James "monotone" Augustine

So here's a photo from one of my assignments the other day. The photo is of James Augustine laughing at a question from an elementary student after reading a book to them. I"m just surprised the kids stayed awake for the length of the story. Augustine was more monotone than a robotic voice from your computer.

Don't get me wrong, he's a hell of a guy. Really nice and respectful. It was just nice for him to actually show up, unlike Dee Brown who yo can obviously see from the picture is not there. I almost feel bad for James. The goddamned parents were worst than the kids when he showed up.

One lady almost tripped him because she wanted to compare her size to his monstrous 6' 10" build. She snuck up behind while he was talking to someone else without even asking him and stood back to back with him. He backed up and stumbled a bit. The look he rigtfully gave her was like "who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing."

Now I say I almost feel bad for him because as I'm sure his celebrity stardom is burdensome I realize his first paycheck will be more than I'll see in several years as a photographer. So I guess if his arm cramps from signing a few hundred autographs at a time it's worth the millions he'll make. At least his back won't kill him when he gets home because he's been lugging around 2-3 pound Nikon cameras, a bag containing a 3 or 4 pound 80-200 mm lens, and two other bags containing a dyna-lite system in each othem probably each weighing over 5 pounds.

I must say I love little children. They kind of put people like James in their place. Especially when they ask what sport he play, or when they ask what team he plays for and my ultimate favorite, "Who won the Final Four last year?" Absolutely classic moment. James grinds his teeth and finally answered the young kid with North Carolina.

I also got to go up on the grid today in Assembly Hall. We've been having problems with a strobe so me and RK had to go up and look at it. I have to say I held myself pretty good for being up over a hundred feet suspended on steel grates by cables. I wanted to take pictures, but you have to empty your pockets of all unnecessary items and take off all things like cameras. Safety precautions are a bitch. If I ever get a chance to shoot photos of it again I will though for sure.

New Blog!

I started a new seperate blog today. This one will always be my personal random blog dealing with stuff in my life and the other one is a blog focusing on the Champaign/Urbana scene. It will have commentary on music, shows, art exhibits and basically anything there is to do in the Champaign area. Once a week I will post the weeks events and probably tell you what to expect. I will try to profile bands and events whenever possible. So head on over, take a quick look and expect for an update on it soon. By the way, I know the name is horrible. If you have any good suggestions let me know asap.

The Chambana Scene

Layer Masks

Isn't my fiance beautiful. This is the new desktop to my computer.



Now this may not be any shocking news to anyone, but Layer Masks are wonderful for artsy things in photoshop. Here's one I did with a photo of Steph I took last weekend. I really like the way the blue in her eye pops out from the black and white. Most likely I will probably do some more photos like this. In fact I'm going to try and do one with Caity for her and Derek's wedding later this week. I want to make sure I can do it properly. I really like this photo. I thought the lighting coming in from the window was really nice. I wish there was something else really colorful that I could lighten up, but this works for now.

Don't worry, I'm not dead!

This photo pretty much sums up my life right now. Early mornings, coffee, carrying around the News-Gazette mug (company mandated while in the office for beverages) and the bananas show my healthy lifestyle.

I am alive! I know the few of you that read this have been disappointed, but at the same time most of you probably know my situation. I just moved into a new apartment thanks to Derek and Caity in Champaign. I started my internship this week at the News-Gazette. It's going really good. Darrell and the crew have been very generous by sharing their knowledge. I'm learning a lot about lighting right now from John Dixon.

Living arrangements are going good. I think Caity and Derek have had time to adjust to me living here now so I hope I'm not a bother. I've been watching seasons 1,2,3 and 6 of Seinfeld due to lack of my cable. I've drank more coffee this week than I have in the past 12 months, but I feel like I've lost at least 5 pounds. As soon as I find a scale I will fill you in on how my resolutions are going. The news article part probably hasn't been the best, but getting better.

I finally have internet back, but it took a lot of work with routers and modems being the source of the problem. Anyway, I've decide to start a new blog. This one will be focused on the Champaign music scene. Not sure on the name of it yet, but I will blog on here about it as soon as I get the chance.

I have one more blog to do before I go to bed. I have a picture of Steph that I think is really cool that I altered today with the use of Layer Masks. Chris Marquardt did a podcast about layer masks on his 'Tips from the Top Floor Show.' It's something I'm going to try and do with Derek and Caity's wedding as well. I'll do the other blog when I get off the phone with Steph.