2009_02_28_overcast, under appreciated

2009_02_28_overcast, under appreciated



peace,
Brad Vest

01_06_2008_the long trip home_bv

--01_06_2008_the long trip home_bv--

Live in the moment.

My brief time here in Seattle has come to an end, for now. I honestly can't even begin to describe my feelings of leaving this place. I feel as if I am leaving something just as I was beginning to truly appreciate and understand some of it's intricacies. The hardest part is not the city, place, or the things here that this place has to offer that I have come to love, it's the people. I'll be leaving great friends and fresh friendships that I have developed in my time here. Feeling more and more at home as everyday passed while realizing it can only last a certain amount of time.



Today I embark on my journey home across the wide open tundra of the midwest to Illinois for a week with friends and family. From there I'll head off to Hutchinson, Kansas to begin my spring internship with The Hutchinson News.





Moving onto Kansas will be eye opening, foreign, and creativity inspiring place to this fresh-eyed wanderlust who'll be stomping its ground for the first time. I am really looking forward to making pictures and developing friendships in this new place. But for now I can't help but feeling the tug on the heartstrings as I leave this place, with people who've impacted my life so much.



I'll be back Seattle, one way or another. But for now this bird has a little more migrating to do before planting his feet. After all, it's the journey and the stops along the way, not the destination.

Stay tuned, the tide is changing.






Best,

Brad Vest

listening to: Once Around the Block, Badly Drawn Boy

Thanks for the drawing Anne, it was a fantastic 'last' night in Seattle. Time to go rock out in Kansas for a while and make some wonderful americana images.

01_01_2009_So this is the new year_bv

--01_01_2009_So this is the new year_bv--

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful, energetic, and safe night. I can only hope that everyone had as wonderful of night as I had in Seattle. Here are just a few images of the Space Needle fireworks last night. These were taken from the Republican Street steps about 50 feet from where a friend of mine lives in Capitol Hill.

I'll probably post a few more images from the night coming up.

To all in this new year may you find happiness, health, and good fortune.
Best,

Brad Vest

--12_31_2008_Portfolio story: Historic house move_bv--

--12_31_2008_Portfolio story: Historic house move_bv--

At the beginning of my time here at the P-I, which only feels like yesterday, I had the opportunity to work on one of my favorite assignments of my entire time with the paper. I turned the regular daily assignment into a little story for my portfolio.

This is the final piece of my 2008 portfolio. I hope you enjoyed the images and as I said, I'd love to hear opinions and thoughts about the images that I have posted here.

2008 went quickly. Here's to a fantastic 2009.

Cheers,

Brad Vest

--12_31_2008_Solos_bv--

--12_31_2008_Solos_bv--

Here are my single, editorial, non sports images. Choosing portfolio images is one of the toughest things for photographers. There are images that mean a lot more to me emotionally so I feel more attached to them even though they're not my best images, those are the hardest cut out. I was fortunate enough to have members of the P-I staff look over my images many times and it has helped me imensly in narrowing down my final pics. Of course, no matter who you show your portfolio to, even if the first person loves every single image there will be people who just hate them. It's tough, but for now here are my single images in my short 3 year photojournalism career so far.

Again, any criticism and comments are extremely welcome.

Thanks for looking.

-Brad Vest

--12_31_2008_a little farewell and the portfolio thus far--

--12_31_2008_a little farewell and the portfolio thus far--

Since it's the end of 2008 and the end of my time here at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. I figured I would throw up my current portfolio, as it stands now at the end of 2008. Note, these all were not shot in 2008 this is my complete portfolio. I figure it will be nice to look back at this and see how much it changes come 2009, 10, and so on. I'll split each section into different posts so it's easy to follow and separate out the different sections.

I think I have improved quite a bit this year and the Post-Intelligencer has been a huge part of that. I'll continue to wok on improving every aspect of my work in 2009 and we'll see where it leads.

Today is my last day of interning at the P-I. It's been a fantastic experience and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I've grown as a photographer and a human being by being around such an amazing staff of photographers, editors, and writers. It'll be hard not coming through the P-I doors anymore to grab assignments that took me all over this wonderful city and parts of this state. I'll miss so much of my experience here and most of all the wonderful people I had the opportunity to work with each day.

In a few days I'll be leaving this amazing place and heading home to visit with my family and friends in Illinois for a little more than a week. Then I am off to my next internship in quite a different place than Seattle Washington, Hutchinson Kansas. I'll be working for Hutchinson News, a smaller 30k circulation paper in Hutchinson which is pretty much in the center of Kansas. It's sort of strange right now only staying in towns for 4 months at a time before moving onto the next opportunity. However, I enjoy the challenges that come with change and all the opportunities that follow closely behind.

Thanks to everyone at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, you made my first internship an amazing and unforgettable experience.

I'll post the portfolio in a few different blogs. Here are my sports images. It's a little long and I'll probably cut a few here or there depending on who I would be sending the portfolio to.

Best,
And have a great New Year.

-Brad

--12_25_2008_Merry Christmas and happy holidays --

--12_25_2008_Merry Christmas and happy holidays --

Well, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. It was my first time away from home for this occasion and it was relatively weird. But it also sorta just didn't feel like a holiday so I wasn't affected much I suppose. After all I'll be home in just a couple weeks so I'll have plenty of time to catch up with family and celebrate, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Either way, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday with anything that you celebrate. Be safe, have fun, and be thankful for everything.

Here are a few way random images from my walk / bus ride home from after a little potluck at work.

Thanks for looking,
Brad Vest

Listening to: Sneaker Pimps, Blue Movie

--2008_12_19-22_Seattle on Ice_bv--

--2008_12_19-22_Seattle on Ice_bv--

In the last few days Seattle has been rocked by an epic (in Seattle standards) amount of snow. This city shuts down after only a couple inches of snow. As a matter of fact, Seattle canceled all schools for this past Wednesday just at the mere threat of snow. Well, as it turned out, it didn't snow on Wednesday. It did however snow Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Accumulating a total of 8-10 inches of snow in the Seattle metro area. This is quite a bit of snow to fall at once even in Chicago standards. What makes it much worse here though is the face that Seattle has very few snow plows, no salt, and an enormous amount of very steep hills. These, along with 10 inches of snow, combined to pretty much shutdown the city.

Since I personally live on a giant hill, Queen Anne, my car has been out of action for the past 4 days and I've been hoofing it all around the city gathering photos. It's been great seeing the way most people here love the snow. Since they don't get it every winter and barely ever get this much it seems to bring out the kid in everyone.

So, the count. In the last 4 days.... I've gone through 12 pairs of socks, 8.67 gigs of hd space, plenty of coffee and tea, and around 30 miles of walking around from Queen Anne to Capital Hill and back multiple times along with some side treks. One of the many reasons I am going to intensely miss this city when I leave in about two weeks, the fact that when it snows and the biggest hill in the city shuts down it turns into a big party of sledders, skiers, and snowboarders. What an amazing place. It has really gone by way to fast.

Here are a few more of my favorite photos from the past few days building from the ones I've already posted here. Thanks for keeping me busy with your curve ball of weather Seattle.

Thanks so much for looking. If it is snowing where you're at, stay safe, go out, and have some fun.

Best,

Brad Vest

This says it all. Do not enter... my entire neighborhood. Risky.




I began to feel like one of these guys after treadging around in the snow for 4 days straight.




































Cheers to you Seattle, it was a great few days of playing in the snow.