Third Photography

Moved!

2009-08-04T21:02:00.001-05:00

This blog has been moved to http://thirdphotography.wordpress.com

So head on over and see what's new!

PA part 3: Mini Golf

2009-07-08T17:34:00.003-05:00

The next day (after a huge breakfast and a lot of coffee) I went mini golfing with my Aunt Jan, which we always do whenever one of us is in the other's neck of the woods. My cousin Sarah also came along. Some others were going to come, but they needed to recover a little more.

Now you're probably asking, "Donald, how could mere mortals ever defeat YOU in mini golf??"

The answer is they can't. I shot par for a crushing victory.

PA part 2: The Fourth of July

2009-07-08T17:20:00.004-05:00

The next day, we all went over to my uncle Jim's house for a most excellent shindig. It was a beautiful day filled with quality pool time, food, drinks... we had it all. My mom's entire side of the family made it out, the exceptions of my sister and one of my cousins. Still, the Fickenschers know how to have themselves a time!

My cousin Michael playing pool basket ball from the hot tub.

His twin brother David.

Another cousin, Tim, rockin' the cannonball.

Cousin Gina chilling poolside with Uncle Bill.

PA part 1: America On Wheels

2009-07-08T15:35:00.004-05:00

Well I finally returned from Pennsylvania and I finally have some new photos. (I'm still working on getting the animation on here as well. Soon.)

On Friday the third, my dad, Larry, and I went to America on Wheels Museum in Allentown. It's all about the history of cars/trucks, and to a lesser extent- bikes. And though I'm not much of a car buff, I thought it was pretty cool. I would've liked to have spent more time reading some of the stuff there, but we showed up late in the day so we couldn't spend too long.

An old-school Fire Engine and the toy truck based off it.
They call this a Conference Bike. Seven people pedal, the one in the back has the wheel
My dad checking out the collection on the top floor. Apparently all the cars on the floor are owned by a jeweler of some sort. So laugh not at the metals majors.

The only problem with the upstairs collection was the huge windows, making white balance a pain. These three would probably look a lot better in black and white.

Star Trails

2009-06-06T18:11:00.002-05:00

Ned and I shot around downtown Champaign last night then headed out Mahomet to shoot some star trails. Despite having a broken tripod and having to touch my camera for each exposure, I think it turned out alright. Ned shot wide, so I went with a zoom. You can check his out at http://mulkaphoto.wordpress.com

This is a collection of 89 30-second exposures at 200mm f/2.8

The dotted horizontal line is where a plane flew threw one of my exposures.

Baseball

2009-05-26T12:59:00.003-05:00

Well it's been over a month, so I guess it's about time for an update. I finished my animation on time and will be posting it here this week. The senior show went really well, we had a great turn out. And now classes, graduation and school in general is over for me. It's a weird feeling knowing that the hunt for a real job is about to begin.

Anyway, this is the last assignment I shot for the Daily Illini. I was very pleased to do it since the senior show stuff took up all of my time and I didn't have the chance to shoot, well, pretty much anything. Particularly baseball. That was one thing I really wanted the chance to get better at. Oh well. Maybe I'll just take my camera to a couple games next year if I'm around (Though I kinda hope I'm not).

These were all shot with JB's equipment, since I was night editing when the assignment got passed to me.

Due to large quantities of player backs, the photo was unable to run by itself. But I'm a fan of this whole scene.

All images copyright Donald Eggert and The Daily Illini

Animation Update and The Possibility Engine

2009-04-11T18:25:00.004-05:00

First of all, I'm very pleased to say that Part IV of my animation was completed around 4am this morning. I'm going to take the rest of the weekend off and begin Part I on Monday, followed by some minor changes to Part II. The currently untitled animation will premiere at our Senior Photo show on May 2nd. After that, I'll post it here along with some extras.

Next, there are some pictures taken while filming The Possibility Engine at the Seibel Center on Wednesday. We spent more time changing rooms and moving lights around than actually filming, but it was a good time nonetheless. Got to work with the HD camera, which was really cool but unfortunately uses Nikon lenses (The ones we had were a 28-105 and a 50 f/1.8). Apologies to my Canon brethren. Overall a good equipment experience and the story really has a lot of potential for some cool camera/light work.

The stills once again taken with the trusty ol' Canon 70-200 f/2.8

Securing the lens adapter to the camera.

The director, Victor, considers the possibilities of camouflage duct tape.

One of the possible universes.

StarFox: The Movie Trailer

2009-04-10T11:40:00.006-05:00

While this isn't exactly photography-related, it is relevant to my interest in film. This was my final project in Time Arts, made with Final Cut Pro. This was a lot of fun to make, especially the capturing part which required me to hook up the Nintendo in the computer lab and play through StarFox several times to get all the video/audio clips I wanted. Oh the looks I got.

One of the main reasons I chose StarFox is because in the game's audio options you can turn off the music and sound effects, leaving only the voices. Which is perfect because, as anyone who has tried to make their own fan trailer from an existing movie or TV show will tell you, there isn't any background noise mucking up the dialogue or having the game's music constantly changing from one clip to the next. The aspect ratio is a little more extreme than I would've liked, but that's a result cutting out the in-game Heads Up Display.

But hey- Ghostbusters was 2.35:1 and people still liked it, right?

