Documenting epic fails

You need to fail in order to succeed

We all love talking about our success.

That’s not a bad thing.

On the other hand, there’s nothing wrong with failure. We cannot succeed without it.

Thomas A. Edison once said:

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.

So, from now on, I’ve decided to start documenting my failures to keep track of my progress.

I’ll start by sharing some pictures that I took for my Photo class. I had to demonstrate how the panning effect works.

There’s two epic fails and one small win.

Fail 1

Fail 2

Small win

Making mistakes is part of human nature.

Portraits and Accomplishments

Jim Carson

Last week I talked about how challenging it can be to shoot portraits, especially when approaching strangers.

I went for it two days ago, and I met Jim Carson.

I spotted him around the Core Shopping Centre. He was smoking while sitting on a bench.

So I told him that I was working on a project for my photography class; I needed help, blah, blah.

He said: “yeah, I can help. Do you want me to remove my clothes?”
“No, it’s okay. It’s a cold day,” I replied.

After taking the pictures, the conversation kept going. That was pretty cool because I really felt I was overcoming my fear.

He’s from New Brunswick, but has been living in Calgary for a while. Even when he already knows what to expect from the weather, he still struggles to adapt.

Jim constantly asked if I’ll do Photography for a living. I said that I’m looking for the balance between writing, photography and design.

He wished me luck and said that if he could take a course on something, that’d be on photography. He’s thinking about it.

If that happens, he hopes our paths cross again to take each other’s pictures.

I hope so, too. That would be awesome.

Portraits and Challenges

New photography challenge: shooting portraits

On November 13th, I’m turning in a Photo assignment that involves portraits.

I must confess that this is challenging for me.

It’s difficult to approach strangers with a professional camera in hand. I feel they’re going to ask me to go away.

Actually, that happened a couple of weeks back. I was at a mall and introduced myself to a guy who had finished lunch. He was sitting at a table checking messages on his cell phone.

He didn’t even reply. He was just letting me speak.

When I told him that I wanted to take his picture, he stood up and said: “no, no, no…if you want, I can go sit somewhere else. Take a picture of someone else.”

That felt weird. I was amazed at how negative his response was. A single “no” was enough.

It’s an experience, anyway. Some people will say yes; some people will say no.
One moves on, right?

Now that I have this assignment, I wonder what’s in store for me.

Yes, I’ll approach strangers. I have to overcome this.
Yes, I’ll do so on my own.

I’ll let you know what happens, and hopefully I will post those pictures here.

Photo Credit: Benjamin Combs at unsplash.com

The Beakerhead Experience

I recently heard about Beakerhead and found it very interesting.

I truly believe that art and science can be combined, and it’s possible to do so through creativity.

Intrude, by Australian artist Amanda Parer, was the event that caught my attention because of its huge rabbits. I have a story on why it was important for me to capture that exhibition: it all started last month when my roommate and I spotted a couple of rabbits behind the building where we live. We both stared at them while they stared back completely frightened by our presence. I was amazed.

“Haven’t you seen a rabbit before?”, she asked. “Not in a city!”, I replied. Eventually, one of the rabbits jumped away to feel safer. I don’t blame him, we looked like giants in his eyes.

So when I saw these huge rabbits at Central Memorial Park, the roles certainly changed: now they were giants, and us humans were small. Imagine if they were for real…we would run away too, right?!

This is why Intrude is so brilliant. Humans and rabbits share some space in the city and it’s essential to learn to co-exist.

Here’s a few pictures I took with my brand new camera.

If you see a rabbit, be friendly

Majestic

Let him be

We inhabit the same city

Who’s the giant now?

Let’s respect nature.

Alice

Hello World

New beginnings

Welcome to The Collector

Every week I’m trying to post content related to all the things that inspire me as well as experiences on my journey as a Journalism student.

Since I’ve been taking a Photography course, I’ve also tried to share some of the pictures I’ve taken and what happened while working on them.

There are more ideas on the way. Each day is a new opportunity to discover interests, write about them and experience them somehow. Change and curiosity are constant in life.

The Collector is a blog that’s meant to work as a portfolio, but I’m convinced I can take it further. I want to document my progress as a storyteller, photographer, observer, philosopher and citizen of the world.

Life is a journey, and I’m looking forward to sharing what I’ve been collecting in it so far.

Photo Credit: Dustin Lee at unsplash.com