Common has to be one of my favorite rappers of ALL time. I had the chance to meet him at Park at the 14th in DC about a fortnight ago for his new album (The Dreamer/The Believer) listening party and as usual, I'm already hooked.

One of my friends from the University of Florida is the Lifestyles Editor at Sister 2 Sister magazine and when we randomly met at the Park she informed me that she was interviewing Common. I was like, really? Nice. And then of course, always in itp'85 mode, I asked "Where's your photographer at?" And the rest, they say is history :D.

My favorite track on the album, for now, is Blue Sky...the tight beats resonate with wise smartly articulated lyrics: "...dream light beams, night life schemes...this is my inception, I'm writing my dreams..."

The album dropped today 12.20.2011, cop it. More pictures here: itp'85

November was an exciting month! My line brother got married (now we're counting down who is next) and it was a beautiful quaint ceremony. And while we were in Gainesville, Florida (at my alma mater UF), our fraternity chapter welcomed four new members into the fold. Like welcoming a new member into the family, as Greeks, we take new membership seriously and one of the remarkable moments (amongst many, for me it is also graduation) regardless of how long you've been in an organization, is the probate show. When you see a potential come into their own and publicly declare their affiliation to a brotherhood/sisterhood you hold dear; it reminds you of your journey and an appreciation of how far you've come. In our case, in upholding Scholarship, Leadership, Citizenship, Brotherhood and Fidelity.

Of course my camera(s) came along. This time I was equipped with a D90 & a 1.4 50mm fixed lens I was excited about. One of my frat brothers who has recently picked up photography also came with a D90, but he'd left his mount-on flash at home. I had an idea, something my dad had spoken frequently of doing at a wedding! I swapped cameras with my friend and mounted a 17-50mm 3.5 on mine and set his (with the 1.4/50mm) set to gray-scale pictures only. All my shots would be in black & white!

Having Bassy (@SavvyShotsPhoto ) taking pictures with a mount-on flash gave me the flexibility to capture raw emotion (or as much as I could very quickly) without the distraction of color. More importantly, it let me shoot at low light setting without getting too many blurry images. At different times we swapped cameras and tips as we captured as much of the event as possible. We both ended up with about 1000 pictures from the event, let me know what you think @itakephotos1985:

Series 1:


Series 2:


Series 3:


Series 4:

So I've been multitasking a lot, apparently any one born in the 80's/90's can attest to not just being an internet/technology baby, but also a multitasking addiction: we text without look at the keypad of our phones, write term papers and work reports while tweeting about the nearest natural disaster or posting a quote on Facebook for our numerous 'friends' to ruminate.

Well my youngest sister and my summer project turned into a full fledged company so I had the privilege of revamping my itake photos est. 1985 website so some eye candy here:

More on my sand creations and how much fun you can have when you visit the website (you can move the images around any which way you want):

I guess president Obama was right when he said "We're who we've been waiting for."

In college we had a phrase: live like its a movie: epic!
I recently decided to have fun with some of the footage I have been experimenting/recording on my HTC cell phone. I run it through iMovie on my laptop and viola...look out for feature length behind the scenes of itake photos est. 1985 photo shoots at a theater near you, but especially on here.

O and cheers to "Me Twa Photos Films" lol shout out to my man @M3nsaMusic more to come....



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Originally uploaded by itakephotos1985
I've been a fan from afar of "Obidi" for a long time and when he came to the DMV for his concert I was front and center.




Follow my man @Sarkodie on twitter and my alter ego @KomlaRadio

If you're really interested download the interview I had with Sarkodie on the Drive Time Show here @Sunlightradio