but, tomorrow's another day.

wow

2008-08-01T23:06:00.000-07:00

a week, to say the least, it has been.

tuesday consisted of two dozen cows, lots of profoto moving around (lighting equipment,) and good times. I assisted a photographer, Gregg Segal, on a photo shoot for Runner's World magazine, who was showcasing a local runner being sponsored by a farm in Castle Rock, MN. The lady had something around a 1239871 pack (abs, people,) and got 14th in the world for 1500m during the olympics in athens.

post photo shoot, i head over to my friend phil's house, where we end up playing an AMAZING game called SOCOM. We play online for a few hours. And let me tell you, I love using a sniper rifle haha. Got to bed around 330, and didn't wake up until 130pm, which REALLY messed me up. The rest of the day was filled with my body spiking in temperatures both warm and cold, and my head feeling about as dense as cement.

i woke up the next morning to find relief from the frigid/desert like temperatures my body was going through. still a little bit of a headache, but that, I was willing to deal with.

Later that night I went to a show that I'd likely call the strangest concert I have ever been to, ever. The Lineup was as follows:

Uncle Monsterface

Math the Band

Harry and the Potters.

Definitely a new style of show to go to, and I way enjoyed it. All of the bands were as ridiculous as you can imagine, and it was nothing short of awesome. Probably the biggest highlight of it was at the very beginning when MC Dumbledore came out for a few songs. Yes, rapping wizards.

good times, good pals.

"the end of the world was yesterday"

2008-07-28T10:50:00.000-07:00

Last night was kind of a late night, phil and I decided to go out and take some photos. We drove around and were having a bit of trouble finding the right kind of place at the time. We decided this old park we used to go visit actually had a few lights, and a decent sized soccer field with some bleachers. The park was supposed to close at 11pm, but we ended up going at around 1am. Close to the end of our little photo session a guy came out of nowhere with his dog, and that was a little frightening.

After this we hit up the top of the maple grove transit parking garage to check out the cars driving by on the freeway.

Tomorrow I'm assisting a shoot for Gregg Segal. Some dairy farm is sponsoring a runner here, and we're doing the cover for Runner's World.

ummm

2008-07-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

I just fell out of my bed and nearly landed on my Macbook Pro. That would have sucked pretty bad, but we're all safe on the home front now.

Off to buy a charger for my cell phone!

I challenge myself to take a cool picture between hear and wal mart. Wal mart is about....... half a mile away from where I live.

now, do I take my car or a scooter.....

cute day

2008-07-23T21:51:00.000-07:00

yesterday phil and i hit up ikea and mall of america. both of which are a guaranteed good time. got some stuff for his house in eau claire at ikea and then headed to the mall. basically we just walked around for hours looking at graphic design, trying to figure out some stuff for a logo. The amount of design out there is insane, but we learned a lot of good things for some stuff we've got coming up.

All I ended up buying at MOA were two magazines. AP magazine (had my first photo in AP, pretty stoked) and National Geographic. bummer though, NG likes to have multiple covers, so I had already bought this one. Oh well, some really amazing photography in it.

Today I applied for a community college, so I'll be able to get in just fine. I'm going to do a two year transfer program, that way I can transfer out sometime and get a bachelors degree in something. Then later in the day I hung out and watched Project Runway. I feel kind of lame admitting that, but it's really entertaining to watch.

For the record, Sigur Ros is the most inspirational group of musicians I have ever heard. I could seriously just put their cd Takk on my ipod and listen for years. Tonight I caught part of their DVD over at phil's and wow.. it's really amazing. Iceland seems to have some of the most beautiful countryside, and it's crazy how few people live there.

Tomorrow = first band practice. Virtues here we come!

woops.

2008-07-20T18:50:00.000-07:00

i just spent a weekend in wilmar, mn, at sonshine music festival. it's christian based with some of the biggest christian musicians out there. ranging from august burns red to third day to as i lay dying to newsboys. it was a great time, and just added a few things to my good memories bank.

so tomorrow i'm applying at college, applying for MORE jobs, coaching another soccer game and hitting up tea garden for a good old smoothie and having a business meeting about a clothing line. i need to get some more promo shoots in here.

warped tour is soon and i am far from excited for it. to be honest, if i don't get a photo pass, i doubt i'll attend. there are a lot of good acts this year, but after being at cornerstone and sonshine, warped tour is going to be a frustrating experience, but hey maybe it'll be fun.

alright

2008-07-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

new blogspot. what up.

today I've scheduled:

Job interview

College interview

and I'm trying to set up a meeting to get back into karate.

Tonight my friend phil and I are coaching his little brother's soccer game. All I know is they're going to win their first game of the season tonight.

I want to use this blog mainly for photography and everything, but I haven't taken any photos today, and all the old stuff is on my flickr. I'll work on getting a shot up here tonight, maybe from the soccer game or something. Catch you cowboys on the flipside!