people I met in columbia last week...

Amparo is from Guatemala. She came to Columbia, MO, with her friend Oralia. They are the members of TRAMA Textiles. Trama is defined as "an association of 400 backstrap loomweavers in the western highlands of Guatemala". They were brought to Columbia by a professor from Columbia College, who worked with them in Guatemala. During their visit to town,on March 24, they came to Mustard Seed, a fair trade store, to see if they can sell some of their beautiful handmade textiles. That day, they actually sold some stuff, which I helped Jessica, the store manager, to choose.

During their visit to Mustard Seed, Jessica M Canfield gave Oralia and Amparo a store tour. I photographed this little tour as I voluntarily take pictures for Mustard Seed. Eventually we decided to take more photos of their Guatemalan booth in the store, later when Mustard Seed sets it. I will take those pictures with me to Guatemala this summer as a proof of their US sales to other members of TRAMA. When I am there, I will volunteer for TRAMA to visually document their efforts to run this association and will bring some images back with me for Mustard Seed. We hope to end up with a visual cultural exchange. Hopefully it will work out.

Last week on Wednesday, I was desperately driving around in search of some pictures for my advanced techniques fill and balance assignment. I kept driving on Rangeline drive. I stopped by a small shop. After asking for permission to photograph, I walked back of the shop and came across with a scrap place. It belongs to Semon Trucking and Repair, which was next door.

54-year-old John Semon's father, Henry, owns the land where the store and the scrap place is located. John said that he got on a payroll when he was 16. I really like the intense look in John's eyes.

Advanced Techniques: Fill and Balance

I met Mike, while he was playing guitar and singing on the corner of Cherry and 9th streets on March 22, 2010. Mike is a graphics design student at Columbia College. He usually plays in coffee shops and he thinks that he sounds better when he has a mic. But that day, he decided to try something different. So late afternoon , he decided to go out and play and sing in the street. If possible, make some money, too.

Lighting Diagram:

getty girl...

This was something that I did several years ago during a Getty Museum visit. The exhibitions were so boring that I ended up hanging out with a group of kids who were participating in a drawing workshop that my friend was giving that day. This was supposed to be a self-portrait, but as you can see the resultant image has nothing to do with me.

a street in Spain, named "Pinar"

This morning, looking outside from Kaldi's window, I had this thought that I would end up in Spain at one point in my life. I don't know where it came from, just a feeling I had... My friend, Tague, sent me a picture he shot. He went on a pilgrimage along the north coast of Spain, called the Camino de Santiago this summer. He ended up in this street, named "Pinar". Strange...

Advanced Techniques: Color Correction

On St. Patrick's Day, March 18, Matt Arnat was playing pool at McNally's of Columbia, MO with his friends Drew, Casey and Justin. Matt, 26, is a forester and he plays in a pool team every other Monday at McNally's.

Color Corrected:

Lighting Diagram:

portraits

sports

sufism and women

project:maquiladora

Bilkent Symphony Orchestra

18/50

Untitled from pinar istek on Vimeo.

My father committed suicide at age 50, when I was 18. After seven years of denial/ignorance of his absence, last year I could finally face with the reality. I produced 18/50 with the hope of a relief. I am not sure if it worked out.

jeff

jeff from pinar istek on Vimeo.

Jeff Connel is a letter carrier in Columbia, Missouri. I photographed him in December, 2009. It was before Christmas, while he was still ringing bell for the Salvation Army.

Advanced Techniques: Glass Assignment

Stay still : A glass of chanpagne is trying stand against the gravity.

Lighting Diagram for this shot

emma & owliver

Five year-old Emma is a red-tailed hawk. She lives at the Raptor Rehabilitation Project, University of Missouri. She was found in a dumpster in the Columbia area, with a broken wing that had already healed into position, when she was very young. My roommate, Shannon Dennis, volunteers for the Project. She is one of the handlers who feeds the birds and takes them on educational presentations.

Owliver is a seven year-old great horned owl. She came to the project when some people called. She had been down on the ground on their farm for two weeks and had been eating nothing but insects. She has suffered a broken wing and was not able to recover full flight.

