 |
 |
So you want to know more about me, eh? I suppose I can say a few things. My first dabble with photography was in 1988, the year I was born. Several photographs were taken of me, although I don't remember them. Once I achieved some form of sentience, my main experiences were during my family's vacations, where my father would bring his 4x5 camera and Better Light. My knowledge of the device was limited at the time, as I was still young, smalll, and stupid, but the main things I recall were to not stand in front of the lens (unless it was with a handheld camera) and that my father's equipment weighed more than I did. During middle school and high school I took photography classes and was in a photography club, never anything too serious but I had a lot of fun with film and the school's darkroom. After high school I attended Seattle University, initially as an engineering student, but soon changed my major to pretty much everything else that the college offered. |
During the summer of 2008 I worked for my father at Better Light. Lacking any technical skills of value, my usefulness was somewhat limited, but I helped out as best I could here and there. Occassionally Larry Guyer would visit and take photographs in the back of the office, and I'd become his temporary assistant. I learned how to operate all the equipment as well as vast amounts about product photography and photography in general from Larry. I carefully watched him go about his work, building cluttered and hazardous sets that created the perfect light for the subject. During free time I was allowed to use the Betterlight, so my father set me up on a little rollout project. I don't remember the first subject, but I do remember that the first time I was setting up, I mistakenly put the scanning back in the wrong direction. This badly distorted the image and was nothing at all like a rollout. It wasn't particularly interesting either, since it was just a can of some sort, but it somehow snagged my attention. I set up the Better Light correctly and shot a few rollouts, but I couldn't find any subject that was particularly interesting to me, so I decided to try a few more with the scanning back in the wrong direction, just for kicks. The first subject was a handful of colored pens. I didn't know what to expect, as I didn't understand what was actually happening at that point, but the result astounded me. The vibrance captured by just using a single line of pixels created a surreal rope-like object, but they were just pens! After this one experiment of doing it wrong, I knew that I was barely scratching the surface of the potential this "mistake" had. My father was also intrigued by this new image from his equipment, so he allowed me to experiment with it. I spent a lot of time in the backroom crafting these odd forms from everyday objects, marvelling at the different creations I could make from slight changes and variations. I changed my focus of study to photography, plodding along in my father's footsteps once again, but this time with actual purpose. I learned a handful of technical and design skills from college during the school year, and when I returned home for the summer I continued to explore spinouts. There is still much more exploring to do to reach the full potential of spinouts, but the journey has been filled with excitement. Now finished with school (for the present), I have moved back in with my parents because I'm awesome. For the future...who knows what I'll do. I certainly don't yet! Thanks for visiting my gallery, and for your interest!
Click here to learn how <--the SETUP becomes the SPINOUT!--> |
The First Spinout |
The First Setup | |