Stuicide

I have decided to sell a couple of my images for use in print. They will be available in two sizes and only a few select images are currently available for sale. I’m doing this to raise a couple of dollars in order to help me pay for some upcoming photography equipment I would like to have in order to continue to raise the quality of my photography.

If you are interested in a print please send me an e-mail at mcardwll [at] gmail [dot] com and we can talk about which prints you want.

Here are the first images that are available for sale.

A Cup of Coffee in the Morning

Available in 12×12 for $15.00 and 20×20 for $40.00

Often they float away

Available in 11×14 for $20.00 and 16×24 for $40.00

Trains on the Track

Available in 11×14 for $20.00 and 16×24 for $40.00

Sunset over the Swamp

Available in 11×14 for $20.00 and 16×24 for $40.00

Taking a Break

Available in 11×14 for $20.00 and 16×24 for $40.00

Again, if you are interested in buying a print of mine, or getting some at different sizes, please e-mail me at mcardwll [at] gmail [dot] com. Thanks for checking out my images, and I hope you enjoy my photography.

So, I’ve been watching my Flickr account all day long… I’m so close…

I don’t know why, but 15,000 overall Flickr views seems like a nice round number to celebrate. I’m right on the edge. The goal is to get to 20k, in a month. So basically the end of April. The best way for me to get more views? Add more pictures.

Wish me luck!

Optomists and Pessimists. Which one are you?

One thing I’ve noticed is that when something bad happens in the day, does it ruin the whole day or is it just a minor setback in the grand scheme of things?

I’ve known people that have had their entire day ruined because someone said something rude when they got to work. One comment ruined their entire morning, which made lunch suck, which made the afternoon miserable, which made all of their friends miserable after work.

I’ve known people that have been in car wrecks in the morning, manage to get to work and forget about it until it’s time to go home, but even then, it’s just another task, it’s not the end of the world. In order to be an optomist, you have to have a sort of amnesia and forget about the bad things after they happen. Rarely do they require any attention and fixating on them only makes them worse.

The day has just begun. The choice is up to you, are you going to have a good one or a bad one?

Almost two years ago, I lost a buddy of mine. There he is on the left up there.

He was a lot of fun, and one of those guys that was always in good spirits. I only knew him for a few years, he was better friends with my cousin and some other guys in the group, but it’s surreal knowing he’s not around anymore.

This picture was taken on a snowboarding trip a few of us took to Snowshoe mountain. It was the beginning of our second day on the mountain and we were getting our gear on at the top of the first run. One of the best trips of my life, and Brian was a huge part of it.

When I took this picture, I was using a 5 megapixel point and shoot Canon. It was before I had a real passion for photography, just a small hunger for making good pictures. Now that I look back on this photo, I wish I had taken more pictures of those around me, so I have more to remember them by. You never know when you’re going to want a portrait of your best friend or family member. Over the next few weeks and months, I will make a point of taking more candid portraits of those close to me and I hope you would do the same thing.

Capture a special moment, and that picture will be worth more to you than anything else you could take the entire year. Treasure the ones you love while you can.

I thought I’d post this up on here in case any non-TTL members wanted to participate. Week 2’s homework assignment is rather simple. Take a picture in Black & White.

For those that aren’t used to post processing your images, you can do it easily using several online services. Google’s Picasa gives you Black & White control and is free to download. Flickr has a free image editor as well and I’m pretty sure you can transform pictures there. Also, if you are using iPhoto that can do it too. It’s one of the most basic tools of any photo processing application.

All entries are due in Sunday night, and I’ll post a blog post Monday morning of the results. Be Creative this week everyone, and try to stretch yourself creatively. Use last week’s line homework as something to keep in mind when composing your shot.

I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with.

If you want to participate, leave a link to your photo in the comments, or e-mail me at mcardwll at gmail dot com. Just mention it’s something photography related and I won’t miss it. I’ll link everyone’s photos back to their Flickr stream/Website/Whatever. If someone digs your pictures, they’ll need a place to go track down more of it.

Last week I turned to my buddies at TiedtheLeader for a photography homework assignment. The only thing they had to do was capture “Lines” in their photograph. It was a fairly abstract assignment, but there were a lot of amateur photog’s that were learning a lot right now, so I thought it would be good for them.

There are a lot of great results and it was great to see so many varied shots and how people interpreted the homework assignment. Comment and lemme know which ones are your favorite!

