Downtown Photography

I've got at least an hour of free time at college every day and I've been taking photography walks around downtown during my breaks. It's been really fun. Here are some of my best shots from my latest semester!

Charlotte Mini-Con Photos

On January 31st I woke up before dawn to head to Charlotte NC for Charlotte Mini Con! For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a mini comic con that's been held in Charlotte since 1982, I believe. I figured since Aniwave went well, I should try vending again.

It was the biggest trip I've taken in a while and I had a great time seeing all the costumes, booths, and merch. Check out more pictures below!

Art Adventure Time: #5 Spring Back

Today's Adventure is brought to you by forgetfulness! I was cleaning out and generally organizing my computer files the other day and I found a whole cache of photos from a spring adventure I had taken with Venture to the arboretum.

I got to go back and visit my favorite dragon statue in Wilmington, Gideon! His enclosure was in full bloom as was the rest of the acreage, and boy was it beautiful! Come take a little trip back in time with me to a warm spring day- isn't that the prefect cure for these freezing temperatures?

Aniwave Photo-splosion

On December 7th I had a very important "first time", my first time ever selling my merchandise at a convention! Aniwave #5, I believe. Aniwave is a young local convention that is held right up the street from my college annually. I have some friends one the staff and actually hosted a panel about starting your own business there two years ago.  The day is a blur in my mind, but I did manage to snap some pictures between chatting up potential customers.

This dude and his starmie were breathtakingly awesome!

 I meant to get these pictures up last week, but I actually caught the black plague and was indisposed. Just kidding, I caught the didn't-sleep-more-than-25-hours-in-two-weeks-due-to-con-and-finals flu.
The good news is that I both made a profit and a reasonable wage from selling at Aniwave and I made all A's for the semester! I'm just paying for it now. Anyway, here are some of my favorite cosplays from the convention to start us off!

Shared Roll of Film with Carly from Zauberbear

If you didn't already know, I have a passion for film photography. It was incubated in a class I took during my first year of college, Black and White Photography 1. It was a magical experience of having 3 hours every Tuesday and Thursday to listen to music and create photos in the dark room. I wish I could go back, I might even this upcoming semester if it could miraculously fit into my schedule.

 Since there isn't a local darkroom and my college only allows you to use ours if you're currently paying for a photography class, my camera has sat collecting dust until my friend Carly from Zauberbear emailed me with an idea.

Cemetery Field Trip Photo Dump

I have been exhaustively busy with work lately but I did get to take a field trip to a local historic cemetery the other day. It's called Oakdale Cemetery and I learned fun facts like confederate soldiers we're buried there and so we're many mass-grave yellow fever victims!

It was facilitating but I didn't get to stay long, I had to jet to work.

 I did manage to take a whole bunch of pictures though, so enjoy the spooky atmosphere of this ancient cemetery!

Art Adventure Time #4: Castles in the Sand

This adventure is from the distant past, mid-July I believe. I'm not sure why I haven't gotten it up before but it's here now. It was part mini-vacation, part architecture-undertaking, all fun!

Thats right, I went to the beach. Me. Oh, and Venture of course!

Art Adventure Time 3: Here Thar Be Dragons!

 Due to me forgetting I had a deadline to meet this week (duh RaChil, tighten up) I did not finish a tutorial for today but will have something extra special in store for you on Thursday, so stay tuned! Regularly scheduled programing will return next week. 

I finally got around to editing the pictures/finishing my art journaling for this A.A.T., so I figured it would be perfect to hold you until Thursday! Enjoy

What a beautiful specimen of Japanese water dragon! I believe I shall call this beauty Gideon. I spotted Gideon swimming around a murky pond surrounded by sun bleached cat tales and sun-warmed rocks!

He was not what I expected going to see a place I thought would just be filled with trees and plants, my local Arboretum!

Photography 1 Portfolio

I know my blog has still been sort of silent except for Tuesday posts, but I am making that change this week!

Today I thought I would share my best photos overall with you from my Photography 1 class.

The Marble, Watercolor on Photo paper

It was a black and white class but I did get to alter a few photos, this is one of my absolute favorites.

Art Adventure Time 2: Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Maybe we got a little lost...But sometimes it's really refreshing to get lost in nature for a little while, especially when you are majorly stressed.

This A.A.T trip actually took place about a month ago, at the peak of moving stress when I wasn't sure we were going to be able to get a place without a cosigner, but we managed! Actually after this adventure I got a call from the apartment people telling me that we could move forward, we would just have to pay a lot more.

I felt about 1000x better after my wandering.

Nature Photos

Since I've been trying to get better at photography, so the pictures on this blog will be better, I've been practicing a lot. One of my favorite things to do is just go outside and shoot what I find, or wait til I see something out a window that grabs my attention and I grab my camera.

Art Adventure Time 1: A day at the beach...

...Well my kind of beach. For today's A.A.T. I packed up my batcat field bag with some Cliff granola bars, pita chips and water and headed to a local park. I started off my exploration by wandering around the park but ended up deciding it was boring and traveling farther on. I'm glad I did because I found a beach!

Look at that too-clear sky, It's pretty but could've used some clouds.

Altered States of Mind: Photography Collection

So last year this time I started my first year of college.

One of the electives I was immediately attracted to was Photography 1. It was a black and white photo class so I got to start with the very basics. I learned all about depth of field, composition, exposure, shutter speed, aperture, etc. I was thrilled.  In the course we had to develop our own film and "print" our own photos with an enlarger.