End of the Semester Update

Man, it’s been way too long since I have updated this blog. I wanted to update you guys on what I’ve been up to over here in the cool new studio. So I’m going to make this a catch all update.

While I was working on my thesis (Mother Road Revisited) I actually went back to my roots for a bit, and did this night photo of the Shasta Camper I traveled with.

I feel like I have a pretty good handle on light temperatures and how I want my night photography to go from here on out, I just have to find a project so to shoot at night again. I really do miss it.

 

A couple weeks later I shot a wedding in New Mexico, and then school started quite quickly. I ended up doing a photo shoot of a couple of my friends messing around with water guns in Dallas. Another night photo situation, I wish I had more reasons to be shooting with such a short shutter speed more often.

 

While I was in Texas, I ended up doing a photo shoot for a friend who is also in his thesis year at a school in London, England. He is studying acting, and his thesis revolves around RipVanWinkle. Because of this, he wanted to see if I could get his character in an environment that would illustrate Rip’s world. My dad has a green house that is being over grown by plants…and I thought it was perfect.

 

Once school had been going strong for a bit, I was hired to photograph a metal working shop for a brochure they were putting together to show the items they could make, and their machines..here is a product shot I did for that:

 

I had to go back up to St.Louis to rephotograph a couple things for my thesis, and ran into a friend from high school. We decided to go look at the chain of rocks bridge, it was pretty neat, and it is on Route 66. 

 

This year at my undergrad, the art department decided to do an alumni show, and I was asked to participate..So I put this photo of the batmen kids I photographed at a garage sale a friend of mine and I stumbled upon.

photo of gallery courtesy of Todd Goehner

 

In October I went to Washington D.C. to talk to George Mason University about my thesis project. I spoke for an hour about pulling together all the resources I needed, and how one would do all of the work I did in the length I did it, and still want to make art…

 

I think the talk went very well, and the audience asked a lot of really great questions. I got to see DC for the first time, and really enjoyed spending a couple hours a day on the subway. 

And obviously, I have been working very hard on my thesis, I finally have a working light box, which you can see in a video here. I got a friend to illustrate a 4ft x 8ft map, which we actually have mostly finished…

I still need to add a frame and some feet on the bottom of the map, but over all I think it’s done. The frame will do a lot for it.

I asked a friend to cut together some pieces of video for a research video competition I was entering my Mother Road Revisited project in and I just found out I won the contest! The first prize is 1000 dollars to put towards your research. So I’m excited about putting that towards my thesis. (see the video that won here)

If you want to stay in the loop about my Mother Road Revisited project, jump on over to the website and take a look at the blog.

Anyway, That’s an update on my current situation…thanks for reading, and I’ll work on updating a little more consistently.

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Stories on Route 66

Well, usually, I try to keep the Mother Road Revisited stuff, and even my wedding photography separate from my personal blog or website. But, this particular story kind of applies to all the avenues of my life. Good friends of mine recently got married, and they asked me to photograph their wedding. Not only was their wedding on Route 66 (Gallup, NM), but it also was more like a photo shoot that happened to include a wedding. We did a whole 3-4 hour photo shoot the day before the wedding, and then still had more photos to make on the day of the wedding. It was the most prop based wedding I have ever photographed. And I had a blast. We ended up photographing the best man as a Snidley Whiplash character, kidnapping the bride and the groom saving the day. Anyway, enough talking about the photos. Why not take a look?

A Short Story from the Minds of the Armstrong Brothers

So,  those are a sampling of photos we took the day before the wedding. Here is a sampling of images we made the day of the wedding.

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Frogman’s Printmaking Conference Week 1

So, four days after I finished Route 66 I hopped on the road for Vermillion, SD for Frogman’s printmaking conference. The conference consists of about 150 printmakers, ranging from undergrad students to well versed professionals. Each class is taught by someone in a specific field of printmaking. I am taking a class in digital printmaking. My class is taught by Lanore Thomas (from Satan’s Camero) and Jason Ruhl (from Scavengers). Their work is a great marriage of digital and traditional printmaking. I have a learned a lot from them.

The other grad students that go to University of Tulsa are taking a class in 3-D Relief Printing and performance art. Their class is taught by a guy named Dennis McNett (from WolfBat Studios). His work is mostly relief prints, and revolves around specific animals that have different meanings to him. The class built their own animal masks out of cardboard and masking tape, which were then covered with relief prints from the class (which were mostly woodcuts). The creature they built in the end, was then filled with fireworks, and lit on fire at a cook-out we had tonight. These are the photos of the demise of said structure.

If you want to see more photos, please go to my flickr. (such as the making of of the creature and/or masks)

If you haven’t checked out the videos we shot while out on the route, check them out here.

