Day Trips and Pretty Nights

As I mentioned in a previous post, Karla and I drove up to Salem... two weeks ago now (?) and hung out, and for the first time for both of us, we enjoyed the "New England" coastline. I figured that if I was going to be on a rocky new england coastline, I may as well take some time and soak it all in.

So, we went to Salem, to the Salem Witch Museum, which was an embarrassing waste of fifteen dollars. The high note of the museum was the peanut butter & jelly lollipop that Karla bought for me in the gift store that tasted like a nightmare. Yes, that was the high point. The "museum" consisted of nothing more than a large room that had a bunch of statues/mannequins that lit up when the soundtrack was talking about them. Awful. but, like many things that are incredibly bad, we had a lot of fun with it.

After Salem, we got in Tom's prius, (which if you have never driven a prius, i highly recommend it) and drove north about another twenty miles to a town called rockport. This place was absolutely beautiful. We parked and walked through a street where art galleries and ice cream shops seemed like the only service the place offered. A little bit up on the street, we hit a lookout point, and I knew this was the place. I climbed down onto the rocks below the visitor's area, and I set up my tripod... I'm not really sure if this was allowed, but there weren't any problems.


Karla and I sat in this location for about an hour and a half, because I had timed the sunset very wrong and we were there at about 6 o'clock. So there we sat, Karla, my camera, and I, just enjoying the breeze and the sounds of the waves. As the sun started setting, I started to understand why the english chose this area to settle... it was amazing.

(Please click to view HQ in Flickr, this one deserves it!)

I wanted to include both pictures so that you can see what a little bit of planning, and a little bit of work on a picture can mean in the end. The top picture doesn't even have a visible cloud, and the sun washes everyyything out. I believe that it is near impossible to get a good, or even a moderate sunset picture without bracketing the shots and combining them in the digital darkroom later. People did the same thing with film, it was just a lot more difficult.

Thank you so much for keeping up and for reading :)

~elliot

Where I've Come

so you may notice some similarities today. This is a direct comparison post. about a year ago, give or take a couple weeks, I went to New York with my aunt's film camera to get some pictures of the city with Karla. I got some pictures that I really love. The first picture is responsible for the most money I've made at any one time with photography yet. It won second place at the blair county arts festival which earned me a cool $250!! Then, it also won a spot in the Juniata College student art exhibit. I really love this picture, and it's probably one of my favorites that I've ever taken. Since being in Boston, I've been looking back, and I have decided to try and see where I've come as a photographer. I want to redo some of my favorite shots, and this is my first attempt at it.

This is the one from New York. Not a whole entire lot of though went into it. It was nighttime, so on program mode, my shutter speed was automatically set to a slower speed so I basically tracked the bike while the shutter was open and here is the result. I think it's a great picture; it shows a clear sense of movement, it follows the rule of third, and i just really like it. I always thought that it looked a little flat though, and that it doesn't really show any environment at all. Hence me trying to redo it!

This is my current try, and i have to say I like it soooo much better.

(please click to view HQ in Flickr)

This one actually has the option of being color or B&W since it is a digital picture instead of film like the other one, but, when making a direct comparison I should take the color out. So this one took a little bit more planning to get the right shot. It's on the.... charles bridge (?) right beside the red line on the way to cambridge. So this one definately takes a lot of cues from the one from New York; it's a blurred biker, and it still shows the rule of thirds. But, this one shows the environment, it shows depth, it shows a direction that isn't just left to right, and you can almost sense the speed that the biker must be feeling. Pleaseeee click on the picture and look at it in Flickr... it looks sooo ugly on this blogging site.. you won't be dissapointed ;) Please, let me know what you think and let me make sure that I actually am improving with time and that I'm not regressing. Negative and positive please!

The Dinky Lighthouse and Some Portraits

So this past weekend, Tom was in Colarado and allowed me to use his car, so Karla and I took a drive up to Salem, Mass... I have a ton of pictures from Salem and then from Rockport, which is a little north of Salem, but I'll pepper those in here and there.

So one of my main goals in northern Mass was to get some lighthouse and sunset pictures. I did get some really cool sunsets, but the lighthouses were strangely absent from Salem, on the map, there was one lighthouse there, so we walked there... not too long of a walk, but a walk nonetheless. So we get there, and what do we see?

This.
(click to view HQ in Flickr)

This was the dinkiest lighthouse I have ever seen. It was such a huge letdown, but it was only one downside to the day. I love this picture because it makes me laugh because it brings back the memory of seeing this lame lighthouse.

We did take advantage of the environment though, and I worked on some portraiture with the absolutely beautiful Karla Rodriguez, what do you think?

(Click to view HQ in Flickr)

As always, thank you for reading, and enjoy your day :)

~Elliot~

New Ad??

(click to view HQ in Flickr)

Hello there, so you may notice a big picture here with my name very largely proclaimed, and this is not because I think I'm awesome or anything, but I've been thinking about maybe getting some business cards printed up so as to possibly make some money and start being serious about this little thing. I was making some money in Altoona, but it seems like Boston is just a bit harder to crack... all in good time I guess. I feel like this picture is a good representation of what I do though. It's Boston, it's a cityscape, and it's HDR, which gives it an awesome look, but one that some people may not be in love with.

