zachgray - Three [makeup]

zachgray - Cowboy Kenny [Final]

zachgray - The Ninth Floor [wk 8]

A story about addiction.

http://www.mediastorm.org/0021.htm

zachgray - Moment [wk 8]

This moment came from my most recent shoot with "Cowboy" Kenny Bartram. Resting between runs, Kenny emphatically described a jump on one of the new ramps at his personal track.

zachgray - Karsten Creek [wk 7]

I'm happy with my selection of Karsten Creek for the photo essay, but I wish it would have been assigned later in the year.

The past two weeks have had bad weather with the exception of maybe a day or two. It's been cold and overcast for the most part. What that weather translates into is a lack of golfers on the greens – or in this case, pale yellows.

Even worse, the golf team was gone to a tournament for a big portion of the time and didn't have any organized practices the rest of it. The reason this is so bad is that the members of the golf team are just about the only ones to use the course.

There are a small handful of others that get the privilege of playing at Karsten, but not many. I suppose more could play if they wanted to, but would have to give up $300 a person to do so.

So, with the odds of getting anything meaningful against me, here's what I came up with.
I chose to start off with this because I think it is simple and effective. It sets up the viewer with the understanding that the essay has something to do with golf.

There were a couple of mounds like this on one of the driving ranges. It was about 8:30 a.m. so there was still dew on the grass to give some nice specular highlights.

To get to Karsten Creek, you have to take this long, windy road that cuts through the forrest. On the sides are a few nice residential areas with cleverly named roads like Perfect Drive. Oklahoma State's golf history is impressive enough to have a road to the course named Champions Place and not come off sounding cocky.
There was literally no one on the course the first day I went to Karsten. Luckily, I found an OSU golfer practicing her drive in the comfort of this shed.
This is the entrance to their pro shop. If you walk around Karsten Creek Golf Club, you can't go but a few seconds without seeing their logo on something. This mat is one example. I chose to stop the light way down to make the focus completely on the mat, while leaving enough light on the background to give information of the place.
As I mentioned before, OSU golf is insanely good. These are only a small fraction of the trophies in the hall of fame area.

This is the same golfer as before, only a few moments later. I probably shouldn't include two images of the same scene, – and I'm sure Shane will echo that thought – but they are shot in such different ways that it's not instantly recognizable.

After multiple days at Karsten and hourse of speeding around the cart path, I finally found someone actually playing golf. He was just about to tee off from 18, so this was my only chance.

When he got on the green, I noticed these skinny trees and thought they would make a good frame, so I ran up a hill to get in position. I could have gotten the same framing from lower, but I thought that putting him against grass rather than half grass, half water, would make him stand out a little more and make the shot a bit cleaner.
I was excited when I saw a few men cutting through the undergrowth. Luckily, one of the three spoke English and OK'd my photo-taking. I thought this would give a view of what goes on at the course that wouldn't be expected. A world-class golf course like Karsten Creek requires a lot of maintenance.

I chose this photo in particular because you can still see the course in the background. I had a couple frames that I liked better of the guys work with the chainsaw and tossing branches on the fire, but you couldn't tell that they were working at a golf course and therefore would be meaningless in the essay.
I thought this would be a good image to end on. I'm not in love with it, but it gives a good ending feel that I think works well at the close of the essay.

zachgray - Check this place out [wk 6]

http://luceoimages.com/

zachgray - Location [wk 5]

Karsten Creek golf course and country club.

zachgray - Vision [wk 3]

This week's challenge was to emulate another photographer's vision or style. I chose Stefano de Luigi from VII Photo Agency.

De Luigi's style is much different than mine and that's what made me want choose his. Many of his photos are dead-on, straight and wide. He usually keeps his subject in the middle with a lot of space around it to tell about the environment. Another thing I noticed was the oddly common occurrence of having people in his photos with their backs to the camera. That is not common for most photographers. Oftentimes a subject's face can make or break a photo, so to have a person with their back turned is strange.

zachgray - Techniques [wk 2]

I found this scene after walking for 30 minutes to the cross country fields, my pace hindered by the shin-high snow. This shot is arguably not too photojournalistic, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The tall, ice-encrusted grass held the beautiful golden light of the setting sun against a soft blue sky with a tree bare from winter in center.
This was found by chance. This group of guys passed by on the street and as they rested at a stop sign, I caught up to them and jumped in their truck bed after introducing myself. I hung my camera below the tailgate and waited for them to show some emotion.
Here, I was out looking for winter features and had the idea to follow the guys that have to endure it all - postal workers. This was Thursday when the snow was supposed to hit hard, but instead it was freezing rain, which is far more painful that fluffy flakes. On this one, I ran ahead and set up a high-angle shot as he dropped mail in someone's box.
For this, I was focusing on trying to catch a candid moment. There were probably twenty ducks and geese being fed by a handful of people, but only this one was aggressive enough to seek his own dinner.
This is something I saw on the way back from shooting a women's basketball game. The sky was a beautiful, albeit strange, blue and I noticed this classroom on the side of Morrill hall completely empty other than the one student at the back. I thought it was interesting and as former New York Times photographer George Tames said, "If you see a picture, you should take it – period."

zachgray - Free Shoot [wk 1]