Cheers,

Natalie

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Palm Springs Photo Festival 2012

The past week or so I have been attending the Palm Springs Photo Festival which takes place in Palm Springs, California (not Florida). The conference is always a place of inspiration and community. We hear from all types of photographer from journalists to fine art. I had the opportunity to take a workshop with Shelby Lee Adams on blending and shaping light. He is a great teacher and I really enjoyed spending time with him and the other students in the class. We were able to shoot on location with 2 models on Tuesday and Wednesday. The first location was a “seedy” hotel,  and a biker bar. Here are some images I made during those shoots.

As you can see I used a wide angle on a lot of these, mostly because I thought it would be best if I practiced something I didn’t usually have the means to practice. So, I went with it. I tried to stick with super wide all the time, unless I just couldn’t pass up a good 50mm shot. Our models were really great, and easy to work with.

Other than working with models I met a bunch of really great photographers, and got critique from people like Mary Virginia Swanson, Steven Kasher, Chris Pichler (Nazraeli Press) and Karen Sinsheimer (Santa Barbra Museum of Art). The critiques went very well, and I am excited about the ball that is perpetually rolling forward on my Mother Road Revisited project.

Finally, at the evening presentations I had the opportunity to listen to Gerd Ludwig talk about “The Long Shadow of Chernobyl” project and Ron Haviv on his career as a journalist and Nigel Perry enlightened us on how to become a celebrity photographer (he assured us that basically you have to be a good con-artist). All in all, as usual, the week was mind blowing and enriching. If you ever have the opportunity to join all of us at the Palm Springs Photo Festival, I say do it. No matter what.

Anyway, as always, thanks for reading, and be sure to check out the Mother Road Revisited project. It’s really getting some speed.

-Natalie

P.S. check out my new friend Jeff Frost’s timelaps photography called “Flawed Symmetry of Prediction” it’s pretty mind blowing.

P.P.S if you’re more into alternative process like wet plate collodion, check this out: http://vimeo.com/39578584 with a photographer that is making huge wet plate collodions out of the back of an ice cream truck.

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Days are Long; Years are Short

Goodness. I have been meaning to update for weeks. So, this update will be a bulk of the things I have be up to over the last few months, and a preview of what I’m doing in the future weeks. First of all, I am traveling to Palm Springs, CA for a photo conference this Sunday. This will be the third time I have attended, and I am pumped. Second, I have been traveling all over the midwest in the last few weeks. I was in Dallas shooting pictures of Jesse:

Under a Bridge

Dallas Skyline

Upside Down

Jesse’s a fun model, and I enjoy shooting with him, especially in Deep Ellum. I have also been working with gum bi-chromate, and that’s been quite the adventure. Here are a few successes and…and a few failures. but I’m learning. That’s for sure.

This will be a full color when I have it all figured out.

I'm making this into an etch when it's finished

Kurt in the Vegas Boneyard

If you want to see other photos of Kurt and Rosey at the Boneyard, check ’em out here

Tyson and the TV's

I think the last two have some paper issues, but I’m working them out, for sure. And finally! Last week my dad and I traveled up to Louisville, KY to pick up a ’64 Shasta. It isn’t perfect, but it’s slowly working in that direction. It was an adventure that lasted 3 days and 36 hours of driving. Dad and I had a great time, but it was quite the tiring trip. Anyway, here’s a photo of the Shasta:

'64 Shasta

Phew. Anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to. I’m sure I’ll post another entry when I get back from Palm Springs, but until then, thanks for reading!

-Nattles

P.S. If you’re interested in following the progress of the “MotherRoad: Revisited” Project, check out the facebook page, website, and twitter!

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Neon Sign Boneyard Engagement Shoot: Kurt + Rosey

Well, I have had a crazy few weeks. 6 cities in 4 weeks, 2 engagement shoots 1 wedding shoot and a holiday, what was suppose to be a break was exhausting. I did take a few days off to sleep, but anyway, I took Kurt and Rosey’s engagement photos in a place called the “neon boneyard” in Las Vegas, NV. We only had an hour, and the management was serious about that hour. I did a walk thru that lasted about 5 minutes, and then we were off. It felt a bit like a race in the moment, which stressed me out intially. But I am really happy with what we got out of the shoot and I had a great time doing it.

Anyway, here it is:

As always, there are more photos to be seen on my flickr site. I had a blast with these guys at the boneyard, hope you guys enjoyed seeing them

-nattles

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Screen Printed Book: Completed

So over the last few months I have been designing an accordion fold book to be screen printed for, oddly enough, screen printing class. The book has images in it that I scavenged from my grandmothers photo album of her father on a buffalo ranch in South Dakota in the early 1900’s. The writing that accompanies the imagery is her handwriting retelling the stories of why these photos are so important to her. By the end of the 2012 spring semester I should have an interactive piece to accompany this piece. But that’s a whole different story.

