Uploads from coreyweekley, with geodata

363.365 : under

nobody@flickr.com (coreyweekley) — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 22:10:57 -0800

We've made it up to the cabin after a daunting ride in to Big Bear. The recent storms have made the the roads a fun little adventure. Despite the freezing landscape, the cabin is big and cozy and warm.

This is my third to last shot of my 365. I'm starting to feel anxious about it ending. You do something for so long that the routine and the creative craziness is comforting. You learn to love the the time limitations and the panic that sets in when you dont have an idea. I'm worried that the big old world on the other side of my lens is going to swallow me up if I don't stay in my little viewfinder kingdom.

I wonder if there are support groups for those who have completed their Project365 and need to talk about their feelings since they quit. I hear that it's a hard habit to kick. But as I slowly creep back into a life beyond 365, I will carry with me the many introspective discoveries I've made and keep the friends that got me through.

I think Red said it best in that one movie about prison (you know which one I'm talking about) :
"These walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That's institutionalized."

Corey was here.

364.365 : different

nobody@flickr.com (coreyweekley) — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 22:11:06 -0800

coreyweekley posted a photo:

I won't quote the entire monologue, but I will say this : "Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently."

When I started this, I did have a goal in mind. Forget what I've said in the past, the goal was simple and short. My goal was to break out of my traditional way of thinking and be one of the ones who finds new ways to shoot and capture an idea. I didn't want traditional photos. I didn't want boring shots. I wanted a subject and an idea present in every one of my shots. I wanted to explore with styles, bend my paradigms, and get way outside my comfort zone. I wanted to reinvent myself 365 times and see if I could keep the core ideology of who I am and who I was.

In that regard, I succeed. I committed to something that I knew appeared easy but turned out to be frustratingly complex. A photo a day of yourself is an undertaking that shouldn't be burdened lightly. As I sit here, one day and one photo away from the end, I have to toast all those 365ers who came before me and those who will come after me.

This life is a journey. No one can tell you how to walk it and at what pace. Learn all you can about yourself and the emotions and ideas you want to express. My Project365 taught me about what kind of photographer I want to become. It also taught me about what kind of person I should continue to be.

Commit to making your life better. If it's going to the gym, then commit to it. If it's speaking up for yourself, then commit to it. If it's taking a photo of yourself for 365 days, then commit to it.

It won't be easy, but it'll be the greatest present you can ever give yourself.

307.365 : line

nobody@flickr.com (coreyweekley) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 21:08:04 -0700

coreyweekley posted a photo:

Well, I missed it.

After yesterday's memory card mishap, the sunsets have officially outrun me and my mini. I floored it to get to the valley in time, but the sun dropped too far down the sky to light up all of the clouds with that fire red hue. The night is slowly taking over and after this sunday, I'm going to have to start shooting during my work hours or everyone is just going to get night shots from here on out.

There is a fine line between the shot you get and the shot you want. That fine line is luck.

I did get a few shots on my way here and the sky was absolutely on fire. I'll post those tomorrow. But it got me thinking about how much luck actually comes into play with any photo. So many factors have to go into your shot. So each shot you take is unique to that exact moment in time. You can never recreate any shot. You can come close, but there will never be a moment like in your shot.

Savor every moment you have a chance to experience because it can never be repeated.

223.365 : gear

nobody@flickr.com (coreyweekley) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:27:31 -0700

coreyweekley posted a photo:

Stuck in traffic and enjoying the late afternoon sun. Light has a way of presenting itself to you, and I was lucky enough to have my camera in my passenger seat (what, that's not strange, it always rides there). Cars and cameras can teach us. Know your gear, work your gear, and the gear will take you places.

Sure, that's kind of a lame analogy, but think about where you can go. Both physically and with your photography. The more you keep your camera with you, the more you search for opportunities when you travel.

Know your gear.

