Confession, I actually hate doing studio shots on a white background. It feels so commercial. It makes me feel like I’m taking shots out of a Macy’s catalog.

Strobist info: Key light high, camera left with shoot through umbrella, 2 background lights left and right

I am going insane. Every major camera retailer has been closed for 2 weeks because of Passover. How do you close down businesses for over a week? This is retarded! It’s bad enough that most camera chains have god awful business hours as it is, but now I have to deal with this on top of it all! Of course there’s always the option of going to a non-specialty store, but doing that just steals from the overall experience of being able to test out and play with new equipment, and working with qualified and knowledgeable employees.

I thought I was the only one grieving about this, but a quick Google searched revealed several blogs and forums of people complaining over the very same issue.

At the moment I’m currently sitting around waiting for a new lens to ship in from Jersey (I ordered from NJ to avoid the ridiculous +$150 NY tax), but that won’t happen until stores open back up in two days. I’d love to say I got the chance to go to the store and see the lens in person before purchasing, but oh wait… it’s Passover. And of course, there’s also the additional 1-2 days extra for businesses to even get my shit out of the warehouse. Oh yeah, and 5-7 days standard shipping? Beautiful.

There’s a lot of things I don’t agree with at my University. Most of it revolves around their strict conservative Catholic views. Now my qualms with Catholicism aside, it really bothers me that the University won’t support its diverse student body. Recently, students at St. John’s requested to form a Gay Straight Alliance club, but were turned down by the University (surprise, surprise, we’re run by priests). I understand that St. John’s has religious values to uphold but I would think that such a large institution such as a university would at least make some attempt to make its students feel welcome and at home. After all, a university is closer to a business corporation than it is a religious institution.

I’m 20 years old, and I’m not entirely sure where I’m going. I’m not scared though. I’m excited.

I’m sure most of you heard of the internet superstar Rebecca Black. Her YouTube music video is exploding online with negative attention. Now I’ll admit, her music is terrible, but the response she is receiving is just ridiculous. A lot of the comments aren’t even related to her music and are just unnecessary, such as:

ugly has ugly friends =|

I actually find the whole story hilarious as hell (yes I know, I’m a terrible person), but I also think that what’s going on is harmful to the creative community. The mass idea to just gang up and put down other people whenever the opportunity arises. It’s the fear of this that makes artists cautious of sharing their work which ultimately slows down growth; not just for themselves, but everybody, since we are all inspired by each other. Negative criticism is necessary in order for artists to fine tune their skill, but we should also keep in mind the line between negative criticism and plain bullying (hint: negative criticism is educational).

The material that artists put out in their early years (whether it be good or bad) is especially important for their growth. I happen to hate my early work. Hell, I feel my stomach churn every time I see someone reference my old work or I find out from my site stats that people have been browsing through my archives. But that was the building block for my technique and my reader base. I can look back at everything I did in 2008 and think “okay, I definitely see an improvement, and my readers do too” Likewise, I’m not completely satisfied with the my current 2010-2011 work, but I put it online so I can continue to gauge my improvement, or lack of. Not making my work publicly available would limit my critics to just myself.

There’s a lot of art work out there that I think is horrible. Despite this, I can’t help but have a weird feeling of respect for new artists that are just trying to build their foundation and learn, regardless of what other people say.

Is whether or not I have enough time to play Pokemon