Hey everyone. Yeah, it's been a while. I'm getting bad at this, huh? But yeah, life is busy these days.

I'm putting together a portfolio of images, both for a printed, hard-copy folder and for a possible CDH Photography website. (I'm considering either putting together my own hand-made site or using FolioSnap - right now the latter seems better because, let's be honest, coding a site takes a lot of work and I'm really rusty on my programming.)

So, my question to all of you is this: Which of my shots do you think should be in my portfolio? I already have ideas - I already have some ideas in mind, including some stuff I haven't posted here on DA, but your input (as always!) is very much appreciated.

- hoog out

when reactions turn into hurricanes
and the middle ground seems a little tame
whether full or empty it's all the same
it's so easy to see, anyone would agree
you're not to blame

Been a while, huh? I haven't been out on a shoot for a while - Friday would've been a perfect day for it, but I was stuck at work all day. The weather's getting better, so maybe I'll buck this trend soon. I was also down for a little while because my laptop kinda quit, but I've upgraded to some new hardware and acclimatized to it, so I'll be back on more (I keep saying that, huh?).

Not much else to report, I guess.

- hoog out

"do you still believe in god?"
said the preacher to the astronaut
"i heard it's kinda lonesome there
nothing to talk to but a cold, cold air
tell me, tell me what was it like?
did meaning fall from that celestial light?
did it wrap you up in conversation?
did it leave you like some ineffable nothing?
are you feeling alright?"

So, 2009's here. I don't really do the whole "New Year's Resolution" thing, I just try to set my own goals throughout the year as I feel I need to. One thing I want to work on is being a little more active with photography again - once I got back into school this year I kinda dropped right off with it, especially with posting stuff on here. As well, I'd like to try some more interesting subjects - namely, concerts, skateboarding, and snowboarding. They're areas I'm interested in, but don't get the opportunity to participate in, so shooting them would be a good way to stay involved in them.

Hopefully *Irish-Baby and I will be able to get out on some shoots soon (so she can test the camera I bought her in the field). Now all I need to do is get over this persistent cold that's been nagging me for the past week.

Oh, and be sure to check out ~Nature-Club - I also dropped the ball on the group recently after taking it over from ~Whitewings05, but I'm getting it rolling again. The group's members have some really great deviations.

That's all for now.

- hoog out

the things we laid do not amount to much
made up of thought balloons and cotton swabs
when present tense gets strangled in the woes
made of our future foe scenarios

I've now been on deviantART for a year, and it's been a year of big change for me artistically. A year ago I just had a little point-and-shoot camera and was hoping to go out and take pictures a little more often; now I've upgraded to a DSLR with two lenses and a flash, my pictures periodically appear in my school's newspaper, and I'm attempting to take pictures for clients by request. I didn't foresee taking this path towards photography a year ago, and deviantART's been a big help in making this shift. Putting my work out there to be seen, and seeing the creativity of others, has really helped sparked that part of my head.

A while back, when I reached 1000 pageviews, I pasted my current Gallery Stats in a journal as a means of preserving them, so at this next "milestone" (if you want to call it that), I'm going to do the same thing again. Here goes:

hoogathy has 3,969 pageviews total and his 184 deviations were viewed 10,038 times. He watches 64 people, while 38 people watch him.

Overall, his deviations received 813 comments and were added to deviants' favourites 441 times, while he commented 2,021 times, making about 5.64 comments per day since he joined DA. This means that he gave 25 comments for every 10 that he received.

His deviation with the most comments is Purple Flowers, Blue Sky with 26 comments, and it is also his most favourited, with 63 favourites. His most viewed deviation is Purple Flowers, Blue Sky with 1,156 views.

5 favourites were given for every 10 comments.

Every 1.9 days he uploads a new deviation, and it's usually on a Tuesday, with 32 (17%) of his deviations.

His busiest month was February 2008 with 31 (17%) of his deviations.

The majority of his deviations are uploaded to the photography gallery (173), while his favourite category was nature>flora with 40 deviations.

Comments per deviation: 4.41
Favourites per deviation: 2.39
Views per deviation: 54.55
Comments per day: 2.27
Favourites per day: 1.23
Views per day: 28.04
Pageviews per day: 11.08

Thanks to everyone who's supported me thus far; I hope you've enjoyed viewing my photos, and will continue to do so in the future.

I've prepared a large features section this time around. I'm trying to showcase some artists who get less exposure, like I do, but I've also included some popular works that I really just like. Check them out, they're worth a look!

- hoog out

and i'd say what you'd say, champions of nothing
but there's a car waiting to take me to something
at the end of my rope there's a new world, it's glowing
the globe, it starts shaking; was it you not worth knowing?
the whitecoats are melting to snow down the mountains
to process the rivers for hallways and fountains
and i'd say what you'd say, but it makes me feel nothing
so there's a man waiting to take me to something
that i'm for, that i'm for

Hey everyone, just a quick note - the CDH Photography 2009 Calendar is now up on the deviantART store. Thanks to everyone who provided feedback, your input was muchly appreciated and helped me refine the final product.

(No features this time around, but check back next week for a larger feature.)

Can’t help but feel betrayed
Punch the clock every single day
There’s no loyalty and no remorse
You spoke for present check
That makes me fucking sick
He's sick of, he can’t say no
Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh