"...the world you see is yours, because it is different for everyone else."

About Evon

My photo
I am a photographer, a sometimes writer, a gamer, a driver and more. I graduated from Central Michigan University with a double major in Journalism(Photo) and English(Creative Writing). Any Photos are copyright Ryan Evon, The Facts or the Morning Sun 2010/2011/2012. All words by, representing and claimed by Ryan Evon & only him, unless in quotation marks & specified otherwise.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Tears of the Innocent

Like the soul sucking vampire bastard I am, the tears of innocent people cleanse my pasty skin like clean, cool spring water.

Well, not exactly. I'm never super comfortable when people are crying, but it does make for powerful photos.

A person is in front of your lens at their most truthful and exposed moment. It's a bit of weight to make sure you capture the moment in the most thoughtful way possible.

Texas A&M have a muster every year, where grads from the school get together and be merry. At the end they remember any alums that have died in a candle lighting ceremony.
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It was nice, very dark, but nice.

On the flip side of that event, crying can be fun.

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I kind of felt like a Nazi, laughing and taking pictures as some of these kids bawling their eyes out...but it was pretty funny.
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Just a quick one this time. But on a creative related update, I've been writing almost every night. I have the urge every so often and I have a folder full of started stories. Some a page long, some twenty.

This one is up to 40 now, and I haven't gotten to the part I'm really thinking about. So it's working pretty well.

It's sort of a weird fiction/autobiography that I'm having a lot of fun writing.

I was thinking about posting some of it, but I'm always weird about letting people read stuff before it's finished...unless it's Jada, because she's been reading my stuff since high school. Normally I feel like I have to stand there to justify and explain things, in case there is some confusion.

Anyway, we'll see where it goes.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Me and my stupid good ideas

Had a marathon of frustration the other day doing one of the All County teams.

I hate, CAPITAL H, HATE, posed portraits of people standing in a line. But sadly, it seems to happen here more frequently than I am comfortable with.

Basically it is a self preservation thing, anyone could take a photo like that. So why do I need to be there? If I don't need to be there and people get used to these stupid photos, they won't realize how good a photo can be and professional photographers won't be around. Like real reporters vs. blogger/twitter news jerks.

I'd rather have a whole, well done story than 140 characters some jackhole wrote while on the toilet.



So I had a few ideas for the All County basketball team photos that I figured would be coming. I gave them to the sports editor and it seemed like we were going to talk about it, maybe plan a bit. But then it just came up.

Didn't get any input on when/where the photo would be taken. Which is kind of a pain.

Luckily the other sports reporter had talked a bit to the editor about doing something creative, so I had a couple days notice. I was able to work on some ideas and scout the location.

I had a good idea that involved a high angle, cool lighting and a long exposure. I was having a geek party in my head. Get to do creative stuff and climb a big ass ladder! Come on!

It was looking very promising, the assistant principal said they would have the ladders setup in the gym for me before I got there. I was in a good mood about the photo.

Then on the day, of course, nothing was ready. There were other kids in the gym playing basketball and no ladders. So I was losing all my time to figure out the lighting/setup situation. I had to track down a janitor and dig the ladders out of this room by myself.

Ya know what? (I actually sighed very dramatically after writing "ya know what?" Jeez.) I don't even feel like venting on this topic. That's how frustrating it was.

I've got some other stuff to do and this has been a mind block for the last week or so. "Gotta get that damned blog post out so I can do some other fun ones." I try to keep this mess somewhat chronological, so I'll fast forward to the end.

(insert sped up mental images of Ryan swearing, sweating a bit and looking very frustrated)

It worked. It wasn't perfect, crap was frustrating, some of the people involved were annoying, some were awesome. Basically it boiled down to a time issue. Photography is part art and part technical. Good ideas and fine tuning the process take time. Sometimes it's quick and easy, sometimes it's not.

Here is the result.
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Everything was done in camera, no Photoshop. Whew.