Queen of the sand

nobody@flickr.com (coreyweekley) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 22:11:22 -0800

coreyweekley posted a photo:

365.365 : until

nobody@flickr.com (coreyweekley) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 19:41:25 -0800

coreyweekley posted a photo:

It has been a long and wondrous journey, my friends. And while yesterday's photo was my official chronological "bow to the crowd as the curtain closes", this is a simple thank you to all of those people who had joined me on these travels. All of you are responsible for my success in getting through this and I am forever in your photographic debt. The time has come to enjoy this marathon's end and start the long process of putting together a book and starting a new adventure. Finally, I can start to return the support and love that my friends and family that they so graciously gave to me.

I want to give a special thanks to fellow flickr members, kleine_moewe, 'RoundMidnight, basiljonez, gerry_alexis, ubermummy, enjoythelittlethings, doodman, TeeRish, TheChosenOfCourage, Andrew Nicoletti, claireaphina, and many others I'm sorry I can't name you all. A special thanks also goes out to LammerPants and Punnw for getting me to start 365 with them, then bailing on my 30 days in. If it wasn't for them, I would have never gotten to this point.

This isn't goodbye, this is until we meet again, my friends!

"May you live all the days of your life." - Jonathan Swift

350.365 : weave

nobody@flickr.com (coreyweekley) — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 21:54:23 -0800

coreyweekley posted a photo:

We have a winter tradition at Lucasfilm Animation. It's called Pouchonica and it's a potluck that the whole studio puts on. The tradition's namesake is a texture painter aptly named Pouchon. He helped organize the first one and this was back when the studio was only a handful of people.

Don't believe me, Pouchonica has grown to have it's own facebook page and the mythology comes from the Prophet Dalamicus.

And every year on the day of Pouchonica (which is usually the friday before Christmas), we have a studio wide secret santa gift exchange. We all go and put our gifts under the giant tree in the studio's living room. For the three years that I've been at Lucasfilm, the tree has been an absolute amazing spectacle.

So what better than to make a dumb face into one of the mirrored ornaments. And that guy next to me is the uber talented character modeler Chris B.

As much as we are stressed out about the holiday season, try to remember to have fun and enjoy the hectic rush of life and family!

And take pictures!

(Thank you, Secret Santa, for the dark chocolate! It's my favorite type of sweets!)

349.365 : unknown

nobody@flickr.com (coreyweekley) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:14:39 -0800

coreyweekley posted a photo:

Fog is a wonderful thing. It's the only thing that can visually represent the future. You can peer just ahead and just behind, but never farther than time will permit. What lurks beyond the haze is unknown. Sixteen days left and I'm not sure what's going to happen after the last photo of the project. Am I going to take a break? Should I start my next project immediately? Am I going to stop shooting every day?

One of my favorite quotes is from an animated film. It came from a wise old turtle named Oogway. Yes, the film is Kung-Fu Panda :

"You are too concerned about what was and what will be. There is a saying: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the 'present.' "

I've heard the "today is a gift" quote before, but never in this simple rhyming way.

So, as much as I wonder about what is to come, I have to do the best I can with what I have today. Today, I accepted the tiny radius the fog gave to me and I made the most of it.

Do what you can today.

348.365 : left

nobody@flickr.com (coreyweekley) — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:43:55 -0800

coreyweekley posted a photo:

Only 17 days left. I've been a reflective mood lately. One part of me can not understand how nearly a year has gone by since I started this. It feels fast now. I started looking at my first shots and they feel as if they were taken last week. Once you fall into a routine, even a creative routine, you forget to slow down and give yourself a moment of pause.

I will leave some ideas for later days. I'm going to try and regress back into those days where I was searching for light, watching how color works shadow, finding interesting compositions. I'm going to try and return to those innocent times I had experienced at the beginning of this journey.

