Overdue, Yet Right On Time.

        I was in my first year of high school, not 16 yet. I was out walking, I don't remember where, but out of the blue a middle aged woman approached me, grabbed my cheeks and and exclaimed about how much I'd grown and how long my hair is (I did have hair at one point, tons of it) and talked about old family members I vaguely remembered. After a minute she noticed the wildly confused look on my face that I futilely attempted to tame. She then laughed and introduced herself and said "Sorry, I just knew who you were right away because you're an exact copy of your beautiful mother!"

Well, would you look at that.

After my first attempt to take a picture just like one of hers, I soon realized I needed some help. To my relief and pure joy, a friend of mine, Louis, offered to help me with it. I hadn't mentioned it, he just brought it up and said he'd seen my first try and he wanted to help me make it all happen.
For that, Louis, I am eternally grateful. I can't thank you enough. I don't know if you know, but you made my heart happier and more at peace... and that's amazing to say the least.

The whole shebang happened in May, and I was able to release the first image (at the top) on her birthday. But I wanted to wait to publish the others; I was waiting for the perfect time when it felt right. Well, this past week my mom has been heavy on my mind and heart. Being home for the summer, I see her things around the house and it hits me hard. Talk to anyone who has lost someone close, and they'll agree that there are good days, bad days, and worse days. I've been having some bad days... too many in a row, if you ask me. I wanted to do something that could prevent them from turning into worse days, and I think showing you these pictures is just what I need.

Making Magic.

       My other half, aka Nailea (also in Fried Chicken, Seagulls, and a Bath Robe) and I got together on a whim to take pictures in a cluster of abandoned buildings (the same location as my favorite summer photo shoot). This gave her an excuse to wear her new fiery red dress which contrasted the green foliage beautifully. Since we are both artsy/photo students, collaborating always results with a wildly successful photo shoot. Take a look for yourself!

 My other half, indeed.

Birdie Takes Flight.

       From March-November, my birdie (aka boyfriend, aka Kevin) is working for Intel Corporation in Folsom, California, a suburb of Sacramento. Needless to say, I miss him every day. Much to my delight, he recently flew me out to see him for a week. It was the absolute best week of my life. Lucky for you, I'm a dedicated photographer who can now take you on a virtual re-enactment. Here we go!

My plane landed at the San Francisco Airport, so we stayed there for a few days to see the sights. We managed to pose for adorable pictures whenever possible.

Instead of being normal tourists, we explored "uncharted territory" and separated ourselves from the crowd as often as possible. Note the peaceful absence of people and the graceful bird grazing the water.

One of my favorite parts of western America is the palm trees. Everywhere.

A bunch of tourists were taking pictures of this overlook, so I took a few steps back and captured the moment as it stood, photojournalism style.

Kevin made sure his artsy girlfriend experienced the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art). We found ourselves lost in a lot of the pieces. (Holy 3D-looking painting.)

Oh yeah, and Andy Warhol had some work up there.

(Holy crap.)

After the busy San Francisco scene grew tiring (and the hotel reservation expired), we hit the road and headed to Folsom. 

We drove a lot over the duration of the week, and every time we zoomed over the pavement, I was blown away by something new.

I'm sure you've heard happy cows come from California. This is true.

Did I mention we drove a lot?

One evening, we chased the westward sunset.

I'm glad we caught it.

After all the sun-chasing, we eventually needed to fill 'er up. Good thing we could watch the news while pumping gas, since it took a while.

While in Sacramento, we visited the Capitol building.

Complete with palm trees, flowers, and gorgeous dome.

Needless to say, the Capitol building is another tourist-flocking area. We hovered far away from them, as planned.

One of the things I looked forward to most was dining at the famous California-native burger joint, In-n-Out. My gosh, was it worth the 6-hour flight.

Oh yeah, Kevin. He was worth it too. (Thanks for buying me tons of food, babe!)

 Before we knew it, it was time for me to make the dreadful and lonely trip home to Scranton. I continue to miss Kevin every minute.

Dear Birdie,

Thank you for sharing your birdie-wings with me so I could experience this with you. I had the best time, and I can't wait to keep living my life with you in it. I love you. I can't wait to be in your arms again...

(in 127 days, 12 hours, 34 minutes, 26 seconds...)

It's those things you're not looking for...

As a photographer, I take so much joy in finding small things like this
that make my heart beat a little faster
and my camera lens a little fuller.

Julia.

I want to practice portrait photography as much as I can this summer, so that means all my gorgeous friends from home are on speed-dial. Meet Julia.

 Every time I looked through the viewfinder,

it felt like her eyes were going to melt my camera.

Glamour.

My friend Caitlin Watkins is graduating from Empire Beauty School today. Yesterday she turned her friend Kelsey and me into works of art and asked me to photograph the results for her portfolio. I'm new to fashion photography, but I was more than happy to take on the challenge. The entire process took place in her kitchen. No salons or photo studios were used in the making of these gorgeous pieces of work.

If you live in the Scranton PA area, look up Caitlin Watkins on Facebook and contact her for all your hair and makeup needs! She really has talent, and an amazing personality to boot. She's a joy to be around, and she will make you look and feel absolutely stunning.

I only buy organic glow-in-the-dark strawberries.

Self-portraits, drawing style.

These are my latest pieces from my Drawing I class. The first one is a practice composite: on three separate pieces of paper, I practiced drawing my eye, nose, and mouth with charcoal. I then I put them together in Photoshop® just to see how they looked. 

This piece is drawn on transparent draft paper with graphite powder/pencil. The style has a sprinkle of inspiration from Jim Dine's self-portraits. It focuses mainly on volume, with only small portions given meticulous detail. The bottom half of the drawing is my frustration and curiosity revealing themselves with squiggles and texture. 

PS: I have no idea how to draw hair.

Fine Art video (for real this time).

Here's the link to the tweaked (better) version of my original Fine Art video, now that I found out we could in fact use cuts and editing. I'm only posting a link because video quality is horrible on Blogger, so I'll let YouTube do its job.

Here it is in all its glory.

Happy birthday mommy! PS: I am definitely your clone.

My first lightning shots.

       Rochester's weather is completely unpredictable. Completely. I can't even begin to describe it. Today, it was warm and sunny. I got a pleasantly slight sunburn on my way to class. I donned shorts and a sleeveless shirt and opened the windows and listened to birds outside.
I just took these pictures a half hour ago.

2am photographs.

       Last night, fog swirled all around RIT's campus and beyond. My friend and I drove around and soaked in the feeling of driving through a cloud at twilight. As we were about to turn in for the night, we passed RIT's Barnes & Noble book store. What struck me was how beautifully a small hill was framed by a parking lot street light's sharp beams, intensified by the fog. After my friend dropped me off, I immediately grabbed my camera and tripod and headed back over there.

As I prepared to drive back home, I noticed a beautiful shadow on my leg of the condensation that collected on the car window. Yes, I wear men's boxers.