What a crazy semester this will be!

I am so excited. About everything. It's just if I have time to fit everything in to my days. I feel this week has gone by in a blur. I've learned so much. I bought about 2-3 books on view cameras trying to learn as much as I can about them. I'm nerding out trying to go pro with the zone system. I did my first polaroids for 4x5. Then did a film test. I loaded my film correctly (I was so worried!) and processed everything well! So happy!
My negatives are at school but I'll scan in my contact sheets.

My valentines day was pretty good. Woke up in Treasure island. Kevin made pancakes. Yuri made me a cute v-day card. Kevin and I explored some abandoned buildings. We took some awesome photos with his holga and my expired kodak color film. I'll scan those in asap as well. We ran into some squatters. SO weird. They were awesome and totally chill it was just we were walking down this long hallway. About 200 ft. long. No joke. And at the end of the hallway we see someone walk out. He was totally back lit and just stood there. But we finally spoke after a minute of standing still and not talking to one another. His name was John. He asked if we wanted to get high. We said no thanks and left. I told him happy Valentines day and I think he appreciated it.

Afterwards I went to work. I had a busy day surprisingly. I listened to the Sufjan Stevens radio on Pandora. I want to learn how to play the banjo.

I need to make a mix cd I've been promising a friend.

I need to clean my room. And drink some water. Get some sleep I have a long day tomorrow.
I want to shoot more color.
I need to cut my hair soon.

No wonder I can't keep my thoughts together!

Look at this mess. I've been so caught up with school and work it's been crazy. But it's a good crazy.

TODAY:
-get dressed
-go to Johns intro to photography class and teach these noobs about light meters
-sell my light meter
-go to Gassers and get cable release, pick up leahs book for 4x5, buy Tri-x 4x5 film, buy a new friggin thermometer, buy sleeves for 4x5
-drop that shit off at school
-practice loading/developing 4x5 film
-shoot in the studio
-make some working prints
-work on DUST
-DUST meeting
-grab some juice
-read book about 4x5 and crazy awesome book about making your own developer
-maybe eat? lets see if I have time...


ok.
off I go.

Poor Lion

You'll see my awesome creation this Thursday!

My back is fucking killing me

And I have a feeling I won't sleep much/well tonight. I don't know why. I'm just so super amped for school right now. I have this rush of positive energy running through me. I feel like running a marathon. Right now I have the Dream Girls soundtrack on repeat. repeat. repeat. I hate that movie to the core but the songs/score is amazing. My stomach hurts. I ate a lot of fruit snacks near the end of the night. Bad decision. I need to detox. Or maybe just not eat so much crap. Although I've been cooking every night it's usually some major carb and not enough salad. And I get way enough protein so I think we're good though. I really want some tea right now. I picked up my guitar for the first time in months tonight. I wrote a song. A friggin song. I haven't written a song on guitar in years. I still wish I had my piano here. I'd be playing that thing 24/7. I'd drive my roommates insane. I'd annoy the neighbors. Even the homeless men who sleep in the alley which my room faces would get pissed off. But I would be so content. I love my piano. So ... on Thursday night.. I had a show for BBI. Many of my friends had big prints along the walls of Exposure Gallery. We had a slide slam of ALL the work from Wandering in the Company of Strangers; from Guadalajara, San Francisco and Los Angeles. It is SUCH a beautiful series. I can't wait for it to go to New York and Phoenix. After that we went to The Chieftan. In the end it was a total of me, victor, luis, sheri, Mark, Emilio, Elena, Irwin, Mark, Unni, Mukul, Elliot, Francisco, Juan, Jeremy, Sebastian, his kinda-girlfriend (Emilio made the funniest comment. When Sebastian went to pick her up and said he was getting his ''kinda girlfriend", Emilio made a face and said "Well.. what the hell sebastian. Don't bring some girl here whos just a ''kinda'' girl. She's your gf or not. If not I "kinda" don't wannt meet her" haha), Pacarik, Rory, Steph, and I think 2-3 others who I forgot. It was pretty packed. And I got pretty tipsy. We then went to Sebastian's friends house. His name is John. And I can't wait to do my next project on him. He's so fucking interesting. And happens to be dating a girl I knew in high school. We hated eachother. But we're fine now; it was crazy, I hadn't seen her since 10th grade. hmm. Anyways. This guy has sooo many instruments at his house. We all jammed. I played the piano and the bongos. there were harmonicas, guitars, synths, accordians, bass, tamberines, so much going on. Yet it worked. Anyways.

