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Well I don't really use this much any more but I forgot I never posted my web site. http://www.glasslight.us
That's where my latest photos go including the ones of Kylen. I updated those late last week. The site itself sucks but the important thing is that the pictures are there. |
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Well per ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2) starryeyedart's request here is a baby baking update.
We are officially in the third trimester. Our child is coming along nicely. Mom has actually lost 7 pounds since getting knocked up, both she and the doctor are happy with this, since as yet unnamed baby boy is progressing well. So far everything has been smooth and normal. Right now he's in that stage where his brain is developing so we're supposed to be singing and talking to him more. Right, me singing. That'll have him crawling up into her chest cavity to hide.
He kicks, a lot. Usually he stops as soon as I touch the belly. That's to be expected though, and has been something great for me to harrass Mom about. "She's conspiring to keep the kicks to herself." Past couple of days he's been kicking ribs though and that freaks Mom out. She admitted though the other day that she's going to miss him when he's finally outside the womb. That was a shocker to me considering her hesitation in even becoming a mother. I may have mentioned before that she has announced every kick when I'm around by saying "kick!". Well now the doc wants her to actually record a kick count for a 2 hour period every day. This is to clue her in, if he's abnormally quiet, that there might be something wrong. I moved our living room chairs together so that I can reach over and stroke the belly and feel for kicks easily.
She's still obsessed over him not having a name yet, even though we've still got until he's born to decide. I'm a little anxious that we haven't come across a good one yet, but am slightly more laid back about it, but only just.
I had to miss the first OB appt yesterday because of a work meeting. I'd have much rather been there. I didn't get to hear the heartbeat this week.
A couple weeks ago we got a surprise package we weren't expecting from Target. Turns out to be our first baby shower gift, a cute little receiving blanket with a pooh bear clutching one corner. We ooo'd and ahh'd for a while over that. Got another one last week, a great little sling carrier that'll be great for the Texas heat. It's soft canvas instead of the heavier padded fabric ones. Looks to be better than we had hoped even.
I guess there's not a lot else to say at this point.Current Mood:  thoughtful |
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Well until I can get a proper web site put together, I put some examples of my photography work up on http://people.unt.edu/berry/photos/index.htm. If you're interested feel free to check it out.Current Mood:  hopeful |
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Well I survived my first crit of semester 2 of graduate photography. I love this group of people. Contructive suggestions with none of the elitist BS. Apparently not all programs in SOVA are the same way, some are more snotty and full of themselves. Brent thought my stuff this time was far and above what he had seen from last semester so that was good. I finally had something else that the whole group thought "worked". I'm getting a lot of good input. I was a little intimidated because I went on the same day as the two graduating third years, but I relaxed after it got going.Current Mood: hopeful |
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I've survived one full semester and am well into a 2nd one now. Yesterday we all went down to meet David Levinthal (http://www.davidlevinthal.com/). It was a great meeting and we got to see some great art. He even took time to give us all some mini crits. He offered some helpful insights. I also talked a bit with Brent and that helped break what I hope was the last of my imposter syndrome. I really do belong here and think I'm doing the right thing.
The whole experience has been great so far. The process itself is thrilling as we all develop and expand our art. I feel giddy when crits are coming up because it's such a great group and ALL of them are great artists. I love seeing the work grow and evolve. It's been good watching mine change as well. I'm learning a lot and loving that for a change.
I was really hesistant about grad school becuase education itself had gotten to be so dreary and repetitive. Grad school is a completely different experience. I understood that intellectually going in but didn't expect it to be so pleasurable. |
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Well I'm not sure if I ever posted this so I'll do it now. Going back to school and returning to photography after 25 years is just not enough for me. Last summer after 10 years my wife and I decided to be insane. She's pregnant and we are expecting a son on July 11ish.
Feels kinda scary yet exciting considering my other child is 21 (22 by the time he's born). I've always thought we'd make great kids. I guess this is my chance to prove it. Unreality is still a minor problem but when I think about it I get those fun butterflies and an adenaline rush. I'm really looking forward to it and I just hope it's not so much that I can't finish school. The new kiddo was definitely a part of my desire to get my MFA and move on with my life to something better.
Feb. 3rd, 2006 @ 11:41 am
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| » Even digital photography is pricey |
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I got out of photography years (decades to be honest) ago because it got to be too expensive to do what I wanted to do. The advent of digital photography and a real job has made it possible for me to start back up again. Something I've been wanting to do for years now but until I finally got pushed into starting an MFA I have put off. I did buy a nice Nikon digital camera a while back that I share with Krysta. Now I'm realizing I need all these new toys to go with it; tripods, flashes, remotes, extra batteries and memory cards, etc. But naturally they are costly additions once you start adding them on. I did find a nice Nikon flash that will be fully functional with the camera though for around $250. It has amazing wireless syncing abilities with others of it's kind including the camera's built in flash. So I can finally build that multiple source lighting system I've always wanted and have it still reasonably portable.
I got into photography because of my Daddy. He was a semi-professional photographer since he was young. (He gave me my first camera when I was 6.) Because of that, he has tons of good quality equipment, including some nice studio cameras (Mamiya RB67, 645) that he doesn't really use any more. I was scoping out digital backs for some of them the other night. The cheapest one I found was around $6500, and the one I want is around $18K. Needless to say, it's going to be a while before I can do that.
