Thank Goodness for Cute Kids

I GRADUATED COLLEGE!!!!!

I’m sorry, that probably sounds like I’m happy about this recent change it my life. Let me try again.

I GRADUATED COLLEGE AND I LIVE AT HOME WITH MY PARENTS AND I DON’T HAVE A STABLE JOB!!! WOW MY HEAD HURTS FROM BANGING IT AGAINST THIS WALL THAT HAS MY HIGH SCHOOL TRACK MEDALS ON IT!!!

In case you live under a rock, the economy ain’t doing so hot so trying to find a job has been an interesting, if not completely frustrating experience. But as my dad would say, “Suck it up Slepoy,” so it is time to stop feeling sorry for myself (not gonna happen) and move on. My new plan, brilliantly entitled “Make Moves,” can be broken down into a few parts. The two most prevalent include an internship with Slate Magazine in NYC and working as a freelance photographer for my local paper, the LI Herald.

So far I am really enjoying my internship with Slate, I even got my very first byline. WOOHOO! On the other hand, my work for LI Herald started off a bit rocky, including an event in which no one, and I mean no one, would give me their names for caption information. But last night I was asked to shoot the third of the Cedarhurst Tuesday night summer concert series at Cedarhurst Park, and I have to say thank goodness for cute kids.

20110719 - Cedarhurst, NY - Children watch a magic show performed by Magical Productions at the third of the Cedarhurst summer concert series at Cedarhurst Park in Cedarhurst, NY. Photo by Isabel Slepoy / LI Herald

20110719 - Cedarhurst, NY - Zahava Aryeh, 6, pets a bunny rabbit during a performance by Magical Productions at the third of the Cedarhurst summer concert series at Cedarhurst Park in Cedarhurst, NY. Photo by Isabel Slepoy / LI Herald

20110719 - Cedarhurst, NY - Zahava Aryeh, 6, watches a magic show performed by Magical Performance at the third of the Cedarhurst summer concert series at Cedarhurst Park in Cedarhurst, NY. Photo by Isabel Slepoy / LI Herald

20110719 - Naomi Polanco, 3, shows off her balloon animal at the third of the Cedarhurst summer concert series at Cedarhurst Park in Cedarhurst, NY. Photo by Isabel Slepoy / LI Herald

20110719 - Cedarhurst, NY - Jeremy Cruz, 3, plays with a balloon sword at the third of the Cedarhurst summer concert series at Cedarhurst Park in Cedarhurst, NY. Photo by Isabel Slepoy / LI Herald

20110719 - Cedarhurst, NY - Daniella Weingarten, 5, plays with a tortoise at the third of the Cedarhurst summer concert series at Cedarhurst Park in Cedarhurst, NY. Photo by Isabel Slepoy / LI Herald

20110719 - Cedarhurst, NY - Andrea Gianmalvo of Sister Act sings during a performance at the third of the Cedarhurst summer concert series at Cedarhurst Park in Cedarhurst, NY. Photo by Isabel Slepoy / LI Herald

20110719 - Cedarhurst, NY - Harry Kaminez of Valley Stream dances along with Andrea Gianmalvo of Sister Act during a performance at the third of the Cedarhurst summer concert series at Cedarhurst Park in Cedarhurst, NY. Photo by Isabel Slepoy / LI Herald

How cute are they? Come on, how can you not love little kids with balloon animals and grown men dressed as hula dancers? Take a break from reading about the Murdoch scandal and the debt ceiling crisis and enjoy the cuteness.

I need a hail mary

I am not a tall person, not very short, but just short enough that I look ridiculous jumping for items that sit on the top shelf in a supermarket. I also tend to have a difficult time at standing room only concerts in which I find myself wanting to tackle all the tall people standing in the front row and ask them “WHY MUST I BE FORCED TO STARE AT THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD? YOU’RE TALL, MOVE BACK A ROW.” The caps were necessary because this has happened more than once, and don’t doubt  my ability to tackle a person, I’m feisty.

Despite these “short-comings” being on the smaller side doesn’t really bother me. Even being a photographer I have found ways to work around it. When everyone goes up, I crouch down. When everyone groups together, I bend down and pop on the other side to get in front. I found that it has made my style, a bit more sneaky. But the one thing, THE ONE THING I can’t seem to get is a classic “hail marry” picture.

A definition is necessary: “Hail Mary photo is one you shoot with the camera extended out away from your body, usually up high, but sometimes out at the side, because you’re either blocked or obstructed from a more normal approach, or in some cases, because the angle you actually want is higher up and the situation does not allow you to physically raise yourself up. Usually, it’s because fans, police, or other photographers are in your way, depending upon the event you are shooting.”

