After loading a metal reel of TRI-X and cutting the spool off with the scissors, I laid the scissors down on the light table near me, the light table flashed momentarily and the end result is that a whole role of film became terribly overexposed. Bummer. The lesson here is to not only make sure that the light table is unplugged but to stay away from it as I’ve noticed momentary flashes when setting down film or metal objects.

The roll that was affected was a few photos from a walk around town yesterday. Walking past a barber shop, I noticed a man getting a haircut that was almost completely bald. I thought for a few moments that it could make a fun picture but I kept walking. Eventually, I talked myself into it and went into the barber introducing myself as a student. I made a few frames and talked to the owner for a bit. Ron, the owner, bought the Laurel Barber Shop four years ago. The Laurel Barber Shop has been in continuous operation since about 1914. I had already talked to Ron about coming back, but after this mishap I have to go back.

Several days of freezing temperatures and snow have left many parts of the Pacific Northwest stuck inside. Finally, yesterday and today the snow has started to melt, but leaves a slushy unmanageable mess in the interim. Even my 4×4 XTERRA with snow tires has been sliding around on the side streets where it used to rule, making the driver think that there was no snow.

As it was, my boss Cait, who lives on Lake Dawn, could not get out of her driveway and so I ran a few errands for her. Upon arriving at her house at around 9:00 A.M. last weekend, I noticed the most beautiful sunlight rising from the east and kissing the tops of the trees around the lake. Trudging down knee-high snow, I made my way to the lake side and snapped a few pics.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and happy holidays.

Ever since I received my color correction gels, I think I’ve used them every time I brought out the flash. Today was no exception. Our office is trying to finish a student orientation package and needed a few “quick” photos to fill in the gaps.

“Maybe we can get a shot of this guy sitting behind his desk or something,” says a co-worker. My first thought was that it was possibly the most boring and obvious idea in the world. Having creative latitude, I began thinking of other ways to accomplish the objective. However, once on site I realized I could create some fake “window” light and incorporate a few office elements to establish the surroundings. In other words, “a shot of this guy sitting behind the desk.”

I realized today that the three weekends in a row of portrait shoots, really helped me when working with people and posing them. I had confidence and better knowledge of how my light would react with the situation and people. All in all, for a quick “OMG! we need a photo, today, can you do it?” I am happy with how this turned out.

Peninsula College closed early today due to snow, freezing temperatures and an impending storm. Most of the campus left, but I took the time to sneak over to the darkroom and develop film and make some prints. My second go-around at making prints went much smoother than the first. I must say, a clear B&W silver print is a thing to behold. There is something so magical about watching the image appear in the developer and knowing that the image will be there for many, many, many years as opposed to so many inkjet printed photos.

Up until last week, any photos I wanted to look at at length had to be scanned into my computer. I would then modify levels, brightness, contrast, etc. in Lightroom or Photoshop. I guess I still do to a degree, and that is how I post photos like the following on the web. However, actually printing the photo and having it sit on my counter in 8×10 format is one of the cooler things I’ve done recently with my photography.

Peninsula College closed early today due to falling snow and dropping temperatures.

I found myself taking the long way to the post office, purely by accident and on the way noticed a severely canted and tall mast sticking above a local waterfront hotel, the Red Lion. My curiosity piqued, I drove down to the nearest parking lot that would give me access. In the Hollywood Beach parking lot, I saw a large sailboat that had run aground and a few people mulling about near the boat. I ventured down and began asking if any of the bystanders was the owner. None were, but they were expecting him shortly. I made a few photos and waited for the owner, Doug.

Doug Zimmerman arrived a few minutes later and was kind enough to talk to me about his situation. Doug said that his boat was anchored in the harbor until a local hydro-race occured. At which time, a company named Aerolaunch pulled his boat from the harbor for the race, without Doug’s permission. While the boat was anchored in the harbor, there were four anchors keeping it from moving. After Doug retrieved his boat, there were only two anchors. On monday night, with high wind and high seas, the Esther Marie, named after Doug’s mother, lost it’s anchors and ran aground crashing against the rocks on the shore.

