Also, I took the plunge (while dancing my way to the end of the diving board) and finally purchased the Canon 5D Mark II (!!!). This baby COMPLETELY changes the photo game for me and I could not be more content with the investment. I know it’s not about the camera and that it’s about the photographer … but I’d be lying if I said this piece of beauty didn’t make my job a gazillion times easier. And beautifuler. Can’t wait to start experimenting with the video functions as well, but for now, I’m still trying to get used to the backwardness of the buttons and barrels compared to Nikons. I read the entire manual on our train-ride to NYC (I received the camera the night before) and wasn’t bored in the least bit. I still love Nikons and will never ever give up my FE2 but the new toy definitely brings me a bundle of joy.

The New York leg of the trip basically consisted of me getting my fix of Vietnamese cuisine and bubble tea. And steamed pork buns and $1 bags of sweet chinese cakes from the street cart on the south end of Canal Street. And bacon-wrapped hot dogs with fried eggs and cheese (together, in a bun). And dim sum in a gigantic banquet room with several hundred others. I fell straight back into the groove of walking several miles, subway hopping and car-dodging (the yellow ones don’t stop), only this time my heart didn’t break as we left. I don’t think I was quite ready to move back to Roanoke that cold snowy day two years ago, but I am definitely blessed with a husband and home and job that I probably wouldn’t have, had I not left.

On sort of the same note:

“Life is full of choices if you have the guts to go for it. That’s why I get immediately bored with anyone’s complaining about how boring their life is, or how bad their town is. Fucking leave and go somewhere else. Or don’t.” —Henry Rollins

Pardon the french but I don’t think you’d get the same je ne sais quoi without it. (Pun totally intended.) To my friend who was venting about your job and knowing what you have to do but willingly deciding not to do it … that one’s for you. In the most loving way possible.

I have mucho updates to make on the website so keep an eye out for that if you’re interested. Meanwhile, check out some of my latest photo inspirations:
Miha Matei Photography

Norman Jean Roy

Daniel Weisser

And I have a Pinterest account for other likes and loves.

Oh … the photo above is of my friend KnitKnit in her apartment/studio space in Brooklyn. While some may say it’s a horrible picture that’s out-of-focus, this one jumped out at me as I was making my edits. I think she looks timeless here though you can barely make out how she really looks at all. Maybe that’s exactly why I love it. She could be any woman.

Up There from Mekanism on Vimeo.

“The story of the fading tradition of hand painted advertising. Shot by Mekanism’s Malcolm Murray for Stella Artois (in conjunction with Mother NY)”

This is such a great short piece and I love the style and cinematography. Watch and appreciate.

STATEN ISLAND, NY

We got a disc of images from our engagement shoot with Shannon in the mail the other day and I finally got around to going through and processing the files. She’s been too busy to go through all of them herself and because we were in a bit of a time crunch with these (we have a project in store for them) she was kind enough to send a disc with all of the raw files. Thank you Shannon for a fun filled day and disc full of memories! I heart you very very much.

Be sure to check out her work at ShannonRoddy.com.

And I apologize for the massive post but this seemed the easiest way to share with friends and family.

BROOKLYN, NY — May 23, 2009

Shannon sent us a few teasers from our engagement session but she leaves me wanting more, more, more! Won’t be posting any others until we get them all and organized in a gallery but I couldn’t resist in not posting any. I just used “and” in front of “organized.” But “an organized” doesn’t look/sound right to me. Exception to the vowel rule? I digress. I re-processed this particular photo a bit and love the way it came out. I think it’s a good prelude to the rest of the set.

In regards to the title of this post, Jeffrey makes mixed compact discs for me and calls them “Heart Beats.” Get it? Heart beats? Eh? Clever one, he is. And sweet. I think he’s currently working on Volume 9 of the collection. Anywho, while I was living in New York he sent me a compilation that included this song by Barton Carol. Made me smile every time I listened to it.

Barton Carol—Brooklyn Girl, You’re Going To Be My Bride:
[audio:Brooklyn_Bride.mp3]

This past weekend, Jeff and I went to New York.

It was a bit frustrating traveling with holiday traffic, knowing that someone was waiting for us with keys to the apartment but constantly getting held up with having to sit in long lines at toll booths (EZ Pass is totally the way to go). By the time we got there, we were exhausted but had the day to wind down and mellow out for a few hours before attending a 50′s themed muscle beach party at my friend’s apartment. We left just as the party really started to pick up since we wanted to get a good night’s rest…which we got. Minus the fact that a mattress fell on my face in the middle of the night. And no, I wasn’t sleeping under the bed.

We had an AMAZING photo session with my friend, Shannon. All locations were in my old stomping grounds in Williamsburg, Brooklyn which was meaningful to me and the photos turned out to be pretty freaking awesome if I do say so myself. It poured down rain in the middle of the session but it gave us a good excuse to go back to her apartment and do a wardrobe change. I am so excited to get them back and show them off because we couldn’t have asked for better photos…Thank you Shannon for being awesome! It was neat being the client for once =)

All amazingness aside, as Jeff and I were walking up to my car yesterday he made the comment “hey, the car’s still there.” Jokingly, of course. But when we got to the car, we notice that the rear passenger window is completely busted and the papers from my glovebox scattered everywhere. The jerks only got away with the GPS and we could tell that they tried getting into the trunk through the back seat but were unsuccessful. Nothing else was damaged or defaced and we still had all four tires in tact. It could have been worse.

