Life and School

scratchbs — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 05:40:17 +0000

Recently school has been rough. Over the past few weeks, I have been working hard and trying to enjoy my Senior year, this has been a good time and I think it has been one of my best semesters. Though I haven’t been excelling in my classes, I am still passing them and over the past few years it has been fun getting through my classes and enjoying my friends in the process. I am extremely excited for the next chapter in my life. Now that I have been applying for jobs and getting the job search started it has been a fun experience and don’t know what it will be bring but I am excited for it. I am currently on spring break and in Minnesota with my buddies Phil and Mat. This is a fun time because I have always wanted to see Minnesota and now that it is finally here, it’s a really good time. I have been getting a lot of pictures and you can see them over at my Flickr and I will be continuing to update my pictures as I take them. Hope everyone enjoys them. I am sorry that I haven’t been updating my blog regularly but I will start to do this regularly and it will be a task of mine as I start to get going with school.

Thanks again for looking, I will be posting up soon!

365 Project: Day 6

scratchbs — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 07:54:52 +0000

This picture brings back so many childhood memories of the family getting together and having a good time on the Oregon coast. This is Haystack rock, I can remember when I was a kid me and my cousins would come up here with our parents and run up and down the beach. They were such good memories because of the time. As kids we are so innocent and take everything with a grain of salt. As we grow older things annoy us and we get easily roweled up. I think that there are some things that we can learn from when we are younger. Even though we are growing older and things may get to us, in the whole spectrum of life it’s a very small part. That was a little off topic thought but I think it’s what I believe what happens in all of our lives.

The things that I remember most about the beach was hanging out and being in the sand all day long, coming in and playing Nintendo 64, eating Pop-Tarts, drinking soda and being a kid. It was my time to get away and really be a kid These are some of the best memories that I have and I will cherish them in conversations with my parents. Now that I have gotten older I am learning what is important in life and it has helped me get closer with my parents and my friends who are in my life.
Now to the trip that I am on with my parents, I am having a really fun time relaxing and having a good time on one last trip before I head back to school in a couple of days. I am excited to do this because it means that I will not only get to see my friends again but I will be getting back into a routine to finish up my last semester of school. This is really exciting and it’s very bittersweet. I love hanging out at home and relaxing with my parents and I also love hanging out at school with my friends so it’s great hanging out in both spots.

Tomorrow we are heading back to Seattle which will be fun to get back to my own bed for a few days and relax on the home front without school in my head. This has been a very relaxing break, I have gotten a few things done that I was aiming for. First I was able to get some work done on my website which is one of my New Year’s resolutions. By summer at the latest I will have it live up and running. Second I was able to get back in touch with my photography side which was a huge plus. I really missed it in the last few months of school when I was busy with projects and such. In the new year that I will be graduating in I hope there will be coming some new photo gear because I think it’s time for that  I absolutely love my camera but I believe it’s time for an upgrade. I know this camera inside and out and with that I think it’s time for a challenge that will allow me to learn new equipment and make me the best photographer that I can be.

I think that I have talked enough and I will leave to whoever is reading this to whatever they were doing. I thank anyone who is reading this and tomorrow is a week since I have started the project so I am going to think of something special to do when I post my picture, be looking forward to that!

Thanks again. Happy New Year!

Day 6:

365 Project: Day 5

scratchbs — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 07:33:06 +0000

Today is Wednesday and the midweek of our trip down in Oregon. It has been a fun time and a very relaxing adventure before I head back to school on Sunday. It was a fun day and we finally got to Seaside, Oregon after a long drive and checked into the hotel. By the time we got to the hotel, at dinner and came back it was dark out and it had left my tripod in the car. At this point I just started looking around the room to see if there was something cool I could turn into a picture. When I saw the lamp shade, I noticed that the lighting was just right in the room where it didn’t need much work in photoshop. I just messed around with the shutter speed, aperture and ISO to finally get a shot that wasn’t super blurry with the given low light situation.

The project so far has given me the challenge of coming up with different subjects for my daily pictures. In the last few weeks of school I was so busy with projects and homework that I had lost the chance of doing things that I loved like photoshop, photography and hanging out with friends. This Christmas break has been fun and I have had a blast getting back into the photography scene. This has re-jump started my love for photography and I am so excited about that.

