In any case, thank you for sticking around so long. I hope that you keep coming back for more and keep on leaving comments even if they are short and snappy–they are often quite encouraging.

What’s been happening around here?

If you’re new, forgetful, or just curious, these are what I consider to be the big happenings of the past year.

• October, 2007 — Everything went pink for breast cancer awareness month. Will I go pink again this year? Probably.
• October 1, 2007 — I got fed up with fully-justified text on the web and wrote Unjustify, a bookmarklet to zap it to oblivion. And, I still use it all the time.
• January, 2008 — purchased my first set of lighting equipment and taught myself how to light photographs with some help from Light: Science and Magic (highly recommended).
• March 3, 2008 — released Smart Image Resizer the jawsome PHP script that powers the image resizing on this site.
• March 29, 2008 — released Amazon Search Plugin with Search Suggestions and started saving time shopping online.
• April 27, 2008 — updated Greased Lightbox to version 0.17. Is version 1.0 ever going to happen? We’ll see.
• May–June, 2008 — first solo art show at the River Rock in St. Peter. If you happened to see it, leave me a comment and let me know what you thought!
• April–present — making a film with Spike Lee… and you can still help!

Three Year Stats

WordPress is telling me that there are currently 421 posts and 1,373 comments on Shifting Pixel. So, here’s to another great year!

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Professor, Chemistry, Gustavus Adolphus College ƒ/7.1, 1/200 s, 100 ISO

I had a fairly plain room to work with, but we needed the machine in the shot. I had just set up my lights and got things just the way I wanted. I had a good feeling–this was going to be a quick in-and-out job.

I tightened my knobs, double-checked my whirlygigs, and proceeded to take some test photos to make sure my lights were properly configured. That’s when one of the strobes decided it had had enough… it just stopped working. Naturally, I figured it was just a problem with the batteries and quickly swapped them with one of the spare sets I bring with me just in case.

I confidently set the obliging Dr. Potts in the invisible path of the beam and smiling, popped off a photo. The flash, however, was not as cooperative. Cursing in my head and starting to sweat, I scrambled to try all of my equipment in all possible configurations while trying to make polite conversation with Larry. On the exterior, I was cool as a cucumber–of course this type of thing is quite routine.

Were all of my extra batteries dead? Did I break my PocketWizard? The clock was ticking. Larry was glancing at his watch.

Just as I was about to give up on the strobe and start improvising with what I had available, I double-checked the batteries–in my nervousness I had put them in upside down. Relieved, I set my strobe up, wiped the sweat from my forehead, took a few shots, packed up and went home. All in a day’s work.

In the end, I think the lighting on this photo is okay–it doesn’t knock my socks off or anything–but it’s good enough for the shot. What really makes this photo for me is the genuineness and warmth of Larry’s expression that comes across. He looks content and reflective of his accomplishments so far.

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Assistant Professor, Chemistry, Gustavus Adolphus College ƒ/8.0, 1/200 s, 100 ISO

This is Scott Bur. He teaches Chemistry at Gustavus Adolphus College and seems like a good guy. I see him down at Patrick’s for trivia sometimes. His beard comes and goes, but I think I like the bearded Bur better than the non-bearded version.

Assistant Professor, Chemistry, Gustavus Adolphus College ƒ/8.0, 1/200 s, 100 ISO

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Spike Lee has teamed up with Nokia to create a massively collaborative-social film composed entirely out of content created by people like you. The theme is humanity and the idea is that anybody can create filmworthy content on gadgets that they already have (e.g. cell phones and digital cameras).

Any submissions that don’t include copyrighted work are elligible. If you need some inspiration, you can follow the project on Twitter. And you can contribute to the project even if you don’t have any new photos, video, music or text to submit. You should definitely take a moment or two to get involved–you might end up with your name on a Spike Lee film, and that’s pretty cool.

The second round of submissions are under way, so be sure to act fast. A few artists from across the country (including myself) have been brought on as Assistant Directors and we are hoping to see a lot of good content come across. I am excited to see what you come up with so if you submit anything, please post a link here in the comments.

Associate Professor, Biology, Gustavus Adolphus College ƒ/7.1, 1/200 s, 100 ISO

We shot this photo in the greenhouse at Gustavus, which is in Nobel Hall of Science. I am pretty happy with how it turned out, considering the tight space we were shooting in.

On this shot, my main technical concern was getting her jacket bright enough while keeping the background dark with the two strobes I was using. I think it worked out pretty well, but I think I would have preferred a little more seperation between her and the dark background.

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Professor, Mathematics and Computer Science, Gustavus Adolphus College ƒ/3.5, 1/200 s, 100 ISO

This photo was taken at Professor Hvidsten’s desk. For the shoot, he had brought up a geometric shape of some sort on his monitor when I arrived. We used it and went with it.

If I were to shoot this over again, I would probably take it into a room with a big screen TV or a projector and blow the heck out of the geometric shape.

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Assistant Professor, History, Gustavus Adolphus College ƒ/3.5, 1/200 s, 100 ISO

I took these photos in Sujay’s very tight office, so camera angles were limited to say the least.

I think I got pretty lucky with how they turned out, considering how confined the space was. In tight situations like this, it would be nice to have a wider lens than the 50mm that I used. On the other hand, it’s always a fun challenge to make due with the less-than-ideal equipment at hand.

Besides, the most important aspect of the photo is the subject. Sujay is a really nice guy and I’m happy with the expressions I caught. They feel authentic to me.

Assistant Professor, History, Gustavus Adolphus College ƒ/3.5, 1/200 s, 100 ISO

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Professor, English, Gustavus Adolphus College ƒ/5.6, 1/200 s, 100 ISO

Claude let me sit in on a Jane Austen class to take his photo. I arrived a little early, set up my lights, and hoped for the best.

I was worried that I would be in the way and hinder the educational process, but it seemed to go pretty well. After about an hour of me walking around the classroom, popping and adjusting my flashes, I had a few shots that I thought would work well.

Professor, English, Gustavus Adolphus College ƒ/5.6, 1/200 s, 100 ISO

Professor, English, Gustavus Adolphus College ƒ/5.6, 1/200 s, 100 ISO

Professor, English, Gustavus Adolphus College ƒ/5.6, 1/200 s, 100 ISO

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Professor, Psychology, Gustavus Adolphus College ƒ/6.3, 1/200 s, 100 ISO

Mark was nice to pose for these shots in his office in the basement of the A.H. Anderson Social Science Center.

I liked a striped chair that he had in his office and thought his nicely-organized, tall bookshelves would make a nice backdrop for the first shot. Then, I spun around and noticed a painting of a man hanging above his desk. I think there’s a nice, but subtle, connection between Mark and the man in the painting that I hoped to bring out in the second shot.

Mark is a Social Psychologist in the Psychology department at Gustavus.

Professor, Psychology, Gustavus Adolphus College ƒ/8.0, 1/200 s, 100 ISO

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I’ve had my work in art shows before but this is my first solo show, so it’s pretty cool to see my work publicly displayed. It gives me a good feeling of accomplishment. The feedback I’ve received so far has been positive, so it has been encouraging as well.

If you happen to be in town, make sure you cruise down to the River Rock and check it out. While you are there, be sure to get some coffee or a bite to eat–they make some delicious things.

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