You know you’re a military photographer when…

I recently read a “You know you’re a photojournalist when” list, and thought I’d add my own list of military-specific situations. You can read the original at this link.

Disclaimer: the following is meant for entertainment purposes only. Names and circumstances have been changed to protect the criminally dim-witted. Any resemblance to actual events is unintentional, although those people should really know better.

You know you’re a military photographer when…

Continue reading

National Coming Out Day

I’m mildly surprised, but I only found out about this holiday a couple days ago by accident. I was never much of an activist in the LGBT community or got myself too much into the pride celebrations until this past year. I guess I was so entrenched in DADT that I didn’t let myself give in to the hope that I’d ever be allowed to celebrate that part of me. Even now, the idea seems a bit foreign.

And yet, here I am, bisexual and proud (okay, so maybe still working on the pride part, but I’m getting there). Despite the holiday being anticlimactic after the repeal of DADT less than a month ago, I have to say that the greatest thing to celebrate on this day is normalcy. The sheer fact that I’m sitting on my couch, on a military base, writing a blog about coming out on my iPad, is such a blissful form of normal that it’s hard to describe.

So here’s to normalcy, to the status quo, to the redefinition of the American dream. To my fellow LGBT servicemembers, welcome to life as it should be. To those of you still afraid to look into the mirror, or to open your true self to the world, know that there are people in this world who love you and support you and you don’t have to live in fear. Dare to live, to dream, to love, unburdened by social paradigms, and find the beauty inside your own heart.

Happy National Coming Out Day.

Morsifaction

As a little tongue-and-cheek, self-depricating humor, I thought I’d share this daffynition. My post processing techniques cultivated from my years as a graphic artist as well as my love of the expanded dynamic range of newer dSLRs have given my photos a certain “look” to them. So common is it for me to greatly enhance the detail in skies and other areas that many people in my office have taken to calling this phenomenon as being “morsified,” even when it’s not me who’s morsifying it. For those curious, I do plan on doing step-by-step how-to videos on my post processing techniques, and will post them here.

In any case, enjoy:

Aomori Prefecture, Japan

Morsifaction [mawrs-ih-fak-shuhn] ~ noun: A state or degree of being morsified, particularly in photography involving skies so heavily burned in that it looks like the apocalypse is nigh. Synonyms: burned to all hell, over-processed, OMGWTFBBQ