Polo in a Nutshell

This is the Cornell Men's and Women's polo coach. If you haven't played or seen polo yet you should definitely get over to Oxley and watch some because it is amazing. It is so addicting.

This is a Harvard Polo video but it was shot at Cornell during the Nationals of 2009 I believe.

WISE Class 3/14/11

       So yesterday we had WISE class and Mrs. G kinda yelled at us for being behind in our projects. She said that as we were supposed to be doing at least 3 post minimum per week we should be pretty close to 14 entries if not more. I am feeling semi ok about this. I do have more than 14 entries but not a ton more, just a few. So another goal of this week is to blog more, even if its not a long entry. One of my classmates asked what the minimum length for an entry was and Mrs. G said as much as you would write in one sitting. Now I find this a problem for me because I tend to write a little bit then come back to it and add more thoughts that I have come up with. I think I will stick with the longer entries for now but not be worried about posting shorter entries if that is all I can think of at the moment.
    I will be posting a video of my polo coach speaking about polo (duh) later in the week as well as a progress report on how I am meeting my goals.
    As this is all I can think of at the moment I am ending my post here. Hmm maybe I do like this shorter posts thing.

Mentor Meeting 3/11/11

      So I have been in somewhat of a rut for the last few days. I was happy with my project, where it was headed and my progress but I wasn't satisfied. I don't know if that makes sense or not, I hope it does. So when I met with Mrs. G I voiced these concerns and she had a lot of ideas that she thought would help to keep me satisfied throughout my project.
    This meeting came at a really good time because I have a problem continuously planning so having the meeting helped me to get back on track. I am now planning for my show opening as well as continuing to plan out the collage. I think the collage will be my main focus this week.

         One of her ideas was to get my photos up in a public area so that many people could see them. Because my project doesn't rely on me learning a lot of photography skills, I took Photo classes last year, she thought that publishing was the next step. I totally agree with this one. Mrs. G suggested putting up my favorite works in a coffee shop or something to that nature, or putting on my own photo show. I then mentioned that Judy puts a photo show on every year and that I could ask Judy if she would be willing to let me put some of my photos into it as well. Then as I was talking to my mom about this she suggested that we hold a photo show opening at my house. We would set up my photos all around the dining room and living room and invite friends and classmates to come over, have food and see my photos. I really liked this idea so I'm going to start planning it for mid to late April. That way "The Wiz" is over and I will have more time.

 
     I guess I should explain my main purpose behind this project as I have neglected to do so until now. I want to show non-horsey people why us horsey people are so absolutely and utterly obsessed. Any horse person out there can tell you there is a bond between horse and rider but are unable to put that bond into words and still have it make sense to a non-horsey person. My goal at the end of this project is to communicate that bond. Maybe the reason why we can't explain our bond with horses because there are no words that would do it justice. The closest I have ever seen anyone come to describing it perfectly is Susan Richards, author of "Saddled." So I aim to convey this bond through pictures because as they say: "A picture is worth a thousand words."

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back?

     So finally I chose the style that I want my portfolio to be in. I have it all pretty much planned out and I am relatively happy with it.
    Unfortunately I feel like I am not doing as much as I could be for my project. I have been reading my fellow classmates blogs and it seems to me that I am on track but that I seem to be working on my project in large amounts and then not working on it for a couple of days. And maybe thats ok because I have been getting lots done but I want to try to work on my project a little bit every day and still do the large portions on the weekends. That is one of my goals for the rest of the week.
      I also am realizing that my idea for the large collage is not going to happen unless I start talking pictures all the time. I also need to start planning out the collage so that I can take pictures with that in mind. I am going to polo tonight so I will bring my camera and hopefully get some good shots in the barn.
   I really want to make this project a success so I need to start doing even more for my project. We'll see how it goes as the week finishes.

I Found It!!!!!

Yes!!!! So I absolutely love this photo. I think it is absolutely gorgeous and I just love the composition. I think this photo helps explain, or at least demonstrate, the mysterious relationship between a woman and a horse.
Basically I love everything about this picture.

YAY!! iLife '11

       YAY!!!!!!!! My Dad just came home with the new iLife '11. I am so happy right now! This means that I can start putting my portfolio together. Thanks Dad!
        One of the big things I was concerned with is that I would leave all of actual planning of the portfolio til the end of the year. Now I can get a rough idea of how I want it. Also this will allow me to make changes through out the semester.

Here is my picture of the week:
Well, I think I have two; here is the first.
    I really like that only the outline of this horse is visible. Some of its muscles are visible but the majority of the horse is left dark. Even though most of the horse is dark I'm still able to make out the shape of this horse. I think this picture really brings out the grace and beauty of the shape of a horse.

       Unfortunately I have not been able to find my other picture. I don't know if it got deleted or what but I will continue looking for it and if I find it I will post it immediately!

So over the weekend I have been exploring the new iPhoto that was updated by iLife '11. It is really nice. Now with the older version of iPhoto the ability to make a book was there but choices were limited. Now there are about 20 themes to choose from and each page can be formatted to fit 1 - 4 pictures on it. I have narrowed the themes down to two so hopefully I will choose one soon so that I can start putting all my pictures in.

    This week I hope to finalize the theme for my portfolio, as well as insert the pictures. There is also polo on Wednesday so I think I will end up photographing instead of riding like usual. I also want to get started on my collage project as I have yet to start that. I really don't want to leave that till the last minute because with how I'm envisioning it, it will be a huge project.

WISE Notes 3/1/11

       So today we watched a documentary (Barnsong) about a former wise student and his journey to make a barn. The documentary was actually made by another Wise student as his project. I really liked the idea of building a barn and using all of his own lumber and everything. I think that the process itself must have been so hard and time consuming! I like the documentary a lot as well. I think it portrayed the efforts and hardships of of raising a barn very well. However I thought the music was at times too loud and overwhelmed Austin talking. Some of the shots were a little shaky but I think that that added to the character of it. I really liked the original score that accompanied the film. One thing that I didn't was that it didn't seem like a full portrait of the experience. When I think of a documentary I think of a film that shows an experience from all sides. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I thought there was too much editing for what I think of as a documentary. I do Understand however that filming a documentary is a huge undertaking and to get almost a full film done in a semester is an accomplishment.