Anna Edwards | Visual Journal

Thanksgiving Preparation

2009-11-26T09:16:00.000-08:00

My family is getting ready to have everyone over for thanksgiving, and some people are helping more than others. More photos to come.

Summer

2009-08-23T18:11:00.001-07:00

I'll be the first to admit it: I haven't been shooting. But I think I have somewhat valid reasons: I forgot my battery charger at the beginning of the summer (and thanks to a friend did manage to charge it once) back at my house at school, and I've also been putting in 40 hours a week at my design internship.

I do look at this handful of shots, though, and know there's so much more I could have captured and missed out on. Hopefully that'll change soon.

Lomo Roundup

2009-06-21T14:31:00.001-07:00

It's summertime again, which means my little lomo camera is with me most places. Some of these photos are from the end of last summer. I really love how unpredictable the photos can be.

Wedding

2009-05-25T17:31:00.001-07:00

My cousin got married this weekend, and I took a ton of photos. Here are some of my favorites.

To see more, click here for my whole wedding album.

Thanksgiving in April

2009-04-21T09:26:00.000-07:00

One of my friends made Thanksgiving for us this past weekend, so here's a few photos. Also, I'm redo-ing the look of this blog to match my new website, which will be up in a week or two.

Cherry Blossoms and Cupcakes

2009-04-06T15:35:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try and have my camera on me more, now that the weather's turning warm. Here's a few from this week.

Art Museum

2009-04-02T18:46:00.000-07:00

My roomates and I spent a day of our spring break at the Cleveland Art Museum. Here's a few.

Art Installation

2009-03-10T19:51:00.001-07:00

I photographed an art installation for a friend today. Here are some out takes.

Annie's Birthday

2009-03-02T19:46:00.000-08:00

One of my roomates turned 21 this weekend, and I brought my camera out. I haven't taken many photos lately, and the majority of the ones from this night were mugshots, but I did run out ahead and get this one. I'm going to try and have it with me more.

West Side Market

2009-02-17T11:44:00.000-08:00

This weekend I went home to celebrate my birthday (a week early). My mom and I went up to the West Side Market in Cleveland. I had my camera, but for the most part let it take a backseat. Normally I'd be snapping away, but the market was so full of smells and sounds as well as sights that I let myself absorb it all in. It's nice not to feel pressure to make a photo, but I did take a few.

Snow Day

2009-01-29T07:20:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a snow day at school. Everywhere I looked was white.

Car Wash

2009-01-02T07:55:00.001-08:00

The last thing I did while at home was get my car washed, and I have this weird love of taking pictures in car washes without getting caught by the employees. Some from back at school soon to come.

Happy Holidays

2008-12-24T21:03:00.000-08:00

Just messing around with the christmas lights before we put them on. Hope everyone has a happy holiday.

Winter Break

2008-12-16T06:50:00.000-08:00

Here's some photos from winter vacation.

Family Visit

2008-11-13T14:52:00.000-08:00

My family came to visit last weekend. I'm pretty sure the only reason my brother likes Athens is for the pizza. I thought this was a funny little family portrait - I'm in there too, if you look hard enough.

The Union

2008-11-07T18:11:00.000-08:00

From a show. You've got as good of a guess as I do about that second one.

More of Athens.

2008-10-27T23:05:00.000-07:00

Some from around my ventures in Athens. I need to have my camera on me more.

Home, again.

2008-10-13T13:57:00.000-07:00

School has been hectic - design, design, design - so when I get the chance to grab my camera it's usually when I'm headed home.

I don't know if these photos say much, but I've felt my style shift since the beginning of this summer. I wonder sometimes about how much my photography influences my design, and how much my design influences my photography, but I think both are definitely getting cleaner, or at least more exacting.

Weekend Home

2008-09-29T20:46:00.000-07:00

I went home this weekend, it was the first chance I've had to shoot since getting to school. It's been a busy quarter filled with lots of design, I'm hoping to build up a portfolio of design work to accompany a more creative photo one.

Cooking

2008-09-08T14:36:00.000-07:00

One of many of the perks we've discovered from living in the house is the ability to not only cook, but try new foods and cooking techniques.

