Basketball Begins

One of my favorite parts of the year has just leaped into action. Basketball season at Penn State. Since I'm in the band, I have to go to every game and I just love being a part of all the action all season. It's gotten me thinking about all of the ups and downs we will have during the season and the amazing culmination with my favorite trip to Indianapolis for the Big Ten Tournament. It was a great way to start of the exhibitions by having a double-header. First, the girls beat Bloosmburg and I got to watch my favorite player, Maggie Lucas, once again drain three-pointers as they scored 101 in the game. The men played right afterwards and beat Slippery Rock. It was a long day but I'm glad to see everything back in action.

In the Studio

The worst feeling in the world is waking up, looking at the clock, and knowing that you slept right through something. That jolt of adrenaline you get is certainly more awakening than that cup of coffee. On Monday morning, that same feeling surged right through me. I slept through about forty minutes of my morning class by accident. I thought about just going back to bed, but I hate missing class and decided to just go in for the last hour. I'm really glad I did because only 2 of the 5 group members other than myself were actually in class that day. We are working on using light meters and studio lights which is one of my favorite things to do. I used to hate the idea of flash photography but I think that was mostly because I didn't know anything about it or how to use it. My strobe hero, Joe Mcnally, has really changed my thinking. Now I love to use the lights and create drama. Once I got to class , we were working on some really basic portraits with a very standard lighting setup...you know, boring. Once we got our metering right, we were allowed to do some experimenting with the lights. I really love to go to the edge and be a little dramatic with the lighting. Since we were in an all white corner of the room, I went high-key and blasted my other group member (and lovely model) with light to create a high-key portrait. I'm really happy with the results, but I've always been under the idea that I don't need to be the best photographer to make a pretty girl look...pretty.

I'm pretty glad I decided to go to class.