Something New

This is what happens when you let some people use your camera and you don't really want your picture to be taken... and the boringness and lack of blogging present on this blog is what happens when said people make you very happy and distract you from doing your normal time-wasting activities. 


I'm graduating in June. I'm going to China in June. I'm working at the pool. I'm planning the adventure that I want to be my life. I'm coming up with all sorts of crazy ideas. I'm spending more time with friends and making new ones too. I'm starting to exercise again on Tuesday. I'm spending the free time I have previously spent in the student union trying not to fall asleep scanning and editing film. I want to be more productive. I want to feel like this last term was worthwhile. I want to have time to do all the photography projects floating around my head. I want to be able to articulate what I am feeling and thinking. I want an outlet for all my frustrations with life. 


I think I'll start writing here again, writing about the mundane life I lead in this damp, damp city. And hopefully that will encourage me to take more photos, not just photos for photos sake but actual photos that I can be proud of. 


In other news, my toothbrush recently found a mate. It has me blushing to myself.

It's been a while

I've been busy with school this term. It's just going to to keep happening next term too. I'm not sure what's going to happen with this space. I'm happy with my life right now. These photos are from the summer. I can't wait for next summer, for freedom. 

Goals and Hopes

Here's the dealio: 
I don't make New Year's Resolutions and
I don't make set goals
But I do have vague goal-idea-hopes-things floating around my head.


Recently they've looked something like this:
Get better at photographing people
Start taking photos I actually like again
Get into/apply for graduate school
Go somewhere/do something exciting
Finish my degree
Get really really incredibly good grades (mostly because I know I can if I just actually try)
Make some connections for my future (work-wise)
Have friendships (not just friends I see once a month)
Get back in shape (it's been way to long)
Don't worry about what everyone is thinking
Write (creatively) more


Yeah, that's about it. 


The photos are from New Year's Eve. We had sparklers. It was kind of boring. And all my photos are awful. 

Winter

I am excited to have some time to myself over the next couple of weeks. I'm hoping to get some reading I've been wanting to finish done as well as take tons of photos. I have several ideas stuck in my head right now, so hopefully I'll be able to take them and they'll turn out how I want them to. Sorry I haven't posted much lately, school has been keeping me busy. This photo is from my Thanksgiving trip to Idaho, it was taken in the car on the drive home. 

Rain

In September, as my black and white photo class was ending it rained a few days. I realized how beautiful the rain really is and how great it would be to capture it on film in black and white. I have been waiting (rather impatiently, to be honest) for the winter rain to hit Portland and this month it really has hit full force. Part of this project is to capture the actual physical phenomenon of rain but I also want to capture some of the moods that rain and winter in Portland brings about. I want to do some portrait work for this eventually, but the opportunity hasn't arisen. I want these to all be photos from my everyday life, things that I am actually experiencing and seeing. All the water I have to endure as well as the cozy interiors I retreat to when it's too wet to be outside. 

These are shots from the first roll of film I've shot for this. I really wanted to develop and print the film myself but I don't have access to a darkroom right now and honestly, I don't have time. Eventually though I do plan on printing my favorites of the series myself. 

On a more practical note, this project has made me hate the rain a little less. But I'm still more excited about snow... which may be coming to Portland soon (and if it does it totally counts as being part of Portland in the winter, right?). 

Let me know what you think of this project. There are more photos from this roll on my flickr.

This is a sneak peak of a project I've been working on lately. I'll show you more soon.

A River Runs Through It

Growing up I remember that there was a book of my dad's on fly-fishing. It was always out somewhere. I don't ever remember my dad going fly-fishing growing up but I know he had all the equipment for it, a fairly nice pole, flys that my aunt (his sister) had made him, and even the hat. When I was in high school I learned to fly-fish in one of my classes, I even caught a fish. It was a rewarding and new experience and I wish that I had had the opportunity to do it at some time earlier in my life. I just watched A River Runs Through It for the first time, and I am surprised that I had not seen it before. I'm sure it's a movie my dad likes, so much of it reminds me of him and also of what I want my life to be like eventually. I'm not the kind of person who loves living in a city. I like it, it's fun and there are some things that are great about it, but really I want to live in the woods one day. Just be out there away from people with the trees and a river and some mountains and live. Just enjoy the parts of the world where I feel most at home. I think that's something that my dad and I have in common, although we've never really spoken about it, I think he prefers to be outside, away from people. As I've gotten older I've come to realize that I'm a lot more like him than I ever thought, but there are some things about him that I will never be like. When it comes to fly fishing though I want to do more of it, I want to be out in the woods more, I don't want to spend all my time in the city.