This shot was taken on the backroads. I came home last week and saw that the little schoolhouse keeps it's classic white picket fence lit up with christmas lights all night long. A perfect opportunity. With the wind at 36 degrees and my knockoff gorilla pod secured to my open Mini Cooper door, I started to love these little photo adventures again. It's exhilarating to be cold and not care what the passing cars think of what you are doing. It's moments like this that make me appreciate being a photographer. The suffering and uncomfortableness of trying to get a shot all gets justified when you get into your warm home, import those photos and see what you captured.

You have a limited number of days left to create something. Don't waste them thinking about the shot. Go out and get it.

345.365 : expand

nobody@flickr.com (coreyweekley) — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 22:17:04 -0800

coreyweekley posted a photo:

I had a very successful photoshoot with the Dacko's today. I shot their wedding two summers ago and they've come back for some family shots. They are super photogenic, so it makes my job easy. We shot at Crissy field in San Francisco and the fog was dense. Not so dense that you couldn't get the Golden Gate Bridge in the background, but dense enough.

As I prepped for this shot, it hit me again that these are some of my last days. It feels like a black hole now. I've crossed the event horizon and all I can do is stop struggling and let the parabolic speed of time draw me to an end. As things come to a close, I'm going to make a transition from commercial photographer to fine art photographer. I'm closing up shop. I will, of course, keep a few clients around that understand my photographic vision, but I'm mostly ending my career as a gun for hire.

One of my next projects (among the too many that will eat up what little free time I have), is something I'm calling Project52. Much less strict than my 365, I want to try to shoot one person a week. I'm going to be doing it completely free. The catch is I'm going to shoot them in a high concept fine art shot. Think of it as a reverse-commissioned photoshoot.

So I'm going to start taking suggestions. If you want me to shoot you, tell me about yourself. I want to see if I can pull out your inner personality visually. I want to tell the story of you in one photo. Do you have what it takes to let someone like me present an honest look of yourself to the world?

If so, send me your story.

343.365 : soon

nobody@flickr.com (coreyweekley) — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 22:24:58 -0800

coreyweekley posted a photo:

Too. Yes, too soon. That damn self-timer is something I constantly forget to check. Tonight, I had my mind on other things. Tonight was the premiere of the limited release of another Clone Wars movie. It's mainly for the fans since the episodes (in three parts) will air in January. The studio got a private screening at the Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio in San Francisco. Basically, it's ILM, Lucasfilm and LucasArts. After our screening, there was a private screening for the fans and they were lined up in the rain when we got there. Dedicated fans have we.

So, I had to get a shot in front of the bronze Yoda fountain. I was going to put Kaylee on my lap, but as the timer went off too early, you can see I was unsuccessful.

As usual, the clone troopers of the 501st were entertaining the crowd. Or maybe that's just another day at Lucasfilm.

334.365 : fly

nobody@flickr.com (coreyweekley) — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 21:36:25 -0800

coreyweekley posted a photo:

When I was in school, I wrote a story about a kid who collected stars by shooting them out of the sky with a slingshot. I tried turning that into a short, but because I only had 6 weeks in the term and I was double tracking, I had no such luck. In that time, I created Sky Archer. It's not the best piece of animation, but I focus on story. To me, the idea is king.

So when I pulled out of Big Rock Ranch tonight, the cloudless sky urged me to take the backroads. I hunted lights on my way home, but the road was dark the entire route. I stopped off at my favorite remote spot and tried out a 20 second exposure. It was a good night for stars.

I think back at Sky Archer and know that whatever challenge that starts off with nearly impossible odds, there's always a road that leads to the goal. Nothing is impossible is you are willing to look for uncommon solutions.

"as a kid, i dreamt of being an astronaut.
but i could not fly.
so i brought the heavens to me."

Words to live by.

The back road again.

nobody@flickr.com (coreyweekley) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 21:57:13 -0700

coreyweekley posted a photo:

partial inspiration for 305.365 : move.

Epic fog and sun blasting through.

must view on black (please!).

