portrait.

This is an unedited shot from the studio portraits I did last week with my partner, Stephen.  I'm pretty happy with how these images turned out.  The fake blood I made wasn't really dripping down his face like I wanted it to, but other than that, things look okay to me.  This was my last shooting assignment for my Photo Arts II class at RIT and my last shooting assignment with my current professor.  Next quarter I'll have a new professor and I'll be doing all sorts of new stuff hopefully.  Right now, I'm just ready for break.  It's been a long 20 weeks here and getting away for a little while keeps sounding better and better. 

fool.

You chat to me like we connect
But I don't even know if we're still friends
It's so confusing, understanding you 
Is making me not want to do
The things like I know that I should do
But I trip fast and then I lose
And I hate looking like a fool.


-Kate Nash


Yup.  Looking like a fool is becoming a new hobby of mine. 


Hopefully I'll have some new photos and stuff up soon.  I've been really busy lately with school and just trying to have some fun here and there before winter quarter takes away all of my sanity.  I can't wait for spring quarter to start.  Having a new photo teacher is going to be kind of weird, but I'm going to get to learn all sorts of cool new stuff, which is always exciting.  Spring will be good too.  I miss seeing grass on the ground.  I'm going to bring my car up to Rochester for spring quarter.  I'm not a fan of having to depend on other people to get places. I also really miss driving way too fast down some barely traveled road with my sunroof open and sunglasses on.  There aren't a lot of things better than that.   

awkward.

you know what's awesome?  not being able to sleep when it's five am.  having an eight am class that day makes not being able to sleep even better.  i think i'm legitimately becoming an insomniac.  when i'm still awake to hear the facilities management staff start cleaning around four in the morning, that's when i know i'm fucked.  tonight was different though, instead of hearing them while i lay awake in bed, i opened the bathroom door to one of them.  they said "good morning" and i ran into my room as fast as i could because i was wearing a tight tank top without a bra.  awkward.  yeah...this day is staring off well.  bring it, monday.

pickles.

I grew up in this little town about thirty minutes away from Harrisburg.  I call Dillsburg, PA home.  For some reason, someone decided it was a good idea to make our town have some sort of weird pickle obsession.  There is absolutely no reason for this, we have no history of pickle making or anything like that.  We simply just have "Dill" in the beginning of our town's name.  Regardless of there being no correlation between Dillsburg and pickles, we still have this pickle obsession, like I said.  When I say "pickle obsession," I don't think you can fully understand the level of weird unless you physically go to this town during some "big event" such as Pickle Fest or Pickle Drop, etc.  Pickle Fest is some mysterious, unknown, freaky thing to me because in the 18  years I've lived here, I can't bring myself to go to it.  I find nothing appealing in a pickle festival.  Pickle Drop is our small little farm town's take on the ball dropping in Times Square for New Years.  We drop a giant pickle at midnight (not a real one, obviously), and among the "festivities" there are such delicacies as pickle soup, chocolate covered pickles, and other vomit worthy food items involving a pickle.  We also have this Planter's Peanut-like pickle man chilling in a random parking lot.  For some reason, my friends that don't live in the area get a real kick out of this little, wooden, pickle man.  Personally, I think it is absolutely fucking retarded, but as strange as my town can get sometime, I miss it a lot.

sunshine?

There is one thing in particular I have rarely seen since I left home for Rochester, sunlight.  I feel like this town would be a trillion times more bearable if the sun would shine once in a while, especially now that it's winter it and snows every day...sad thing is, I'm not exaggerating at all.  It literally snows every. single. god. damn. day.  Before it was winter, it would rain all the time, and if it didn't rain, those same gray clouds would hang over this entire city.  I don't even understand how it's possible for a place to be so cloudy at all times.  It kind of blows my mind.  As if the constant gray overcast that has consumed my world wasn't monotonous enough, I'm also drowning in a town of bricks.  They're everywhere, on every building, on the ground, everywhere.  I mean...I get it...it's Brick City.  That's their thing...but really?  I don't know...repetition and monotony  drive me absolutely insane, so maybe that's why the constant cloud coverage and fortress of boring brick walls bothers me so much.  ...Or maybe it's the fact that I'm running on two hours of sleep and becoming increasingly bitchy and more tired by the second.  All I know is when I do finally get some sleep, it would be nice to wake up to sunlight streaming in the windows once and a while.  And for all of the nights where I'm wide awake, it would be nice to see the stars.

lazy.

Today is a lazy day.  Today I am in sweat pants, wearing no make up, and laying in bed while I post this.  It is also 1:30 in the  afternoon...and I couldn't care less.  Being lazy puts me in a better mood.  Also, I wanted a reason to put a picture of myself on here because I got my nose pierced.  My parents weren't exactly pleased with this, but I love it.  It'll grow shut eventually if I want it to, so it's whatever.  

fake blood.

I have a shoot coming up soon where I have to depict some sort of transformation.  I decided to have my model transform into a beaten, bloody mess.  This is my friend, Austin.  He was kind enough to be my guinea  pig today.  I had no idea what I was doing to be honest.  I've never  made fake blood and bruises before.  I've never even done any extreme make up before.  I looked up what to make the fake blood with and that was about it.  I kind of just played it by ear.  For a first try and about 15 minutes to work on this, I don't think it turned out too shabby.  I think I'm going to keep playing around with this until it's time to get into the studio.