Wasted Continuum

I’ve had a long week and I really haven’t taken any good photos lately. Today, I decided to take another photowalk on Grand Avenue before dinner. I’ve walked and ran on Grand more times than I can count, but I haven’t really taken many photos.

After dinner and watching WALL-E, I decided to take another photowalk in downtown Saint Paul since I still had my camera with me. I don’t have that many night photos so I thought this was a good time for it.

Downtown Saint Paul
Grand Avenue

The first day of summer was beautiful. It was so sunny and hot, but not too hot. I took my camera out for a photowalk. I ended up going to Highland Park in Saint Paul. I wasn’t really inspired by much there. It’s mostly grass and trees. I got a couple cool plant life shots. I think my favorite shot was this spiral ladder at the playground set. I took a photo of it at a downward angle. I think it turned out quite well.

My Flickr
Highland Park Flickr set

Only made it 3.03 miles today. Just felt slow today. I may have burned out too fast.

Last week I was preoccupied by the Art Crawl. Most of my nights, I did not get enough sleep. This also meant that I didn’t have time to run. Today, I finally got back to my regiment and I’m still a little sluggish. Wasn’t completely bad. I only ran 3.02 miles. I didn’t have any major issues. My left ankle was a little sore, but it was okay.

I have officially survived my first photography showing at the Saint Paul Art Crawl this weekend. It’s been quite an experience. Everything went great. I got a couple inquiries on purchasing some of my photos. That’s always good to hear. I also had an interior designer ask me if I can shoot water towers and make poster size prints. The best thing about being at a gallery showing of your work is meeting people who are so excited and interested in your work. I heard a bunch of people make comments like “that’s nice” or “this one looks cool.” Those are great comments and I it good to hear that, but what I really loved are the people who were so intrigued that they had to flag me down and ask me a bunch of question about my photography. That’s the main reason why I put my photos out into the public. As long as I get people psyched about my work, I’ll keep doing it.

There are a few things I would have changed knowing what I know now. First thing is that I need to prepare a lot earlier. I literally left everything to the last week. Second, I should of prepared more support material (i.e. business cards, postcards, more informative website, etc.). Last, I think I should of promoted it a little more.

Overall, it was a great experience despite all the sleep deprivation. I also walked around the Art Crawl myself on Sunday. Saw quite of bit of great work. I’m sometimes fearful that art is not as strong as it used to. I’m feeling more that it is okay and that is good.

I have quite a bit of photos that I took from the whole weekend. I will slowly add the ones I like to my Flickr. I have a Art Crawl 2008 set created already.

I’m officially done with my little piece of the Art Crawl. It went way better than expected. I’ve learned so much from this experience. First is that it takes an immense amount of time to prepare for a photography showing and because of that, I’m way too tired tonight to tell you all about it. I will be exploring the Art Crawl for myself tomorrow afternoon, so I can talk about that too. I just poured the little bit of energy that I had left already into this and now I need my sleep. I took a lot of photos of the Art Crawl and I will be posting them on my Flickr account. I have already started a set for it. Right now I have some shots from my setup process. I will try to post more tomorrow. I also have a bunch of photos of my friend, Star, and her magic performance. Special thanks to her for letting me use part of her space for my showing.

Saint Paul Art Crawl Flickr set
Magician Star
Saint Paul Art Crawl