why HEEEELLLLLOOOO there..

Hey guys!

As promised, my once a week update shall continue.

This past week I had my first assignment due for photojournalism, we did landscapes (one urban/cityscape and one ruralscape).  After review, our professor wanted the class to re-do the assignment, but said we started off stronger then last years class.  Basically, we sucked? Solid start.

Here are my photographs. My re-dos will provide much more to look at I am hoping...but enjoy these for now:

Urban/Cityscape:

Ruralscape:

The second one is purposefully dark because of the impending storm. I really wanted to emphasize the clouds.  I also loved these yellow flowers and how even with darkened stems, the flowers were still vibrant.  My main focus though was to do something dynamic with the blue covered boat in the distance.  I used it as my focal point, but I'm honestly not satisfied with this final shot.  I'll keep you guys posted on the new shots for the next assignment.

My other photography class is Advanced Illustrative Photography and that is on Mondays so due to the holiday we didn't have class, BUT these are the pictures that we had due that we will be reviewing today!  We had to do portraits and objects.

Object:

Portraits:

Model: Elizabeth Reyes

Model: Camille Malkiewicz

Lastly, I had an awesome opportunity to shoot for Newshouse on Friday, the online Newhouse Magazine.  Broadways, The Lion King, came to Syracuse and I got to photograph it!

There are tons of these, so visit the website and see the header "Syracuse Publications". 

As for the weekend, I was feeling pretty crappy so I took it easy and didn't do a whole lot.  I am hoping to have a crafty weekend sometime soon so I can give you guys new tutorials and fun projects to try at home.  But for now its just pictures.  : D

Here is an awesome architectural find...you can sleep here, but its not your house! Enjoy

http://www.dezeen.com/2011/09/12/sleepbox-01-by-arch-group/

Peace, Love and Photos,

R

2 posts in 1 day!?! It must be Christmas

Yes Christmas came early this year.  I am posting twice in one day. Contain yourselves.

My website is officially up and running. Pardon the unprofessional URL as I am still considering options for a domain name.

ryanshanley.weebly.com

There is an option to leave comments on the home page so if you have an idea for what my URL should be, let me know!

Peace, Love & Photos,

R

Start to the Season

HELLOOOO There.

So I've been receiving some complains about my lack of posting lately. GOD ONLY KNOWS WHY since the last time I posted was July 5th...come on people that was recently...no it wasn't. Thats a lie.

So myself and fellow grad schoolers have made a pact to post at least once a week and we will start posting about topics were interested in, school assignments and weekly on-goings for friends at home and were hoping to keep each other accountable.  Heres to hoping everyone posted this week...*note my effort in "keeping them accountable* I'll try harder next week.

So this past week was our first official week here at Newhouse.  The temperature has been a lovely 65-72 degrees and has allowed me to walk to class, take long drives with the windows down and brag to my family back home who are currently enduring 107 degree days in Texas.  I recently visited home and while I loved seeing my friends and hanging out with the fam, I was in no way, shape, or form bummed about leaving that weather...

Anyhow back to school, this semester I will be taking an advanced photo illustration class, a media law class (winning), and a photojournalism class (photoj when we feel the need to be snobbishly cool about how we refer to our class) with non other then the former editor and chief of National Geographic, Tom Kennedy (now when I say winning Im not being sarcastic, winning in deed!!)

Our schedules are already jam packed with exciting assignments like media law reading and tonight I am shooting a "Jersey Shore" themed party put on by the school for Newshouse, a campus publication.  There really isn't a whole lot of super exciting school things going on, OH BUT, my camera is finally in the shop and getting fixed and I should have him back this week : ) So happy!

As for current life/creative things....

I went shopping this weekend with Camille, Liz and Zoha and while we were at TJMaxx I found a Micheal Kohrs winter white heavy full pea coat for.....$59. No, I'm not lying. Yes, you should be jealous. Soooo excited :)


Crafty news...I just finally hung up all of my jewelry and I did a jewelry collage on my wall...take a look!  I also bought this WAY OVER SIZED clock that I hung above my bed...$29 at (yes you guessed it) Home Goods...my favorite store.

Yes I realize that Im a photographer and my picture isn't straight, but I took this with my MAC so cut me some slack.

I also made that shelf with Mrs. Cienna Smith. We nailed two pieces of 2x4s together, screwed "O" hooks into the top piece to hang on the wall and modge podged the pieces of wood to our liking.  Turned out cute!





This is the over sized clock above my bed.  It actually works too : )  Now lets hope it doesn't fall one night and kill me.  Neat.

 These are some shelves I made that I hung above my TV for dvds and accesories. This is when my grandmother says..."You've been nesting". She's right (again..) but I like to feel comfortable in my space and I like to build things which equals decorating time. Sorry Im not Sorry.









Here is another picture so you can see how they are
"corner" shelves.  Again, my apologies for the pictures.

So on other news, I have started working on my website. I think I am going to open it today or tomorrow for the public to see. There are still a few tabs that are "coming soon", but for the most part the links have a bit for you to look at.