Here are the results…

From Dru:

From Legacy Virus:

From Mvuakali, all the way in Norway…

From Jayman:

From Faithkeeper:

From Anti Pro:

From Freqe C:

From Lindsey a.k.a. Mrs. Dru

From Utopia:

From Waynoka:

and Finally here are mine:

In the past people would name drop to get themselves some free swag, or a nicer table at a restuarant.

Now it seems that people like to name drop people from the internet as if because they once conversed with said person, it makes them their best friend. It’s really quite a sad occurrence to see people try and improve their perceived social status by mentioning someone else who probably would not like to hear them name dropping.

I stumbled onto a discussion at another site, where someone else was referencing a website that I’m a part of, as if, he was a major part of it. It upset me in the fact that others could see it, and automatically think that he represents us.

One thing I’ve learned in all of my many Marketing classes is that Brand Management is an important asset that must be managed otherwise perceptions of your product can be skewed because of unauthorized people making unauthorized claims.

Now, I can’t and won’t police the internet but it’s annoying and in a world where you have about two seconds to make a first impression on someone, it pains me to know that these pests could potentially be causing a negative impression to one or two good people out there.

Name Dropping is not worth it. Say what you have to say, and back it up with good intentions. There’s no need to throw around other people’s names because you think they’d agree with you. Regardless if they would or not, you are a jerk for entering their name into a discussion in which they did not choose to participate.

Something that’s been on my mind a lot lately.

Whenever someone or a group of people interact in an online community, at some point there becomes a sense of social hierarchy. So and so is higher up on the social ladder than Joe Nobody who just came into the network or website to interact. I dislike that we have to have these ladders for people, creating hierarchy inevitably leads to the guy who thinks he’s stuck on a lower rung of the ladder than he believes he should be on. However, it’s all a mental problem. No one else sees this ladder, however he’s fixated on the rungs of it that no one else can see.

Social Networking was about connecting to people, sure there are basic levels of moderation at most websites, but this is out of necessity, not out of an urge to become “highly ranked” on a website. That gets you no where, it’s just like my level 48 in Team Slayer for Halo 3. That won’t get me laid at the bar, just like being a community staffer at TiedtheLeader.

When it comes to a social hierarchy at TTL, we keep the doors shut because a lot of the people you meet online are less than pleasant. It is a sanctuary to having fun with your friends while playing some games. That’s it. If you can pass the test of not being a douchebag, you will get into our next level of conversation. At this point, that’s it. What you do from this point on, is all up to the user.

I’ve gotten a few people asking why can’t they play with me or other “higher ups” at TTL. That is what gets me. I’m no one special, I’m a guy who had a job that allowed me to get on the internet during work hours and I spent it conversing with some people with similar interests. And the reason I can’t game with everyone, I can barely game with anyone these days. School takes up half of the week days, and I try to go out and be social during the weekends. I used to spend a lot more time playing, but I wasn’t doing as much as I’m doing right now.

Basically, I’m tired of people getting put onto a pedastol because all that does, is set up the person for disappointment with those they look up to. I’ve managed in my 3 years of gaming online to meet some community leaders from most of the sites that I waste my days on. They’re all just regular guys, none of them seemed like they wanted to be rockstars or anyone “famous” on the internet.

At the end of the day, they all were looking for the next “good game” just like you and me. And I hate that a website and community that I’ve put countless hours into sometimes gets a bad rap because someone else comes along and thinks we just get whatever we want.

Sometimes I think we would all like a little obscurity, back when the only thing people knew about you was that you enjoyed each other’s company and the games you were playing.

It wasn’t ever about getting attention. It never will be. It’ll always be about finding the coolest chill people on the internet that are looking for a place to score a few games.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Check that out. I know, it’s amazing. Stay warm while snowboarding, and also look fashionable. I want one. If anyone has some goodness left in their heart, think of me and how I can’t actually grow a mustache. This would helpe me accomplish life goals.

Buy me one from here.

One of the hardest things for me to do is to continually think of new and exciting things to shoot. I haven’t yet trained my mind to be creative all of the time.

Something about going to the gym and being active tonight helped my mind stay active. I have a few new ideas and I can’t wait to flesh them out some more and be able to shoot them.

Here’s to more ideas and expanding my horizons as a photographer.