 1/5000 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 200, Nikon D300. San Francisco, March 30, 2012. The objective for the class was for each student to spend 15 weeks photographing an issue that we are passionate about, and I really wanted to challenge myself to shoot something out of the ordinary. Since I tend to photograph people more than anything, I decided to go about creating environmental and architectural photographs that would document society and the power infrastructures that support it.
I took a slightly different approach to the multimedia component of this assignment. Rather than build the story on a timeline in Final Cut Pro, I decided to design an e-book article for the iPad using the iBooks Author app, and looked to Al Gore's "Our Choice” and National Geographic's "7 Billion" for guidance and inspiration. I'm by no means an expert on energy, so this is not intended to be any sort of comprehensive study or report. Rather, this essay relates a picture of what I've learned and come across during my research. I got interested in sustainable energy by watching a ton of TED Talks, and many of the speakers had hopeful and inspiring things to say about the future and the potential for renewable energy. One speaker in particular whom I refer to several times in the e-book is American architect William McDonough. His design theology became the foundation for my project, and I tried to create an overall piece that visually spoke to many of his ideas. What developed is a three-part photo essay that represents the present, the present future, and the potential future of our current power struggle. The e-article will appear on the iTunes store for free in a few weeks, but for now I've made a low resolution PDF available for preview.
Photos: Approx 7,500 stills over 8 shoots
Travel: Approx 2,476 miles (not counting flight miles)
Aircraft: Maule M7 STOL fixed wing aircraft, Schweizer 300CBi helicopter
Cameras: Nikon D300, Canon EOS 5D Mark II
 | valcarcel_thenewenergyfrontier_lowres.pdf | | File Size: | 4504 kb | | File Type: | pdf |
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I had some of the most fun I've ever had shooting this semester, and the aerial photography played a huge role in that. My good friend and fellow student Ryan Buller and his father Paul were kind enough to pilot for me – I couldn't have attempted this project without them. Music: “Wolf Like Me” - TV On the Radio Class: Photo Essay / Gail Fisher.
 1/6400 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 400, Nikon D300. A few weeks ago I photographed one of the most enjoyable events I've ever witnessed. My good friends Ryan Buller, Ben Morris and Suzanne Tylander were kind enough to invite me on a road trip up to the Hare Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah, to photograph the Holi Fesitval of Colors. Roughly 80,000 people showed up, and we were among the first to arrive. There was a buzz in the air that seemed to grow throughout the morning – and then all hell broke loose. From sun up to sun down people celebrated wildly and threw tons of colorful powder on each other. Every two hours the day was punctuated by mass “throwings” that literally blocked out the sun with an enormous cloud of color and filled our lungs with dust. Everyone was in great spirits, and I found the experience to be overwhelmingly warm and joyful. Holi is a Hindu faith practice that celebrates the end of winter and the beginning of Spring. When you consider that the state of Utah hosts the highest concentration of Mormons in the world, it's easy to appreciate the spiritual and cultural diversity taking place here.  1/5000 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 400, Nikon D300.  1/8000 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 400, Nikon D300.  1/4000 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 400, Nikon D300.  1/5000 sec @ f/3.5, ISO 400, Nikon D300.  1/8000 sec @ f/3.5, ISO 400, Nikon D300.  1/6400 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 400, Nikon D300.  1/8000 sec @ f/3.5, ISO 400, Nikon D300.  It was still relatively clean at this point.
1/160 sec @ f/1.2, ISO 1250, Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Aerial view of the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, Calif., Tuesday, Feb 14, 2012. (Maule M7 STOL fixed wing aircraft)
I'm currently working on a long term photo project that's largely concerned with our Nation's growing need for power and electricity. My buddy and fellow classmate Ryan Buller comes from a family of aviators, and he went out of his way to coordinate an aerial shoot with his father Paul on my behalf. I can't thank them enough for their time and generosity. This was certainly one of the most memorable shoots I'll ever have. Class: Photo Essay / Gail Fisher
 Arthur Pacheco and Andrew Dreher, Jan. 23, 2012, in Fullerton, CA 1/80 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 800, Nikon D300. Arthur and Andrew are musicians in “June Humor,” a band they formed less than a year ago with friends at Fullerton College. “With music and being a musician, you can be a machine or you can be a vessel for a muse,” said Andrew.
