I'm in Love With a Website

Urban Exploration

My friends, Toby, Drew and I awoke at 3 in the morning with every intention of illegally trespassing at an abandoned sanitarium and making it to the rooftop before sunrise. It's been a while since I've shot on film, let alone medium-format. So with the little light that I had to work with there weren't that many images that came out. But here's the one that I was pleased with, unedited.

Obamauguration!

From "Yes We Can" by Photographer Scout Tufankjian.

Walkin' On, Walkin' On Broken Glass

Here's a preview of what I'm working on for my site re-design. It's kind of like cross-hatching with pins. A lot more work to be done, this is only a test shot.

Knew New Nude

Bettina Rheims has a titillating new book out, The Book of Olga. A Russian millionaire requested her Agent Provocateur-esque style to photograph his femme fatale wife, Olga Rodionov.

Kids Are Cute

I shot my first wedding this weekend out in Syracuse. We were blessed with dry skies and smiling faces. Here's a rough cut of some of the images.








And we love Reggie.

Keeping My Finger on the Shutter

I've been working on some major updates. New photography added to the photo section and I'm working on the design portion as I type this out. I just don't have the time to do a major re-design but I'm constantly thinking up new ones.

Since I don't have any shooting classes this quarter I've been finding other ways to keep myself motivated and in a creative flow. This summer I was asked by a film friend, Toby Orzano, to shoot his production stills for his thesis. Check. I also offered to help my good recently graduated comrade, Bryan Williams, shoot his dimensional pieces for his portfolio. Check. Now this weekend I will be shooting a wedding for my roommate's best friend. Check. Wedding photography is, in fact, the bane of my existence. However, I am given free range to shoot whatever I please so it should be fun. Especially since it's an environment with people I know and am comfortable with.

Also, a French Club has just been started up at my school. WOOT!

The End of August Brings New Beginnings

Squee!

My room and myself were featured in one of my friend's photo projects.

Yes, those are oreos suspended from my ceiling. They were put there by my former roommate as one hundred cookies of love.
Yes, I quantify my love in cookies.
No, I don't think the cookies are very good anymore.

Spring Cleaning

Slowly but surely I've been making some more additions and taking out some crap work. I've added a new section to my links: a compilation of blogs from a number of my friends in illustration, new media design, photo, and film. I'm also adding some more photos, some old some new. The older ones I had lost the digital files for but still retained the negatives and chromes so I'm putting them back together and re-editing them with my improved Photoshop skills. Pretty straightforward entry, nothing too exciting except that it's Week 10 and I have much to do.

Also, take a gander around ffffound! if you haven't done so already.

L'Année Deuxième

It's my Junior Year at RIT, second as a transfer photo student. I now live in a house with five other illustrators (technically, one of them is in Film & Animation), and people still think I'm an illustrator as well. I've made some recent updates to my photo section from last year’s projects. But just you wait, there's more to come. I've added a couple links to my ridiculously talented friends’ websites, Carly Schonberg and Jonghyup Son.

I've also started working at the Photo Cage so that had to be added to my résumé as well. Working there has given me so much more exposure to equiptment than I ever thought possible. Well, I knew that was one of the advantages but I had no idea how much RIT actually had to offer. For instance, I got to handle the digital Leica M8 for the first time. Also, never pull a plug out of a lighting battery before shutting it off. Bad idea. Good thing to know when assisting.

I recently had to say goodbye to my PowerBook. It's about two years old now so it’s done for good. But I was reunited with my hard drive, which is not gone for good. It just liked to pick it’s own time to start working. Although I intended on adding some more SportsZone posters to the design section, but unfortunately those were saved on my now defunct computer. So that pretty much explained my lack of updates for the past few months.

And just another side note: Once again I have been denied taking a French course, which is my minor. I haven't taken it since last winter. Thankfully I had about four years of it from high school and plenty of books to study from on my bookshelf. So I've been watching movies either dubbed in French or with subtitles. Did you know that Chicago has a French soundtrack as well? I never knew. Very bizarre watching Catherine Zeta Jones singing in someone else’s voice. I’m also trying to convince my aunt, who lives in Paris, to let me come stay with her for a week or so for my winter break. We’ll see how that goes.

A Letter to An Old Lover

Dear Photography,

I know we've been growing apart lately. I've been taking on graphic design jobs and looking for publishing internships. Lately we just haven't been working well together, what happened? Is it because this is all so new to me? Because I have to start again from square one? We used to click. We had a connection. Ever since I switched over from black and white to color, we've taken on a new dimension.

It's the second half of Winter Quarter, please let's make this work. I keep buying you nice things and you're still not happy with me. Maybe we can experiment a little, try new toys – maybe even a Hasselblad.

I know I just haven't been into you lately. My head is, but I'm not thinking with my heart. Right here *points to chest*. Once upon a time, I couldn't wait to be with you and everything made me think of you. And I think I've lost that feeling. Please, Photography, let's get back to the way we were. I miss you.

Love,
Shalini

When the Ends Justify the Means

A while ago I had an interview with Tony Sahadeo, the director of admissions at The New England School of Photography. Unfortunately, even though I was accepted there I opted for my first choice, RIT. But I wanted to note a great quote that he told me:

Digital photography is akin to cooking. You can spend all day baking and preparing food, cook on a stove — a gas stove, even — and have a wonderful, accomplished result. Or you can pop it in the microwave and push a bunch of buttons. In the end, the result is what you put into it.