The Writer

The Mad Goat on MySpace

Well, after class on Wednesday, February 18th, I decided to go ahead and enter the student photography contest. I don’t want anyone to say that I am not a team player. I am planning on entering two pictures, one each of my twin sons.Getting two pictures framed before Monday morning when I have to leave at 7 am to drive to class is going to be the biggest hurdle.

We didn't get a print out of the rules for the contest so I am not sure what exactly the requirements are for the contest. I tried going to the 3rd Floor Photo Society blog spot but I didn't find any information.

One of my sons is a writer. If you are on MySpace, take a look at the Mad Goat’s bogs, aka Eric Haan.

Below is Eric’s blog about having his mother take his picture for class when he came home for a visit in early January 2009.

"As a lifetime model (sometimes voluntary, sometimes not) for my Mom’s photography it didn’t surprise me when I came into town and she asked me to do some modeling for her latest photography class. In this case the modeling was voluntary. Almost two years ago she took some pictures of me for a photography class and let me use the picture as the profile pic on my Myspace account. I am a habitual blogger on Myspace and appreciate the fickleness and superficiality of a huge portion of the general public. After posting the well done picture on my page I immediately started getting more attention to my blog. You can’t judge a book by its cover but unfortunately most people do. Fortunate for me, this worked out in my favor.

I had been using the same picture for a long time so I thought it was about time to update it. Mom needed a new pic for class so this worked out pretty well. Again, fortunate for me, she already had an idea of the picture she wanted as well as props and a location. From past experiences I trust her judgment and knew she would come out with a picture that would be good for both our needs.

She told me her vision and I incorporated my take on it. She wanted a forlorn looking guy with a bottle and a cigarette, which actually worked with the persona I put forth on my blog. I envisioned a lounge singer-esque guy with a loosened bowtie reminiscent of old school lounge singers. She agreed on the look but we lacked the necessary wardrobe so we went to several thrift shops to find bowties. We couldn’t find any so we settled on a regular tie and went to work. I put Tom Waits on the stereo to set the mood.

I am constantly amazed at how hard modeling is to do. I liken it to taking a road trip. Sitting in a car should be easy but after several hours you get exhausted. Sitting for a camera is equally exhausting. In the car you have to constantly be aware of traffic, speed, and a million other things that require constant attention. In the studio you have to devote constant attention to poses, angles, and lighting, as well as take instructions and cues from another person. It’s like taking a road trip with a nagging back seat driver. This was compounded by the fact that I had to constantly smoke cigarettes for the shoot. Normally I enjoy smoking but being forced to smoke one after the other was a little rough.

However, in the end it was all worth it. The pictures came out great and I had a hard time figuring out which one I wanted to use for my blog profile because there were so many good shots."