My rescue squad and this broken window is brought to you by Fed Ex.

Jeff gets so distraught that he lights a cigarette. (jk, it’s just lip balm)

Alanda draws a lovely scenery so that we can still enjoy some sort of view from that window. Notice the actual beehive she draws for my hair.

Me and Jeff with the incident report. I look pissed but I’m really alright.

I love these people. I really, really do.

These are only a few of my favorite shots from the photo session with George and Kristin. It was crazy windy and unusually cold that day but they were so great about it all. Awesomest couple ever.

More on flickr.

Meet George and Kristin.

George is quite literally my oldest friend in the world…not age-wise but number-of-years-being-friends-wise. He lived two doors down from me. Stopped by my house every morning in grade school so that we could walk to the bus stop together and showed up on our doorstep with an umbrella to walk me to his Nana’s car when the weather was too dreadful to stand and wait in. He was one of those people who never had to knock when he came over…my brother from another mother, if you will. One time we were riding bikes on the same sidewalk but coming head-on toward each other. I yelled “you go left, and I’ll go right.” He said, “I go right and you go left?” “Yeah, yeah,…you go right,” I shouted back. But of course my left was his right and his right was my left and we collided straight on and fell onto some stranger’s yard. That’s probably the most memorable thing I can recall during our younger years of friendship. That and him hacking a loogie (sp?) on a windy day and it coming back and getting on his shirt.

Kristin is probably one of the sweetest and most friendliest people I’ve ever met. She is George’s fiancée and significant other…they’re so great and supportive of each other. We’ve been friends on facebook for a while and when I first met her this past weekend, we felt like we already knew each other. Instead of a formal handshake, we immediately gave each other hugs and hit it off from the start. We had a photo session in NYC even though they’re from PA and I’m of course in VA. It was the first time I’ve seen George since high school. That was nine years ago.

George and I have a strange connection as far as numbers and dates. His birthday is only two days before mine. He and Kris have been together for five years. Jeff and I have been together for five years. Not only that, Jeff and I had our first date on April 7th…George and Kris’s anniversary is April 9th. They’re getting married the weekend after Jeff and I are…AND…this is funny…Kris even called George one day because she noticed that we even have the same amount of friends on facebook. I love it.

This past week has been nuts. And not enough sleep. I think that’s a good thing though. Roanoke to D.C. to Brooklyn to Lancaster to Roanoke…and possibly back up to Lancaster again this weekend.

I saw various musical acts last week—headliner was Langhorne Slim with The Whoa’s, some other solo guy from Indiana, and The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players who describe themselves as “Pee Wee Herman on acid.” I also saw Fuerza Bruta which is a performance art show that completely blew my mind. Everything happened above us and instead of sitting, you stood/moved around/interacted. There was a guy on a giant tredmill with people rolling by/falling off, running through styrofoam walls, paper pieces floating everywhere, people tumbling along the wall of silver billowing fabric, suspended every which way, an elevated pool with people swimming/sliding/pounding that moved closer toward us from the ceiling…so close that it was right above our heads and we could touch it. Check out the trailer on their website (might need to push play then pause to let it buffer in order to play without skipping). It reminded me of a rave towards the end sans glow sticks and pacifiers. Water was raining down on the crowd, lights were flashing, and we were all dancing…it was probably one of the best nights of entertainment I ever had. Highly recommended show if you’re in New York and need something to do.

Two of my favorites from Langhorne Slim:

Restless:
[audio:Restless.mp3]

Diamonds and Gold:
[audio:Diamonds_and_Gold.mp3]

NEW YORK, NY – November 17, 2007

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I read something today that made me smile and nod:

“You miss 100% of the shots you never take.”

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Take that and chew on it.

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These were taken on my last night with them when KB made me repeat after him: “I will never work for free again.” And that was it. The end of my internship and free labor days.

From left to right: Monte: photographer & professional knows-how-to-have-fun guy. He took SUCH great care of me and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. There’s too much to say. Josh: badass and sweetest photographer and skateboarder. He is called the stormin’ mormon and this late night meeting was arranged for two reasons 1.) so that I could have the experience that is Crif Dogs and 2.) so that Alanda could get Josh’s autograph on a t-shirt for her 10-year-old nephew who loves to skate. We only found out about Josh’s other identity (the stormin’ mormon) earlier that day and were really tickled about it because people actually freak when they see him. Alanda: Monte’s studio manager, wonderful actress (she’s on One Life to Live which gives me the giggles) and my soul-food sister…we totally get each other and get overly excited about asian cuisine. OVERLY excited. Random info: she’s half black, half thai, parents are both white, dad is gay and has two monkeys…true story. KB: digital tech extraordinaire, knows more about the photo business than anyone I’ve ever met, advice-giver, and loves to inspire. He’s a big teddy bear.  Aaron: other intern who was working with Monte the same time I was. Didn’t have the chance to get to know him as much as I did the others but does great photo work. One very important lady is missing from this picture and I can’t remember where she was that night.

On our walk back to our respective subways, Monte and Alanda got into a fight. Long story short:

Monte won.

photos by Monte Isom

He totally walked into the frame the second I took this shot. Obviously. What I tried to say is that I didn’t plan on him being in it.

I like it nonetheless.

I think I’ve found a new series to make.