The Esther Marie was built by Doug’s father in Anchorage Alaska, and was crafted with a cement bottom. Luckily for Doug, the boat did not appear to be leaking. With four kids and two mortgages, Doug can no longer afford keeping the sail boat or keeping it in the local marina.

The Esther Marie ran aground on Monday night after a winter storm tore her from two anchors in the Hollywood Beach harbor..

Last Friday, I met with Mike from Peninsula Community Mental Health Center, at Bella Rosa, a local coffee shop. Mike was incredibly open and candid with me. The first time we spoke on the phone, he sounded a bit guarded as to my intent and I nervously stuttered through what I thought my intent was. It’s not so much the intent but the project outline which I get a better idea of each day, but last week was pretty vague. When I met Mike on Friday I had a much better answer for my intent and I was able to address what I felt were some hanging questions before the interview began.

Mike told me his life story from high school to present day, and included all of the good and the bad. Everything from getting caught with a fake ID and stolen beer in high school, to smoking marijuana and heavy drinking in Vietnam. My wife explained to me that his openness is part of being a counselor, acceptance and admittance. Regardless, the things he shared with me go much deeper than the average conversation or even interview.

In Vietnam, Mike’s job was in Intelligence and he aggregated data collected from field outposts. Also, Mike was a trained P.O.W. Interrogator, although he adds, “I was a terrible interrogator, my biggest problem was the cruelty to the Vietnamese people” referring to beatings and connecting electrodes from a field phone to the fingers of the prisoners and then cranking the generator – electrocution.

As I listened to Mike talk a few points really struck me:
“Philosophically, people don’t understand their potential for great evil or good. We are both good and evil,” Mike said this paraphrasing Jung.

Another feeling I encountered was the great injustice our country did to the soldiers and Marines returning from Vietnam. “I thought I hated this country. Our country turned against us” said Mike.

My original intent for interviewing Mike was to get background information on the counseling process and the center itself. However, after hearing his story and visualizing a more concrete story idea I think he may also be a “character” so to speak. Mike offered to approach his veterans counseling group about my story idea and see if anyone wanted to volunteer. As of this afternoon, Mike emailed saying that he has 4-5 veterans in Sequim who would be willing to be interviewed.

This project is picking up speed and I’m really excited. I’m excited for the connections I’m making in a community that I have strong feelings for, I’m excited for an opportunity to make a difference, and I’m excited that I’m learning a little about myself.

Kevin German will be in town next week and I hope to have an opportunity to talk with him about this project. On one hand I don’t want it to get too large an unwieldy, thus not having a story, and on the other, I don’t want to leave anyone out.

Today was the last day of the school quarter for me, and I’m very happy for it, although I think I’ll miss my anthropology class a bit. Looking back, I learned a lot in Anthro. I have always been fascinated with why we humans tend to do seemingly crazy things. And I mean, really crazy sometimes. Take for instance the “John Frum” cult in the South Pacific. These guys build fake runways and airplanes from coconut trees and bamboo in the hopes that the “gods” will drop cargo goods on their Island. You see, what happened is that during WWII, these tribes found tremendous prosperity from the U.S. and Japanese conflict. Cargo dropping out of planes often benefitted these tribes, and the theory goes in these cults, is that the cargo was meant for the natives, intercepted by the evil Americans.

Thats just an extreme example, but being able to dissect the purposes of religion, art, language and culture have really helped me have a more holistic viewpoint.

Now that the quarter is over, I’m working a bit on my personal project. The project, I think, is about contemporary veterans with PTSD. Still today, many people believe that PTSD is made up or at best only afflicts those who are “weak minded.” I hope to shed some light on this topic with photos and most likely augmented by writing.

Tomorrow I have my second interview on this topic. The first was at the Disabled American Veterans with Karen Key. Tomorrow is with a counselor who works at Peninsula Community Mental Health

I recently received a comment on one of my posts and I think the question is something that comes up quite a bit in online forums and blogs. Olivier from France is taking off for three months of travel and is curious about gear safety and traveling with a laptop.

