Home Sweet Home
Do you remember back at the beginning of January when I went and shot the last men’s basketball game at Mac Court? Well here is why the University of Oregon vacated the old facility. Meet Matthew Knight Arena. The place is just gorgeous. From the moment it comes into view outside to the time you finally decide to take your seat, it is unreal. It reminds me a lot of the Rose Garden just a little smaller. There are two, count ‘em, two Duck Stores inside the arena and tons of food and beverage options. Still no beer on the concourse although not sure about up in the club level. I now have a three opinions on the hardwood itself. First from pictures, I didn’t like that it was non-symmetrical, second watching it on FSN, I just thought it looked awful, and third in person. Wow. Couldn’t love it more.
Playing against the No. 19 University of Washington Huskies on Saturday the place got crazy loud too. The new arena brings a little bit of Autzen into it. The win for the Ducks was huge, which concluded a sweep of the Washington schools. However I think my favorite part of the new arena was not having to sit behind a pillar!
What’s in a Name?
Went back to the garage last night to do another session with Aqtos and Randy. Wanted to get some more work in with that continuous light I used the night before on Jonathan’s project, but for a more portrait centric use. I really liked the outcome of this shoot. I am starting to feel more comfortable directing poses and lighting, which is what I am trying to focus on right now. These guys are a huge help and I want to give a shout out for their efforts.
Like I mentioned a couple of posts ago I am making a huge push to enter the Eugene market as a portrait photographer, but before I can do that I need to have my business model more defined. That starts with having a name that is not already taken. I found out yesterday as I was searching for domain names that pichettephotography.com is already taken. Yeah that’s right, there is another Pichette is out there who also likes photography. So all day I was thinking of other names I could use and new logos and even friends sent me ideas.
I am stuck now between Lenny Pichette Photography, or LP Images. The first one obviously has a domain name available, but LP Images is taken, but could be bought. I am leaning towards the first one just cause it will fit better with what social media I have already been using. Below is a mockup of what the LP logo could look like. Cause yes as much as I love the flash logo I currently use I think its time to tone it down to a more professional look.
Lenny Pichette Photography?
Behind the Scenes
Yesterday was one of the most awkward days I have ever had. It might be due to the fact that I didn’t sleep at all the night before. Literally. I started studying for my BA 453 midterm at 3pm on February 2nd and stopped studying at 8am on the 3rd. This might go down as the hardest midterms I have ever taken outside of math. I got through it though and headed home at around 10, but not before I stopped at Caspian to grab a delicious mexican breakfast. After eating I laid down on my couch and within minutes was passed out.
I woke up not an hour before I was supposed to go on a shoot with my protegé Jonathan , roommate Randy, and good friend Salih. This was an interesting session for me because it was the first time I had ever set out to shoot something and not been the director or person in charge. Jonathan needed to make a stop motion for his class and asked if I would help him out. I obliged and I told him to tell me what he wanted. It was a learning experience for both of us and look forward to the results! Salih and Randy made good subjects in the piece too, despite cold weather and hunger.
Since I have been talking about taking my photography focus to the next level I have been doing some research. My findings today threw a little kink in my system. Apparently there is someone in Wisconsin with the company name “Pichette Photography”. So I am currently in the process of searching for a new name and doing a logo redesign. The redesign is a completely separate matter which I intended on pursuing either way. So if you have any fresh ideas for any of the above work I have in front of me they are greatly encouraged. Send me an email or leave it in the comments.
2010 in review
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
Crunchy numbers
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 13,000 times in 2010. That’s about 31 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 113 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 131 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 563mb. That’s about 3 pictures per week.
The busiest day of the year was February 2nd with 551 views. The most popular post that day was Thank You Mr. Lavie: Day 32.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, twitter.com, ufolio.uoregon.edu, alphainventions.com, and photography-on-the.net.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for natural lighting portraits, models in sunglass pictures, pic88, hate me photography, and the saints kick heard around the world.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Thank You Mr. Lavie: Day 32 February 2010
1 comment
Six Years Later: Day 36 February 2010
5 comments
The Kit: Day 4 January 2010
1 comment
Otto Turns One: Day 31 January 2010
Feelin’ Like a Hundred Trillion Bucks: Day 12 January 2010
2 comments
The 2011 Duck Chuck
Well Saturday my good friend Josha came to Eugene unannounced to play in a disc golf tournament on the University of Oregon Campus called the Duck Chuck. This event is put on by the university’s disc golf club, I believe once a year. Saturday night Josha, a few of his friends and myself got together to play board games. Killed at Scatagories as usual and then we played a game called Domo Caption This. Pretty cool game same premise as Apples to Apples except with Pictures and people get to create their own cards for the caption instead of having pre made cards. Good times getting to know some new people and hanging out with old friends at the same time.
