I made good time.. only to be set back 2 hours.

Juan, Jose, and Juan

These guys were so awesome. On my annual Borrego Springs trip, we went to Joshua Tree as we always do. I was walking around the park and saw these guys getting ready to rock climb. I tried as hard as I could to speak in my embarrassing Spanglish. They told me they drove all the way from Mexico and Plan to go all the way to Washington, just rock climbing. Super nice guys.


I knew my drive down was too good to be true. I drove from San Francisco to San Jose and took a quick nap at home. Left San Jose the other day at 11pm and got to LA at 4 am. Slept in a parking lot in Santa Monica and my first shoot went on without a hitch. I met two amazing stylists, and one of my idols- Daria Radlinsky. She's a styling genius! I cant wait to look at her portfolio online.

Finally. I made it down to Palm Springs. I think my film isn't loaded quite right so now I'm trying to justify my next 8 frames. Maybe they'll turn out cool. It's currently 102 degrees. I love it. I wish I could live down here. I just need to go to wallgreens to buy some sunscreen mine is completely dunzo. I have three more portrait sessions here in Indio as well as 29 Palms. Theres also a few hotels I wanted to take photographs of in Twenty nine Palms.

Lets hope this minor set back is the only tiny bump in my trip..

This really shouldn't take this long.

I have been in the labs since 3pm just editing. I feel like the time goes by so slow here. But I've been catching up on all my South Park.

I don't think I've ever had my website be the same for more than eight months. AGAIN. I'm re-arranging, taking everything down and changing the navigation of my site.

I'm starving. I was gonna update something super impressing but I can't remember what...

Clearly

I need to crack down more on updating this thing. I have been so busy. I feel like I haven't had time to rest my feet! And it's summer..
My second to last week of school started with a lovely notice that our apartment building had bed bugs. And we had to pack everything up. Clean every article of clothing, basically move out, and have them spray our apartment 3 times in two week periods. We JUST NOW are putting our life back together. I haven't seen any bugs ever, but one of my roommates found one in her room so we all freaked out (to be honest I couldn't sleep for one night.. I felt all gross and creepy-crawly).

I spent the 6th-12th running around in the desert on John's annual photo trip to Borrego Springs. As always, gorgeous. I left with such great experience, and made some amazing new friends. I felt last year we had more time to hang out. We went to a lot more places this year, and I shot everything in 120. Which means A LOT of scanning.
Funny thing, last year during our desert trip we went to Joshua Tree and while shooting Leah in lingerie and some guy on a motorcycle rode by, turned around, and we all had a field day with our new impromptu model. His name is Jaber and we added eachother on facebook but totally lost touch with him. Before we left I let him know we'd be in the area and he was super down to meet up. He even gave us an amazing recommendation on where to eat in Yucca Valley.
We spent a lot of our down time smoking, hanging out by the hot tub, and taking random photos. We all had an amazing time. It's my 4th trip. And it won't be my last!

I came back to San Francisco with some surprisingly nice weather and reunited with my best friend Ambyr. We celebrated her birthday and went out for some drinks. I always have an amazing time with her.

So now my life will be filled with scanning.. and more scanning... UGHHHHH

As much as I welcome summer..

I think I might miss this mist and the rain. I won't miss walking in the rain. I've done that way too many times this year. And I will NOT miss this horrible wind. Running against the wind is killing me every night.

I've finally had the time and money to get a lot of my slide film processed/scanned.
One thing I've noticed is that I can't help but shoot in fragments and details.

I have this theory. You know how people that are shy are insecure can't seem to stare or look people in the eye? Especially after they first meet, etc. For me I find it to be my perfect excuse to get to know this person. I use my camera to get close. Literally and physically. But with my friends- whom I photograph every day.. I have very little images of them. Just staring at me. Or looking at me in the sense of the "traditional portrait". I wonder why..

White blank pages

I had my first cup of coffee today accidently. I feel that although I've experienced more life than some 90 year old people.. there are still tiny mundane things I haven't experienced. Case in point, drink coffee. I think I always associated it with the "coffee-breath" everyone has after and just filed that away in my brain as a negative connotation. None the less I feel like I just snorted a fuck ton of speed and I don't enjoy this jittery feeling. But I will say this; it tasted damn good.

I need to work on my god damn website. However this beautiful sliver of summer is making me lazy. I want to enjoy life and the sun. I don't want to sit in a dark lab all day editing away. I don't want to be in a cold darkroom *have I ever said anything like that before?!* printing away, leaving smelling like fix and selenium. I just wanna dress cute. Play in the sun. And possibly lay on the grass in a park and read a book. Because I'm that kinda girl.

I drank a beer on an empty stomach. And I'm still jittery from that stupid coffee drink 5 hours ago. But I'm not hungry. And I'm a poor kid until next week. Ah life.

Living through your letters

My grandma died this morning. Hibernating for a while.

I've only been listening to acoustic sets.

I'm not one to think too much about the intricacies of life and the universe. But this week in particular I've been getting sign after sign (but what are "signs" really?..) that's only led me to the conclusion that I can't control which way my life goes. Not something too profound.. many of us know this already.. But I'm talking on a different level.

I'd rather not go into a ton of details.. but basically I tried my best to prevent certain situations from happening, and I tried my best to make things happen.. and the universe just wasn't gonna fly with my decisions..

OK so thats neither here nor there.

I rushed to get to class today.. only to find out class is canceled.. twice this month. Where is my 2 grand going? seriously.

So now I'm scanning film, as I have been doing for.. this whole month pretty much. I wish the process wasn't SO LONG. It takes 10 minutes for one image to fully scan/be saved.

But I'm especially fond of this image I took about.. 2 months ago? I was with my best friend Breno and Doug. The night before we said "all I wanna do is go on location. And shoot some film". We had planned to leave at 10 am the next morning. But alcohol sounded like a better option and so we drank til 1 am and didn't wake up until half past noon. At 1pm we finally got our shit together and drove north. We didn't quite know where we wanted to go but we knew what we wanted to see/shoot. We ended up in Marin.. and finally on a small side road to get to Point Reyes. In the middle we saw this abandoned, exquisitely haunting white house. We hopped over a tree log and under a fence and explored. I walked a good 1/4 mile behind the house and saw this amazing tree. It sounds so ridiculous but I've never been so lost for words when it comes to nature. For some reason there was just something about the mass and organic lines of this tree. I wanted to sit underneath it and just listen to my ipod and fall asleep. I thought about that one book.. "The Giving Tree". Childrens books are great literature you know... When you're young you listen to your mother or sister or brother and grandparents read you these books and there is a limitless abyss for your imagination to run free. You take it for what it is and accept books about talking animals, and dancing snowmen. But once you're older you think about the stories you were read to.. and I think about The Giving Tree.. and think I could only be so lucky if I have someone in my life like that. Be it friend or lover. To have someone that appreciates and love you for you. That gives you things because they deserve them. No one asks questions. And until the day you're old and grey, they will still be there for you. As they always have been since day one...


2 more scans then off to my last class of the week.