Tonight I took a very challenging International Economics test. Some of these test, even when I do very well, make me feel down. I don’t always know how well I did and Economics is especially difficult. So to turn that down around I am going to post a couple of portraits that focus on other peoples achievements. These two portraits are of my cousins Joe and Brittany.

The first portrait, even thought it is technically flawed in a couple of ways, is one of my favorites because of the motion. I think motion is a very apt sentiment for this photo. I took it in May when he graduated from High school with some college credit. When he entered University this year at the age of 17 he was already technically a sophomore. His first year of University is also my last, so that reminds me of my work I have done and the work he has yet to do. Motion, describes this photo very well. The last couple of posts the theme of simple backgrounds has come up. This one has a brightly colored background but it is abstracted due to the motion blur. This photo was hand held at 300mm with a shutter speed of 1/13th of a second. I should not have been able to have anything approaching a sharp photo. I was lucky with it. The background is completly unphotoshopped. The panning and the shutter speed created this effect. This was the photo of the day on May 6, 2007

The next portrait is of one of my other cousins, Brittany. This photo was the photo of the day on July 7, 2007. I don’t think it is very clear in the photo, but she was playing the piano and I have a wonderful photo of her hands on the keys here. She is a very talented player and I think very highly of her.

Writing this post made me feel better, so I will treat you to the story of the high point of my day. After a discussion on our philosophy papers this afternoon, my philosophy professor mentioned how highly he thought of our class as a group. To give an example he mentioned when one of his friends from Grad School was giving a talk on the Infinite Regress and one of his students asked a very smart, well thought out question about a possible trilemma. He said he was proud as a professor that one of his students asked such a great question.

It was my question.

Tags: College, Economics, Family, Graduation, Hands, High School, NaBloPoMo '07, Photography, Photoshop, Piano, Portrait, Trilemma