For my photojournalism class we had an assignment where we had to tell a two minute story about ourselves. The story I chose was about my bike ride last year across the US.

Bike Ride – Self Portrait with Video from Joe Philipson on Vimeo.

The following is a story I did for my photojournalism class. The challenge was to find someone you do not know and then do a story about them. This is my story.

Ryan Bailey, a 25 year-old Lockport native, plays for the few passers-by the night before the Park Ave. Festival on Friday.

Originally from Lockport, Ryan came to Rochester, NY in search of band members and success. Ryan's house is filled with cables, musical instruments, and various studio equipment. His dream is, "to become a notable figure in the music world"

Ryan heads out to begin his day of busking at the Park Ave Festival. He is discouraged at having been kicked out of the festival each day, he says that he will try again because, "this is how I make my living."

Parade officials come to tell Ryan that he needs to leave. They threaten police involvement. Ryan asks how he can acquire a permit. This is the second time he has been told today that he can not busk on Park Ave. during the festival without a permit.

After being confronted by festival organizers twice, and being threatened to have police involvement, Ryan attempts to legitimately acquire a permit but instead is given the run-around and no solution. He soon gives up and returns home with only $4.85 in pocket.

Ryan, defeated, goes home.

Driving home the sky lit up with the most amazing light show. I pulled over and quickly got out of my car in a field (I know it’s dangerous but you gotta get the shot!) and opened my truck… crap… no camera! SO, I rush home! I managed to get this shot before the thunderstorm passed. It was the only time the lighting wasn’t obscured by clouds. This one’s for you Eden.

This past weekend I attended the infamous Puerto Rican Festival here in Rochester, NY. I say infamous because the Puerto Rican festival is known for it’s consistent outbursts of violence. The use of professional equipment in the festival was forbidden. I was fortunate enough to slide in with my camera but many people were interrogated and turned away at the security gates. Yes, the security gates, where every attendant was patted down and each bag was heavily searched. The entire lot was patrolled by private security and police officers. The atmosphere of the festival felt very, controlled and I found it hard to take photographs. Each time I raised my camera I felt as if I was going to be confronted by security and then escorted out. As a result, nearly all of these photos are hip shots.

Instead of focusing on the entire festival, I tried to pull quiet moments or unique perspectives on the festival.

I always look at people’s shoes. I find them interesting. As they say, you can learn a lot about a man simply by looking at his shoes. I found that the “shoe fashion” was extreme here at the festival. Everyone seemed to have a unique pair of shoes.

Rochester, I haven’t had much time to explore this city, however my first impressions are this. The people are great, and very diverse. Nobody cares if you run a red light and it seems like everyone does it. Technology? Here? Doesn’t exist. New York’s bureaucracy is almost unnavigable and the only thing to do for fun is to get crunk. Not sure if that’s accurate but these are my impressions. I’ve spent some time taking photos in and around the neighborhoods. I recently just took some photos around. Hope you enjoy them.
Homeless man, patient woman, police.

These next shots you will see I’m experimenting with reflections and glass.
Lots of bars in Rochester.
Peeping in on one of my roomates.

Naim is a cool frood, he invited me to his show the other night and here are just a couple photos I took of him. I’m surprised at the quality of photos. Shot with my 5d Mark II, the available light was so low that the auto-focus would work so I manually focused at f/1.2. Furthermore, this was shot at 6400 ISO. I hope you were sitting down for that. The grain is noticeable but not bad at all, especially compared to NIkon D80 ISO 400 which was my previous camera.

And of course, he loves purple.

In this shot I wanted to show the details in the water below. I kept the waterfall highlighted and burned the rest of the image, drawing the viewers eyes centered. I stopped by here on my trip from California to Rochester, NY. My New home. This is on the Canadian side of the falls and was more impressive then I thought it was going to be… good job nature.

Mancha (spot in some language) was pretty much the coolest dog on my recent camping trip to Utah. I couldn’t wait to post these photos because she was super cute. She wore her feet out from hiking with us and playing frisbee all week. Here’s a photo of her on the last day, she can barely walk!

Yay for Mancha! Hope you are feeling better!

Couple weeks ago, thanks to my long lost cousin Sally Stein, I had the honor to meet Rondal Partridge, I was told he was 92 years old but I can’t find any verification on that online. We talked about photography a little bit but he mostly wanted to show me his garden and chickens. He had a whole micro-ecosystem in his backyard. The chicken’s poop provides for the fertilizer for the garden, they eat the scraps from the garden. The garden gives Rondal food and the chickens give him eggs.

Rondal dissed on colour photography, he said there’s too much going on and that black and white photos capture the emotions. He’s inspired me to focus more on black and white photography.

Rondal was shocked when I finished his Rubik’s cube, then demanded me to do it again… When I finished in roughly a minute he said I was a “show-off”

Another thing Rondal told me that challenged me was, “A true photographer can take a picture of someone’s back and show their front.”

On his kitchen table.

At Lancaster Baptist Church, my three good friends work in the control room during the services. While I was there, and of course with my camera, we had a little fun messing around taking pictures. The first one above I love because of it’s evil look. My friend Larry is just recovering from cancer and his hair is growing back. I like to tease him and tell him he looks like Lex luthor. Just something about a bald white guy that looks sinister to me. The men behind him are my friends Eric (Left) and Ace (Right).

Here’s Eric running the mixer, with his pinky. Mainly it’s because he’s just that good.