Chronicles of a Hopeless Wanderer: June 2014

This week, I thought I’d give you a look at what I’ve been doing in my photography class. The class is emphasizing digital photography, and actually takes place completely online. The main thing that I’m not a big fan of about this class being online is that there’s no actual instruction taking place. The teacher just tells us what the assignments are but doesn’t really tell us how or give us many pointers. So basically everything I’ve done I either learned from a short tutorial from my uncle, or taught myself. One thing I do like is that I know a couple of my classmates in “real life”, so that’s cool.

In this post, I’m going to post all the photos I’ve submitted for the first 5 weeks of the class, which is one project per week. I still have two more projects left for the semester and I’ll post those photos after the semester is over.

Project 1: The Rule of Thirds

Bonaire, GA

James, Bonaire, GA

Waldo, Birmingham, AL

Project 2: Lines

Painting at the ArtPark, Albany, GA

Sasser, GA

Warner Robins, GA

Project 3: Roadside Architecture and Signs

Alabama Theatre sign, Birmingham, AL

The light tunnel in Birmingham, AL

First State Bank building in Dawson, GA

Project 4: Street photography

KJ, Albany, GA

Little girl, Albany, GA

Fisherman, Albany, GA

Jason, Albany, GA

Project 5: Portraits

My boyfriend, Seth, in the light tunnel in Birmingham, AL

Seth, Birmingham, AL

My brother, Matthew, on the side of I-75 near Warner Robins, GA

Geremy working in the ArtPark, Albany, GA

My dad, Banks, Albany, GA

Same girl from project 4, Albany, GA

So far, I've gotten As on all of my projects (well, project 5 is yet to be graded, but I feel pretty good about it). I hope you've enjoyed them!

I would like to welcome you to the new and revamped version of Chronicles of a Hopeless Wanderer. A lot has happened and changed in the past 4 months since my last post. In January, I started taking some art classes at Darton State College to start on a certificate program. I met a new dude and we’ve started dating, and entered into new territory for both of us: the long distance relationship. It kinda sucks to only get to see each other in person once, MAYBE twice a month, but Skype, Facebook messenger, texting, and phone calls have been very helpful. But this revamp is not about my new relationship, it’s about the discovering of some hidden talents that I wasn’t sure I actually had.

My whole life, up until the last couple of months, I always thought of music as being my “thing”. You know, everyone has their “thing”, their talent, that one thing that they’re good at. I thought music was mine. And I guess it still is. But while I was in college (the first time around), double majoring in music and theatre, there wasn’t much time to explore anything else. Being in the fine arts, I’ve obviously always had an appreciation for the arts, and visual art. But I’ve never really had the time or (money for) materials to do much art myself. This past spring semester, I took 3 art classes: ceramics, design, and computer art. I did take a ceramics class my first time through college, so I already knew what I was doing a little bit. But I was amazed at how much I really enjoyed the classes I was taking, and that I wasn’t half bad at it either. I ended up winning first place in the student art show in the ceramics/3D arts category. I was completely blown away by that. This summer I’m taking an independent study in ceramics, and digital photography online. I’m about halfway through the summer semester, and I’m really enjoying these classes too. Especially photography.

I’ve always enjoyed photography as a hobby. In high school, in the days before the iPhone even existed, I was always the one who had a digital camera to document whatever silly or crazy thing was going on. But I was never super serious about it. As I’ve gotten older, and obtained an iPhone, I would take photos and think a little more about setting up the photo: finding a focal point, using good lighting, etc… The creation and implementation of Instagram into our daily lives has made a lot of people into amateur photographers. Fortunately because of my photography class, I was required to get a real camera, you know, something that doesn’t have a lower case “i” in front of it. So now I have a “legit” camera and have been taking photos of anything and everything, trying to learn what settings are best for whatever environment I’m shooting in. I love it. I feel like I’ve taken some really awesome photos already.

So, this is the point of this revamp. This blog will now be a place where I can showcase my work. I’ll be posting photos that I’ve taken that I really like, photos from my photography class assignments, photos of my ceramic pieces that I’ve completed or am working on, and graphic design work that I’ve done. This is mainly a creative outlet for me, but it’s also sort of a professional portfolio, if anyone would like to hire me to create something for them or buy any pieces.

I hope to be posting a lot more often with this new concept, probably weekly. I hope you enjoy! If you see anything you like and might want to purchase or want to commission something, please contact me at mlhaley225@gmail.com.

Below is just a taste of what's to come!