Anyway, if you want to see the making of, go here

So after….

20oz of glue
51 ft of chip board
612 ft of paper
140oz of ink

Here is the final piece.

There are also some detail shots here

Anyway, as always. thanks for reading! When I get back from my trip I’ll have some photos from a boneyard of sorts…more info to follow…

-nattles

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New Photo/Design: Rosey Charles Graduation Announcement

Over thanksgiving I was asked to photograph and design a university graduation announcement for Rosey Charles. One of her heroes is Rosie the Riveter, and we thought it might be fun to theme her graduation announcement. The front is a parody of the “We Can Do It” Rosie the Riveter WWII propaganda poster, and the back is written like a breaking news story. I really enjoyed photographing. Rosey and working on this post card. I hope you enjoy browsing through the design and photography.

Thanks for Reading! – Nattles

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Awesome Nameplate

So, last weekend, I went to Springfield, MO to attend an antique show my friend Scott and Gail put together. (Check it out here )

Anyway, I ran into a fellow there that sold letterpress letters, and i got this idea to buy the letters to make a name plate for my desk that i eventually have when i teach somewhere, some day. (for now…i’ll just put it in my studio…) but anyway, I thought it’d be a nice thing to have, because I am a printmaker/designer/photographer, and it’s letter press letters…how perfect is it really?

Anyway, here’s how it turned out:

putting together the sign

putting together the sign

putting together the sign

the finished piece

Anyway, there you have it. If you want one of your own name plates made out of letterpress letters let me know, and i’ll see if we can make it happen.

-nattles

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NYC and Beyond

Well, for those of you that don’t know, I helped lead a trip to NYC this last “weekend.” I say “weekend” because we were there from Wednesday to Sunday. I and twelve undergrad students went to New York City to visit design firms, and museums. It was a great trip, and an incredible learning experience. Having an undergrad degree in graphic design and photography it was really cool to see big design firms, and famous designers at work in their offices in NYC. Here are a few photos from our excursion:

First we went to see some designers at Method Inc, they did such things as redesigned the interface for TED and the interface for all kinds of devices for March Madness. They showed us around their offices, and convinced us to play this dice game that was apparently an office tradition…but i think they were just trying to take our dollar bills 😉

Name plate inside of method offices

Method Inc, Offices

Dice game that Method taught us how to play

The next day we went to see Mirko, who is a designer famous for firing clients. He sat with us at his desk and showed us his sketch books. Mirko talked us through his process from brainstorming ideas to finished product. It was a great experience and very encouraging for me and the rest of the students. Mirko designed the opening graphics for You’ve Got Mail, and has worked on logos for all kinds of different companies.

Mirko talking with us about why we are designers

Mirko showing us files that he has been working on recently

MIrkos blocks for what he tells clients on a regular basis

Mirko and Milton Glaser have studios in the same building, so after meeting Mirko, we walked down two flights of stairs to meet Milton Glaser. Glaser was open to answering any of our questions and showed us what he was currently working on, it was an incredible experience to chat with Milton Glaser. Also, Glaser is known for designing the I(heart)NYC logo, and the Bob Dylan Poster with the crazy hair.

Milton Glaser answering our questions

Glaser showing us his most recent work

The next day we visited a design firm in Brooklyn called “Huge.” They showed us around their space and were very helpful in answering questions about how to put together a portfolio for a studio like theirs. They mostly do interactive design and website design, the interactivity for IKEA and Adult Swim…

Huge front desk

Showing us around the office

their war room

After Huge, we went to a design firm in Little Italy called “R/GA” they have been responsible for special effects for movies such as Alien and ET, but more recently they worked on the ad campagin for Nike + We got to talk with the art director in charge of the Nike account and ask him all kinds of questions about his job. It was really interesting to get to pick the brain of a company in charge of such big accounts.

Outside of R/GA main office

Showing us around R/GA

They label their conference rooms with pantone colors. Design nerdz, right? 😉

This is how they show off their awards, if you look closely you can find 3 Oscars

Anyway, that was the trip. It was an incredible experience and I really enjoyed being part of the leadership team for it. I wish we had had a bit more time, we made it to a few museums and even the Brooklyn Flea Market! but, anyway, I’ll leave you with these few random photos I took in NYC.

Beauitful reflection right?

We walked passed a dog park in Central Park

This man was riding around telling everyone "Peace" We saw him twice.

This is about half the group that went with us. Good group right?

Anyway thanks for reading!

-nattles

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