Ryan – Page 30 – Ryan Coultas

February 10, 2013

Theater – Photo 52 Project [Week 6]

Work took me to Jacksonville on Sunday for a server migration and when I was done I figured I might as well cruise around looking for a place to photograph. I have been in the frame of mind lately that if I am traveling at all to take a camera with me. A lot of my recent photos lately have been from outside Springfield. I found myself at the square and there was a really cool theater I had seen before on Illinois Stories.

I also happened upon the site of the former CR’s restaurant. My dad used to work there when it was called Burger Chef while he was back home from college. It then turned into CR’s and now it is closed. The inside is mostly gutted now with a rubber tote overflowing with rain. It is a sad site indeed. The pictures there were just depressing so I opted for the theater pic this week to move the project into a positive space after Week 5’s “Vice.”

I would really like to get out at some better times to get some of these photos. This was shot early afternoon on a cloudy day. I have nice even light but I would rather have caught this during magic hour with the lights turned on and a colorful sky off to the west but I have gotten into a routine of going out mid day on a weekend. Oh well, I have 46 more attempts ahead of me.

February 3, 2013

Vice – Photo 52 Project [Week 5]

I swear I set out to take a simple shot of a single martini, but it evolved into this. Let me first say that everything pictured is 100% legal and generally accepted with proper moderation. The idea of “Vice” is fascinating. None of these items alone would be given a second thought if you mentioned that you owned them. It is when they are all put together in a group that can bring cause for concern. All things deserve moderation, but some things require more. To take use of or enjoy all of these items in a single night would make for one hell of a party, but it’s not likely wise or safe.

While shooting this, my brother and girlfriend came home with a pizza they picked up for dinner and I couldn’t help but remember the words of Tony Stark, “Let’s face it, this is not the worst thing you’ve caught me doing.” I had so many items out that are meant to be put a way, I felt like I was getting caught doing something wrong.

Some of these items are less frowned upon than others. I don’t think that Pink Floyd’s album, “Wish You Were Here” would raise too many eyebrows now. The cover shows a man on fire shaking hands with someone as if nothing were wrong. The songs on the album (all five of them) tell the story of a band getting picked up by a big record label and being seen as piles of cash rather than artists. That and the fact that legions of seventies teens listened to Pink Floyd while getting stoned makes it kind of vice-like. On the lighter side, I also included pizza, sugar, and a Zippo (out of frame).

I was thinking of what MORE I could put in the shot and the list kept growing. Now that I think about it some more, I would have put in 100 dollar bills, gold, and who knows what else. There is so much going on in this picture that I like to look around and just count all of the little details and think about how they are good and bad at the same time.

On a technical note, I used a Canon 50mm prime lens at f/1.4 and 1/250 second shutter. I was in a dim room and used the built in flash and remotely fired an external flash from my left. That is the first time I had gotten the remote flash to work properly and I like it. The Canon 7D has built in remote flash control and I am glad I got to use it. For post production I used Adobe Lightroom 4.1.

January 27, 2013January 27, 2013

Arch – Photo 52 Project [Week 4]

I’ve seen the St. Louis Gateway Arch countless times over the years but only been close to it a few times. During a trip to St. Louis this weekend I decided to photograph it. Most of the time I was using a wide angle lens and a Cokin polarizer on a mount. Unfortunately, the mount sits just a little bit away from the lens and is enough to cause vignetting. While I think this shot would have been better with a polarizer because of all of the reflections, I needed to go full wide on this shot and could not afford to lose the corners.

While my brother Jesse and I were out, there was a little bit of an altercation going on with a guy and what appeared to be Arch security. This guy was ejected from the visitors center for an incident involving a knife and him grabbing it back from someone. He was acting like a general asshole about the whole thing, ranting about how he had FBI government clearance and the authorities were blowing this whole thing out of proportion. After things continued to escalate, he refused to take the ticket saying, “I’m not gonna take the ticket. Take be to jail! You are not going to give me a ticket. You’re gonna have to take me to jail!” So, the police arrived and promptly took the man to jail and away from his ashamed wife and surely soon to be delinquent children. That along was worth the trip.