Hannah McClelland "Pictures, Passions, and Patience"

My Days Through Pictures

On October 12, 2017 I got the opportunity to photograph someone else's hopes and dreams. I took around 100 pictures for this lovely couple but this picture sticks out to me the most. I have always loved taking pictures for couples and their love for each other.  Taking this picture to me means more than just two rings on a tire. It shows a commitment and tires to travel on their new journey together. Knowing the tracks that will always follow them, it may be around bends or over bumps; but it will always be together. I have always found that some of the best happiness can be seen through memory of pictures.  Catherine Opie had just recently said something on one of her pictures that I find intriguing. “The biggest cliché in photography is sunrise and sunset.” Now I find this to be past true. It is everyone likes to post quotes about the rising and falling of the sun. Yet it may be cliché it can be related to so many other aspects. For example, in this picture, it can show the rise and fall of their journey as a team, or the waking up to each other’s loving arms.

Taking these photos has given me lots of hope. I have always been one who admires the thought of love in a different aspect. Go ahead and call me cheesy or a hopeless romantic because yes it could be true, but I won’t always admit to that stereotype. Passion and memories are what are shown through pictures. The people who are getting the pictures will remember either the happiest or worst times of their life and the photographer or me in this case will always remember making that memory for them as one of the first steps on the journey of life together. Here’s to their new chapter and allowing me to express my passion of pictures for them.

           

"you can walk a path with two feet, but its been known to be more exciting with four"

The lives of college students.

The life of a college student is a weird one. There are classes with people in their fifties, and then there are classes where everyone, it seams to be, is right out of high school. So far I like college, my responsibilities are very minimal. Its a world of class, work, homework, Netflix, and bed. I get to sleep in most every day. Its a hard difference from the real world. my last job, I was leaving the house at 5, arriving at the job site around 7ish I would get off work at 6ish and get home around 8. Basically I was home and awake for less than a hour a day, the time to make breakfast and dinner in a rush to go to bed or work. That I think is how the world after college is. College as much as we hate on it. having to go to class, and  shuffle part-time works isn't really too hard. I did have to learn to plan my day by myself. Like anything else if I procrastinate and watch Netflix, I will get poor grades. Its no one's fault but mine. College life is the easiest time period I've had in my adult life. Is it a walk in the park? No, But compared to some of my other jobs, pretty dang close. I guess it all depends on the attitude I have through it. I see two different mindsets here in college and life. One is, do  whatever it takes to get the job done. The other is lazy and looking to cut corners. I think of the story about the two wolves in each of us. Which one do we feed?  Such is life, why is college any different?

 The Secret Life Of College Students

Will Diaz & Jessica Schadel

Were you ever curious what it feels like to be constantly broke and stressed the hell out? Well come to college. Where the ramen flows like wine and the Starbies lines go out the door but that is just the beginning.

It all starts with FASFA, the entire website is an f$@#*@ joke. They make it so damn hard to create a username aaaannndd ohhhhhh baby, if you forget your password you're done for. Unless you're an escort but god knows that being a barista at Starbucks won't get the bills paid even when the people are flowing in because of the Pumpkin Spice. Oh yes, the spices of all pumpkins. College starts and you are already broke because you wasted all your money on tuition, books, Starbucks and ramen. Which hopefully you don't die from all of the sodium and caffeine, because that's all you're going to be ingesting for the next few years.

Thats what they really don't tell you in High school, is that you are going to be poor in a couple of months. Most people don't have cars but if you are living on campus its not so bad. I would say invest for a skateboard, or a longboard... or a scooter.

actual student, Tyrone, 21, poor and sober. #Ramenlyfe #prayforme

The not so secret life of a college student. I'd say for the most part we are all pretty similar during college. What’s secret are there? Majority of us are in debt, we lack of sleep, cracked out on redbull and junk food to fuel long nights, stressed out and don’t know what we are doing.  I do have to give credit to those that do have it together. I find it hard to stay focused on the task at hand and easily get over whelmed, but somehow knowing I’m not the only one that feels this way makes it just a little easier. I feel like there are phases that play out in our heads. Sometimes I love it college life and sometimes I hate it.  The long nights I could definitely due without, but when I feel like giving up, I think what my alternatives are and if seems to fuel me that much more. I can’t speak for everyone, but as for me, going to college gives me something to focus on and work toward. Before starting school I felt stuck and this is a nice distraction.