After uploading the pictures to my computer and loading them into Lightroom, the magic then started. I have been on a black and white kick lately and this is really great because I absolutely love black and white photography. For Christmas I received a book called “Seattle 100″ by Chase Jarvis who is my favorite photographer. This book is filled entirely of black and white images and tells an amazing story about Seattle from the people who live and breathe the culture. You can check more about the book here and here. I highly recommend picking this book up as it will be a great addition to have on the coffee table.

As I am approaching an end to my first week of the 365 project I am pretty pleased the way that things are going so far. I think it’s great that I started while I was on break because it gives me the chance to get a good habit going before I head back to school and get into that routine again. With 2 more days left and I will have a week, I will have to think of something to do on a weekly basis that will keep me motivated as I move forward in the year. When thinking about 365 days straight may be overwhelming I am just going to break it down into weeks so it seems more manageable.

Another thing that I am going to try and do is to focus on writing under the picture and on my blog. This will not only help me stay motivated but keep up my writing skills on top of my school work. I wanted to thank you for staying interested this far and ask to please stay tuned as the days and weeks come forth, it will be an exciting journey that I am delighted to share with everyone.

Hope everyone is having a great first week of the year!

Day 5:

365 Project: Day 3 and 4

scratchbs — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 08:07:12 +0000

This was a fun day because we got up this morning after a little bit of sleeping in and hopped on the road to Newport, Oregon. Having the chance to come back to this place was fun because it allowed us to see the ocean. I hadn’t seen it in a while and it always brings back good memories from when I was growing up. The location of this picture is actually right out on the beach before we went into my favorite Brewery, Rogue Ales. (Rogue) I love coming down here and it is going to give me the opportunity to hang out with my family and get a chance to have some sweet picture chances. I am excited to see what my picture is going to be tomorrow, never know what the day will bring.

Thanks for looking!
Day 4:

After realizing that I didn’t post for day 3 here it is…

Today was a fun day that was spent pretty much in the car. I woke up to an alarm that started my day on the right foot. After thinking about going to the gym I figured it would be better to relax (as if I haven’t done enough of it) but it’s Christmas break and there is no school so I figured it was okay  . While relaxing and having some breakfast I was watching SportsCenter and packing for a trip to the Oregon coast with my family. This is going to be a fun week because it is going to be a fun time to get started on my 365 project and hang out with my parents before I head back to school.

After a long day of being in the car and not having the chance to sit down and focus on a picture I was able to create this shot in the hotel room after dinner. I had just changed lenses and sat the 18-55mm on the bed. I put the camera on the tripod because of the given lighting in the room. The shutter speed was 1/3 second and the aperture was f/14 while the lens was all the way in at 300mm. I really liked how the object was composed and after some minor adjustments in Lightroom I was able to come up with the final product seen here. I am feeling good so far about the 365 project, even though it’s only the 3rd day I am feeling strong about getting the chance to take time out of my day to focus on something I love; photography.

Thanks again for taking the time to read my photostream.

Enjoy my daily posts. Hopefully as soon as I can make them

Day 3:

365 Project: Day 2

scratchbs — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 02:26:37 +0000

Today was a fun day, woke up after a long sleep that ended up being much needed. Took a shower, grabbed my camera and then went to Green Lake with the family to go for a walk. This was a fun time and walking around the 2.8 mile circle in the cold crisp weather was perfect to give my legs a nice stretch from a hard workout a couple days ago. This particular picture was fun to take and it was a little bit of a challenge. As we walked back to the car, I went a little farther to the local skate park and that’s where I found this skater attempting to land a hard flip. I posted up right next to the jump where he was taking off and lined up a good shutter speed and aperture. I chose this picture out of the bunch that was taken because I liked how the skater’s head was out of the picture and it put the right amount of focus on flip of the board.

Over the past 2 days I have started to think about what I’m going to do differently in this new year and there are a few things that came to mind and I’m going to finalize them by the end of this week and publish them in my own personal set of resolutions. I’m so grateful of this New Year with family and friends. Graduating in May is exciting and I am very excited about the future that is coming. I have a good feeling about this 365 project, it will be a good challenge and I am going to work hard at keeping up with it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, below is the picture.