Class: Picture Editing / Joe Gosen
 1/60 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 640, Nikon D300. Max is a fifth-generation blacksmith that wants to revive the trade his forefathers committed their lives to. He spends almost every day from the early morning into the late night transforming raw metal into intricate works of art. The idea for this shoot came from an assignment to produce a short feature on a person at work. A Google search for local blacksmiths brought me to a brief article on Max Randolph published only a few months ago by California Country Magazine. Something about him seemed especially genuine, so I sent him an email. A few days later I found myself waking up at 4 a.m. and driving almost three hours up the 101 to San Luis Obispo County. I spent the day with Max in his workspace – a home garage he's converted into a fully functional blacksmith shop – and watched as he transformed a rough lump of steel into a smooth, beautiful blade. While the job is highly labor intensive, like any other artist Max remains quite sensitive and thoughtful about his work. He seemed to take every measure possible to achieve the best results throughout every step of the process. I learned a lot about the art and science of ironwork and have a whole new appreciation for craft.  1/60 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 500, Nikon D300.  1/60 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 400, Nikon D300.  1/160 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 500, Nikon D300. Class: Photojournalism II / Joe Gosen
I met Chris Wolford a little over a year ago, at about the same time I was discovering graffiti culture, Banksy’s legendary stencils and this whole “new” concept of street art (which until now I hadn’t been exposed to all that much.) Chris leads a local Los Angeles based art collective called Dethkills with his best friend Bobby Alderman, and the art they create together puts an entirely new spin on things. The collective consists of anywhere from 10 to 20 local artists at any given time, and together they've created a signature style using a combination of graffiti art and traditional painting techniques. They do absolutely everything themselves, from hammering together the panels they'll be painting on, to screen printing their own Dethkills brand T-shirt designs. It's a process they've learned to do quickly, and when they perform live painting installations, it takes the concept of fine art and totally rockifies it. They’re like visual troubadours, approaching virtually any venue as if they were performing live music. The group will band together on stage and create an entire painting from scratch over the course of a night, allowing the audience to witness their collaborative process from start to finish. It’s a new kind of art – more communal, more of a reflection of the world we live in, and they're really paying it forward. Their passion and creativity have helped inspire me since the day I met them, and I hope they come to inspire you the same way. I'm currently in the process of putting together a short documentary on these guys, so check back again soon. www.dethkills.com See the shots as they happen in this Dethkills Collective video made entirely of still images.
Class: Picture Story / Anacleto Rapping.
Chris Okula and I got to see first hand how one of the most widely distributed newspapers in the country meets its deadline every day. Working with Chris has been absolutely great, and this little adventure of ours turned out to be one of the most enjoyable shoots I've ever experienced.
Class: Introduction to Documentary / Karin Stellwagen.
 1/3200 sec @ f/2.8, Nikon D300. Jon Husman navigates his tall bike through a crowded intersection in North Park, San Diego, Tuesday, April. 26, 2011. I don't know which part catches the eye more: the odd geometric shape, the bright primary colors, or just seeing someone pedaling by at 11 feet in the air, but there's no denying that Jon's tall bike deserves – and almost always gets – a second look. Shot with an Olympus E-P 2 and GoPro sports camera. Nikon glass was attached to the Olympus during filming via a Fotodiox lens mount adapter.
 1/2500 sec @ f/2.8, Nikon D300.
 1/2000 sec @ f/2.8, Nikon D300. Every year on April 2nd citizens in major cities all over the world gather to take part in International Pillow Fight Day. Jon Lake – my friend and fellow photographer – invited me to go with him, and I put together this short video about the fun and carefree day we had shooting it. The idea for this came right out of War Photographer, a documentary film by Christian Frei. The film follows the legendary photojournalist James Nachtwey while on assignment, and makes intrepid use of a custom camera attachment that gives viewers a 1st person perspective from Nachtwey's lens. I thought it'd be fun to recreate that perspective for this riotous scene in LA's Pershing Square. To do it, I built a camera mount of my own using some metal brackets and a GoPro sports camera, which managed to hold up despite the crudeness of my assembly.  SLR mounted GoPro. Photo by Jon Lake.
 1/60 sec @ f/18, Nikon D300.  1/4000 sec @ f/2.8, Nikon D300.
1/160 sec @ f/2.8, 1/13 sec @ f/14 and 1/50 @ f/2.8, Nikon D700.
Chris Wolford, and Bobby Alderman, artists and leaders of the Dethkills art collective, at their studio garage in Los Angeles, Calif., Thursday, Feb. 22, 2011. Dethkills is active in the Los Angeles art scene. In addition to taking part in collaborative as well as solo gallery shows, Dethkills also perform live painting for “Invisible Children,” a nonprofit organization addressing violence in Uganda. (Photo by Josh Valcarcel/Brooks Institute ©2011)
Class: Photojournalism / Greg Cooper.
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