04.10.13

Lost Images of the California Coast

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Okay so lost sounds a little more dramatic than it actually is. The truth of it is we had a day driving down the California coast last August that was filled with amazing sights that for the most part we were seeing at the wrong time of day for optimal photography. So I had lots of photos of the day that I was fairly disappointed with. I ended up editing a couple and then just said “meh,” and put it on the backburner. I revisited the catalog today and picked a few more out of it that I liked. My biggest regret is the image of the Lone Cypress tree near Monterey. We visited it at about high solar noon, the worst possible time of the day you can photograph anything in direct sunlight. We do have a wedding in Monterey later this year, so hopefully I’ll be able to go back to really get the image of it that I want.

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Em Pogo - Awesome! We just decided on Monday that we’re going to take a day to drive from San Fran to LA in a couple of weeks when we’re out there. Can’t wait!

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04.07.13

I get Ali to model for me again and this time I take her to the back of a Walmart loading dock at night

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I love photography. I know I ought to, after all I am staking my future on that love. Sure lots of photographers will say stuff like that, but some days I just get overwhelmed with how amazing photos can be, how much fun they are, and how huge they can be in the lives of people. I keep thinking about my first conversation with Ali about photographing her, where she told me that is was “woefully camera shy.” She told me she felt very plain. Plain. Now I know that most people are hesitant to be in front of the camera, especially for a professional. After all if a professional takes your photo and you don’t like how you look it’s super depressing. After that, what hope is there? Right?

Ali is not plain. Just look at her. Plain is the last word I’d use to describe her. The power of photography really struck me last night when we had Ali willing to drop even more of her guard down for me – this time behind a dark loading dock at an east county Walmart. With Melissa and my friend Luis (another photographer whom she had just met), she was trusting us to do all sorts of weird lighting experiments in the middle of the night. Lighting experiments take time and patience, and they don’t always work out. I’m not sure where I’m going with all of this other than to say that I’m grateful that I get to do this. Photography has afforded me an outlet to express myself through a really unique art form, and I’m able to connect with people along the way which I’m not sure you really can with other arts. At least not like this.

In conclusion there are ugly loading docks behind businesses all over the world that are just waiting for beautiful moments.

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Ali - Josh, you picked the BEST ones. It was so fun to watch you play with the flashes, prisms, and… well, I won’t give away all your secrets ;) Thank you so much!!

Luis Godinez - Awesome things happen behind walmart. I love that the security guard was so chill too. :)

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04.01.13

Easter With Friends

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I’m not religious, so Easter like many holidays we celebrate nationally just seems weird to me. And it’s not for the resurrection of Jesus part, it’s for the rabbits laying eggs. Much like overweight elderly men wearing red invading homes through chimneys (and flying reindeer with bio-luminescent noses) – our holidays in this country are fucking odd. Instead we visited our friends and their emotional dog, played offensive card games, and watched the season premier of Game of Thrones. Here are a few odd photos I took.

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03.31.13

Sarah in San Diego

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Just give me 15 minutes.

Easter 2012. I had met Sarah prior to that day, but I’d never really spoken with her at length until then. I forget how it all came about, but she revealed that she hated having her photo taken. That statement considering how pretty she is – is especially tragic to a photographer. I asked her for 15 minutes of her time, not knowing if I could pull off just one photo of her that she would like. As I recall I had just photographed Rachel, who became my advocate in the 15 minute plea. Sarah begrudgingly agreed and we went out in the backyard to find some natural light and a suitable background. The end result – Sarah had a photo of herself that she liked, and it’s been her profile photo ever since. We became friends.

15 minutes is not enough. After the one brief opportunity to photograph her I’d been asking Sarah for more time the next time she was in town to visit. Finally got my wish.

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03.28.13

Las Vegas Porn Card War

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If you’ve ever walked the strip in Las Vegas before you’ve experienced the “porn slappers” or “card flippers.” They are basically immigrants that are distributing baseball card sized advertisements for escort services. It must be lucrative to the prostitution industry, because the card distributors are on every block. So what do you do with all of these cards? Well if your Joshua and Sasha you play war, inventing the rules as you go along. As hilarious as the game was in of itself, when the random girl with the can of Coors light in her purse showed up with her own cards and asked to be dealt in things got even stranger.

By clicking on the “view post” below you’re going to see some porn trading cards that are definitely not safe for your workplace or 8 year olds.

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Sasha - Hahaha this is so awesome. Must unique blog post ever:) I also see the winning of the winning cards revealed 2x!!!

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