Women's Gymnastics

2009-04-06T17:31:00.006-05:00

These pictures are from the gymnastics "pink meet" in February. As a photographer, it's a welcome break from all the orange. Plus, the uniforms are much brighter than the usual navy blue so one's able to shoot at a lower ISO or, even better, a higher shutter speed (which helps with darkening the busy backgrounds in that gym. It's still difficult to capture a lot of their movements, though). It's especially handy for floor exercise where they're not elevated at all, which can leave you with some nice photos of the people waiting in line at the concession stand.

All images copyright Donald Eggert and The Daily Illini

The War on Drugs and The Hold Steady

2009-04-04T13:13:00.003-05:00

While I'm at it, here's the most recent: The War on Drugs and The Hold Steady playing at the courtyard cafe. Now I was warned that the lighting was awful, but... wow. Almost no light falls on the lead singer or anyone else standing up front. (As you can see in one of the photos, the only light on the keyboard was a very dim red light.)

To make matters worse- when the second band came on, the moshing began. Imagine trying to wield a 70-200 at settings below the bare minimum in a tightly packed crowd that constantly jumping up and down and will randomly slam to one side. Once I got close enough I tried switching over to the 35mm f/2, but its AF is to slow to find the subject and snap the photo before the the crowd sways back or someone steps in front of me and starts in with the jumping. The only photo I ended up getting with that lens was a spray and pray where I held the camera above the crowd and shot down- something I really, really hate to do. So even though size in the crowd was a problem, I mostly stuck with the 70-200.

Thank God (or Canon?) for Image Stabilization.

Images copyright Donald Eggert and The Daily Illini

Team U.S.A. Gymnastics

2009-04-04T12:40:00.003-05:00

Sorry it's been so long since the last update. The good news is that the animation in coming along very nicely. Part 4 is almost completely drawn and I should be able to start building the frames and sequencing this weekend.

Here are some photos from when the U.S.A. Olympic Gymnastics team came to Assembly Hall back in November '08 as part of the Tour of Gymnastics Superstars. One of the gymnasts, Justin Spring, is the assistant coach for our men's team and proposed to his girlfriend during the intermission. You can check out more of the story and a slideshow here.

All images copyright Donald Eggert and The Daily Illini

Roommates Past and Present

2009-03-30T19:53:00.002-05:00

These pictures were taken for a RAW photography class way back when. They aren't anything special, it was more of a "learning the process" deal. Good process, though.

(He's a pilot- hence the control tower. Looking back, it could've easily been better. Live and learn.)

Senior Studio

2009-03-29T11:54:00.004-05:00

Moving on to Senior Studio. Interestingly enough, there's not much photo work because I've spent most of the year working on an animation. (When it's finished, I'll post it. But there's still a ways to go. It's what I was referring to in the previous post when I said I've been busy).

The animation is in four parts. The first semester I completed parts 2 &3. But by the end of the semester I was a little burnt out on the whole process- it takes a long time to do anything. So at the beginning of this semester I went back to some photographic work to give myself a break. Previously, I used my position as DI photographer to justify (to myself) the lack of picture taking in senior photography. It felt good to get back in the studio, and now I'm back working on my animation with renewed energy... even if it's at the expense of any sort of social interaction. Oh well.

This was the 1st week of second semester. It was more of something to get the ball rolling again, getting back into the studio and all that. Not exactly what I'd call an "original work", it's more of an imitation. Specifically, an imitation of Minority Report, when John Anderton witnesses himself killing Leo Crow.

Just for kicks, here's the overlay picture by itself and without the flip. If you're familiar with the scene, there's a shot of Tom Cruise through the display screen so that half of his face is covered by the projection of of his future self.

The other two are inspired by books.

In this one, there are supposed to be stars behind the man. However, my first attempt at photographing them was a complete failure. So I'm working on that. Meanwhile, here's the photo without 'em.

View Camera

2009-03-28T22:01:00.005-05:00

Here's a series I did with a (and for) View Camera in Spring '08. 4x5 negatives scanned. However, the only one to really use the shifts and tilts was the roses. Come to think of it, I don't think there were shifts in that one, either. It's been a while.

Junior Studio Work

2009-03-28T16:34:00.005-05:00

It's going to take some time to catch up with all the stuff I've done, especially with how busy I am at the moment trying to get finished with some work for senior studio. That being said, I'll go back and start off with some of the work from junior studio. Which, for whatever reason, was only in the fall of '07 (no spring semester).

I'm really interested in cinema/film, and nothing inspires me like a good movie (especially a good movie with great lighting). So that's what I aim for in my studio photography. Not a Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills, exactly, but just trying to work with lighting to give my photos a kind of 'movie quality' to them (Though to immediately contradict myself, two of them are "film stills of sorts"). Later in the semester, I made a couple movie posters for the hell of it. Keep in mind I'm a photographer, not a graphic designer. So yes- the text is awful. Like I said, it was for the hell of it.

(low-key lighting FTW, amirite?)

Enter the Third

2009-03-28T14:15:00.000-05:00

I probably should've made this a long time ago, but what are you going to do?

My name is Donald. I'm a photography major at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a senior photographer for the Daily Illini. The primary purpose of this site is to display some of my work.

Please feel free to leave any comments.

Cheers.