Photo Follow: Jay McIntyre

What first attracted me to Jay McIntyre for a Photo Follow was his Visual Word of the Day series.  He takes a “Word of the Day” from Dictionary.com that has potential and defines it in a photograph.  It’s an English-major-who-appreciates-photography’s dream!  Observe: “Frangible \FRAN-juh-buhl\ , adjective;  1. Capable of being broken; brittle; fragile; easily broken” is a picture of a child.  It’s creative and personal and all-around adorable.

The rest of the blog features some really interesting photos showing his experiments and practices in general.  Most recently is a teaser photo that is one of my favorites to date.  And on top of the pictures are his commentaries – brief and enjoyable – that embellish the photos.  See what I mean in his post The Better Way.  He is story-telling along with the photo.

There are more photos to be seen on his website as a professional photographer.  He fully illustrates the promised objective:

After Years of interest and Curiousity in photography, I’ve recently decided to realize the passion that was once stuck inside a hobby.  I’ve been able to combine an eagerness to learn with the ability to see light and composition in order to present you with a new and unique perspective.  My goal is to create art that all can enjoy.

His work, as well as his blog writing, is simple and pleasing.  Hopefully you will explore his galleries and posts, and enjoy them like I have.

My apologies – Photo Follow: 30 Degrees East

So… I’ve missed that last two Sunday Photo Follows.  My bad.  And it’s weird because I’ve actually had the Followees (maybe there’s a better word for that, but my English degree could care less) picked out for a while.  Call it procrastination, snow-induced distraction, power failure, whatever excuse you want.  Bottom line, I ask for your forgiveness and continued attendance.  Though I could skip the two weeks I missed and start anew this weekend, I find no reason to fault these two photographers my not-so-educated attentions.  To make up for my shortcomings as novice blogger, I shall post one Follow today, one on Thursday, and then resume normal schedule on Sunday.

30 Degrees East is a blog I admire for the authors as much as the photos.  From what I gather in the About page, they are two photographers who studied together and now live worlds apart:

We lived on the same floor of East Hall our first year of college and have been close friends since then. As we approach our 30th birthdays, we realize that our lives have had many similarities despite the obvious glaring differences. We are both foreigners in countries that are 30 degrees east of the Prime Meridian, though one is north (Israel) and one is south (Zimbabwe) of the equator. This blog is an attempt to learn to use photography to capture and share the beauty of the countries we now live in. We will be posting new photos every Tuesday and Friday. We hope you enjoy going on this journey with us.

This blog is a wonderfully creative and innovative way for two friends to stay connected.  What’s more, is that it is a lovely venue for spectators like me and you to see the world.

Perhaps I’m beginning to sound redundant with my endearment to travel photography, but you have to admit that these photos are interesting.  The range of their subjects and talents make for a really intriguing portfolio: some are reminiscent of National Geographic, like this rhino in Zimbabwe 13; some plain, like this wall in Israel 5; and some are simply friendly and lovely, like one of my favorites, Zimbabwe 40.  Whichever the style, you’ve heard me say before how important it is for an interest in knowing and understanding a culture to reflect in a photo.

A blog like this makes me wonder at the lengths people go to to keep connected with each other.  Correspondence can be a hard thing to maintain.  Having said that, it’s time for me to investigate this Skype business so that I can have an actual conversation with my Korea-inclined college roommate.  Tell me…

How do you keep in touch?

Photo Follow: Pat J Rice

In case you hadn’t already noticed from my blog, I LOVE TO TRAVEL.  In my twenty-two years of life, I’ve compiled what I consider an impressive collection of stamps in my passport.  Every chance I get I hop some plane and off I go.  Granada, Madrid, Amsterdam, Munich, Budapest, Galway, Paris… in the last five years, I’ve been to Barcelona five times.  I toured France playing music with an orchestra, lived in Spain for almost four months, and took two whirl-wind graduation trips (high school and college) around the Mediterranean and general Europe.  Somehow it’s never enough, I’m never done wanting to go.

This brings me to the second installment in my Photo Follow series.  This week I bring you Pat J Rice.  New to WordPress (like me) he is still building the archive of his blog.  It’s a very simple layout, focusing on the incredible composition of his photos.  Each post is a single photo and brief caption, and his impressive images caught my eye immediately.  Some of them are shots of places I’ve been and already love.  Others are well known places I’ve always known I want to see.  And a few have warranted a new place on my dream-travel list (Alaska – who knew?).

Many of Pat’s photos are artfully created, like “Reflecting on Paris” done with multiple subjects and a fisheye lens – they’re wonderful and interesting, and make me wonder how he made it.  Looking through his pictures you can see his experimentation with photography, which is always amusing and rewarding to find.  He says in his About page,

I loving taking photos. Plain and simple. Photography has provided an outlet in my life for creative energy that I didn’t even realize I possessed. I’m thoroughly addicted and will forever be a student of the art.

“Exterior Decorating” is one of my favorites.  It’s bare and honest and simple.  I can picture him walking down the street and snapping this photo casually.  That moment of spontaneous creation, of serendipitous beauty, is part of why I love travel so much.

Explore his site and sent him a note or comment, because I can tell you how nice it is to receive feedback on a young blog like his.  Enjoy!