**THANKSGIVING**

Let me start off by saying, “Here’s wishing you all had a great, happy Thanksgiving.” And I hope you all gave thanks, and took some in return, everyone needs a little thanks now and again.

My Thanksgiving was something entirely new. A flight home to California proved to be much too expensive for a mere 4 day trip. Acknowledging that I still must eat something for Thanksgiving, I was offered a trip that one of my flatmates approached me with. Spend the holiday with a family in southern New Jersey. I had never met this family before, but thought it would be an adventure for me so “Sure why not?”

This warm family took my brother, my flatmate, and myself in their home when, alternatively, we would have had nothing special to eat for Thanksgiving, and out of the pure kindness (I’d like to hope) in their hearts, they put us up, fed us, and let us enjoy in the family’s merriment for the holiday. It’s for these kind, kind of people that I can give thanks.

**EXPERIMENTATION WITH FAITH**

Recently, I’ve been actively investigating how an individual’s personal interpretation of life’s many events, can lead to spiritual and religious faith. For example: A woman offers an underage young adult a drink at a bar, “On the house, pick whatever you want!” I would say, “Gee whiz! Chance has brought me a drink! What a rare event, it must mean I should lighten up and cut loose for a bit!” HOWEVER, My Christian friend took the same event and said, “No thank you! I was given a perfect opportunity to devolve into a downward lifestyle of drinking, yet I stoically said nay in the face of the enemy.”

Are these very different, hypothetical responses to the very same situation, the results of our differences in religious upbringing? Or simply a difference in our person? I’ll let you guys try to answer that question.

Within our short, but fat, lifetimes, we come upon many tests.(If your affiliation chooses to call them by that name.)
Your own strength of person, strength of character, and strength of faith are what will judge the outcome of these challenges. However, depending on your answer, (because the one you choose is always the right answer, even if you do not believe it to be so.) a potential path will close itself off to you, but another new, possibly brighter, path will open itself up to you. Remember this when you think you’ve made a metaphysical mistake.

*All new paths are dark, find a way to light them. I happen to use the flash of my camera.

Well, well, well. Its been a little while has it not? Sorry for the delay.

I don’t like making excuses for lack of content but here I go………I left the charger to my camera and 1 battery at my house back in California. This meant that I was running on a short window of time until the one battery I did have, inevitably ran out. I haven’t taken a photo in about a week! Fear not, my father is shipping out my battery and my charger, meaning I should have it by the end of the week.

**HALLOWEEN**
Hope you guys all had a great hallows eve. I’ll make sure I put up a photo of dylan, myself, and possibly the rest of the gang as a thanks for the long wait.

**School**
It’s right around that time of the semester where all the prospective young (and old) students look into what classes they’re going to take for the following semester.

I’ve landed on the one thing that truly interests me within school, (and since I’ve been very young) after a bit of a battle with indecision. That one thing is the humanities, or more specifically: Archaeology. I will not be taking photography next semester.

“BUT-BUT WHY???” let me explain.

When I had originally taken photography as a class, it was not only due to the fact that I enjoyed it as a passion, but primarily because every career needs some form of photo documentation. Understanding how to work a camera, being able to take well constructed shots, while simultaneously being able to make them pleasant, is important for EVERYONE. Now that I understand these things, I’ve decided not to spend anymore of my courses dedicated to it. This does not mean I will stop updating this website. Worry not, I will still be taking just as many photos as before.

Hope you guys have a good couple weeks, I’ll update more frequently.

p.s. One thing about photography.
Photography can become a game of guns. Assuming both photographers have the same eye for photography, whoever has the best equipment, “should” be able to take the most interesting shot. This creates an environment where whoever has the biggest gun, shoots bigger bullets. get what I mean?

Don’t let this scare you, photography is about asking questions with your art. And while it may be important for your photo to look beautiful, it’s of much more importance to be able to have people guessing at what your photo is trying to speak.

Hello again my friends.
If your wondering why its taken me a little while to get back to all of you, midterms finally caught up with me, and I’ve been really bogged down. NEVERTHELESS! I’m here and ready to post new photos.

**Update**
Did a lot soul searching over the last couple weeks, asked myself some essential questions if Im going to continue down the current path of education.
Gallatin is a program which allows me to take and design anything I want within my curriculum, a problem all Gallatin students have to then face, is definition. When the students of Gallatin spread themselves too thin, it can create a less than ideal situation where the scholars are left with too little knowledge in too many fields, rather than quite a bit of knowledge within one field of study. It can be hard to get a career in a desired profession if your not able to meet the requirements with the people or places looking to hire, and if you do not take the time to study the profession and field, you won’t be able to meet those requirements.
Due to this racking of my brain, I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to land on a specific interest before time is up. This may be a premature worry of mine considering it’s only the first semester, but without a doubt, its better to be prepared. What that interest is however, is still in hot debate.