I hope everyone is doing well and had a lovely week. Enjoy the holiday tomorrow!

Peace, Love and Photos,

R

First Day of Class

Ok guys...sorry its been a while!

I know I didn't update on New York yet, but Im going to move forward and talk about our Orientation Day...otherwise I will forever feel behind and not update at all. Now thats just silly : )

Hokay so...

I have arrived in Syracuse and its BEAUTIFUL. All the buildings are old and gothic cathedral style.  Having an undergrad in architectural design, I couldn't be happier being surrounded by these buildings!

Moving on.

So Kia left on Sunday morning (so stinking sad without her) and I finally bought my mattress!! I was over charged and it was bullshit, but I was sleeping on a mattress topper for 4 days so I said to hell with it and handed over my debit card.

I then got to meet the LOVELY Lauren Smart (can I "@" that so it tags her?...still new to blogging) Any way, turns out we're a match made in heaven and she is perfect in every way, no homo.  So being good little Dallas girls (woooooo Dallas shout out!!) we got lunch....at Chipotle.  We realized that Chipotle, Jimmy Johns, Starbucks and the AWESOME bagel place are all 2 minutes from Newhouse. Even BETTER, JJs delivers....what up LATE NIGHT.  Alas, my wallet won't be happy...whats new?

So after yummy Chipotle, we went shopping because we both like to decorate and make out place feel homey...what does one think of for home goods? HOME GOODS!  <-- see what I did there...eh? eh?

Anyhow, so I bought this UH-MAZING Pillow...  its the LARGE one in the middle.  Its not a great picture, but it'll do for now.  P.S. Thats my bed and my MATTRESS...you cant see it, but let me tell you...that doesn't take away from how exciting it is.


I also got a few fake flowers and a lamp for my desk, which I built because I couldn't find anything I liked enough... pictures to come on that.

Basically Lauren and I bonded over our love of oversized pillows and realized that we should have wine nights where we sit on said pillows, drink, chat, watch movies and chill...so excited.

So she gets stuff, I get stuff, we bond. Its lovely, really. Then I get to Lauren's place and come up with 9868757576897968 projects to do.  I'm not sure when I think I am going to do these projects, but whatever...we were still excited about the ideas.

We then made dinner...bonded more and I decided I made a new life friend : ) Super happy with this one!


THEN!!!!!

Excited aren't you?

Try and contain yourself....

ok!

CAMILLE RETURNS FROM THE CITY!!!!  I was a little worried about moving in with girls I had never met before and now I know why...just kidding : )  This girl and I have 87 things in common....turns out shes life friend number 2 and what does one immediately think of in this situation?  LIFE FRIENDS SHOULD MEET!!! Annnnd so they do.  These two girls are going to be my life lines here and I couldn't be happier. : )

Now...On to today, my orientation!

I walk with Camille from our house (about 30 minute walk...so very similar to my walk at A&M). We meet Lauren and a few of her AJ girls ( Arts Journalism) at Starbucks, get our coffee and walk the two minutes to Newhouse.  Orientation consists of walking in, receiving a packet, getting your picture taken...or in my case, stubbing your toe to high hell in front of everyone...then attempting to hold it together for a picture.  Followed by getting a "free iPod Touch" and a Newhouse water bottle.  Lets just clarify...I'm paying how much to go here and they want to tell me this shit is "free"...really Syracuse?  Lets be real...

Then there are a few speakers, shout out to Chris Hamilton, entrepreneur genius who made a great speech.  Followed by a dumb trivia session, then we dismissed for lunch..which was actually pretty tasty!  Camille, Lauren (who actually bailed for the longest cookie break ever...) and I sat next to Joel Kaplan who is the Newhouse dean.  He was friendly and not as daunting as I thought...solid guy.

After lunch the 3 of us decided to get our student IDs.  OK so lets go over a quick camera lesson that anyone knows....photographer or not.  NO ONE LOOKS GOOD FROM A PICTURE TAKEN BELOW.  Example...my picture was taken from below eye level and I therefore have 2 chins on my ID, sa-weet. Not.

After ID failure, we went back to Newhouse for our program advising. For photography, we did a group orientation session and went over our websites, advertisitn, branding ourselves, color options, etc.  So more on that to come! Very interesting.  I have some cool friends in my program, Brian Brister, Peter Caty and Kristina Subsara. All so cute, super sweet people. Yay photo friends!

So Peter, Kristina and I all have similar goals in the photojournalism world...wanting to do news media story telling and travel everywhere.  Solid people.

So after a long chat outside of Newhouse with good people, I meet up with Camille and we walk home.

My day ends with Camille taking me to the gym, KICKING MY ASS, then us going to the store, buying AMAZING groceries, cooking dinner, assembling my bed/mattress and cleaning up around the house!

Now I am blogging to you lovely people :)  Sorry if this was long, but there are some people reading who I don't ever get to see and they want lots of details (shout out to LK!!)...the rest of you?

Deal with it.

Love you all! Miss you all!

Peace, Love and Photos

R

Day de DC...now THATS some alliteration....

