sleep.

Posting some more from the backlog, haven't had a chance to get out and shoot much in the last couple of weeks. This is from a trip I took to Kodachrome Basin in Utah a couple of years ago, back when I was a bit more meticulous about jotting down my exposure notes - I should get back into this habit. My shooting style has changed quite bit since I took this photo, and I honestly couldn't imagine taking this same frame nowadays, but I still consider this to be some of my best work.

This was a solo trip that I took during a weird time for me emotionally and by all accounts it was actually a disaster. I experienced pretty much every extreme of weather that the end of fall in the high desert had to offer, from the oppressive heat to torrential rain to bitter cold, I had gear break on me, I had reservations canceled due to COVID and had to end the trip a couple days early, I got a fucking parking ticket while parked outside my own goddamn apartment because my neighbor was upset that my rental car was in """their""" street parking spot for a few hours.... But I'm starting to feel like it's time for another trip soon.

"Street" Photography

In general, I really hate taking pictures of random people. Not in a "I hate all these fucking tourists walking around in my shot", kind of way, but more like a "Oh my god I would hate for that person to think I'm taking a picture of them but I'm really not I swear I just wanna take a picture of the cool tree they're standing next to please it was just about the tree I didn't take a picture of you I swear please I swear I didn't mean it", kind of way.

Like, the street photographers that are running around cities after a rainstorm with their GoPros strapped on and their mirrorless camera in hand with way-too-large-to-be-inconspicuous 70-200 lenses on must be a completely different breed of person, because I think I would just combust the second that someone looked up and noticed me and looked vaguely miffed that I had just taken their picture. There is a brand of this person that I have seen that does go around and ask permission and prefers to do more what I would call "impromptu portraits" than the "must be candid, must be of people" school of hardcore street photography. This is totally above board in my mind, although if I were ever in this situation I'd probably feel compelled to agree to a photo despite how much I hate having my own photo taken and would, yet again, prefer to spontaneously combust.

I like taking photos of the places I go and the things I see, and that environment is sometimes complex and has nuance and all the good and bad that you want it to and wish it didn't. To me, though, these ideas are better served by the implication of people, the suggestion that there is life happening here, but just outside of the frame.