Three Years in the Making

I started this blog back in 2010 as a fun way for me to share my photos. Since then it became a creative outlet and a timeline of my life. It's something I'm quite proud of and I wanted a way to preserve all the work that I had put into it, which gave birth to the idea of creating a book out of it.

The task of actually creating the book was long and tiresome. Looking back on it I wish I would have taken better care in archiving all my photos because finding all of the full resolution files of the photos I used for my posts was very difficult. There were some photos I actually had to recreate because some of the photos I had done were made specifically for the blog and were not originally meant to be printed.

But after 30+ hours of getting all the photos together, editing the layout, and compiling all of the 85 posts it is finally done and here in my hands. It's a rewarding accomplishment for me and I feel a great sigh of relief that it is done. I had worries about how the first print would come out but it definitely meets my expectations.

The book contains 167 pages, updated edits, previously unreleased photos, and an exclusive bonus photo series entitled "The Shadows", which is a collection I did during my time with shooting black and white film earlier this year. The book cover comes from a photo I took in Baguio, Philippines during my visit there two years ago. There are a total of 190 photos in the book, all of which will have an everlasting value to me.

View From the Top

Yesterday I went with my good friend Matt and his dog Vegas to hike our very first 14er. We went to Mt. Bierstadt, which is 14,065 feet in elevation with the trail head start at 11,669 feet. This is said to be one of Colorado's easier 14er hikes, but we still found it challenging with the exception of Vegas who probably would have ran the whole thing if it weren't for us. That's not to say people don't run this mountain because there are folks that surely do as we witnessed as two girls flew by us, and yes their bodies were ridiculously nice.

I've been running a lot lately but my stamina seemed deflated with the thinner air, it was difficult to catch my breath as we trekked on. However finally getting to the top was very rewarding as the view set before our eyes showed how far and high we'd come, it was impressive. Going up the mountain was tough but going down was still brutal as it was a lot of wear on the knees and the steep slope made things slippery.

By the time we got back to the truck we were spent and were ready to eat. My body was beat, my muscles ached, lungs hurt, and I was completely zapped of energy. Vegas of course still wanted to play! Overall I enjoyed it, I like pushing myself physically and the day off work was nice. Hopefully I can do another 14er soon.

The Next Big Thing

Last Friday I got to do a shoot with Kyle, a coworker of mine who's into the extreme sport of freestyle kiteboarding. I've never seen this type of thing in person so it was pretty cool and fun to shoot. He was also wanting to get some photos for a new pre-production product he was able to get access to, I'll let you all guess what it is.

I don't usually shoot any type of action photography so it was pretty challenging because things having to be timed perfectly. The wind wasn't always cooperating and shooting with a camera like the Canon 5D MkII that is better suited for still photography, I had my work cut out for me; do I smell a MkIII upgrade...?

Despite the difficulties I got some cool photos and have a new appreciation for kiteboarding. It was pretty cool to see how high off the ground he could get with just a moderate breeze going. I did not do any type of composite or re-positioning of him within the frame, he was literally going over my head a few times while shooting. This photo was one that I managed to get and really liked. It would be really cool to see this as part of the advertisement, look there's even some white space for the product and company name :)

Ava's Dragon

This is Ava's bearded dragon, he eats bugs. 

I've really been slacking on posting new stuff lately but it's because I've been shooting a lot with film cameras and I was planning on saving the photos I was taking for a photo book I wanted to create. It was going to be a series of street photography photos done in black and white film. I even got a Leica to see what the big deal was. The Leica turned out to be a big disappointment and the use of film eventually lost its appeal. I can't believe I was at one point thinking about going completely analog, that would have been dumb.

So, I'm back to digital and it's awesome, but I don't think I will be completing my photo book project anymore. I guess those photos will have to be hidden and kept up my sleeve for another time. I think one of the reasons I liked film was because of how small the cameras and lenses were. Because of that I decided to get a cheap 50mm and 35mm lens for my digital camera that are both small and light. This photo was taken with the cheap 50mm, which is a lens I used to own two years ago but has found new life now that I use a full frame camera.

They changed how blogger lets you edit posts and it's really bothering me right now. I was used to how things were before, now it's all funky.

Da Vinci's Machines

For the Love of Art

Last weekend I visited the Denver Art Museum, which I'd last visited back in college with my Art History class. Just like my first visit, I felt humbled by the artistry on display. I really admired the Spanish Colonial art and sculptures from the Asian collection.

But my favorite exhibition was the collection of works from photographer Garry Winogrand entitled "Women Are Beautiful". I really love the works of older photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Elliot Erwitt, they would have to be my favorite film photographers of all time. But seeing Winogrand's collection on display in person gave me a great appreciation for his work and inspired me greatly.

I shot a roll and a half of film that day, the first of which can be seen in its entirety HERE. I've been practicing at not taking the same photo more than once, being selective and taking my time with each shot; I think it is helping me improve.

Lighting the Darkness

Took a self portrait with film because I wanted to play around with my flash on my Pentax ME. I'm surprised at how decent it works considering how primitive it is. I also used some expired black and white Arista 400 film for this. I turned out all the lights to see how well it would work and didn't realize how dirty my mirror was, oops.

Got Film?

The weather sucks today, boo. But it's not all bad since today I got a new film camera, the Nikon FE! I ordered it online and I'm surprised of how new it looks considering it's older than I am. I can see now why people loved these Nikon film cameras, the build quality is very impressive, well designed, and it looks awesome. I have it shown next to my Pentax K1000 which is also very nice looking and a camera I enjoy using.

Lately shooting mostly 35mm film I've learned I can still get satisfaction from it but just in a different way. It may not have all the convenience, automation and resolution of digital but it's a tool that lets me create photos which is the fundamental reason I like photography. I only hope film doesn't go away, with news like Kodak going bankrupt it would be a sad thing to miss out on.

Slow Burning Lights

Today I went for my first bike ride in months and it felt great, I'm almost starting to feel like myself again. On my ride I came across this great view of Downtown Denver and came back at night to capture it. The full resolution photo of this is quite amazing, but extremely large as it was made from six photos. The resulting file size after cropping is 58 mega-pixels, the photo you see when clicking on the thumbnail is less than 1 mega-pixel.

Innervision

Lately I've been in kind of a photographic slump and was even entertaining the idea of down grading my equipment or even selling it all. I tend to go through phases where I lack inspiration and motivation but this is the worst its been. I feel exhausted and feel like I've given all I've got to give. Constantly working to meet other's expectations as well as my own has been rough.

Last year I pursued and explored many types of photography, which included club shoots, macro, portraiture, street, promotional, landscape, film, as well as learned the business aspects of it. I gained new found knowledge but I also developed disdain for some of the things I'd done over the past year. I've spread myself out too thin by forcing myself to do something different and better than the last and worrying too much if people would like my work.

I know I'll eventually get my motivation back, especially when I see displays of great talent like the artists who spray painted the above in downtown Denver. I really like the style and the kind of modern take on the Matryoshka doll. I actually got to see phases of it's development as it was started earlier in the week and I even got to see the artists working on it when I visited on one of my lunch breaks.

I know talent like this is the result of continually working hard at getting better and not giving up. I may be burned out by all the various things I've encountered through photography but in contemplating this, I appreciate all the experiences because each has made me the photographer I am today. I feel I've developed a strong base knowledge of photography and I just need to use that to take the next step forward in perhaps reinventing myself; perhaps by no longer worrying about what other people think and just focusing on having fun.

"It's never too late to reinvent the bicycle" -SOAD