I caught up with the group after the first round on a gorgeous day outside, which is pretty random for a January in Eugene but welcomed by all indeed. It did make shooting a little more difficult however with light spilling through trees left and right. Never shot disc golf before but did enough research to know where to stand and such. As a photographer there isn’t too much excitement as capturing a catchy moment doesn’t happen very often. I may be wrong, but the best shots are getting the expressions during a throw where not much changes. I know there is a lot more to try to do and look forward to the next opportunity to get out and shoot it!
This weekend was really eye-opening to me, as I realized that I need to start dedicating more time to what I currently call a hobby. Sure I don’t have enough time right now to be a full-time photographer, but when I have that chance I want to be ready. What I can do now is practice, and practice often. My weeks are very tough this term so most of my shooting will take place on the weekends and that is going to take a lot of dedication on my part to put it to the grind 7 days a week.
All Long Hair Comes to an End
After so many months my shaggy long hair has met its end. After many mornings trying to tame the beast I called my hair do, and all the conversations with Kristen about how I should have gotten a hair cut two months ago I finally made the trip to Sports Clips. I have been trying to go for a couple of weeks now but due to my schedule and lack of drive to get it done, I passed on all my opportunities to head up Coburg Rd. I had literally nothing on my agenda today except to edit pictures and start reading for my midterms next week so I made time for the trip to the barber. Another motivator was the fact that Sports Clips now gives a $5 discount for students, making the price a little more respectable.
Getting rid of that much hair is a big change so I had to make use of it before I tossed it all aside. What better use than a self-portrait session? Used a new technique I recently read about to make the focusing a lot easier. Not much else to it. Just me being my geeky self taking pictures on my back porch. Maybe tomorrow I will be more public about my geeky self portraits and take this show to the park? Might also be working with another fellow artist on a project. Man I love the weekends.
Portrait Session w/Aqtos Girma
Today was a big day for my photography career. One thing I have been nervous to do is portrait sessions with people I don’t really know. Sure I have done shoots with Randy and Kristen and they are a part of the few weddings I have shot, but I have never set out to just do a portrait session. It went really well, but I still need to work on the direction of posing and such. This is one of my favorite types of photography to shoot because I enjoy working with people so much. The possibilities of a portrait are unimaginable and I love it. You can change any aspect and you have something completely different. No boundaries, no limits.
This shoot was with a friend named Aqtos. He is a creative person himself with big ideas and a huge drive. He does everything from music engineering to clothing design. He has his head on straight and makes these creative flows priority number one. I envy him for this passion, there are so many distractions when going to college but Aqtos ignores them for the better use of his time. He has really inspired me just by watching him at work in his bedroom turned studio.
This session came about when he told me that he was looking to get some promotional material together for his clothing line. I told him I would be down to be his photographer and we went from there. He was really easy to work with and he knew that I hadn’t done much portrait work so he was understanding and patient. We started out on a dead-end street where he saw I sign he liked. We actually didn’t use that sign at all but went another route which turned out great. We had access to a street that cars rarely came down, a big field, and a sweet end sign we made good use out of. Good start but the sun fell fast so we busted out the lights pretty early in the session. Second stop was on the new foot bridge over Delta Highway. Had a cool light going across that we wanted to incorporate but it was smaller than we anticipated as you can see from this image.
All in all I am very excited to shoot more and get some marketing going towards high school seniors. Did some self portraits today that I will post soon! To see all the pictures from last night and some of the self ports you can find ‘em here: FLICKR or here: FAN PAGE
Jenga
Hey everyone this one is a little late but better now than never. This is fromthe CEO Networks game night a couple of weeks ago.We got everyone together on a Thursday night at the Break inside the EMU and played pool and miscellaneous board games. It was a great event for everyone to mix and mingle again and we got people moving with a classic game of human BINGO. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it is a game where you make custom bingo cards with things people have done, can do, or own, etc. Then you walk around the room trying to find people that fill the spots until someone gets a bingo or black out. Really fun game you get to learn a lot about people. Anyway, it was a fun time for me getting to know some more first years in the program. Can’t believe my time in this position is almost over.
Got a new tripod coming tomorrow so hopefully I can get some self portrait posts going again soon. Also booked a photo shoot with another artist in Eugene for this Friday and am looking forward to that. Time to make room for some artistic flow amidst this academia centric term. Happy viewing!
G2
Wanted to work on some more still life today and decided to go for a product shot with a hard back light. Didn’t turn out quite like I wanted to, but it was the first attempt and I have some ideas on how to fix it. Look forward to another attempt on this type of shot in the near future.
Old Hobby
Randy and I are known for doing some pretty ridiculous things and the picture from today portrays that quite nicely. We both, when younger, bought trading cards on the regular. Now to keep our childhood dreams and aspirations of finding that one great autographed card or memorabilia card alive, we spend absurd amounts of money on boxes of cards. The end result, hundreds of throw away cards. Maybe one day I will do something more creative with them but until then this is what you get.
For a little game see how many different players you can find and make out and post it in the comments.
