Just so you know.

Photo Essay

For our final assignment we were to create a story using photographs. I detailed people smoking outside of the bar and talked about the 25 foot no smoking rule established in Washington State nearly five years ago.

Bellingham, WASH. – The five-year anniversary of the statewide banning of smoking in public building is December 8^th, said the Washington State Department of Health Website.  In the years since the implementation of the law it seems that one aspect of it has been all but been forgotten. Part of the law is that it is illegal to smoke within 25 ft. of door and windows of any establishment. Apparently, six inches is close enough. 

Two patrons of the Waterfront Seafood and Bar smoke cigarettes Saturday night.  “Smoking is prohibited within a presumptively reasonable minimum distance of twenty-five feet from entrances, exits, windows that open, and ventilation intakes,” states the law enforcing the 25 ft. rule.

 

Casey Schmidt, 26, lights a cigarette outside of the Beaver Inn Saturday night.  Schmidt says he has never had an issue with smoking right outside of any bar in Washington.

“It isn’t an issue anymore,” he said. “If you move 25 ft. you are just going to be in front of another business.”

Bar goers smoke outside their chosen establishment on State Street in Bellingham light up within a few feet of the front door.  Chantelle Garcia, 23, said smoking outside bars at night isn’t the issue.

“I feel it is more in front of cafes and coffee shops,” she said in regards to how it is a problem.

People who are going in and out or near bars accept people are going to smoke around them, she said. It is families walking with the children during that day when there is an issue, Garcia said.

 

Brandon Gray, a cook at the Horseshoe had just got off of work when he fired his lighter at the end of a fresh cig.  The 25 ft. rule has never bothered him, he said.

“I am defiant by nature,” Gray said. “I have heard of people being cited for it, when the law was new.”

 

“Owners, or in the case of a leased or rented space the lessee or other person in charge of public places and places of employment and shall post signs prohibiting smoking as appropriate,” states the Washington State law prohibiting smoking in and around public places.

Chantelle Garcia had a smoke with a few friends outside the Beaver Inn Tuesday night.

“At my work we have to go across the parking lot to smoke,” said Garcia, 23. “We didn’t bother customers about where they smoked”

 

Several people walked away from the entrance of The Royal Tuesday night to enjoy a cigarette.  Blake Hagen, 35, a bar tender at the Royal said employees or police don’t enforce the 25 ft. rule very heavily.

“It isn’t profitable to make people move away from the building to smoke,” Hagen said. “People outside the bar are usually there to smoke, so why not let them?” he said as he puffed on a smoke outside the door of the Royal.

The first six months that the law was established police would come by and cite people who were not far enough away, he said, after that it has not been an issue with anyone.

The idea behind the regulation is to help prevent people from coming in contact with second hand smoke. If something such as a law is to succeed there needs to be enforcement.  It is a matter of profit versus politics, and there is always the same winner.

Proof Sheet.

Cut Line Only

For this assignment we had to create an image in just over an hour that could be used for the front page of the local section. The photo had to be something that didn't need to have a story to go with it, just a short caption.

Cosmo De Amor, plays his fiddle in the Fairhaven District on Tuesday afternoon, filling the cold air with warm Southern sounds.

A City of Bellingham employee helps shovels dirt beneath the tires of a car that was struck by another and became stuck. The days after the first snowfall are filled with car accidents, said Mark Browrigg, another city employee helping at the scene.

"These are pretty treacherous conditions," Brownrigg said. "The ice is what really gets people, not necessarily the snow."

Photo Illustration

For this week's project we were directed to either capture a stand alone photo or create a photo illustration. I chose to pursue the photo illustration to be able to demonstrate multiple skills in photography and graphic design.

It's a love - hate relationship.

Photo manipulation has been around almost since the beginning of photography, said an article from graphicssoft.about.com.   With continuous advances in photo technology it is almost effortless to create an image demonstrating an event that hasn’t actually happened.

Stacie Rennert, 22, helped to demonstrate the ease that programs such as Photoshop bring to photographers, graphic designers, advertising agency and so forth with this image displaying her multiple personalities by acting out her “dark” and her “peaceful” personalities.

“Photoshop is a wonderful tool for creative modeling shots,” Rennert said. “It is me acting out my own characters without being the actual me, its fun.”

These tools are helpful for art and modeling based photos but these same tools have been used to manipulate photos used by very reputable organizations including National Geographic and multiple news organizations. One very famous instance is the cover of National Geographic displaying the pyramids on the cover of the magazine in a way that is impossible to actually photograph.

What one sees may not be the truth, but rather an inaccurate representation or a completely false occurrence.  One must be wary of what they are looking at to be sure they are not being misled by a journalist or editor trying to sway a person to believe one thing over another.

proof sheet.

Capturing Motion

In this assignment we had to capture motion, either completely still or by showing the movement. 

Travis Petrie, 23, does a backside smith grind.

BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Several people were trespassing near the fish hatchery Sunday at an abandoned building foundation to skateboard and build objects for skateboarding on.

Travis Petrie, 23, was among the crowd of six skateboarders who had scaled a fence with multiple no trespassing signs to access the building foundation where they wanted to perform their skateboard maneuvers.

“Skateboarding is something I believe in,” Petrie said. “That includes the progression of the legality of it. If that means risking harassment, tickets or getting arrested, that’s what has to happen.”

The skateboarders were grinding a ledge that had been built by skaters who had previously visited the vacant location. They were also doing flip tricks over a gap in the concrete.

Travis Petrie, 23, performs a 360 flip over a gap.

“Skateboarding is an art form,” Petrie said, “It never gets boring. I skate for the same reason I eat, I have to.”

Travis Petrie does a kick-flip backside tail-slide.

Honest emotion.

In this assignment we had to capture honest emotion.

 

Bellingham, Wash. -- As part of the City of Bellingham’s Ten in ’10 Initiative the city is offerings tax credits and cash rewards of various levels to businesses that offer ride share programs or purchase bus passes for employees as well as apartment complex owners who provide the bus passes for tenants of their buildings.

City of Bellingham transportation planner Chris Comeau, 45, responds to questions after a presentation Tuesday evening at Sustainable Connections about parking and transportation incentives that are being offered.  The goal of the program is to reduce traffic with the help of local businesses.

“If someone is part of car-share program they will actually drive less.” Comeau pressed when speaking on the importance of these programs to help reduce vehicle trips and traffic.

The presentation was given to an audience of about 20 people including, city workers, local developers and residents of Bellingham.  This was the first presentation given on the transportation incentives and will be continually revised based on feedback from the public until an agreed upon version is complete.

Environmental Portrait

In this assignment we were directed to create an enviornmental portrait of a subject. We were to use the person and their surroundings to show who they are and what they are like and do like. I met this man, Carl Capua-Breeden and formed this photograph.

I went with some friends on Saturday to go do some skateboarding photography in Everett, Wash., and one of my buddies brought this man, Carl Capua-Breeden, 24, who films and edits skateboard videos. 

After a day of skateboarding, a small group of us returned to Capua-Breeden’s house to review footage from that afternoon.  What got him into being a skateboard videographer? Simple, he grew up with skateboarding and watching skate videos and simply wanted to produce his own.

“Skateboarders see the world differently than your average Joe,” Capua-Breeden said. “To try and materialize that is pretty rad, and challenging,” he said.

It is taking something that is already liked and expanding on it, he said. To make it your art and your vision is rewarding, Capua-Breeden said.