It usually isn't hard to do long exposures like this, but I had to run up and down a ladder every time, so it was less smooth than I had hoped.

After this I had about 2 minutes to the girl version...and one of the girls wasn't there.
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Can you guess which one wasn't there? It's kind of obvious.

Okay, well...that's out of the way.

Tomorrow is going to be a massively busy day, so I imagine I won't be updating anything for a couple days. Might spend Sunday recovering at the beach with a beer or two. :D

I'll try to get back to a more frequent post schedule, eventually I'll get the internet at my apartment and this won't be such a process.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Driving Texas : Part 2 : The Roads

If you didn't read Part 1, well...do it! This is what Part 1 was supposed to be before the internet demons stole it. Sadly, this isn't quite as good as my original.

But it makes up for it by being really long...enjoy.

Fun Driving:
A big part of driving enjoyment depends on the road. I’ve found some fun roads in the area and I actually think it would be fun to do a story or something for the paper about driving in the area.

A lot of the roads down here are done well, there are some rough surfaces here and there, but most are good. No six month deathly winter freeze to crack and ravage last summer’s two inches of fresh asphalt on some sad Michigan road.

Here the roads, at least the new ones, seem to be properly laid. With depth and foundation that lead one to believe that actual thought went into the construction. It’s enough to amaze and confuse someone from a strange, snowy place.

There are definitely some nice roads around for an enthused motorist; curvy, smooth ribbons of beauty that just lay there, waiting for you to ravage them in whatever fashion you please. I haven’t got a lot to say yet about recreational driving, because I haven’t had a ton. But I'm compiling a list...don't you worry.

But aside from driving on the beach (which is so much fun it should be illegal…actually, I think at my speed it was) the BlueWater Highway is a beautiful, fun drive.

It’s a flat, mostly straight burn from Surfside Beach to Galveston. It follows the gulf coast for 30 miles or so onto Galveston Island. Nothing but grass, sand, water and in places loads of beach houses that rile up the envy in the nicest person. There is a two dollar bridge toll to get onto the island, but it’s worth it.

Actual Driving:
The day-to-day roads are where I have the most ammo to talk about so far.

Texas, in all its wisdom, doesn’t seem to believe in blinking red left turn lights. It makes for some long waits at lights where NO ONE is coming the other way.

One of the routes I used to travel frequently is Business 288 that runs from Clute to Angleton.

It’s only about 7 or 8 miles, but when the driving gods aren’t smiling down upon you it can be the mother of all multi-lane migraines.

About halfway to my goal I come to a stop under the sneering gaze of a light turned red for no reason at all. Not a single car coming the other way. Hey, whatever, keep moving after the light, all is well.

While moving along in a peaceful automotive momentum, I am halted yet again by the ridiculous command of a red glowing devil bitch hanging above the street.

Maybe there is another car, but most of the time not a soul. Nothing. Now, I’m a little miffed. This is killing my mileage, because I rarely just take off. I drive a fun car with a manual transmission, so on an average light in a good mood I still take-off with…let’s call it “authority.”

Now, bathed by the sweet green freedom the Rabbit hops away (clever, huh?) from the light, the night air ripe with my freedom. I get back up to speed, applying the accelerator a tad more exuberant now to undo the pointless stoplight inconvenience.

The motion of shifting into fifth gear soothes my burning vehicular irritation as the next light turns yellow well before the point of no return.

On the frustrating roll up to the intersection my hands grip the steering wheel tight enough to make the wrapping creak as I look each way down the insignificant strip that cuts perpendicular under the stop light in front of me.

Nothing in sight. Not a single thing, not even the lights of a house in the far off distance. The road just disappears into the yawning darkness of this coastal Texas flat land. The area is flat enough you could see the curvature of the earth if there weren’t a mess of trees and brush.

288 B cuts a straight northish-to-southish sporadic strip of illumination through the mostly uninhabited stretch near the center of Brazoria County. Most of the roads that cross it need a yield sign, at best. Most of the roads don't look like they carry on more than a mile in either direction.