First, I’ll address Olivier’s questions and then I’ll move on to a few more thoughts.

Q: “How safe is it to wander around with a big black digital camera around my neck?”

A: You’re going to hate this, but, it depends. Based on my experience, and from the experiences of others that I know, you’ll be fine. What I do, as well as many others, is cover up the logo. For example, place black tape over the Canon or Nikon logo. I take it a step further and put black tape over anything that could identify the manufacturer of the camera. Some take it even a step further and use grey duct tape to imply that the camera is semi-broken. I’ve walked through markets in the Philippines, Mexico and Peru and I’ve never had a problem. That being said, there are a few anecdotal cases of camera theft by street gangs. Before traveling to the Philippines I worried that a Canon 1D would be too large and conspicious, therefore, I sold it and bought a 30D thinking the smaller camera would be less noticeable. The truth is, anything bigger than a point and shoot is conspicious in developing nations, so the effort was moot. A friend of mine in Vietnam had his iPhone stolen out of his pocket in a croud shuffle. He was carrying a 5D and expensive glass at the time so it seems the thief was after the “easy picking” rather than obvious mugging.

Q: “Is it a good Idea to bring my laptop?”

A: I’ve taken a laptop to 2 out of the 3 countries I traveled to, and I regreted not taking it to the one I didn’t take it to. The laptop helped me stay in touch with friends and family using skype, facebook and my blog. Also, I was able to edit photos quickly and easily before posting them to the blog. If I was staying in a reasonable hotel, I left it in the room. If I have bad vibes from the hotel, I’ll try to leave it with the front desk in a bag, most hotels will have a locked baggage room. When I hiked on the Inca Trail, the hotel I stayed at had a locked baggage room and the laptop stayed there for the week I was hiking. Traveling with a laptop does add some hassle, however, not only at the airport security checkpoints but also worrying about it when away from the room.

That should answer Olivier’s questions, now for a few thoughts of my own.

I wouldn’t call myself an “extensive” traveler by any means, but I’ve been extremely blessed to leave the country at least once every year for the past three years and another trip coming up in January. The first real travel I took was to Mexico with my wife as a pre-childbirth get-away. For camera gear, I took everything, laptop, camera(s) flash, monopod, batteries, all the lenses and all the accessories. I didn’t want to miss a shot due to lack of gear. While I may not have missed a “shot” I missed light travel and most of the vacation as I spent most of the time behind the camera.

The next excursion out of the country took me to the Philippines and I scaled way back from what I had in Mexico. I took a zoom lens on a DSLR and a pro-level video camera but no laptop. I was travelling a lot lighter as I quickly learned from my first excursion. I still don’t feel that I “missed” any photos due to limitations of gear. I was able to make all the photos I envisioned with one camera and one zoom lens, a 17-55 f/2.8 IS on a Canon 30D.

The last trip I took was to Peru and I tried to make a balance between the first and second trips. I took a flash, a 70-200mm zoom as well as the 30D and 17-55mm. Honestly, I would have been fine with just the 30D and 17-55mm. That combination is pretty much my sweet spot for the photos I like to make. I used the 70-200 around Cusco, but only a few times on the Inca Trail itself, certainly not enough to justify it’s extra weight.

Upcoming trip, Vietnam. Vietnam is quite a bit differenet from my previous trips. Vietnam, is about unplugging and minimalism. I plan on living out of a carry-on backpack for a week, no laptop and with a film camera and two prime lenses, a 35mm and a 50mm. There is a tiny chance I’ll take a recently acquired Nikon FE with an 85mm for portraits but probably not. Vietnam is so different because of two reasons: I’m traveling to learn from a freelance photographer, and I want to abstract away as many “features” as possible and return to capturing light in a much more simplified manner. In a way, Vietnam is like an existentialist photography excursion.

I’m still learning not only photography, but traveling as well. Every trip affords new lessons and a new usually slimmer packing list. I try to push boundaries, fail, and find balance each time.