365 Project: Day 1

scratchbs — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 08:31:19 +0000

Okay so here is my second try at the 365 Project. I have decided to take a second shot at this project because it will challenge me as a photographer and give me another thing to look forward to in my busy days. Hopefully I will be able to make it past the 2 week mark that I made it on my last attempt a year ago today.

The past few weeks that I have been on break have been really good, I have been able to relax and focus on the important things in my life, friends/family and photography. Since it’s the first day of the new year it’s crazy to think that there are so many important things going on this year. School is going to pick up and then I will be graduating in May which is exciting and it will be nice to start my life outside of school. Last night for New Years Eve I got together with a couple friends from high school and had a blast. It was really good to see them and it also meant that there was quite a bit of drinking going on. As a consequence of the drinking I woke up to a quite a large “head wound” Some may think that when you are feeling the worst after a night of drinking the last thing you want to touch is alcohol when in fact it can in many cases be the cure to the “head wound”.

Overall it was an amazing night and a great time to meet with friends from school that I haven’t seen in a while. I really enjoy this picture of the Pabst can because it has a great angle. I am a sucker for wide angle shots and this seemed to be the perfect way to start out my 365 project. I hope everyone enjoys my project and has a good time looking at my pictures. As the project works, I will be updating daily as I can and if not there will be days where I will be playing catch up.

Thanks again and Happy New Year!!

The pressure is on…16 days.

scratchbs — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 07:29:21 +0000

This has been a pretty busy week so far and it’s only Tuesday. I think this is a precursor to what is coming up in the next 16 days until I go home. With school work and a social life that feels like it needs to continue even with all this stuff to do, it seems impossible to get it all done. This is where my thoughts of a To-Do list come into play and it makes me feel good when I look down at a list and am able to cross something off. Amongst all of the stress of school, I have managed to workout consistently for the past month and a half with one of my buddies. I am pretty excited about this because it has gotten to the point where I feel like crap when I don’t work out, which is a good sign. I enjoy it and with my Skullcandy headphones, it makes it easy to zone out and get a really good workout in.

Though out the next few weeks and days, I am going to be pretty busy with school work and maybe going night skiing a night or two depending on where I am at with all of the studying. I will be posting up here in a few days to check in and vent out some thoughts that are racing through my head. This is obviously going to be a short post but I just wanted to get some thoughts out on the table after a hard day of studying.

Thanks for listening, hope everyone is having a good week!

19 days…

scratchbs — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 08:37:32 +0000

Wow, that’s all I have to say. First I watch Boise State miss 2 field goals under 30 yards and then i realize that there are only 19 days until Christmas break. Crazy day. Had an awesome Thanksgiving with my family and now I am hitting the books and getting ready to push through the next few weeks until Christmas break. This is the worst and best time of the year. Worst because there is so much to do in such a little amount of time and best because everyone is in such a good mood. I have enjoyed this semester so much and am excited for next/last semester to begin. There have been a lot of good times and I think that it has a lot to do with it being senior year. It’s an awesome time because the care of everything goes down a notch and you zone out on school when you need to and have a good time and enjoy it when you aren’t studying. There is definitely more studying going on this semester because we are enjoying our “party” time more and that has been a blast. The roommate situation has been a great one and I’m excited to start skiing with these guys. With La Nina coming, it should be an amazing season! Jackson already has 129” which is sick and they aren’t even open yet. Keep an eye out there for sure…SKI. Throughout the next few weeks I am going to be cranking out some school work and not going to be partying or having a lot of free time. It’s going to be good for me for sure because it will get me focused and when I can sit down and not have any distractions things can generally get done!

With a to-do list a mile long there can be a very overwhelming feeling with many people and there is something that I have learned over the years and it is that you can take it a task at a time and that will dwindle down the list and eventually you will be crossing off the last task. That is the most rewarding part about making a to do list, crossing off the tasks that is. I encourage people to make their lists and not be overwhelmed as easy as it can be. I have been there myself and it is not a very fun place to be so having the chance to talk with someone or help with your homework will lift the stress right off your shoulders.

