4 posts from September 2007

My love for photography comes from somewhere out of the norm for me.  If just seeing me in my public form you'd see an athlete.  Nothing artistic all athletic.  But I'm tired of that facade because that is not all I am.  Since this is my last year of college life I must break out of my athletic shell and show my other talents.  I'm not saying I am a fantastic photographer but it is one of my dreams.  I really want to become something great in my eyes.  Not totally sure how far I want to be as a photographer but it would be nice to be in a magazine of some sort.  Either way I want to be published.  Not too sure if I want to be well known but it would be swell.

Last year I joined the Student Media (UTIMES student newspaper) and I was the photographer for Bits&Pieces.  All I really did for that section was go around campus to ask people random questions and take a head shot.  After two months of taking photos I was bored.  Taking head shots doesn't really show my talent for picture taking.  So I quit last year.  This year I wanted to do something different.  I went back in the beginning of the school year asking to be a Copy Editor for the simple fact I always seem to find mistakes in the paper I felt could be avoided before publication.  Little did I know I got paid the most out of all photographers and writers.  Whoohooo!!  Not only do I get paid for just reading articles (not writing them) I can still write articles and take photos as well.

Tomorrow is my big day.  I signed out the camera yesterday which you can see I took a wonderful picture of a white flower in the previous post.  I also took pictures of my lovely roomie above and edited it.  Today I took tons more.  I felt like a little kid with a new toy.  I was taking pictures all over the place.  This is the kind of camera I really want as my own but they are "oh so" expesitivo!  The flower pictures touches me.  I made it look antique like just because it just needs to be!  I like taking pictures, editing them and seeing if people like them.  It has to be pleasing to the eye.

After a grueling practice at the track my other roomie wanted to have her own photo session.  Thing was she didn't have a glamour kind of shoot like my other roomie.  She still had her athletic gear on dirty still lol.

They came out good though I must say.  It almost looked like they could have been in a sports magazine.  She was wearing all Nike so basically she looked like an AD.  I'm not totally sure what to do with these pictures after I retouch them.  I really need Photoshop to do what I used to do two years ago when I was into graphics more.  But seeing as I have a Mac now there is no excuse to not get one.  But why why WHYYYYY does it have to be so darn $$$expensive.  It hurts my heart and my pockets!

This camera isn't mine and I have yet to really understand it but I will use this camera like it is mine till the day I OWN one!  I can't wait for tomorrow because I will take soooo many pictures UTIMES is gonna have a hard time figure out if they should use all my pictures or the other photographers.  My name will be all over those pictures "taken by Ayana W."  What!! You better believe it lol!



I will continue to practice these photography skills while I read up on famous photographers and on ways to take great pictures.  I want to succeed in this because its a hobby I have always wanted to really achieve but was too poor to really do it.  This is my opportunity now to build a portfolio without the high expense of it.  OH YEA!

I just got this Canon that I'm suppose to use for this weekend for an on-campus event.  I'm being a photographer for the school paper this weekend.  I've been testing it, taking random pictures in the apartment and outside.  So far I think all of them are crap! Plus I haven't taken any pictures outside in the daylight so none of the pictures I like except a few.  This one above is my favorite.  I edited it a little using GIMP but I hate that program and I really don't know how to use it.  I want Adobe Photoshop!!!! I had this disk where I could put it on my computer but its only for a PC.  Gah the only downfall when I got this Mac.  Either way I just wanted to show this picture off for myself due to the fact it seems like everyone little freshmen on my track team has other artistic talents.  I want to show off too!  Lol but one I really will in front of all of them before I graduate this year.  They will be in awe and I will be proud of myself when I really do show off some talent other than running.  I need to really buy my own camera soon and get Photoshop!

My family!  I gotta say I really love them because we get a long so well.  This is the track family I've always wanted.  This may not be entirely everyone but it is mainly the ones I am around the most (the sprinters/jumpers).  My senior is the year I want to do the best and get out with a bang!  Only thing is I can't do that with an unstable relationship of my track family.  Even though it is only September and we have many more months to go that can potentially have upsets, I am not worried because the way things are going now...we can handle it.  We really don't want any drama because drama hinders all of our performances in some way.  I get affected a lot by stuff like that therefore I try to be careful in what I say and do.  Plus, I'm a captain!  So I gotta be in the right state of mind.  Coach did a great job recruiting this year and I'll be so sad when my year is up.  My buddy Aja (she a cross country runner now) told me to red shirt, aka not compete this year so I can stay another.  That is not in my plan of success so I will just sniff sniff, suck it up and enjoy the time I have now. 

Here we are supporting our fellow teammates who are in the midst of the cross country season.  Most of the time, well all of the time our XC teammates go to away meets and never have a home meet but this year was our FIRST home meet ever!  Wow is all I have to say.  Every year the track season gets a home meet but not cross country, I don't know whats up with that but I'm glad they finally got a chance to have one here because we love to support are teammates when possible. 

It's such a great feeling to know you have people that you can call your family even if they are not your blood.  I swear if I did not have track in my life I would not have experience such family ties with a bunch of used to be strangers ever.  Last Friday was a crazy night in the beginning but with my ingenious ideas I was able to get my teammates to bond more.  Go me!  Go captain!

It started off with all of us going to this party where JCSU (a HPCU) students were also invited.  As soon as I saw them get off the party bus I knew some trouble was brewing.  Probably about a half hour of dancing and warming up to the music there was a fight.  The fight got semi-serious and they stopped unexpectedly.  Some people saw one of the guys try to get something out of his pocket which implied he had a gun.  He backed up some into the crowd which I was backing up on and he said "I can shoot up everybody up in here!".  I have never experienced anything like that and I was scared because no way do I want to get shot let alone any of my teammates that I love.  After he was carried out I was hardly in the mood to dance anymore.  Standing around to most of the songs I started to warm up again since some of my teammates were getting warmed up again.  Some were just standing around as much as I was.  Another hour into the party we found out there was a shooting outside of the club.  That really made me not want to be there.  The party ended up ending early (Thank God) but even before that we couldn't leave just as yet because the police had ordered that no one could get out until they cleared the area of the shooting.  Because it was so early (12am early for a party night) I felt like we were robbed of our pockets for this club.  I decided to invite my 'mates to my apt, asking my roommate first if it was okay.  She said sure seeing as she loves when people come over but when I actually announced that people can come over she got all worried.  Why? Because her room was messy.  She trips me out but we ended up having a better time at my apartment than the club.  Plus it was safer!

That night added on to my list of crazy experiences (not that I have much anyways).  Its not something I ever want to get into again and some of us were saying we don't even want to go out to another party for a long time.  But I just told them we really shouldn't go to a party in that area (it was the dangerous party of Charlotte) and also go to a party where JCSU is invited.  That just spells T-R-O-U-B-L-E!
Here we are chillen in my apartment.  We danced a bit, talked a lot, and even had a little sing-a-long when we was getting tired.  Once 5am creeped up everybody was entirely too tired to go back to their dorms/apt.  So I hosted a sleepover as well! :-)
Here goes my teammate trying to keep the covers on him in the morning.  This boy is a fool but he cracks me up in the process.