We drank. And smoked. And played more music. I'll scan in my journal what I wrote for that night. That part of my night is a whole different post. SO much to write. SO much to say.

I'm out.

Life just got thiiiiis much better!

Say hello to my new baby! A name is still to be decided (it's a stretch between Baby Benedict and Little Edgar...Yes I name my cameras)...but for $100 more than it would have cost me to lease a 4x5 camera out for the semester I now have one allll to myself. Unfortunately I had to buy a 210 lens (ebay you are my savior) and should be getting my fuji polaroid back in the mail soon!

This week went by long... but I enjoyed every minute of it.

My Mondays will be amazing. I start with the darkroom opening at 8:30 AM. Then get as much as I can do before I have Art History through the 20th c. which is basically just focusing on Modern art. Which I'm so amped about. My instructor has an odd sense of humor in that hes the only one who laughs at his jokes... but it's fine.

Then I have to haul ass to SOMA to go to my instructors studio for my still life class. This guy is amazing. He has such a great outlook on life in general and I love the way he approaches the concept of still life. He does a lot of food photography, but wants us to take photos of what we do normally, but to make it work for the assignments. I was worried I'd be stuck in a studio taking photos of fucking fruit this whole semester.


Things have been falling into place well.

I have sooo much to update on. But this can wait until Tuesday. Or 3 am if I dont fall asleep tonight.

And today was a day like any other

I spent most of my day inside... trying to update my damn website and put the Dust blog together.

But I was able to get out for a few hours and shoot. It was so damn cold. But I had flip flops on so...

On the agenda for tomorrow:
-work out
-work from 11-1
-develop 5-10 rolls
-print? scan? possibly
-go to 180 and pay to have access to the digital labs
-make dinner for friends
-catch some ZZZzzzzs

I have nothing special to say. So I'll go wash my hair.

The night Patrick Durkin came to town

To be fair- although we've known one another for three or four years, we both agreed that just recently it felt like it was the first time we've hung out. Before we'd always just drink or get high and he'd sneek me into bars or we'd hang out at his apartment with his funny roommates... but we never talked. Like a real conversation talk.

I wasn't sure how long he was gone for but I knew he had left San Francisco and was traveling and working on different sets for different movies. Lovely facebook notified me that he was back in San Francisco and I texted him asking what he was up to. We were in two different districts and it was already 11pm so I didn't think I'd see him at all. I get a call at 1AM asking if I'm still awake. Because I never sleep.

He came over and we just sat and talked. He told me about his travels. He talked about going from vegetarian to a vegan. He talked about how he wanted to work and live on a farm with a family. He seemed so different. Not the super drunken guy who was in love with movies I've known. He seemed healthy. Excited about everything. Loved life. It was so refreshing.

He started writing and documented his journey from Memphis to Kansas, to Boston to New York to Portland and back at San Francisco. He talked about how he did DMT, fell in love, had his first threesome, ate amazing vegan food, met amazing people, couch surfed for a month, talked about shapes, equations, geometric patterns and his new appreciation for life. You know of people who have almost-close-to-death situations, and they have a whole new out look on life. A more positive one? It was just like that. Except he didn't almost die. He just woke up one day and was just "excited about life". Which motivated me so much. I want to be like that. Not necessarily live everyday like it was my last- because honestly, I think that could get exhausting. But I just really appreciate someone who can be so amped on life and the positive things that life can bring.

It was a big and wonderful surprise seeing him. I wish him the best in his travels and goals.