A Breath of Fresh Air

Hello friends, I hope you are well. I am doing fantastic and life is good, I wish the same for you all.

So first some news - Magera and I are moving to San Francisco! We have been ruminating on it for a while and now it is official. This is our last month in Austin, we are going to spend the entire month of June in Hawaii, then off to San Francisco for a week to find a place and get our bearings. After that week we fly back to Austin to gather our belongings and head west. It is an adventure and a challenge we are both looking forward to.

On the photographic front, it has been an interesting few months. After SXSW I found myself in a terrible artistic slump - frankly I was burnt out. Increasingly, I found myself so worried about getting the right shot that I was losing out on the actual experience. I was fixated on what was going on in the small screen in front of me - oddly detached from the actual event.

Well, I am happy to say that the slump is over, and I don't think I have ever been so inspired. At the root of the breakthrough was a realization that I needed to slow down and just be present, not only in my creative work but in everything I do. Observe first with my eyes and heart, then with my camera, then absorb the impact of the experience and assimilate it into my worldview. I don't have to rush straight home from an event, quickly edit, and have a blog post within two hours.

With that being said for the most part I am taking a hiatus from digital photography, aside from the occasional gig that requires it, I will be shooting exclusively film - and mostly medium format at that. Shooting film is really what has enabled me to slow down my creative process - when you only have 15 shots per roll, each shot has to be well thought out. Once the shutter is pressed that's it, that moment in time is now physically captured as a light reaction. There is no instant review - it is what it is, for better or worse, forever. There is something special about that absence of instant gratification. Don't get me wrong, I think digital photography is fantastic and a VERY useful tool and I will keep a foot firmly planted in both worlds, but the majority of my work henceforth will be film.

I am working on a project now documenting my home because it is such a special place to me, a truly sacred space. Below are a few test shots that I would like to share with you. These images mean a lot to me and I hope you enjoy them.

Be well dear friends!

My favorite word.
The instersection of analog and digital.
Inspirational things lying around in my creative space.

peace and love to you all!

LA

Well, in case you haven't noticed it has been sometime since I have posted a blog entry, which is quite unlike me. I will post sometime soon about why - mostly it has to do with an artistic crisis/block. But, I am doing my best to work through it.

I just got back from a fantastic business trip to LA, I was a panelist and exhibitor at the ASCAP "I Create Music Expo." Here are a few shots that I snapped.

LA metro.
My hotel room.
Self portrait.
Shadow box.

peace and love!