I volunteer as part of the Stanford Racing Team's DARPA Grand Challenge entry, a modified Volkswagen called Stanley. This weekend we won the race with eleven minutes over second place Carnegie Mellon's Sandstorm. Taking photos over the weekend was an interesting mix of awesome photos and wonderfully missed opportunities. The subject matter was brilliant, and the desert sun made for excellent lighting with a polarizing filter. But, as being part of the team, I partook in many team events (shouting in the front row as Stanley crossed the finish line) that otherwise encouraged me to miss many good photos. Was it worth it? The Economist is actively enquiring about my photos, and some have already been published as AP photos in CNN, Washington Post, NY Times, and many others. But being part of the team was an amazing experience as well. Maybe I could have given up team pleasures for the weekend just so I could have gotten better photos.

Every now and then I tag along with a group of hobbyist photographers in the heart of San Francisco. On a random Sunday afternoon, we walk around the city taking whatever photos strike our fancy. Good, bad, and ugly, these photos can turn out or not... it all depends on what mood I'm in, and if I feel like being 'creative'. How can you be creative in photography, anyway? What makes a photo 'creative' when you're just observing the world around you and framing it? Can you frame it in different ways to be creative? Must you make analogies that have not been made before? Avant garde was never so hard with other mediums.

Lawrence University is a small liberal arts college in the north flats of Appleton, Wisconsin. The winters are cold and blustery, and the summers are hot and humid. The other seasons are also wonderful... it's the type of country where the weather actually exists and livens you up. Massive thunderstorms arise in the spring, and fall foliage makes your mouth water. The diverse weather allows for many types of conditions for photographing, from fog storms to beautiful high cloud sunsets. I was there for five years, attempting (and succeeding) in earning two degrees, and so had much time to study what indeed made the campus glow.

San Francisco. A city of such unabashed vigor and valor, often driven past the extreme, set on a large peninnsula overlooking the self-titled bay and neighboring Pacific ocean. The city has a wealth of diversity, tolerance, and often frivilous artistic expressions such as this paragraph I'm writing now.

I take photographs for weddings when I get the chance. For now it's mostly been limited to close friends, as they're the only ones who've asked ;) From Pennsylvania to Minnesota to Lake Tahoe, the varieties of photos that I take can change as often as the scenary. I usually find the two major types of photographs both in need; artistic photography for those shots they want to hang on their walls, and photojournalism to remember the many events that took place that weekend. Often, the two are hard to mix, for technical and mental reasons. The stress of the day is often overwhelming; while the bride and groom just have to look good and stand there, the photographs will be a one-shot only, last a lifetime sort of thing. With your close friends, the best that happens if you screw up is that you don't get paid. So far it seems I've been lucky.

Photographing dance on the floor is definitely different than photographing it in the studio. When I was spinning music for my college swing club, I often brought my camera along and snapped photos during my off hours. What's killer about the subjects, of course, is that they never stop moving. You can't always get a good photo of somebody when they're facing you for only a second at a time. So, when good photos come out, often they're definitely worth the effort. You can also probably tell that I didn't know everybody in California... my buddies in Wisconsin were definitely more used to me having a camera flying around in their face.