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raycaster

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Nothingness

3 min read
I come to this site mainly to get inspired and view amazing artwork from people around the world. I am in awe by the works being done, while I am doing nothing. My photography has been absent from my life for a long time. I have been doing random headshots or dance student portfolio work, but I have not done any project for myself in years. I am at a point where I just hate pulling out my lights and waiting for a client to show up. I decided to take down a lot of my "paid" services because 1) I can never make a living in photography without doing the generic crap that I hate and drains my soul and 2) no one wants to pay me to do what I want to do. I have a job and photography has always been an outlet, but there was a part of me that wanted to try and make a living at it. I never got into it and now I am at the point where I hate doing anything photo related. 

The other part that makes it hard for me is I have lost my muses. If you notice, most of my work is usually with 2 people. I love working with those two and not having them around makes things less enjoyable. I could find other collaborators to get my visions out, but that process has been tough. I get a lot of offers, but most of the time its by people I do not feel anything from. They are lifeless one-look people that just want to get pictures taken.

So there is a void. Its a deep dark void that has been with me for a long long time. I think now that I have officially made the decision to not take on any projects from people that are in it for their own promotion and where I get nothing from it, I can perhaps open myself up to getting back into creating my own work. I am perfectly happy paying for a models time especially if it takes the pressure of giving them something in return. I hate TFP situations. 

Anyway, just wanted to rant and just say that I am still here looking at everyone's amazing work. I hope to contribute with my own work soon....I need to find a muse again.

Thanks for reading.
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So I haven't had much time to work on my photography projects. Between work being overwhelming and my music video project, I just have not been given the luxury of time. I completed the music video and the film that is the teaser story leading up to the music video. We filmed them both at the same time with the goal of releasing the film before the music video is released. It was an insane project and most of the time I felt like I was in over my head, but I am lucky enough to be surrounded by very talented people. We filmed everything in 7 Sundays ( the only time most people had free ) and then I had to edit the video and film, color correct, add special effects, and all that crazy crap that I have not really done before. I certainly learned a lot, made plenty of mistakes, and wished I did things different, but in the end I am happy with what I was able to do with limited knowledge and equipment. The whole thing was shot on my Canon 5D with some LED lights and strip lights from Home Depot. I am certainly not a gear head and spent more time working out the story and look over caring what new rig was available to me. I would have loved to have the gear, but I didn't let it stop me.

More to come once the video is released and I had some time away from staring at this daunting project for such a long time.

Link to Video

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VjKNv…
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new site design

2 min read
I am starting to get the wheels rolling again. Its been a long time since I have done anything and with this business I started last year, its been even more difficult to get any real good projects going. I hope to change that and my goals for the year are to make my personal projects a larger priority. I have nothing really exciting to report now, but that will change.

Anyway, I updated my website so it is easier for me to update and modify. I am a software developer by trade so being able to write code and extend the Wordpress platform was a fun challenge. I don't feel like this site is complete, but its better than the site I had before. I will be updating it and making it better, but like I said I want my projects to be a larger part of my life. Web sites are fun and all, but they do nothing for me like photography and film.

Check it out. DeviantArt has an amazing pool of artistic and design talent and I dare not even consider myself in the league of the true talents, but I just needed something up and have no money to pay someone what they are worth. Any feedback and suggestions are always welcome.

www.melhaynesphoto.com

Mel
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my first film

1 min read
I entered my last week to the 24 hour film race and last night was the screening of all the entries. It was an amazing experience and being able to see my first film on a big screen in a theater was really surreal. I never thought I'd experience that and hope to be able to do it again. I learned a lot from making a film.....especially the difficulty in getting all the details right. We had to turn in our film at 10pm and the drop off location is about 25 minutes away from me. We spent way too much time trying to get the music score in place and ended up taking too long so we had to burn the DVD in the car as we were speeding off to the drop off spot. It was scary, exciting, and of course, full of anxiety. Anyway, here is the film if anyone is interested.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhAqlH…
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I have always liked filmmaking. Lately, the urge to do something with film has overtaken me so I have been looking into what equipment I need to make it happen. First off, I procrastinate and tend to not do anything so in order to force myself into action, I signed up to do this filmmaker contest on the 21st of May. The goal is, in 24 hours, make a 4 minute movie using the secret theme that they give you at 10pm on Friday..I have a few people to help out, but we are lacking in acting talent so it may end up being me and my friends acting in it...All completed films get shown at an event so its pretty exciting and scary at the same time. I have never written, filmed, edited, or scored a movie before...eeek. My girlfriend is ( as well as her entire family ) a musician and will be scoring it for me and doing make up, my other two friends will be helping out with lighting and photography and well......anyway, it will be fun I am sure.

I have looked at options and one option that I am considering is the DSLR route...specifically the Canon 5D. Yes. I am a Nikon guy considering switching to Canon. I rented a Nikon D700 which is a full frame DSLR and did a shoot out with my friends Canon 5D and the Canon really proved to be a winner. Now, on top of this, there is the ability to shoot HD video...I mean really great video. Its amazing what it can do. I rented one this weekend from a local camera shop called Cameren and did some tests. The link below is just a quick movie I filmed in like 10 minutes just to see if I could shoot in low light and edit the footage

www.youtube.com/watch?v=61TMjh…

Sorry, no sound or anything, but it proves this camera has some great capabilities and I may just end up using it for the contest. I am nervous, intimidated, but excited to do this and I know with my crew, we will have fun and even if it screws up, I know I will have learned a lot from the experience. I will be updating later with how it turned out, but if anyone lives in Denver and wants to act, drop me a line ;) I know I am not looking forward to doing it.
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Nothingness by raycaster, journal

new site design by raycaster, journal

my first film by raycaster, journal

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tutorial video by raycaster, journal