I'm fortunate that I'm assigned a review of my work for ASU Now each year. It gives me a perspective on what I've accomplished and probably more importantly the takeaways of what I've learned.
I shoot both photo and video; the line is drawn somewhere down the middle, though it varies from month to month. For those who are into the technical details, I have two Canon 5D Mark III bodies with great lenses, and I use these to shoot both my photo and video.
Some of the things I've learned:
- Always ask for an early portrait time, a unique location or silly questions since most times they'll agree, they'll go and they'll answer.
- Hard drives, hard drives, hard drives — I have two LaCie Rugged drives for traveling with me and two on my desktop for backup.
- Sometimes the phone will work just fine — I use an iPhone X, but I think the newest Pixel is pretty amazing.
- If you teach your dog to sit, you can also test out portrait locations on him and he's easier to wrangle than a person or a cat.
- I don't understand how to use it, but the em dash seems to be useful in all sorts of ways.
I've rounded up some of my favorite photos from the year below, and I hope you have a wonderful 2019!
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January:
Children from the Vietnamese Revival Church exclaim after their success in popping a ballon with their Rube Goldberg machine in the STEAM lab during Open Door at the Polytechnic campus on the evening of Jan. 26.
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February:
During Open Door on the Tempe campus, we hosted a photo booth for ASU Now and shared the photos with the subjects — who tend to be young and usually hilarious.
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March:
There's nothing better to motivate you than the stories of these four women, teachers and Sun Devils earning their graduate degrees. We shot this photo for the ASU Thrive magazine, and it was an afternoon well spent.
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March:
The ASU Gammage Journey Home program has been working the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office to produce plays with women at the Estrella Jail facility. It provides an opportunity for dance, performance and reflective stories that the actors weave into short stories and act out with one another.
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April:
Three-month-old Stella plays with her owner Michael at Dynamite Park in Cave Creek, Arizona, on March 12. Did you know there's an optimal age for puppy cuteness that also corresponds when their mothers want to wean them? That discovery would be the work of Clive Wynne and his canine research.
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May:
Exercise and wellness graduates Jeremy Acre (left) and Levia Nguyen (second from left) cheer after receiving their degrees during the College of Health Solutions convocation May 11. They were some of the approximately 15,000 Sun Devils who graduated this past spring.
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June:
History Lecturer Victoria Jackson poses for a portrait on June 28 at Papago Park, where on occasion she runs at sunrise. Jackson, a runner, focuses on the history of sports within the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at ASU.
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June:
Student Chloe Appel and her mother, Christy Alexon, begin cooking the beef for their kofta sandwich during Camp Crave on June 15 at the Downtown Phoenix campus. The camp is one of the many ways that the College of Health Solutions is introducing healthy lifestyle habits to children at an early age.
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July:
Assistant Professor B. Blair Braden shows a human brain to doctoral neuroscience students Melissa Walsh and Broc Pagni in the Autism Brain Aging Lab at the Lattie Coor building on the Tempe campus on July 6. Braden's lab works on studying age-related changes in adults with autism spectrum disorder.
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July:
Professor James Collins holds a small salamander, which he studies, in his lab on the Tempe campus.
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August:
Antonieta Carpenter-Cosand (right, onstage) and Sophia McGovern reads poems in English and Spanish from the book "Cadavers," by the poet Vestor Perlongher, at the Aug. 3 First Friday poetry reading hosted by Cardboard Press and organized by Phoenix poet laureate Rosemarie Dombrowski.
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September:
ASU students show off their muscles during the ASU vs. University of Texas San Antonio football game at Sun Devil Stadium on the Tempe campus Sept. 1. The Sun Devils dominated, winning 49-7 against the Roadrunners.
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October:
ASU President Michael Crow introduces Mike and Cindy Watts and announces their $30 million gift to the newly renamed Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions on Oct. 1 on the Downtown Phoenix campus.
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October:
Postdoctoral researcher Luiza Aparecido moves specimens of cottonwood, oak and jojoba onto a light table to make them easier to photograph in the macrosystems ecology lab in the School of Life Sciences Oct. 17 in Tempe.
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October:
Occassionally the 5 a.m. ASU ROTC workouts coincide with Halloween, and then you'll find a pretty interesting scene on the Sun Devil Fitness Center fields.
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November:
Researcher Marianne Moore holds up a bat she is studying outside of Superior, Arizona, on an early Saturday evening. Moore's work focuses on collecting data and information on Arizona's bats.
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December:
College of Integrative Sciences and Arts Lecturer Cayle Lisenbee poses for a portrait with the saltwater aquarium in the biology lab of the UCENT building on the Downtown Phoenix campus. Lisenbee works with high schools on student-teacher relationships and teaches ASU students the basics of the biological sciences.
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December:
First-generation graduate Melissa Diaz makes a goofy photo with all of the family that came out to support her during the Dec. 12 Hispanic Convocation, one of the special-interest ceremonies that are a part of both spring and fall commencement.
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