Playing and composing, always learning

Colorado was never in my plans, but always in the back of my head as a possible long lay over and to explore a day or two.  But I had the opportunity to thoroughly enjoy it when my college roommate, Barbie invited me to her wedding. My friend Angela who is an amazing hair stylist in Hollywood joined me on this "Two LA Korean girls go to Colorado." Sounds like a good TV episode haha.  Well... first night we went to the WRONG double tree, there were 2 on the same road... I'm not kidding look at this map!  At least they're close! Also, I'll let you know if I start writing my life in tv form. 

I was so dumbfounded by the clouds in Colorado.  I kept calling them marshmallows and I swear I wasn't high.. For most of this trip haha. Angie is a great travel buddy, we were open to each others options and she was really interested in Colorado.  We went to Red Rocks and hung out in Denver Downtown.  We drove to Lake George where Tracy was getting married.  The drive was amazing! Marshmallows everywhere and I was bumpin Gangster's Paradise for 80% of the drive.  

I played with my Nikon L35 throughout the wedding.  It was fun playing with the point and shoot while slightly tipsy. It also matched my outfit quite well. Black on black on black haha. I ended up leaving the L35 there on the rocks where the vendors were unloading and loading.  Angie and I went back the next morning and when we found it, I said hey we only live once. Ha I know so cheesy.  I started double exposing the clouds and I developed some magical shots I'll never forget.  I was blown away, Tracy was blown away, I'm pretty sure both of us just stared at these photos for a long while, me in LA her in CO.  I felt so thankful to have found the camera on the same stoop, it's was really the film not the camera.  I knew the hired photographer captured amazing black and whites already, so I thought why not. Let's have fun and take this film to another level and give it the opportunity to develop magic and I'm pretty amazed with the images itself and even the placement of the clouds.  

I used old Tri X that was 15 years old, probably from when Tracy and I were in college using them.  I used D76 Monobath and it was so simple.  I upped the temperature 20 degrees to "adjust" for the expired film. 

The wedding was beautiful and I got to meet Ken, I mean Ben for the first time. So happy my beautiful Barbie I mean Tracy found her Ken I mean Ben Haha! Love them so much! Tracy was my first model for so many projects in college, it's really beautiful and heartwarming that I can produce these images for her on one of the most special days of her life. 

After the wedding, we went to Garden of the Gods.  It was CRAZY.  It was hailing and we were so scared sh1tle$$!! I told Angie we gotta run to the car.  Los Angeles girls in hail awww nahhhhhhh! We don't even know what to do in rain. At least I don't.  Rain in LA or NY, both are just terrifying to me. We sat in the car for a good 40 minutes and finally decided to drive off to Seven Falls.  During the drive out of the park, we stopped for a couple quick shots. 

Seven Falls was pretty cool, I'm not into hiking, Runyon Canynoooo LOL.  It was a nice, easy walk up and the weather was chilly and gloomy.  The hail had stopped by then or in that area.  I had Angie stop at Wendy's for a frosty. I thought we (at least I) deserved one after all that hail..  Angie went up this longgggg talll staircase at Seven Falls, I didn't bother. I didn't even tell her, haha I figured she'd probably realize and come down at some point.  Regardless, I got some amazing shots of the clouds overlapping the mountains.  I used a lot of Ektar on this trip, it carries more saturation and when there are accidents along the process, I think the tones are fun to play to with.

I dropped the Argus and some magic vignette happened along the film.  There is a shot of Echo park from my recent roll in LA where I did the same thing!  I need to be careful when I get out of the car, or should I be even more careless?!  Both times happened getting out of the car. I don't mind the camera dropping if these effects are raw and natural and the camera doesn't break.  TBH I don't think it will break, the Argus is nicknamed "the brick." 

See the before and after of MM 683 below! My friend named it Cerebral Clouds.  I think that's a perfect name for 683.

A friend asked me a while ago, " How do you know when to stop editing?"  I think it's similar to a lot of things and a comparable feeling we get in our everyday life.  When we eat dinner, we find ourselves getting full and we stop, we feel the end of a tv show where you already feel anxious for next weeks episode, and you get that feeling when you're at your last drink for the night.  It's in your head and it's in your heart. Sometimes they speak to each other for me. When they agree, I stop. When they don't I try to work with either or, but they end up coming to an agreement or the image is simply disregarded or maybe stays raw. 

I feel grateful to be in this delight with photography.  To enjoy it and to learn from each roll, each process, each scan and each frame. It's really surreal to feel the bliss again after a decade of shooting.  I feel like i'm playing the piano and composing the music along the way.  There are so many flaws, dust, developing water marks, over exposure, dropping cameras, but I find them unique and beautiful in my photographs, so I'll take them as I go and work with them. 

You are welcome to buy prints now under "prints" and I opened a new gallery section called RAW MM.  These are develop to scan to print, no editing or color correction.  Just cropping and selective dust removal.

Next post will be dedicated to LA and bike rides, following a summer trip in NYC, I recently just came back from.  To view more Colorado pics go to Image Gallery Man.

Peace and Love. 

a. park