First Freelance Job

I got the opportunity to shoot Black Friday for the Record Eagle early Friday morning, November 27th. I was hoping to see some intense shopping (aka fighting over limited supplies) but I didn't see anything of the sort. It was a great experience, however, and I am very thankful I was able to do it. It made me realize that I need to get my butt in gear and get out there to shoot, shoot and shoot some more. It also got me thinking about looking much harder for jobs.

http://www.record-eagle.com/local/local_story_331234606.html

Recycle, Reduce, Reuse

Online portfolio is up... needs a little tweaking but I don't know how!

http://ccfacourses.cmich.edu/jrn/421/brosier

A Baby Changes Everything

Chapter One:

Chapter Two:

Chapter Three:

Tragedy: Three Years Later

Photo Story - Death

My Grammy, My Mentor

Emily Catharine Travis Brosier
June 16, 1923 - April 2, 2009

Today the most inspirational woman in my life left this world surrounded by her family. She lived a great 85 years full of love from family and friends. She never gave up on me. She pushed me to accomplish great things. I will accomplish great things for her.
When they removed the ventilator tube, the family surrounded her bed. I grabbed her right hand and told her how much I loved her. She was looking at me slightly. She pulled my hand up to her chest and tried to smile. I think she was telling me that it was going to be ok, she was thankful for us letting her go be with my grandfather and perhaps she was smiling because I had on the hat she made me when I was in the ninth grade.
I told her I was going to finish school and she didn’t have to worry about that.
I has just visited my grammy on Friday. This was so unforeseen for me.

Gramma, I will make you proud. I love you with all my heart. Thank you for pushing me. Thank you for your great words of wisdom and your advice. I am where I am because of your persistant pushing me. You told me once that when you were "dead and gone" that you were going to be watching over me making sure I finished school. No worries :) I love you Gramma...

Freedom!

I have been keeping my two youngest dogs in the bathroom when I am gone for a long periods of time in the day. They have been chewing at the door, little by little each time. Today they finally broke through...

Moomers Ice Cream!

Moomers, a family owned and operated ice cream shop, was voted number one ice cream place with Good Morning America. The shop is nestled in the country side of Traverse City, next to the Plummer’s family farm where the ice cream is all started.
The family owns numerous dairy cows which they milk twice a day. The milk is picked up by a tanker truck and homogenized. When the homogenized milk returns, the ice cream making process begins. Moomers ice cream is all homemade in the back of their shop. They have over 100 different flavors which they make in their kitchen, with twenty of them being available daily.
Moomers is open 10 out of 12 months a year.

Out of the ordinary

The other night I went out with some friends to a bar called KilKenny's in Traverse City. I wasn't really paying much attention to the people outside of our little group but one of my friends pointed out this guy, sitting alone and writting something onto a pad of paper. They said I should go talk to him, jokingly, probably didn't think I would. The guy was probably in his mid to late twenties. He wore a black beret and a black peacoat. But I walked right over to him, sat down and asked him what he was working on. He was scetching out a comic. After a few minutes of conversation, I came to find out he had a series of these comics with the main character being a guy called "Barf Boy." I didn't really understand the story of any of these but he was very into his work. And he was also sober as a rock! I told him who I was and what I went to school for and told him that this whole situation of him coming to a bar every night, not drinking and coming up with these comics would make a great photo story. He didn't like the idea. It was a good experience for me! I realized that I am capable of making people comfy enough to talk to me and tell me things about their lives they normally wouldn't tell a stranger!

The photo of the opossum was taken in Mount Pleasant. Bradley, Stella and I went on a lovely walk and we found a dead squirrel, then this dead opossum and then a little mouse that Stella thought would make a nice afternoon snack, but we did not let her enjoy it... I normally wouldn't photograph dead animals but it was so random that this opossum was lying next to this tree, dead, with no signs of being hit. It must have had a very cold night :(

The photo of the frozen bay was taken in Traverse City. You can see that the water level is still low but the bay finally reached a rigid enough temp. that it was able to freeze. There were two swans sitting out there but I didn't have a long enough lens to capture them. Dang it...

MPPA 2009

MPPA is an annual event for the photographers of Michigan to come together and share with each other their photography and enter in a competition under various categories. I have been going for the past three years and this may have been the best year so far. I have made many new friends and one of my best gal pals OWNED CPOY! Go SMILLA! :) BFFs haha! Anywho, the following video is my third assignment for JRN 521. It wasn't what I was exactly shooting for but I think its a fun video and if I had never been to MPPA, I think it would encourage me to go... Congrats to all who entered and won an award, new and old! Yea! Since it is for educational purposes, I used a copyrighted song. I was also up until 8 in the morning trying to get this finished by 10 and the crazy thing is, I'm not extremely tired...

A Super Athlete

Enjoying The HeatwaveClarkston Sheri Smith enjoys the heatwave and plays "Beer Pong" at Lexington Ridge Apartments, Tuesday when temperatures rose to a shocking 59 degrees.

Squirrely Squirrel

A common black squirrel enjoys the safety and protection of the tangly branches of a tree in Midland, Mich.

For my second JRN 521 assignment, I was to shoot a nature photo and a feature. I would like to shoot both of these again because I did not do my best.

521 First Assignment: Portraits

Cole

Stella

Although they may not be the type of portraits you were expecting, I have been considering the possibility of photographing pets for a living. I thought I would give it a go with two of my dogs. Cole and Stella. Cole because of his tongue. Stella because she is still young and cocks her head at every new sound. I wanted to capture their personalities. I was recently inspired by a photographer I stumbled across in Dog Fancy magazine. He photographs shelter dogs. Awesome.

What to do, if I am able to do....

So, I have the opportunity to attend the inauguration with my sister and brother in-law, that is if I can get someone to cover my shift at work, get unsick and get out of class on Wednesday. It would be a pretty awesome experience, even if I didn't vote for Obama. AND I would be getting super great stuff for my JRN 423 SoundsSlides assignment... oye! If not, I guess there is a lot going on with MLK day tomorrow. I have some great shot ideas forming in my head...

JRN 521

Yea Jrn 521!

Yesterday was our first class meeting. I'm looking forward to this class and I hope it will mold me even more into the photographer I strive to be.

More to come!