So to catch up on City Year a little bit, we have been going through literacy training and conflict resolution, and I came to a realization. We are quite literally attempting to learn four years of undergrad elementary education into 6 weeks of training. We knows, this might be more efficient, because this way, we simply only have time for the most important things, and the rest will be learned on the job as we go. I though I was coming up here to tutor, but as it stands now, I will be a mentor, a lunch and breakfast buddy, literacy trainer, math coach, possibly a science teacher, (yes... I said teacher, as in quite literally leading a class in lessons in science, by myself, as Mr. Haney) also, helping to run after-school programs, and writing lesson plans. It's going to be a lot on our plates as corps members, but it feels good. I'm excited to start, and I know everyone I'm working with is too.

I have a lot of pictures to get up in the next couple days and a lot of stories to go with them, so keep checking back, or you can follow me on twitter @elliothaney and, of course on facebook.com/elliothaney

Thanks again everyone... the kind words are appreciated so much, but remember, responding to criticism is the only way to get better.

~elliot~

Day 1 Observations

I am tired. I am really tired. this new schedule of being back in grade school is wearing on me, and it's the first week of actually being in the school! I guess it's more of an adjustment that i still need to... adjust to. My day is about 7:30 to 5:00-6:00 so that's fun, but the kids are great and I'm very happy.

Just a quick observation. Today was day 1 with kids in the school and i noticed something. This is the first time in my life that I have been a minority. St. Rose through Bishop Guilfoyle exposed me to maybe....2 african americans throughout my 12 years? Then in college at Juniata, the vast vast majority was still white. Now today, for the first time, even since being in Boston, I was one of the possibly 5% of whites in the room. Now, admittidly, there was a time in my life when this would have made me a little bit uncomfortable; not because I have any negative racial feelings whatsoever, but simply because that experience is much the opposite of my upbringing, and my school years. If City Year does nothing else for me this year (which would be an absolutely ridiculous claim) it has placed me in positions that remove me from my comfort zone, and when we are removed from our comfort, we experience new aspects of life, and we grow as humans. I could not be happier that I am here, and that I am taking part in an organization like this. I actually feel like I am making a palpable positive difference in my world. I guess that "quick observation" wasn't all that quick.

(click to view HQ on flickr)

Picture Info:

Church is Trinity Church in Copley square in the Back Bay area of Boston. The tower in the back is currently the tallest building in Boston. As a note, this is where my City Year friends and I will be performing public physical training throughout the next couple weeks and then the rest of the year, it should be interesting, especially when we start our call and responses and our pledges... maybe I can get a video of it sometime. It really is a sight to see!

Thanks for reading, and remember, comments are always appreciated :)

~elliot~

The Woods and My Collaboration With Danny Viera

i'm back from the woods! i had a great time, did some intense team-building exercises, i got much much closer to my team (viva la renaissance!!) and i got to do some high-ropes training, which i haven't done since bishop guilfoyle time... man i miss it sometimes. It was nice to get out of the city for a few days and to hear the sounds of insects at night again. sometimes it feels really good to sleep on an awful mattress with a sleeping bag, it kinda re-awakens you a little bit.

yesterday (saturday) i worked the "boston back to school jamboree" handing out free things to kids that were starting school this week. i got to experience parents who complained and argued with me because they only get one free thing; a bookbag, or a bag of supplies. it's really nice when you get yelled at for only being able to give them one free thing. sorry, i guess it's my fault. but as a perk, at the end of the day, there were ironically many things left over, and karla and i were able to take a bunch of books. we ended up almost doubling our library in 30 short minutes... too bad we had to carry about 100 pounds of books through the city and on the subway, it's all worth it.

i just finished reading 'the alchemist' and i must say, it was fantastic and i highly recommend it. now i'm starting 'down and out in paris and london' by george orwell, i'm excited for it :)

now for the photography. one of my favorite people from juniata was danny viera who was a roommate of mine junior year on exchange from seville spain. we had a great time that semester and i consider him a great friend that i hope i will see again sometime. he sent me an e-mail the other day with a picture he took (in paris i believe) and asked me to collaborate on it and edit it and make it pretty for him. here is what he sent me.

it's a great picture, i love the composition, the people to the side, the blur of the train to the left, but it dark, and it lacks a little of the detail that i really like in my images. here's what i came up with after a little bit of work.

i think danny liked it, and i hope you do too. pleaseeee check out danny's blog, it really is fantastic. incredibly interesting. click here for the universal traveler

(click to view HQ in flickr!!)

Catching Up

late night posting again, and i said i would update on where i am going to be working and yes, it's a happy day. i am going to be working at the boston renaissance charter school, right in back bay/downtown. it's wonderful, it's right off the orange line, so my commute is still nice and generally short, and it's an urban school, which is completely oppposite to everything i've ever known, so i think it's going to be an excellent learning experience. the school is great because i'll be doing literacy and science tutoring, and i'll be doing breakfast andddd lunch mentoring/hanging out, and all the food is free for me!! how cool? after school, i'll be running some after school programs, which are to be determined later, once my team and i work it out, but either way, i'm incredibly excited.

tommorrow, in just a few hours really, i am leaving for 'camp wing' which is a teambuilding camp with ropes courses and cabins and all that fun stuff. i'll be there until friday, so hopefully you can get by without me haha. we have just been placed on our permanent teams, so this camp is a great way to get to know everyone and to start building working relationships.

o and one more thing.. do me a favor, go to your address bar, and type in www.elliothaney.com and see what happens............. did you do it?............. good, well then you see! i am now a dotcom!! big deal for me. i don't know if it really is or not, but i get excited typing my name, then a .com, and it goes to my website.. it's a cool feeling. feel happy for me!!

until next time, have a wonderful day :)

(green line train that was very late coming)
click to view high quality in flickr
once in flickr, click on the picture and 'all sizes' for the big version
also, feel free to browse the rest of my flickr while you're there