Friends

2008-09-05T09:40:00.000-07:00

There's been a lot of transitional time between move in and classes this year. It's been nice.

Move In

2008-08-27T11:27:00.000-07:00

One of my roomates and I moved into our new house in Athens on Sunday.

Bon Voyage

2008-08-12T18:13:00.000-07:00

I went to Athens for a going-away party last weekend. I'm excited to get back for good in a few weeks.

Calm

2008-08-05T18:49:00.000-07:00

It always seems at some point in the summer I get so frazzled with a mix of work, trying to see my friends, and getting prepared to head back to school that when I pick up a camera I'm desperate for some calm and order. I guess it's finally here.

IKEA

2008-08-03T12:40:00.000-07:00

My mom and I drove to Pittsburgh to go to IKEA last week.

Visit to Athens

2008-07-20T16:37:00.000-07:00

I went to Athens this weekend to visit some friends and check in on my house. I took a lens I don't really use anymore, and it's funny how things change. I used to be afraid of getting close and I was grateful for the zoom, but this trip I found myself missing the wide angle and annoyed with having to run away from my subject to get the whole frame.

Block Party and Zoo

2008-07-14T21:31:00.000-07:00

Here's some from our neighborhood's block party (I made the pinata) and my visit to the zoo and some vintage stores with my roomates.

4th of July

2008-07-05T11:28:00.000-07:00

Here are some from yesterday's cookout and impromptu street fireworks.

Lomo Supersamplers

2008-07-04T14:14:00.000-07:00

Recently got some more film developed from my supersampler. I love my silly looking pink camera.

Boy Scout Camp

2008-07-02T21:04:00.000-07:00

My little brother's a boy scout and goes to camp for a week every summer. Wednesday is family night, but this year he had to go through the "ordeal" after dinner was over - a secretive test involving sleeping outside and community service. I think my mom was more worried than he was.

Swim Video

2008-06-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

I started my internship at Ohio.com this week, and got tossed in the deep end - almost literally. They sent me out with a video camera (I've never shot video before, much less tried to edit..) but I had a lot of fun and wound up enjoying myself once I got over the nervousness. Here's what I came up with. I'll be shooting some more later in the summer so hopefully I can learn a lot from doing this one.

Vacation | Family Photo, Dunes, and Coming Home

2008-06-24T13:41:00.001-07:00

I posted the design for those T-shirts on this blog about a month ago. The design got modified before printing, though, because I found out we were going to Nag's Head instead of Duck. So the bird on the shirt is a blue heron.

Vacation | Crabbing

2008-06-24T13:19:00.000-07:00

I took a lot of photos when my family went crabbing, and it's funny - even though they were just family snapshots, I edited them down mentally like I would a story.

I started my internship at Ohio.com today, and they handed me a camera to get video tomorrow. Cross your fingers.

Vacation | DC

2008-06-23T09:22:00.001-07:00

My family and I went on vacation literally hours after I packed up my car and headed back from Athens. Our final destination was Nag's Head, NC, but we spent a day in DC to break it up.

Memorial Day Weekend

2008-05-26T19:12:00.000-07:00

I went home for the long weekend. It's nice that while things change in my life from year to year, some things remain constants, like the Memorial Day parade too early in the morning. : D

Duck, NC T-shirt

2008-04-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

Here's a preliminary design for T-shirts for my family's vacation this summer to Duck, North Carolina.

I think I was pretty influenced by a lot of the graphic work from Campfire Clothing Company. If you like T-shirts (and who doesn't?), you should check them out.

Art 113

2008-04-09T10:33:00.000-07:00

My Art class this quarter is a 3D Fundamentals class, and I didn't really understand why it was a requirement for an Infographics major until after this first project. We had to make a page from a pop up book as a "self-portrait" of sorts. So here's mine.

We had to have three "pop up features" - basically different things that would pop out or pull out in different ways. So the first one is that the bubbles themselves pop out from the page.

Then the second feature is the purple bubbles that spin out to create more bubbles and reveal the photos below them. I really like the double one.

The third feature is this little like "viewing bubble" thing.. it wasn't really supposed to pull out, more just be sort of slided back and forth to be able to see different parts of photos (here it's in the out position, so you can only see half of the sheep photo, and the photo of my brother is completely hidden at this point) and be like you had to "really look" to see what exactly was in there.