Why I Don't Want to Know About Secrete Lives...

Secrets. The true line of definition of lies and truth. loyalty and betrayal. And What truly makes or brakes a person. Machiavelli believed that what one dose in public is how he is perceived and one could do what ever by himself, yet not be judged. See Secrets truly do keep our society sane in a way, that truth would be too real. Especially in reference to the secrets kept by one in there lives.

You see your friends and think nothing of their lives for we all posses facades that are played when we are placed in social situations. This social communication we need.. This communication we long for DRIVES US. And if the drive for others is as primal and a necessity of survival then, what would one do to achieve this? Anything. Anything witch means to pretend to be somebody your not. This you can visualize on a smaller scale simple like a teen trying to roll with the jocks even though he is far from that class. This goes along and plays with how our nature truly is always like that. No one truly ever reveals themselves for reasons of inferiority, fear, trauma, and power. And for that reason, people will never really show there true selves so long as there are "other"people around, therefore how can you know what secret is ? there are fundamental levels to secrecy but the one i am getting to is how do your lies for self perception to others truly affect your decisions in the real world around us? Which in turn the lies of which is now a secret must be help up to your word an must be portrayed in public as you but in reality you are just a manifestation of your own lies that are now secrets. Due to this, how can you look at your friends and think trust? you can't.. for we are a species of which arose from caves to see light in day, and observe to only return to caves and draw on light, in the dark.

What's so secret about being a college student?

Ah, I remember my first day off college like it was yesterday. Fresh from graduating high school and living up in Steamboat Springs. Going up to the pass to party, building sled runs in the backyard, snowboarding. Nobody ever told me how much fun you can have at college, I mean you see stuff in the movies. You are like that's not real life is like.

You get away and can't help yourself. All the time you are having a blast you have a monkey on your back. No idea it's there until you have to make that first payment, but what payment? Those student loans you took out while in school, well they need to be repaid. This is never shown in the movies, because who wants to talk about the real life of a college student? Eating basic meals just to get by, or choosing between rent and gas. 

Just this week congress approved a $700 billion defense budget! I am grateful for our military, but according to Forbes, $1.7 Trillion is where we are in student loan debt, the article here was written in February of this year and says that it's right behind mortgages. So your top two debts will most likely be the, home you live in paved by the school debt to get there.

The Secret Life of College Students

The Life of a College Student

   For a College student, my life is easy for my first semester. My day-a-day life it's based on waking up at 5 in the morning, take a shower, get dressed, drink my coffee, and head to CU Boulder with my brother and then take the GS RTD Bus to the Federal Center Lakewood at 6:30 AM. After an hour of trip to Federal Center, I take RTD Bus 17# that leaves me at the door of Red Rocks Community College at around 8 o'clock in the morning. I can also just take the train from West Jefferson Federal Center to Red Rocks and walk from the stop to the doors of the college.

   After getting in Red Rocks, I go to the cafeteria and eat a breakfast burrito with a sweet tea. I also meet with some friends before my English class at 9 o'clock in the morning. Then after my CCR094 class and my ENG 121 class are done by 11:45 AM, because both are one class for two and a half hours divided, I head to the West side of the building for my Intro to business class that starts from 12 PM to 1:15 PM. After that I have a break of one hour and fifteen minutes until my next class that is Math, which starts at 2:30 PM.

   Then, when my Math class ends at 4:10 PM, I head to the east side of the building to take RTD Bus 17# to Federal Center at 4:22 PM, then I take GS RTD Bus from Federal Center to CU Boulder and meet up with my brother at the UMC at 6:12-6:20 PM and the head to our house and get home by 7:15 PM. At the end of the day I just do homework if I have it and the watch YouTube, read Manga, and watch anime until I must go to sleep.