EPJ: Multimedia Critique

Middle East by Christopher Anderson

http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/warsanderson

This is one of my favorite multimedia projects. I think it benefits very well from many different possibilities that multimedia technique offers. This is a sole project that was published on Magnum's multimedia. It is not designed as a page, instead it is an element of a page. There is a major visual consistency between the overall language of the page design and the multimedia design. The visual design of Middle East is as simple and beautiful as MagnumInMotion's page. The project starts with a quote form another photographer, which talks about sand and mud wars. This quote actually sets up the mood and context for the upcoming project. Middle East talk about the sand wars that Christopher Anderson photographed in the region. It has a lot of photos in warm colors, in the orange colors of sand. Later we see the photographer's interview as a typical documentary film type talking head format. Lighting of this video matches with the dark mood of the piece and its overall warm colors.

Ultimately the project uses video, still photographs, shots from computer games, animation and text. It is definitely visually rich while telling its story. The editing technique is basically jump cuts form shot to shot, no matter what the material is.

It doesn't seem like a Flash project. The editor probably used a movie editing software for this. The only part that must be done with Flash is the final slideshow controls-play, pause buttons and processing bar. It is simple and almost user friendly. The only negative thing that I can tell about it is that the unclear chapter distinctions. So there are actually two chapters in this piece. First one is the introduction and the second one is the actual piece. But I couldn't tell this until I finished watching the project and tried to replay it. I didn't realize that I had the option to make a choice between chapters. That would be the only thing that I would make clearer for the user.

i used to draw... part 2

I did this drawing a while ago. I was trying to create some sort of Mother Earth figure by using some elements. Dark blue section was the ocean, green parts were for the plants, grey line-shaded part was the air, brown was for the soil. I had this little dark bird as sort of a haunting observer to keep myself feel insecure about the earth.

There is not much to say about her. She is "The Woman."

This was almost another variation on Mother Earth. This time instead of air, I had used the sun on her face.

i used to draw...

This birthday card was inspired by the movie The Fall by Tansem Singh. Amazing visuals in this movie inspired me to draw this. There are five major characters in it. And with this drawing, I tried to create a new one by combining their features. I picked an owl for mine because of the discomfort it gives to me, just like the movie...

Le Petit Prince is my favorite book of all. I did a little transformation from prince to surfer. This was another gift for my friend.

This is my Italian friend Chiara Pierobon. She is getting her PhD on Sociology. She is a great viola player. I did this drawing for her master's graduation. I really wanted to be there for her, but because of some time conflict we had I couldn't make it. So instead I drew this and mailed it to her.

Advanced Techniques: Single Flash

On March 6, Paul visited Tera Nova to see if he can get a bed from this small intentional community's garden. Hoyt DeVane (on the left), one of four members of Tera Nova, said that Paul doesn't have a good space in his yard to grow vegetables. As long as Paul organically gardens, Hoyt is thinking about giving him one bed to grow tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, which he can start planting in May. Hoyt said that Tera Nova tries to make the land available to their friends and neighbors as much as they can.

Lighting diagram for the direct flash photo

playing guitar in the shade

This afternoon, under the shade of a big tree in front of J-School, MU senior at International Studies and Environmental Sciences, Cording(the one at the bottom) was talking to his friend about possibly playing with them on Thursday at Underground Cafe. After graduation, he wants to join Peace Corps and go to Latin America.

gerbes under the rain

My roommate, Shannon and I went to Gerbes tonight to get some groceries. Around 6:30, drizzling rain made the store sigh look beautiful.

Whose Song

Whose Song... from pinar istek on Vimeo.

This is a fiction film that I produced in my junior year at University of California, San Diego. It is about the miscommunication between man and woman and woman's finding her inner peace later.

Thanks to my friends, Chiara Pierobon and Mehmet Parlak for their acting and Stefan Garfield for the sound editing.

true/false march march

February 26, 2010. On Friday, there was March March true/false film fest parade. This is a moment I captured at the end of the parade.