Today I learned a valuable lesson in photography:

If you think your camera might have a light leak... do not assume it will just go away and shoot two rolls of film with it anyway.

Yes, I was dumb enough to do just that. And yes, almost all of my pictures are ruined. To be honest, I'm not sure any of them were very good to begin with (My "Tree Portraits" idea fell a bit short of expectations). Well anyway, now that my film camera is basically out of commission for the rest of trip I dont so much know what to photograph...as all of my planned projects were going to be in film. Not exactly the inspiration I was hoping for to push me forward in my photographic adventures here in London. Suppose I should just take it as a lessoned learned and stick to digital (for the time being).

A month or so ago, I deemed it necessary to take poloriods of all the major London attractions... I figure it will make a nice little side (night) project, as almost all of them look better in the evening. (Plus it's an almost legitimate reason to take breaks from photoshop). Anyway I finally got off my bum to take a poloroid of Picadilly Circus tonight. Not the most exciting news ever, but I just wanted to share another of my London photographic endeavors. I'm hoping that I can scan them all once I get to Clark.

March 24, 2008: Prague

March 25, 2008: Prague

Just plain pretty

March 24, 2008: Prague Vltava River on a cloudy day

March 25, 2008: Prague Vltava River near sunset

When I first got to London I felt completely lost about what to photograph.. some days I would go out with my camera for hours and barely take a single photograph. I honestly did not enjoy a minute of walking around alone. Today, however, as I walked along the Thames on my way to St. James park (yes it was another day of photographing a London park), I realized how at ease and even HAPPY I felt to be out on my own photographing. Actually, I shot almost a whole roll of film on my way there (I was attempting to follow Warhol's lead and just photograph ppl and signs that I found amusing without thinking too much about each shot). I feel really proud that I've been able to become so much more comfortable and confident on my own.. and I really think it will carry over and help me in lots of ways at home. Maybe I will even feel more confident next semester at school to scout out more interesting models. Without rambling on too much, I guess it just feels good to be able to enjoy photographing again because for a while photographing had become a chore. Days like today make me remember why I love photo so much...

On that note... heres some more pictures from Prague, ENJOY!

All three photographs were taken in Prague on March 24, 2008

(see the color scheme?)

All four photos were taken in Prague on March 24, 2008

It's hard to believe, but in just over two weeks from this moment I will be back in my house in L.I.. Being so close to the end of this "journey" is making me realize all the things I wish I had done, especially with my photography. I feel like it took me so long to settle in that I sorda forgot to set any real goals for myself in terms of specific projects and places and things that I want to photograph. In light of that, I have set for myself a couple of specific projects I wish to complete before I leave.
1) Photograph Portobello road at least a little each day (I realized how much of a jerk I am for NOT doing this all along, as I do work there 3 days a week).. I want to shoot at LEAST one roll of film and 100 digital photos. Actually I came up with a really cool idea of photographing every store front (in order) and then printing them out individually and hanging them as a border around my room next year.
2) Tree portraits.. let me explain: As some of you know, I sorda have a thing for trees. And since I've been here my love has extended WAY beyond old oak trees because the trees in the UK are ridiculously cool. On my free days I go to different parks (Hyde is by far my fav), tripod and all and scope out cool trees. Probably sounds kind of lame in this explanation but hopefully the pics will prove otherwise (I've been doing this in film so I dont have the pics quite yet)

"Viagra?" March 23, 2008 - Prague

"Never too old to look Fabulous" March 23,2008 - Prague

March 23, 2008 - Prague

Not too sure about the cropping this last one

All of these were shot in Prague on March 23rd, 2008

Well I was hoping to do a bunch of photoshopping tonight ( I really want to start tackling my Prague pics before I get my 3 rolls of film back), but for some reason my Adobe bridge wont open.. so I'm going to do a bit of writing instead. I was lucky enough today to meet with the editor of a photo magazine which is completely for/about freelance photographers. To be honest I was very nervous about the situaion because it was really the first time showing my portfolio to anyone who would give me any real feedback. Also, I know I'm not usually very good about talking about my own work and was very worried about having to explain it to someone who knew nothing about me or what I've been doing. In the end I think I did a rather good job (or at least they seemed to at least not be disgusted by my work or what I said), and I really learned a lot. We actually had a very relevent conversation about doing what you WANT and not just whats convenient. This is an issue I've been thinking about quite a bit lately as college is quickly coming to an end. Unfortunately at some point I'm going to have to decide whether I am actually going to try and pursue some sort of career in the arts rather than simply following my original career path of highschool math teacher. This decision is something that I think about on a daily basis, and quite frankly it scares me to death. I've always sorda thought that attempting to pursue a career in photography would be as pointless as trying to become a supermodel, because it would never happen. However, I was given a thread of hope today with a bit of interesting advice that if you have an ounce of talent (which apparently I do?) and work as hard as you possibly can (day and night, NO excuses), then you make it.. because theres no other option. I dont know if thats true or not, but I sorda like it so I'm going to believe it.
Not sure where I'm going with this exactly, and I dont want to ramble too much...
All in all I think today was a really good experience in contact making, talking about my work, and taking critisism on it.. and yea, I still have NO idea what I'm going to do when I get out of college but I DO know that I have to do whats going to make me happy. Hopefully I can figure out what that is.

Yesterday I finally went to the Vanity Fair exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery, which showed photos featued in the magazine dating from 1913 to the present. It was really interesting to see how photography has advanced and how the quality of the photos has changed so much. I was mainly excited for the show because I knew it would contain a couple of my favorite artists: annie Leibovitz, Irving Penn. Annie Leibovitz's work was absolutely incredible, as always. I love how she can capture A star's personality in just one photo, and the incredible statements she makes with single shots (i.e. the iconic nude, pregnant photo of Demi Moore).. she never ceases to amaze me.
What I'm most excited about though is the new artists which I had never heard of prior to the exhibit. One photographer in particular Herb Ritts, really caught my eye at the show, and when I looked him up after I was even more pleased. You can see a bunch of his photos HERE. What I really like about him is his use of male nudes, which can be surprisingly hard to come by. I love how he intertwines two people (or more) together to create a beautiful sort of statue that simply becomes about the beauty of skin and bodies, and the lighting in all of his shots is phenomenal. There is also one photo in particular that has made it onto my list of favorite images, Neith with Tumbleweed, Paradise Cove, 1986 (it can be seen on the link I posted above). I haven't had time to do nearly as much research on him as I would like.. but I definitely look forward to finding more of his images.