And I did bubbles on the cardboard back to make it a little fancy : D

Now that the project (and the ... 8 or 9 hours put into rough drafts and the final project) are over, I can see why I have to take this class. It's about planning, and getting behind the construction of designing something. I think I'm really going to like it.

Easter | Family Portraits, remixed.

2008-03-31T21:37:00.000-07:00

I am cheese-tastic.

I'm back in Athens and it feels good. It does feel like home. Not just one room or one building, but the entire tidy town spread out underneath my little thin soled shoes, hopping and tripping over bricks, familiar signs and streets, familiar faces.

I have hope for these warmer times.

More Lomo Supersamplers

2008-03-24T14:54:00.000-07:00

Here's some more from my little toy camera. I really love the bright pink haze at the bottom of some of them from light bouncing into the lens off the camera.

Pomeroy

2008-03-21T21:31:00.000-07:00

There's a little town straight south from Athens on the bank of the Ohio River that I really love; we went on Thursday and I was amazed to see the river so high - a good 30 feet above where I'd seen it last time.

Art 116 Final

2008-03-13T10:36:00.001-07:00

I've been broadening my visual skills with a drawing class this quarter. This was for my final assignment.

Here's what I worked with:

And here's what I came up with:

I'm really enjoying learning different ways to communicate, and I'd love to one day find a job where I can express myself through photography, design, writing, and maybe even a touch of drawing. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Kevin Devine in Columbus

2008-03-04T21:30:00.000-08:00

I've finally gotten around to dumping some spare memory cards, thanks to a broken Mac Book Pro, and now a brand new iMac.
These are from the Kevin Devine show in Columbus about two weeks ago.

It's been great to get back to shooting when I genuinely want to. I didn't realize how much I've missed it.

Sort of spring

2008-03-03T21:09:00.000-08:00

I've felt the sun seep straight down into my bones these past two days. It feels like the embrace of an old friend.

OU organization posters

2008-02-18T19:42:00.001-08:00

I've been doing work with different organizations at OU, making posters for events and promotions. It's been fun and and a hands-on learning experience - learning to work with specific clients who have needs for different styles, colors, and sizes - not just what I want to make for class. I can't wait to see them around campus.

Un-Valentine's Day Cards

2008-02-13T19:54:00.000-08:00

For those of you in a pinch as to what to give your friend/crush/mailman for Valentine's Day tomorrow, here's some lovely (and by lovely, I mean pretty snarky) Un-Valentine's Day cards I whipped up.

(Click on the card front you like, and it'll send you to the full, easy to print and fold card. Note - these print out great on really crappy laser printers, like the ones they have at the library - basically any printer that spits out paper warm to the touch.)

So print 'em out, give them to your friends and foes, and watch those blissful smiles of romance and love dissolve right before your very eyes. : D

Lomo Supersampler | Take One

2008-01-21T14:40:00.000-08:00

I got a toy camera (the lomo supersampler) over the summer and finally got the first roll developed. It's fun to go back to the mysterious days of film and not knowing what you're going to get, especially when exposure settings and a viewfinder don't come into play.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-28T21:20:00.001-08:00

After a really stressful and draining quarter took a toll on my photography, I'm easing myself back into it, trying to take the pictures I want to make.

Here's one from thanksgiving - my youngest cousin getting ready to go home.

Shew Orchard

2007-09-24T17:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a really loose edit of my story on the sheep at Shew Orchard. Critiques would be awesome.

Albany Independent Fair

2007-09-09T18:31:00.000-07:00

Here's a few from the Albany Independent Fair in Albany, Ohio - it's one of a few independently run fairs in the state of Ohio.

End of the Summer

2007-09-04T10:24:00.000-07:00

Here's the last of the bunch for the summer. I'm back in Athens and hopefully some good shoots will ensue.

Grandma and Grandpa

2007-08-10T18:05:00.001-07:00

I can't make a good frame these days, because I can't make a frame in general. Working 40 hours a week will do that to you. I can't wait to get back to school so I can relax and find some focus and a few stories to follow.

