An Update

Sorry for the lack of updates, I have my hand in about 8 different projects right now, all in preparation for 2009. They include, but are not limited to (take a deep breath and run through this): getting my editorial game off the ground, arranging meetings with photo editors, prepping my book for this, redoing my web portfolio, meeting with some select ad agencies, working with a legit and quality based stock agency out of Germany, making plans to meet up with some snowboard crews to shoot this winter, pitching ideas to various magazines on topics from sports to farming, working with a potential gallery in Portland on a "transamerica" show, starting to do writing and layout for a book I plan to self-publish, assisting, working on my new side project- too much chocolate, interviewing people for that, and participating in alot of potluck dinner with friends. Whew.

Things are going very well here. I couldn't be happier to have moved to Portland, it's pretty much the best city ever for me. I ride everywhere, touch my car maybe once every two weeks, have a great group of friends, and there's an awesome creative/visual scene here. I'm about to head back to the East coast for about a month this Wednesday. I fly back 'home' to DC, then jet straight to Vermont to ride, shoot a mini-story at Stowe Mountain, and I'll be meeting up with two internet friends who I've been hoping to meet in person for a while. Then, I drive back to DC and take off for Florida for a mini bicycle trip from Orlando to Florida for a week. After that, I drive back to DC and head back up on a bus to NYC to meet up with some aforementioned photo editors at some of my favorite magazines. I'm excited. Finally, I head back to DC, hang for a couple days, and fly back to Portland on January 12th.

On the photo front, I haven't been shooting too much. Well, I take it back. I have been "shooting", but haven't been shooting. In otherwords, I've been taking plenty of photos with my canon 5d, but honestly, I don't care for any of them really. Except for like 5. Out of... maybe 1,200 frames. I had this epiphany that I only seem to progress as a photographer when I'm shooting film, which seems odd and inexplicable, but honestly, I know alot of people that feel the same way. I'm not going to get into why, it just is what it is. You either get that feeling or you don't.

Anyway, the main reason I haven't shot 4x5 here in Portland is because film is totally dead. I'd have to send my film back to NYC, and I don't know of any places here where I have access to a drum scanner. I'm a little low on cash... actually not super low, just not at a point where I can spend a ton on film/processing/drum scanning. But I NEED to shoot 4x5. So here's my solution- I bought some b/w 4x5 film, and some chemicals/trays to do my own film processing in my basement bathroom. I'll then scan my 4x5 negs on a flatbed, which I've been told is good enough output for web. If the shots go well, I'll invest in drum scans.

So, I'll be taking my 4x5 with me all over the east coast, and plan to shoot a decent amount, about 1 shot per 2 days or so. I'm excited, and I've been thinking about how to progress, who I want to be, and what I want to show as a photographer. Speaking of that, one of my favorite photographers, Richard Renaldi, who I worked for in Spring 2008, just wrote a nice post about too much chocolate and my work on his blog. It was touching and I can't wait to build my porfolio of work in '09.

I think I've exhausted everything on my mind, so bye for now, and happy holidays.