It’s actually October

Time is flying, folks.

I’ve been getting a bunch of college things in the mail, and I realized they all have the same early deadline… November 1st.

That’s a month from now. Less than a month, actually. It sort of caught me by surprise. So I spent a big part of yesterday working on transcripts, essays, and all that good stuff. All that pondering I was doing on photography? Out the window. I’ll come back around to it, of course, but right now it’s CollegeScholarshipsACTCollegeScholarshipsACT…

I don’t have to make any big decisions within the next few weeks, thankfully. But it’s quite intrusive all the same.

Just for the record

I did something last night that I haven’t done in a while: went digging through the archives of a couple major photojournalism agencies…Magnum and VII, if you were curious. I intentionally haven’t done that since March, and I will intentionally not do it again for a very long time. Not that it’s bad per se (although you do have to be careful). But every time I dive into the photo stories, a couple things become very apparent.

1) Photographs are not truly objective. They are a potentially objective portrayal of the photographer’s take on the situation/person/thing. Now, you can make a good case for objectivity in photographs, and I would probably agree with most of it. But in the end, an image reflects more on the photographer than the subject (or in some cases, it’s more about the relationship between the two).

Because of that, it’s incredibly important to me to be in agreement with the Lord’s perspective on the subject. Everything else is wood, hay and stubble– not to mention false. To put it simply… I want Jesus to like my pictures, to call them true, and worthy of expressing His perspective. That goes for everything: portraits, a war scene, theCall, whatever. I’ve never heard anyone say anything like that before, and it’s probably the worst way ever to sell your photojournalistic abilities, but that’s what I’m after… impossible though it may be. 

All that leads me to the second point.

Annie

I met Annie in DC. It was one of those weird IHOPish things where you make friends with fellow IHOPers while you’re out of town. It happened with multiple people on that trip, actually. Anyways– we hung out there and agreed it ought to continue when we got back to Kansas City.

Why you should hang out with 2-year-olds

I know a few people who would shake their heads at this, but honestly one of my favorite things to do (in the realm of photography) is to shoot little kids 100% candid. Yes, it’s tricky, and you can’t ever shoot at f/1.8 or 1/60th of a second. But it’s so much fun! Now I’ve never done it under pressure, but for those of us who are building a portfolio and honing our skills, this still applies.

The main objection I hear when it comes to kids is, “They won’t stay put!”…which is exactly what I love about it. Not once in their lives has it crossed their mind to be stiff, awkward, or to smile when they don’t mean it. They have the cutest expressions and they are always completely genuine. I’m only talking about the really little ones…unfortunately by the time they’re six or seven they all know how to “say cheese.” But anyways… it’s the best thing ever. I love it. Whenever it seems like a good day for it, I bring my camera babysitting with me.

Also keep in mind that only once did Maddie intentionally stop and smile at the camera, and the only thing I asked her to do was run around on the grass instead of the concrete. Everything else worked itself out.

And so follows an evening in the Candler household…

Too busy? Adjusting?

I feel like I’m never ever going to have free time again. And by free time I mean an hour or two that isn’t constantly being gobbled up by something else. Because there is room in my schedule…but there are some things you just can’t work into a weekly routine. Impromptu family meetings, photo shoots, friends, random babysitting opportunities, spontaneous household projects, Facebook chats with people I like…they are TIME SUCKERS, I tell you! Very enjoyable time suckers.

Projecto

We’ve only lived in Kansas City for a little over three years. Three years shouldn’t be long enough to accumulate tons of junk…key word being ”shouldn’t.” Somehow it happened to us anyway. I think it was because of the basement– we didn’t have one in Tennessee and it’s rather exciting to be able to throw things down there.

Photo Shoot w/Gabby (Part 1)

For a couple weeks now Emily and I have been sitting around trying to come up with people for me to practice on and use for portfolio-building…cute, fun people who wouldn’t mind spending a couple hours doing whatever I tell them to do. Gabby’s name came up and we were both like, “Perfect!” A few days later we headed out to Santa Fe Park for some late afternoon/sunset shooting.

Accidental scouting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple days ago I was tagging along with Maggie on a B&W film-purchasing errand. We decided to go a different way to the store and happened upon an old house/barn-turned-museum thing smack in the middle of Prairie Village! It was built in 1856, and is therefore very photogenic (I LOVE OLD BARNS!!!!). The early afternoon light was pretty icky, so we took some scouting shots and went on our merry way to Sonic happy hour =D. But I can speak for myself– I’ll definitely be back…in the evening.

I have the cutest class ever

And a rather large one too…over twenty little 1st-3rd graders. There actually weren’t enough chairs in the room for all of them. The biggest highlight would most definitely have to be the kid who fell asleep. It was an adorable little first grader, who laid his head on the table and was promptly dead to the world. All the kids sitting by him were making a ton of noise, and it didn’t seem to make a bit of difference. The second time I woke him up, he informed me, “My mommy woke me up so early though!”

Where it all began

I have a few quirky habits, and mostly I have no idea where they came from. But among the discoveries in the great paper search was a certain purple notebook, more 90s-looking than all the rest, which appears to be from the 1st grade. All the stuff inside was cute and funny, etc, but one thing in particular caught my eye.