Alice Learns from the Red Queen

One of my favorite stories is "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There". I was inspired by the famous quip by the Red Queen to Alice about running as fast as you can just to stay in place, and going twice as fast as that to get anywhere. Many have used this as a metaphor for life, and I for one agree. I'm often exhausted by the end of the day, yet looking back it seems that I got nowhere fast!

Many falsely join the Looking Glass characters and storyline with Alice in Wonderland. Wonderland is based on a card game while Looking Glass is based on a chess game.

In this drawing I envision Alice and the Red Queen at the edge of the board, looking in and getting drawn into the vortex of the warped world Lewis Carroll created.

Clinton Square, Syracuse NY

100_1999.jpg, originally uploaded by gormandesignstudios.

This was taken June 2009 during the 'Taste of Syracuse' festival downtown Syracuse. The fountain (turned off, of course) becomes a skating rink in winter.

Syracuse has stunning architecture in the downtown and surrounding areas. Surely a future photo journalism project is in the cards.

Beaver Lake - September 2009

Beaver Lake Fall 2009-10, originally uploaded by gormandesignstudios.

Went on my first photoshoot with a buddy of mine from church. We hiked through Beaver Lake and initially looked for wildlife, but ended up shooting nature stills of the lake, woods, and fall folliage.

This is one of my favorites - a rotted stump with hazy sunlight haloing the woods, and casting highlights on the forest floor.

Southwick Beach Sunset - Lake Ontario

100_2592.jpg, originally uploaded by gormandesignstudios.

Here's a spritely gang of kids playing on the beach at the Golden Hour, about an hour before sunset.

webmeister Joe

I'm in week 3 of my Studio Computer Literacy class at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh-Online Division. It is more challenging than I originally thought it would be, having about 20+ years experience as a Systems Engineer at AT&T and Network Specialist at NCR plus various other sundry projects and odd jobs.

The course is a great overview of MS Office 2007 - Word, Excel, Powerpoint plus Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium featuring Acrobat, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Although a lot of the Office stuff is fairly easy to me right now, it is a new version so taking the class brings me up to date with that package. Adobe is new to me, so having that background will be a good skill set taking me forward.

Haven't decided what degree level to get yet - I have a BA in English so I'm thinking Diploma or maybe Associates. Time (and money) will tell.

I did a magazine cover style web page using Illustrator for one of my assignments. One of them I can't post yet because it's not due for a couple weeks. So I did a parody of a Dog Magazine that features stories and fotos of dogs and their shenanigans. I posted the cover here. What do you think?

If you are interested in the Art Institute or even Online classes in general, I'm happy to give you my $.02 if you like. Just ask :)

Becoming Photo Joe - From Start to Fart

I am still an amateur photographer after decades of playing with cameras. Film and digital. I never knew how to use a meter. Handheld or in-camera. My exposures were all over the place. Over and under. I decided the place to start would be learning about exposure and how to read meters. This is the first part of my story on how to use a meter. If you are a total expert, skip to the next section... somewhere else on the Internet that is more up to your speed. Whatever that is.