300 : select : better

nobody@flickr.com (coreyweekley) — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 22:08:34 -0700

coreyweekley posted a photo:

this was my select for my 300th shot. I actually like it better, but it didn't go with my movie tribute. This is the pedestrian tunnel under Lucas Valley Road right outside Big Rock Ranch.

definitely have to check it out on black.

276.365 : catalyst

nobody@flickr.com (coreyweekley) — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 20:19:30 -0700

coreyweekley posted a photo:

The rules for Project 365 state, "If you set up the composition, exposure and focus, your shutter can be tripped by someone other than you." (ok, so there's no real quote or anything, I just wanted to make it sound official).

I was setting up a shot for Kaylee's 18th month shoot and she got behind the tripod and started to snap away. So naturally, I wanted to see how cute it look from the other side of the camera. This is how cute.

I may have set it up, but she was the little superstar.

Become the catalyst for someone today. Give them a nudge in the right direction or say a kind word. Life is about providing encouragement for others from all the years you spent learning and growing.

251.365 : perigee

nobody@flickr.com (coreyweekley) — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 22:46:21 -0700

coreyweekley posted a photo:

Let me explain something about me. I can handle nearly everything that life throws at me. But my soul just caves in when you merely utter the words "spinning teacups". But I made the sacrifice at Disneyland for a shot of Kaylee on her first time on the teacups. What didn't help was my dad tearing it up and sending the cup into an orbit that was meant for much larger and faster moving celestial bodies.

Have you ever looked through the viewfinder while spinning really fast. It's like trying to read in low light in the backseat of a stationwagon on the curviest mountain road. The headache and feeling of disorientation comes on fast and strong. Needless to say, I did end up holding it together and only needed about an hour to recover. Unlike when I was a kid and vomited all over the circular table at the japanese restaurant several hours after an epic spin in the teacups from hell.

Try new things. But if you come across something that you don't like, don't do it. Life's too short to have multiples of the same queasy moments.

242.365 : restore

nobody@flickr.com (coreyweekley) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:07:29 -0700

coreyweekley posted a photo:

After a full nights rest and some advil, I'm about 90% back to my normal state. Why not celebrate it with an epic road shot. Metaphorically, there's really no stopping along this road, you have to deal with the grueling up sections and joyous downhills. Lows and highs of life. No matter where you're at on the road, enjoy the hard times and be careful in the happy ones.

And when no one's looking, smile. There's no sense in putting on a show for the cameras when you can't enjoy it during the off times.

The backroads

nobody@flickr.com (coreyweekley) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 21:17:29 -0700

coreyweekley posted a photo:

How many people can say that this is what their commute to work looks like? I'm a lucky s.o.b. and this makes me realize it everyday.

222.365 : advance

nobody@flickr.com (coreyweekley) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 21:17:32 -0700

coreyweekley posted a photo:

It's the tail end of summer and it feels like winter's already creeping its' way in. During the days, we've had clear blue skies and a cool breeze, but as sunset rolls around, the marine layer lumbers inland and makes for some cold nights. You can actually see the advance of dynamic weather over the mountains that separates marin county and the coast. It's a reminder to me that the only thing I can do is shoot a photo everyday in the hopes of learning something new.

Life is constantly moving forward and it's constantly changing. Luck flips sides faster than your appreciation for it and opportunities will be shut even before you see them. This is life. It's the less than optimistic view, but it's closer to reality than we'd like to accept.

This is why I work so hard at everything I do. I have to do these things. Swimming at 5am isn't an ideal lifestyle, but it keeps me honest about my time. As does my family and my job. And Project365 keeps me honest about my reality.

We define our lives through the things we do. Begin to define yourself soon, if you haven't already. Time makes no excuses, so neither should you.

select : 216 : decor

nobody@flickr.com (coreyweekley) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 21:26:35 -0700

coreyweekley posted a photo:

The bathroom at the Main House on Skywalker Ranch. I couldn't resist taking a photo. The dots, the color, the wood molding. And my silly stormtrooper shirt.