The Shape of Things to Come

I am beginning a project on a group women who call themselves, The Sassie Seniors, and oh yes, they are quiet sassy.

Storm Watch

Storm Watch, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Hannah Huggins, fiance of my soon to be former roommate, Conner Walker, watches the weather as she checks the radio while her father installs window shutters on their home.

Road School

Road School, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Christina Carrera, left, learns about the life and impact of Rosa Parks during a tour of the Civil Rights Museum with fellow child actors of the South Pacific cast currently performing at the Orpheum. While the young actors receive schoolwork regularly from a traveling tutor, their schedules are much different from those of normal elementary and middle-schoolers. In addition to keeping up with schoolwork, they must adapt to new cities and time zones, stay in touch with family and friends and find the time to be a kid.

Side note: When shooting in very low light museum situations, it helps to utilize the TV station's video light while they are shooting b-roll.

Pump It!

Pump It!, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Gavin Steadman of Olive Branch, MS. learns how to function a manual water pump at Our Family Farm, in DeSoto County. Our Family Farm put on a family farm festival to celebrate National Agriculture Day with demonstrations of farm techniques and technologies both past and present.

Mayer

I wish I had some profound witticism about covering John Mayer, but I don't. All I have to say it's cool to have the kind of access my job provides. Out of the estimated 11,500 in attendance, I could feel the pining to have my spot in the pit from 9,000 something girls aching to be physically close to Mayer. The remaining 2,500 were guys hoping by taking a girl to a John Mayer concert would ultimately receive some kind of "thank you" by the night's end. Still, I bet they probably wondered what it would be like to stand at the stage as they passed the time. One guy on the front row did reach out and touch the stage. That must have been a profound moment for him that I probably shouldn't mock. I hope he really likes the texture of carpet because that's all it was and not tell him he could have the same experience in a Home Depot or Lowe's.

My opinion still stands of concert photography being gratuitous. I think only one or two people in the world can truly make interesting concert photos. Or maybe I was a little hurt when a friend told me that another mutual friend, whom I won't drop their name, sorry, didn't "Follow Friday" me on their Twitter account of cool concert photographers. So much pain....ow. Maybe one day I will be a cool concert photographer and be followed. Oops! Don't have a twitter. Looks like I fail.

Spring Mix

Some photos of Spring I shot for the CA.

The Force was not with me

Saturday I had an assignment to cover a Comic Convention in Mississippi. I was looking forward to it because I thought a place where hobbits, stormtroopers, Klingons, zombies, and comic book heroes gathered would be a very visual experience. Maybe it was my insomnia from the night before or the weather zapping everyone's energy, but I really felt I failed on this assignment. Ironically, I was probably regarded as the most freakish person there, because I was armed with a camera and didn't want anyone to pose for me. I walked away with something that more or less worked of a zombie family shopping for little rubber ducks dressed in human clothes, but it felt just eh, passable. My advice to shooting a comic convention, Don't chase Klingons. Find something that's like a bug zapper for nerds, like the sword replica booth or the Harry Potter wand replica booth, and camp out. I wish I did. I think Gandalf was running the sword booth. Next time. These are a couple images I got from the assignment. I'm not a big fan of them, but in hindsight and attaching some Wikipedia definitions, found some mild humor from them.

deadpool's dayjob, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Wikipedia's summary of Deadpool:

"Deadpool is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. A disfigured and mentally unstable mercenary, Deadpool is famous for his tendency to break the fourth wall and is frequently referred to by the moniker 'Merc with a Mouth.'"

And apparently sells cuddly monkeys on the side. His sales pitch could use some work.

This guy wants to be taken seriously?, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Here's the chain of events:

Enter myself: strolling along this comic convention, look for an interesting image. See clone trooper looking at art.

Camera clicks (clone notices me too quickly, I miss the moment)

Clone: [Quite seriously] um, was I in your shot.

Me: Um, no. [Despite the fact I was four feet away and pointing the camera right at him, I was obviously way more interested in the dragon over his shoulder. Clearly.]

Clone: okay....good.

Exit Clone.

India Video

GMF India from Kyle Kurlick on Vimeo.

Okay, so essentially why I went to India in October was to produce this project for the organization, Global Ministries Fellowship, GMF. It was my first time to pick up video in about 2 1/2 years, so it's a little clunky here and there. Also, I went over to India not 100% sure of what was going to come from what I gathered and it's really a combination of a couple things I discussed with GMF rolled together. It's things like this I hope to do more of in the future and get more opportunity to refine my ability with this kind of storytelling.

To make a long story short, I have experienced a lot of trouble making this project on a technical level and I am very happy its over. I would especially like to thank Mr. Ben Cole for helping me solve my problems. Also, I would like to say that my opinion of Apple's customer service was tarnished by this experience when they ultimately refused to help me by ignoring me mid-dialogue when I was trying to set up an appointment with their Final Cut person. Shame on you Apple! I have always been such a big fan too. Well, this is it. Please feel free to critique it. I embrace critiques. I couldn't imagine why people only want to get patted on the back and not have a legitimate chance to grow. Also, video isn't my thing and I feel it's important to get better at it.

Wedding Stuff

B&W Wedding 1, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

B&W Wedding 2, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

B&W Wedding 3, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

Bride Dana, originally uploaded by lightwriter27.

As of late, I have been in editing mode on things like videos of trips that have caused me great mental pains and finishing weddings and updating my site, and I felt that it I would post a sampler of things that I did for weddings in late '09. The first photo made it to my web site, I like the toning on it so I thought I would re-post it here. The other three did not make the cut, but I felt they deserved to have at least a blog appearance. I usually don't post wedding stuff on my blog. I honestly don't know why since it is part of my freelancer lifestyle, so maybe I'll be better in 2010 of showing the larger spectrum of work I've been doing.