Fevers and Mirrors

On the way back from Mexico, we stayed at La Jolla Presbyerian Church. I was graced with a wonderful elevator with mirrors surrounding it on three sides. I wanted to do this for my surrealism assignment because if you look closely or if you just look at all, there are 500 reflections of everyone. It was too dark for me to shoot with the Holga, so I just did it with my Minolta. This is why I could not do it for my surrealism assignment because we had to do that one with the Holga-the european woman I referenced a couple of assignments back. It was a fun assignment and I would like to experiment with this again. Enjoy. Also, the name of the assignment comes from a Bright Eyes album in case you were wondering. On that note, be nice to someone today.

Mexico: actual servanthood.

Being a servant is not something that gets recognized. People don't pat you on the back for the "servant of the year" award you win because let's face it, there isn't a "servant of the year" award. Our society seems to be wrapped up in whom placed first in the sporting event of the year, which has the highest g.p.a, who is the overall best. If we can all just take a moment to stop, to let go of the expectations of our world and those around us, and think how we can become servants. Humility rather than pride, selflessness instead of selfishness, this is how we can change ourselves and those around us. I was looking forward to Mexico for a couple of reasons; mostly all of them were not to be a servant. Last year was filled with memories with my friends and a new relationship with Jose (who we built the house for). Naturally, this year I was looking forward to more memories and an even cooler person to build a house for. After four days of work, we received no thank you and I hadn't built a relationship like I had hoped with our family. "Gracias". That is all I was looking for. I felt cheated. How could they not say thank you? I was pretty upset that night. I had given my spring break to do an "admirable" thing, to get that pat on the back from someone. This was when I came to the realization that being a servant goes unseen. The next time you go in looking for the pat on the back, know that it will not always be there. Here are some pictures from my trip. Our film was still messed up at this moment in time, so there are some problems with the prints, but I like them.

1/2 and 1/2 (O Holga, Holga, you slay me!)

Okay, so it has been a while since I have updated my profile. My pictures have been turning out pretty well, and we finally have new film! This makes life much easier, because the old film was simply screwed up. In most of my pictures this year, there have been what I like to call "amoebas" anywhere and everywhere on my film. Thankfully, we have new film and that problem is gone, for now. So everything from now on should be amoeba-less, except for this post and the next. It has been pretty frustrating to get good prints, and then have them ruined. I still like my pictures so I am going to post them anyways.

The second half of this post is taken from a camera called "the Holga". I like to think she is a rather large, eastern european woman with a thick accent and a nasty snarl. She doesn't like me that much. It took me three times to get negatives with some sort of a picture on them. She is super light sensitive, so she really only comes outside at the height of the sun. She lives in a cave for the rest of the day. I became fed up with her, and decided to shoot in the studio with a flash. This took care of my light problem and I shot some decent pictures. The assignment was "Surrealism", and this was my best crack at it. I took record sleeves and replaced face's with the records. It was somewhat clever, and I take pride in them. Really, they are just some funny pictures with my friends, but they did the job.

What's To Come / A Preview If You Will...

Alright, so, I have my pictures printed from Christmas Tree Cutting, a Ciraulo tradition. They will be first to bat in the next week, but on deck (the assignment I am going to start working on), my pictures from Cambria. Our family spends a weekend in Cambria every weekend with our lovely family friends, the Nolings. We relax, eat, relax, and take a walk/hike every once in a while out by the "bluffs" as my mother would say. Anyways, I took some pictures while we were there, which happened to have looked spectacular through my lense. Hopefully, they will turn out that way. I also started dabbling with some night photography, which has always frustrated me. To give you some pictures to chew on, I did take some pictures with my mom's camera. I love her Canon. So, here they are. Some "artistic" if you will, and some of us just being us. The night ones are without a tripod mind you, which would have made the images sharper. Update: just developed the Cambria pictures, they "look great". can't tell quite yet. soon enough!

Travelocity

You know those commercials for Travelocity, where the gnome is taken all around the world...well that is what this assignment is, except, replace a gnome for a skateboard (in my case). The idea was to take the "object" to different places, and I decided to take my skateboards around throughout Danville. I actually just finished sending an e-mail back to Sector 9-the company of my skateboard-and I think they may be featured on their website or (somewhere). I guess we will just have to wait and see. Enjoy!

"Overdeveloped Learning"

It is not that these pictures are great, because they sure are not. The thing that I appreciate about them is that it showed me I can print close to anything. Not that I am going to produce great work all the time (which would be my goal), but this assignment proved to me that I can get at least something out of my faulty negatives. Anyways, the story goes that someone turned up the water temperature in the developing room and so my film was overdeveloped because it messed with my times. I also had a bunch of (stuff-I guess that is the best word? maybe amoebas?) get on my negatives, so for me to produce something out of this film was quite the effort. So, although they are not ground-breaking, they are meaningful to me. I was printing on F 2.8 for 30 seconds or above. To give you an idea of what the means, its is like wanting your popcorn to pop in 3 minutes, but instead, it takes close to 3 hours. Most outside pictures will be printed on F 8 or maybe 11, even 5.6, so for me to be printing on 2.8..it was a rather horrible experience. Sure enough, I braved the dark room and produced some pictures, which turned out to some degree. Film photography is not as simple as snapping the picture, grabbing the cord, plugging it in, and turning the camera on. It is an extensive process and I am just beginning to grasp it. It gives you some appreciation for that one guy, oh I don't know, ANSEL ADAMS.

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