**Update on the website**

nothing new to report on the technicalities of the site.

I’ll be getting new photos up asap, talk to you all soon.

Well it’s another rainy week in Manhattan.  There seems to be this Jurassic fog that just, sort of, hangs over everything.  Sometimes it decides it wants to rain, sometimes it wants to just observe us moving around, sometimes it even wants to tease us, by showing us a little bit of sun.  Nevertheless, its always there………watching…….

ANYHOW, about the site.  This week I added a new photo that Im actually in.  “Why is this so special Cole?”  I’ll tell you dear reader.  This is special because I rarely take photos of myself, or rather, which I happen to be in.  Another reason this photo is special, is because it was an assignment of mine for photography class—–III To Take a Self Portrait III—–  Well I ended up deciding upon a somewhat disturbing photo of the royal we.  I tried to personify the “mode” I get into when I play video games, a sort of surreal environment where the only thing that matters, is the screen I’m staring at.  I ended up blurring my whole body within the photo, while keeping the rest in focus.  This was to emphasize the “out of focus” state I end up getting trapped within.  Hope you guys like it, my professor enjoyed it quite a bit.

-also, im not naked.

Have a good week everyone, and as usual, I’ll keep taking photos.

Hello again everybody!  Let me start off by saying how cold it is in NYC…….perhaps its because I’m from California, but I do not handle the cold as well as I would have liked.  You would THINK because of the blonde hair and the pale complexion, that a nord like me would be used to such temperatures right? wrong…..

I recently started my Digital Photography class.  This means I’ll have to take 5-10 photos a week along with a graded photo.  I’ll be posting my graded photos along with my grade to let you guys know just how I’m doing, however, these are few and far between so I’ll be making a post on each one I take.

Some of you might be thinking “COLEWHATHAPPENEDTOALLYOUROTHERPHOTOSYOUPOSTEDBEFORE!!1!”  worry not!  We are currently in the act of removing the fat “COLE SPROUSE PHOTOGRAPHY” watermarks in the middle of each photo.  This means you’ll all be able to actually see my work for once and not be distracted by my name in 32 point font. All the photos will be brought back once they are properly modified.

One more thing before I go.  I do read all your messages in case your wondering, I don’t have the time to respond to all of them sadly (this is due to school and such)  but thank you for all your opinions about my work.  I’ll keep shooting, you keep posting, and we’ll all stay fat and happy

talk to you guys again soon.

Well everybody, NYU welcome week is almost over and the first day of school officially starts tomorrow.  I can honestly say I’m excited to finally hit the books, as strange as that sounds, and interested to see how I cope with the college level education and schooling system.  In case any of you forgot, I haven’t been to a normal learning establishment since the spring of 2003 and with this drastic new change in schooling, I’m also drastically changing the way I behave and acclimate to life in NY.

The city has treated me well for the past week, with only a few mishaps putting me off course (all of these involving homeless people.)  Whats interesting about the homeless community of NYC is the strong artistic presence in the majority of them, and while most live on the street, the life they live is the life they love.  Really gives a new reality to the phrase “starving artist.”

WEBSITE UPDATE

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Im going to tell you guys a little bit about the way this site is going to work and the amount of new content you’ll all be seeing.

From here on out, unless a problem occurs, I will be releasing three new pictures a week.  One picture will come on Monday, the next on Wednesday, and the final on Friday.  So make sure you guys check back throughout the week to keep updated on everything that’s happening.

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Ive found myself on a new path that can lead me almost anywhere, and just like the immortal Robert Frost, I shall take the road less traveled by.

Well everybody, the site is finally up and running, and what perfect timing!  With the arrival of NYU in two days and the threat of hurricane Irene looming over the city of New York, the site is certainly getting off to a stormy start…….

A few things to go over in regards to the launch of the website and its contents.  This site, in all its glory, will mainly serve as a creative way for me to post my photography; however, it shall also be the most direct way to find out about my life and the current projects I am working on.  Also, if your interested in purchasing some my photos, this is the site to do so.  This website is not a way to contact me or have me contact you……just making that clear.  So whether your here as a friend or a fan, I hope you enjoy the photos and the website.

Also, thanks to my friends the Dominguez’s, who made this site a reality.  You two have really been a driving force in encouraging me to continue my work as a photographer, and for that, I thank you.