This is the second post I have had in a little over a week which is pretty recent for me. I am really trying hard to get this posting done and it’s helping me getting some things off my chest. Even though it’s not a big blog and I don’t get a lot of readers, it still gets certain things off my chest and I have to say that it allows me to breath a little bit more. Having the chance to vent these little words of random thoughts while listening to my iTunes on shuffle allows me to gather my thoughts for the coming days and weeks. What is the song of choice you might ask?! Right now Heartbreak Warfare -John Mayor is playing and I have to say that I have become a big fan in the past few months. He has some great music and if you haven’t heard any of his stuff, I recommend you check it out because it is very good.

Well I think that is enough ranting for the night, it’s about 12:30 and I should probably get some sleep so I can get some quality studying in tomorrow before I hang out with my parents and head back to school on Sunday for my last push. I am not very good at this whole writing thing so if anyone is reading this and has some suggestions as to how I can improve my writing then by all means speak up and post a comment. Hope everyone is having a great start to their holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Song of the Week: No Hands – Waka Flocka Flame (here)

28 days…

scratchbs — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 06:06:23 +0000

Above is the number of actual days left until Christmas Break. This is very bittersweet because I really want to have some free time and hang out with friends and family but at the same time there is a lot of stuff to do and it’s very time consuming. This is what brings me to my other thought, over the past few weeks I have been trying really hard with school and granted sometimes I stop when I could put in the full effort but overall this is one of my best semesters of study habits that I have ever had. I am very proud of myself for that. I am in the library getting stuff done at least 4 days a week which has helped quite a bit and am also studying more and trying to party less on the weekends. This has been good so far and am excited for next semester so I can start out on the right foot one last time and leave college feeling good about myself.

The snow has begun to fall here in Montana and that puts an OFFICIAL start to the winter season which can mean only one thing, skiing. I am so excited to ski this winter and me and a couple buddies have some amazing trips that we’re planning on taking. As of today Jackson Hole has 82” of snow and they are opening in 10 days. That’s amazing, so I definitely think we will be venturing down to Wyoming more than once this winter. Overall I just love skiing and everything about it. The freedom that you feel when making turns down a fresh dump of powder, there is no better feeling in the world. With all of this La Nina talk, I have high hopes of snow and lots of it!!!

I don’t want to keep babbling about random stuff but I just wanted to post since I haven’t done it in a while and I’m sure I am forgetting something so there will be a post up later when I have a little more time. I really want to get into the whole “blogging” thing. I know there probably aren’t any hits on my page and no one is commenting but I feel like this is another form of release for me to tell whoever does read this what is going on in my life and my view on certain things. I enjoy writing these whenever I do so I will try to continue them in the future.

Thanks for reading!

Busy Busy Busy

scratchbs — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 05:12:27 +0000

Here I am sitting in my room about ready to go to bed when I feel like throwing up a post on my blog. Shocking right?! TWO posts with in a few days! This has never happened to me. Anyways, the weekend was good, had a fun time relaxing with friends at our homecoming game which I originally didn’t think I was going to attend but I figured why not since it was the second home game and there are going to be two more. It ended up being a fun time since we won 31-13 against our rivals from Butte, Montana (Montana Tech). The weather cooperated really nice, it was in the mid 80′s which is warm for late September in Montana, normally there are no shorts to be seen on the students at this point. Before the fun started there was studying to get done since I have 3 midterms this week. 1 is tomorrow morning and the other 2 are on Friday. But after those I am going to hitch a ride home with my Dad and have a great week off from school. I’m excited that I decided to go home, I think it will be a good chance to break away from the usual Montana “college” ways and be on my own with my family for a couple of days. I am blown away that it’s already Fall Break, this means that we are half way through the semester and a 1/4 of the way through Senior year! Where has the time gone?! Who knows but all I know is that I need to enjoy every minute of this year because if we flew by 3 years this fast, I can’t believe how 1 year is going to be like.

This wasn’t intended to be a very long post, I just wanted to post up a little update as to how my weekend was and what I’m going to be up to this week. It should be pretty hectic but it’s all pushing towards a week off of relaxing and hopefully coding my website. Like I said before I will be updating as to how my website is coming a long and there are always new pictures being put up on Flickr (**here**). So with that said, be paying attention to more posts in the upcoming days and I will be letting you know how my website is coming and it hopefully should be going live here in a couple months. I just need to get the hosting squared away.

Hope everyone has a great week!