Happy Birthday Uncle Sam!

Wow, I didn't get anything for Uncle Sam on his birthday this year, but crazy enough, he got me something!

Man, I REALLY appreciate it!
I wonder if that seems like a good thing to start off a 4th of July for most enforcement officers. 8:36 in the morning on the 4th, anyone update their stickers on their plates in the past 3 days? Nope! TICKET TIME! My roommates said basically the whole block was ticketed. Happy Independence Day!

Why don't we move on then...

Lately, due to the work schedule taking over my life, I've been limited to a certain degree with photography. In order to photograph, I basically need to be bringing a camera to work and home from work and then to another job, and back from that, etc., which allows for time only in between non-photograph-able situations. I think it sounds bad, but I'm learning to deal with it and care less about the outcome of an image (which I am enjoying). I was talking with my friend Victor last night about giving people what they want when you photograph, and he put it as "sometimes I'll give them what they want and keep what I want for me." He was speaking in terms of printing style, however I think it can be applied in both situations. And lately, due to the limiting time to photograph, I barely have time to make that decision of constructing something likeable for someone else, and the image ends up being really only a quick decision for my own eye. I guess I'm training myself to care less about the image and photograph more or less on instinct and interest. It may not result in anything beneficial besides a self-satisfying image, but I'm okay with that. It's fun. Victor's been doing something of the same recently with his polaroids, take some time to check them out, they're glorious. He refers to them as "just breathing," an accurate description, I think. I feel like this is a way of learning or practicing for the more serious things I'll do later on. I'm just photographing in different situations now, to use what I learn from them to make a more cohesive, formulated body of work in the future.

To save two dollars for the train, and get exercise?.. Trevor and I have been walking to school a lot lately which proves to be a prime time for easygoing photography.

^Nice posture!

The evening skies this summer have been fastastic.^Someone left their shirt at Lake Michigan.

Arriving at work at the studio.
On the way home from the studio.

A visit with my dad and brother in the suburbs, I think we were talking about money."Whatever, dad."

Caitlin at Pizza Hut (TMax3200 expiring in 1998 = not really 3200 speed film and very thin negatives.)

Elise on the table in the darkroom.

Girls making plans to go to Europe. On the bus, going to Victor's.

Trev figuring out how to use Windows XP, Mac OSX, and Linux on the same laptop.

John next to the window at his cousin's birthday party.

Rachel in the grass.

Gina in the mirror.

Me in the elevator.

Happy 4th!

Oh hey!

I guess it's been a full month without posting. It seems longer than that. So I guess I'll take this time to explain what I've been up to in that time. I'm working a lot to hopefully make it to Europe by the end of the summer. I'm pretty positive I'll have no trouble making it to Ireland for the workshop with Brad Temkin, however I'm doing my best to save up so me and Trev can travel from Vienna, to Prague, to Paris, to London, to Dublin, to Shannon and make it in time for the workshop. That's the part that's difficult right now, but 5 jobs are working their way toward it. So that sums up the past month basically. Working.

Haha Trev and I have been assisting Anna Shteynshleyger and she took a test portrait of us for one of her shots:

Probably one of the best photos of us ever taken, and kind of looks like a Wedding or Christmas Party invitation we would make.

Although the new schedule has given me really limited time to get personal work done, it's given me a lot of time to think about my work. Also, being without a view camera has forced me to fall back in love with my Mamiya, which I've been using as much as I can. Hand-holding it doesn't seem as ridiculous as it used to. I'm actually starting to really enjoy photographing with the tank that way. Here's some new ones, I'll hopefully get some time to update more when I scan more this week.


I think I went on a little black and white portrait binge for awhile. Neopan 400 @ 1600 in xtol, what do you think? Kind of strange tones in my opinion.

This one from the same roll ^.


Then I tried some Acros 100 in xtol, and overprocessed it a bit by mistake, but..I like:




A couple weeks ago my friend Kristen from New York and my friend Kristy from Freeport came back for a few days, it was good to see them again.




I think I've come to the conclusion that I like Kodak 160NC more than 160ProS, a big step for me. So long, friend...



I've also been attempting a form of street photography with my Mamiya, a little difficult with it's weight and needing to lock the mirror up, but I'm getting quicker. Here are a few, I'm pretty sure all shot on HP5+ at 1600 in xtol.


You can see me in there if you look real close^.




This one's from awhile ago though.
And then there's some color.



I've also been trying to figure out how to get this "Bean" project going. I tried bringing this mamiya street style to "the Bean" to see what I could do with it.




In other surprising news, two pieces of mine were accepted into the CoPA Exhibition in Milwaukee.

It's from July 27th-August 31st at Walker's Point Center for the Arts. It'd be awesome if you could make it out. The opening is on the 27th from 4-9pm. Take care guys!

Not really new news.

Again, apologies for the lack of posts recently. In the new apartment there is only stolen internet, so with a desktop, I am out of luck. So here's what I can do for now. Here's a few very quickly edited shots from the past weeks. I have now fallen in love with 320TXP and Xtol 1:1 as a combination and plan on using it often.

Anyways, an example that it's been awhile since anything's been really updated, here's a shot I developed yesterday that I took before finals started...a long time ago.



Oh! And I got my car kind of fixed (the horn was stuck on for about a month and a half), the guy at jiffy lube just jabbed the shit out of the wires to the horn and it stopped. I now don't have a horn. Trev had an awesome time at jiffy lube.



And then the other day I hung out with my friend Alyssa and met some cool skate boarders before, they were awesome.







I have to run, but I'm going to add to this post when I get more time. Take care!