Basically I find myself often blocked by people, or just plain unable to see over their tallness to get the picture, so I try to take a hail mary photograph. Problem is it seems that no matter how hard I try my hail marys come out terrible. They are usually tilted violently to one side, even though I swore I was holding it straight. I usually over exaggerate the tilt so that the frame cuts out subjects heads, and somehow I manage to make it blurry.

So here is my  latest attempt…

Although it is a sorry excuse, I will not give up. One day I will get my hail marry photograph and it will be a beautiful moment. dammit.

I’m Back!

So I’ve finally got my act together and have decided to start writing on my blog again. Last semester I had an internship with the office of the Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick; an amazing experience but one that took up a lot of my free time. That combined with a full class load made it hard to stay on stop of writing posts. But now I’m back, a part-time student with no internship and I’m back! So let’s get this started.

I am currently enrolled in a portfolio class and our first assignment was to take feature pictures, and with the weather being as bad as it has been lately I decided it was time for some weather shots.

January 22, 2011- Marco Cappiardi, 29, walks his pug Hazel across the frozen pond in the Boston Public Gardens in Boston, MA.

January 22, 2011 – James Moodley, 5, plays in the snow by the “Make Way for Ducklings” sculpture in the Boston Public Gardens in Boston, MA.

Hope you like! It’s good to be back…

Coming Soon…

This week I started a new internship at The Daily Beast, Tina Brown’s online newspaper based out of NYC. So far I have a lot of editing photographs, most memorably some images from a soon to be released book called “The Big Butt Book.” Yes that’s a real thing and yes I starred at considerably large behinds all morning. Don’t worry, that gallery will be up on the website soon.

Anyway today I don’t seem to be doing too much so I decided to start working on putting together a new website. Unfortunately my lack of internet skills is making the process take a bit of time. Thank goodness photo shelter has a video about everything, I swear they answer every question I have.

So for now all I have is my newest portfolio. Hope you like!

Barcelona: A True Vacation

Somehow all the other trips that I have taken during my time abroad have left me feeling every more exhausted than when I left, so I decided Barcelona would be different. I needed a true vacation, where my main goals were to relax and read as much as possible. Mission accomplished.

For this leg of my trip I visited and stayed with my best friend Marisa, whom I’ve known since I was 5 years old. The nicest part about staying with her and her amazing roommates was not just because it was free, that was just a plus, but that I felt more relaxed and comfortable. I also felt that staying with her allowed me to see a different side of Barcelona, a more insiders version. Most days I slept until a little before noon (it’s allowed because I am still in college) and then just went to the beach. Just a few metro stops away the weather was perfect so the beach was amazing. I spent most of my time just laying there thinking, “Yeah I’m just laying on the beach in Barcelona, Spain right now, no big.”

On the way to the beach on my first day Marisa warned me that the second I walked onto the sand I would accosted by people trying to sell me things. Alrighty, how bad could it be. Answer: Bad! Oh dear lord you need to listen to your ipod so you can drown out the noise of people yelling things at you. The list of noises/sounds goes as such:

1. “Massage?Massage?”- Asian women yelling in a thick accent that sounds more like masahe, they carried around massage oils so you can get a massage while relaxing on the beach. I found it quite entertaining when two of the women see a customer at the same time and fight over who gets to give them a massage…apparently its a cut throat business.

2. “Tattoo?”- Yes, perfect, that’s exactly what I want to do, get a tattoo from a random man carrying a book of examples around on the beach. He was a smart businessman however because he always had his book open to the page of playboy bunny tattoos. Nah I think I’ll pass.

3. “aklsjdfkajsdfa”- yeah no idea what this guy was saying but he was definitely selling slices of coconuts.

4. “BEER!”- men carrying around cans of beer in plastic bags.

5. This guy didn’t saying anything he was just walking around holding scarves for sale…oh yeah I totally want to buy that scarf that is all around your sweaty body. ew.

6. Favorite by far was donuts man: guy walked around with a platter of donuts on his head and did a show by throwing them around and spinning the platter on his head.

7. Rastafarian looking man walked around holding a fake joint the size of a 12 year old. Whatever makes him happy.

Since Marisa still had classes I made myself take at least one day to do the truly touristy thing. In the morning I decided to to go the Picasso museum, which I ended up liking a lot. Having only known his most famous work it was interesting to see his progression as an artist from when he was a young man. After some lunch I headed over to La Sagrada Familia, the world famous Roman Catholic church that was designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. Started in 1882 it is still not fully completed, but I was able to take a look inside and take an elevator ride to the top for some amazing views. The most interesting part was that it was different from any church I have ever seen, very different from the typical churches around Europe. You know the joke, a tour of Europe is a tour of its churches.

Here are some of my pictures from Sagrada Familia..trust me these don’t do it justice.

The rest of my time in Barcelona was spent relaxing and reading a total of 3 books, go me! Next it was off to Greece which was also relaxing but wayyyy more stressful.

To be continued…