Until then, here's a set I put together of my grandparents - the interactions between them, the subtlety of affection in a relationship that's endured more than 50 years. I'd like to go back to this, but again. The time thing. One day, when the lack of money doesn't rule my life.

Chippewa Lake Amusement Park

2007-08-05T20:32:00.000-07:00

I've been to a lot of places this week, but most of them weren't camera friendly. Abandoned amusement parks are more lenient about their photo policies, however, since nobody's there to monitor them.

This isn't a very good edit, but maybe one day I'll have the chance to sit down and look them all over.

Hardesty Park Art Festival

2007-07-29T16:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a few from the Hardesty Park Art Festival. I wish I'd brought a few more lenses - I'm sort of out of practice in terms of sticking a wide angle RIGHT up in somebody's face. Anyways.

I thought these two were neat as a pair.

Legendary Seagulls

2007-07-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

Went to the Lime Spider last night. This guy had quite the act - getting shaved with a big knife (the fake blood bottle was right next to him on the ground) and then wiping green ink on his band mates with a piece of broccoli.

Late / Lines

2007-07-26T16:46:00.001-07:00

I snapped this on my way to work. I would've liked to stay longer, but of course, I was running late.

Lately I've been shooting on my way home from work or around my house to relax a little before the light completely dissolves from another long day. I guess my idea of relaxation is really, really clean composition. Sweet.

4th of July

2007-07-24T21:05:00.000-07:00

Here's some old ones from the 4th of July. I had a lot of time on my hands to shoot earlier in the summer, but now all my free time tends to be after that thing called the sun decides to go to bed. So pouring through old stuff I never went through is the next best thing, I guess. I'm itching to shoot.

I really like this one. : )

Family

2007-07-21T21:51:00.000-07:00

Every time I take pictures of my grandparents, I find more and more little moments between them that I'd never noticed before. I'd like to get a group of these together.

More from yellowstone

2007-07-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

Yellowstone

2007-07-17T11:56:00.000-07:00

Here's some from Yellowstone I never got around to posting here.

Aeros Game

2007-06-25T21:45:00.000-07:00

I got the chance to shoot an event at Canal Park in Akron, where 23 underprivileged students from Lebron James' old grade school got to watch a game from the party loge. They were a great group of kids - really appreciative and respectful, not to mention they got really into the game. I hope I get the chance to shoot them again.

A few more.

2007-06-20T06:25:00.000-07:00

Here's a few more. I've been trying not only to bring my camera most places I go, but to see genuine photo opportunities. Picking up on things I wouldn't have normally noticed.

I thought this was an interesting snap, and I like that the arms on the wheel give it some context, but I think the hotspot in the corner is a little distracting.

This is an almost for me - if I had pushed it, I think I could have gotten something a lot more effective out of it.

Dinner

2007-06-19T13:44:00.000-07:00

I wish I could say I've been looking for specific things in my work, but it's more that I see patterns in what I'm searching for afterwards, when I find common threads. So I guess I've been looking for meaning in gesture, exploring the feeling rather than what's just on the surface. I want to be as unliteral as possible, because I feel like a lot of my work for school is really literal and straightforward, and hopefully before the summer's over I can influence my mindset in "when it really counts" mode.

Initial stuff.

2007-06-18T20:38:00.000-07:00

Just to put this out there, I'm no novice blogger. I've had (another) one for quite awhile. Pretentiousness aside, this will still be clumsily done, because I'm still rather clumsy at the thing it's dealing with - photography. I've learned a lot in the past year, during my time as a freshman photojournalism student at Ohio University - but one of the most important things I've learned is that I know far less than I thought I did.

So, this will be here to annoy the heck out of me. To publish photos when I like them, when I am proud, but also when I am not feeling creative, when I feel my work is not at its best, when I need to push myself but all I want to do is hurl my camera into something semi-soft (hey, it's still worth more than that, regardless). Because every time I get knocked down, or frustrated - I want to have a record to look back on. To see how I've improved. And to keep me going. Because not being at school, and working that summer job to pay the bills makes me want to know I'll be good at doing a job that I will love so much more than waiting tables, even if they paid me twice as much.

Here's one I liked from my brother's graduation.