I’ve seen maybe ten cars cross my path on this road, and most of them just turned onto 288 B. If you can’t do that without a stoplight, you shouldn’t be driving.

As I am angrily looking down the two lane strip stabbing into the sad and lonely darkness I contemplate a criminal life. Just flick the switch from my now true path to depraved deviant who robs banks and runs red lights.

“Woah,” you say. “There is a wide gap between robbery and a vehicular moving violation.”

Yes, but let me take you on a journey.

If I’m going to run one of these stupid lights I’m going to run all of them. But then someone sees it, reports me and I have to try outrun the police. Which would be a little difficult in my Rabbit. Sure it’s quick, but it’s light. In pursuit they’d just have to tap my back-end and I’d be done, spinning off the road in my well engineered little German coffin.

So I’d have to get in a shootout with the cops, to keep moving. Of course there is a gun in the car, I’m a Texas outlaw. Come on!

Crap, I probably stole the gun and the car. But screw it, I don’t stop for red lights and I won’t stop now!

Maybe I make it to Mexico, maybe I don’t. I think I’ll have a Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid ending for my criminal spree. Sure, I’m surrounded, but I’ve got two guns and a crazy blue eyes. Watch out, coppers!

But then I’m released from the hold of the amber bitch and I motor on; continuing the simple life of slightly odd photojournalist in Texas.

Monday, April 4, 2011

To Live or to merely Exist

I try not to lie.

Weird words from a journalist.

That isn't exactly the slogan you'd expect under the masthead.

The Evon Chronicle
"We try not to lie"

Nowadays even that much might make some readers feel a little better. But for my own
part, my own life...I try not to lie.

I figured starting out that if I'm in the business of truth, I might as well live the life. That
way my path is flat and the course would be correct. Keep me away from those slippery
slopes, because they are out there, waiting for unprepared feet.

So in the spirit of honesty I will admit, I've been lying to you. Friends, family, Latvian
Photo lovers (that one really pains me), I have wronged you and I'm sorry.

Just simple lies, lies of omission.

But I did it mostly out of self preservation and a bit of courtesy and cowardice.SEE the slippery slope and beware!

People have secrets and that's okay, you shouldn't tell everyone everything. That would
be ridiculous and then MTV would come to your house and want to make a stupid show
about how you are a freaking moron whore.

But I haven't been saying what I wanted to say.

Writing started off as my catharsis in high school. I couldn't talk about anything real, my
throat just kind of closed up and only my hands would still work. So out the words
poured.

But for awhile I've only been letting little bits go in different spots. It felt like enough at
the time, but I think the water has just been continually rising behind the dam and if I
don't let more than a few bits out at a time I might wet my pants. Wait, that analogy
lost all its power. I'm a little tired...and have to pee.

I'm back and drained a little. So, writing omissions.

The sentence would be right there, with the cursor blinking impatiently behind it. As if to
say, "Did you really just write that? BLINK What if _______ reads it? BLINK
Delete it now. BLINK BLINK"

Well, in one of my random readings of Hunter S. Thompson I just kind of realized that he
didn't have any kind of filter on his brain. Lucky for him, he worked in a time where that
was okay, unique and actually a little bit necessary.

The world isn't the same. Now people share their every thought with the world, even the ones no one could possibly give a crap about. And I haven't even been writing about genuine issues.

So be warned, I'm saying what I want and what I feel from here on out.

Like or leave it, it'll be true.

"So we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: Who is the happier man, he
who has braved the storm of life and lived, or he who has stayed securely on shore and
merely existed?"
- Dr. Hunter S. Thompson


Sometimes I don't feel like I'm actually living, just existing. It is awful, and I don't entirely know what I need to do.

Moving to Texas was the first real thing I've done in a long time. But I kind of already feel like I'm back in a routine.

After starting the driving one I have grown a taste for serial writing I guess.

Another HST quote to end this gibberish.

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." - Hunter S. Thompson