Torment Within

Not many people outside my friends and family know this, but I suffer from seasonal and chronic depression. Not to the point that its crippling, but enough that it can mess with my life for a while. Recently, I was going through one of my tougher nights and was discussing it with my very good friend Kenn. I told him I needed to change how I was thinking about myself and my depression. He gave me some very good and sound advice about how to go about that and how to start dealing with it. He offered up the suggestion that I start documenting it through photography, so that I can show myself and the world what is going through my head. So I set to it. The process involved using a tripod and a slightly lower shutter speed. The reason behind taking my shirt off was because I felt that there needed to be a connection, a rawness to the emotions, wanted them to feel real. The main feelings behind my depression are loneliness and isolation and that's what I tried to capture. The series will be continued, with myself and with other people as well. Depression effects many people, so many different points of views are good. If you would like to see the full series, check out my photography page on facebook at: Photography By Joe

Miss North Dakota Collegiate America!

Hey guys, its been a while. Life has been busy, but in a very good way. School has been amazing, and kicking my butt. Still working hard to attain what I want in my life. I have done quite a few photo shoots since the last update, but i only want to focus on three, the rest i will cover in another post coming soon. This time i want to focus on three or so shoots i did with one Miss Codi Miller, who is Miss North Dakota Collegiate America. About two months ago, she came to me to help her choose her photo she was going to use for her competition in North Dakota. After looking through her photos, i turned to her and said, "Non of these photos are you. How about i do some photos for you and see what you think of those." She agree and we went out and took some photos. I was really excited about it cause Codi is a beautiful girl. My friend Katheryn was helping me by working the reflector. We went out and got some great shots. She loved them and chose the one she was going to use for the competition in North Dakota. She went off to the competition and won, and not only that but she won Miss Photogenic! Here are some of the photos from that shoot:

Shortly after that, i took her out to do another shoot for me, and for my fan page. I chose a spot near Deadwood, SD, called Mount Roosevelt. There is an amazing tower at the top of a hike, and the colors during the fall are just amazing. Thats the part we focused on, the colors. We went off the path, and wandered through the woods looking for great spots to photograph. She had a purse with her, so i decided that we were going to go with a more fashion feeling and use the bag as the main focus. Now i will be honest, after this shoot, my feeling was that Codi's posing skills were to "pageanty" but she proved me wrong later on. We got some great shots from this shoot that i was happy to put on my fan page, check them out below:

So after winning Miss North Dakota Collegiate America and Miss Photogenic, she had to meet with me again to go through the photos for the national competition. We went through the photos and we just didnt feel we had what we needed. So we planned another shoot. It had started to get cold, so we decided that we were going to do it in the studio here at Black Hills State University, but beings that i havent taken a studio course, i am not allowed in the studio by myself. So my friend Rob helped us out, got us in and set everything up. I have to be honest, i really was not feeling this shoot, something just felt odd about it. After thinking about it later, i decided it was because it was the first time i was in control of a studio session and i dont think i knew enough to run it by myself. Anyway, Codi did an amazing job, she brought me exactly what i was looking for, which was humble and sweet. The photos turned out great and as far as i know she loved them. She chose the ones she wanted for the national competition and sent them in, after getting her directors approval. Here are some of the shots from the shoot:

 

 

Now to Codi i would like to say thank you for letting me do your photos, i had so much fun with them. And you are a beautiful person and soul, i wish you all the luck in the competition. You are going to do amazing!
Check out my fan page Photography by Joe to see the full albums.