First off...sorry we haven't had a chance to update!  The hotel we stayed at in DC charges for internet....apparently nice hotels can do that.  Cool.

But let me back up, I'm getting a head of myself. *clears throat*  So we left Nashville, womp womp, and drove the 12 hours it took to get to DC.  So Tennessee is pretty, dont get me wrong...we had some rolling hills and great vistas to look at, but then we arrived in Virginia.  Tennessee quickly because the ugly step child.  So here is how our conversation went for 12 hours:

R: Dude, Kia LOOK...
K: OH MY GODDDD, How BEAUTiful (trying to give you an idea of emphasis here people....)
R: I know right...this will probably never get old...

K: Dude! Oh my goddd...
R: O wow! Geez...this is so NICE
K: what a great drive

ok now add 12 hours of the same talk...IT REALLY NEVER GOT OLD!

Enough Talk...I'll just show you :)

So like I said...our road trip = The Bomb . Com <-- yes I just said that. deal with it.

So after the greatest landscapes ever...we arrived in DC!  We stayed at the the Hyatt Regency at Capitol Hill (freaking whoop....kind of)

So the great thing about this hotel is that we were 2, let me repeat, TWO, blocks from the capitol (just in case you didn't read what the hotel was called...) Our rooms were very nice and our breakfast my have been the best breakfast I've ever had...like...in my life.  MINUS my grandmothers chocolate chip pancakes...because I swear she cooks them in crack...different story for a different day.

So we get to our hotel room and Kia and I are really excited. Then we find out we have to pay for internet...BOOO.  Alas, we prevail and decide lets go out...whatever Hyatt.

We attempt to "pre-game" with Miller light in an ice bucket....fail. But hey, can't say we didn't try.  So as we are getting ready we get this knock on our door...no, we were not expecting anyone.  Load and be hold its security telling us we've received a noise complaint and we need to be more quiet.  LETS REVIEW SHALL WE....


(1 hr earlier)...
Wow, awesome room....
Dude ya...this is great (apparently we say dude a lot, glad were 13 yr old boys circa late 90s)
*Turns on TV to normal sound level of any reasonable human being*
Begin to put on make up...which any girl knows requires looking into a mirror and making a really large "O" shape with your mouth while you go your mascara...i.e. NO NOISE.
If ANYONE can figure out where our noise complaint came from...feel free to let me know...


Moving on...so we go out.  Freaking Word.  We meet up with one of Kia's boys, Cedric and go to this cool area in DC for the "youngins".  Basically we have a BADASS night in DC.  We go back to the hotel to chill...the 3 of us are chatting.  For those of you who know me...I can be loud. I'm WELL aware of this. I am also able to admit when Im being loud...I know loud WELL.   Apparently the 3 of us were too loud and along comes noise complaint 2.  Our definitions of "loud" and our neighbors are very different...So what does one do in a noise complaint conundrum?  A NOISE COMPLAINT WAR.

So a trip to security is had...we move rooms and LETS JUST SAYYYYY, there were no more noise complaints.


So our day in DC was filled with Smithsonian Museums, the National Mall, The Washington Monument, the Lincoln Statue, and the White House....By the by....we definitely walked ALL of that.  Kia's sandals were not "walking long distance" friendly...basically we weren't happy campers by the end of it = LONG ASS NAP IN THE HOTEL.

Ok So the next day is a lot of travel to NYC and thats where have been the last few days. You will get that update tomorrow!

Peace, Love & Photos

R/K
 :)

DAY DE NASHVILLE

As the previous post announced....

Today Kia and I went es..ploring in Nashville.

First we got lunch at Ted's...nice place known for bison. I got my first bison burger and I must say...it wasn't a whole hell of a lot different, but still tasty.  On our way back from Ted's (we parked our car elsewhere at the next place you will read about) we noticed a LARGE pole on the ground...we tagged this one:

OOPS..

Then we went to the Parthenon at Centennial Park and originally assumed we'd be there for all of 5 minutes because we are far too cheap to pay to go inside....instead we were there for 3 1/2 hours....we made our own fun courtesy of obnoxious photo shoots...see below. You're Welcome.

Because who the hell travels without taking a solid "jumping pic"?  You're welcome Chris.

Kia & Mr. Arnold Palmer...

Having a good time...

I'm realllllly excited here...

Ok so there are tons more HILARIOUS pictures...you will get those when we get home.  

Peace Love & Photos..

R/K

Pictures from the Rooooooaaaaaadddd.....

HOKAY SO..

As we arrived in Tennessee, we were welcomed with a lovely sign. Thanks TN.

Here are some lovely images of downtown TN via my phone...so no bitching about the blurriness...I tried.

SO we continued to drive, after driving a lot already...then we drove some more and after a copious amount of driving we then drove a little longer and ALAS we reached NASHVILLE where we decided...hey we just drove 12 hours, but whatever lets explore.

For those of you who were concerned...yes I got a Shiner when we went downtown.  A toast to Nashville:

And because we know you miss our faces...

We Love you!

R/K....more on Day de Nashville...2 "days" you wish you were that clever....