A lot has changed since I was fully doing work. The learning curve is a slight incline as there is much, much more automation since back in my youth. So I've been busting ass reading trying to figure out how to actually operate my Nikon.
Now all I have to do is figure out what I want to "do" with my photography and what to shoot. First real class is today, in about 10 minutes. Tuesday's class was just an intro to the photo grad program.
Sep. 1st, 2005 @ 08:53 am
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| » (No Subject) |
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Per peloquin3's request here are the cities and towns I've lived in.
Rainbow City, AL
Gadsden, AL
Sarasota, FL
Birmingham, AL
Hobbs, NM
Denison, TX
Sherman, TX
Denton, TX
Lewisville, TX
Corinth, TX
I think that's all. I may have missed some as it's early and I got a grand total of about 1 hours sleep last night if you add it all up. For some strange reason when Krysta and I got home after 9pm we were both exhausted but not sleepy. She tried to go to bed around 11pm and I didn't bother til about 3:30. During the entire night neither of us slept. No idea why.
Aug. 26th, 2005 @ 10:20 am
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| » Tiring but gratifying |
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I just got to say that this week so far has been horribly tiring and stressful. The two guys, peloquin3 and corwin75, who work for me have swapped job duties and it's been tough on all of us. But I'm thrilled by how well they are holding up. The stress may be wearing tempers thin, but they are putting forth their best efforts and doing really well. Good job guys.
I keep looking past my screen seeing the piles of crap in the back room. We sure do have a lot of shit back there that needs to vanish. But my desk is mostly clean for the first time in 3 or so years. Now I just have to do that at home.
Yesterday at the prompting (i.e. shaming) from boss I went over and filled an app for grad school. I'm going to be taking a photography class with peloquin3. It's also his first. He freaked me out yesterday telling me it was going to be Tuesdays and Thurdays from 9am til noon. In my initial horror I kept being angry at not just the potential of so much time missed during peak hours but also the fact that he didn't mention this until yesterday. In fact, I really had to overhear him to even get the details. So we begin the long stressful talk "boss" talk at the worst possible time. Later in the day I found out he didn't register for the class until the night before. He was on his way to talk to the instructor of the class while he was installing a new computer any way. I needed some time to reflect and consider. We had talked very generically about him going into grad school back in January or something. So after considering all the issues I went to talk to the Associate Dean, my boss about it. I needed an experienced sounding board. Don has been pestering me about doing that very thing for several years now, since even before I finished my B.A. During my discussion with him he said "why aren't you taking it with him?" He thought it might be a little crazy, but "we need a little crazy this semester". When I went outside to smoke and think after talking to Don (and calling Krysta), I decided to head over to Oak St Hall and talk to peloquin3 and Dornith (the instructor). In a nutshell, after much prompting from both Photo facutly members I am going back to school one more time for an MFA this time.
I'm pretty excited about the prospect and taking the class with peloquin3 will be interesting. We have very different styles and interests, though we've both been closet photographers our whole lives. Our photo faculty are excellent too so this promises to be a lot of work but very worthwile. I expect to be working a lot with Don too who actually started the photo program here several decades ago. Don likes to reinvent himself: soldier; painter; photographer; filmmaker; sculptor; administrator; and many more.
Aug. 24th, 2005 @ 11:43 am
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| » Life changing all too soon |
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Around 12ish years ago I firmly did not want to ever get married again (first time was bad enough). This was especially true since I "knew" I'd never find "the one". I also did not want any more children. Come on, one was more than enough.
That was around the time when I met Krysta. Within a few years I had an epiphany. Since this is the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with I'd actually like to get married again. I'd like some kind of guaruntee that she'd be there every day when I got home. So I gave her a heart attack (she knew full well my feelings about marriage) and asked her to marry me one Sunday morning lying in bed. She was kinda silent and stunned for a while but agreed.
Continuing on with life a few years back we were on a vacation driving around the Smokey Mtns when another realization hit me. I sorta wanted to have a child with this person. Whenever I thought about it, I realized we'd have really cool kids. During all this driving we discussed the idea. I wasn't totally sold on it and neither was she, but being an totally anti childbearing person she said she'd think about it and that I could bring it up again. Well that is what I did, once or twice a year I'd make some crack about it to tease her or just to talk about it some more. I didn't really think she'd ever change her mind but I worked on her anyway. Some good friends of ours as well as my sister were regularly nagging us about it as well. The thing to realize at this point is that I wasn't convinced I wanted the responsibility of being a parent again myself.
A few months ago my daughter turned down our offer of a full ride to college. This was what prompted Krysta to give me the shock of my life. She said "I want to have a child". I listened and considered but honestly I thought she'd change her mind so I didn't take it too seriously. After a while it finally got through to me that she was very serious, not only was she serious but having made the decision there was no backing out. It took a couple more months because she wanted to verify some health issues first. But the biggest concern she had was her ashma meds, which apparently are safe to take while pregnant. Now for about a month after a clean bill from the doc we've been unprotected and letting nature take it's course.
It's pretty scary thinking of being a father again at my age. I've got one that is 21 already. Here I'm starting up again. I'm excited and terrified.
Aug. 19th, 2005 @ 09:46 am
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