I went on a road trip with Jessica and Eric to Arcata. Along the way, we stayed in Santa Rosa for some reason, then Arcata, then Chico. Santa Rosa and Chico were not the best decisions we made, but they were along the way so we stayed there. This was the first time I used something other than normal Fuji 400 film. It was Kodak 100UC (ultra color), which explains the extreme dark color of shadows and intense colors. Experimentation is always good.
The pond... now quite a lake, was a small body of water hidden behind bushes on the side of the highway and next to a gated community. It wasn't a very beautiful pond, and there was a dead fish almost every time I went there, but it became a place that my friends and I would go to during summer and swim. It was the place to go when boredom hit. We also went there during winter, which was not the best idea, but Devin and Jordan were very excited about a raft they had began building during summer. College interrupted, and they finished over winter break. It worked well, but it was a very cold trial.
Documentation is interesting because you don't want your subject to look unnatural. What I mean by that is, I don't want them posing awkwardly or feeling nervous. I want more of a candid but sincere and unforced feeling. It is hard to be an invisible photographer to make this happen.
Photographing in the forest is another challenge. Besides the safety of the camera, the lighting is usually fairly dark from shadows, which is why many of these photos are so soft and pale looking. I used slow exposures and was probably not balanced well where ever I was standing which gives softer rather than sharper images. The colors are mixed with purples and blues of shadows, which gives most of the photos an unreal color palate.
It is already becoming difficult for me to place my photography on a linear time line because my life in junior college was very static during the school year. Fortunately there was major movement and adventure during holidays and summer. I can remember what happened during those days, where I was, who was there, what we did, but I can't give an exact time. Anyways, I'm pretty sure I went on this adventure during a winter break in December of 2006.
To be honest, I have to say that I have been withholding pictures. This began with the creation of the blog because I did not want to have posts which felt cramped with photos. However, I just used that to rationalize my lack of confidence in sharing photos. I revealed less because I only wanted to show what I thought to be good pictures. As my blogging continues, I have begun adding more. I'm not entirely sure if this is because I feel I made some improvement in photography over a course of time or if I am becoming more confident with showing more to strangers.
In October, I went to San Francisco with the Bablinskai brothers. I spent the time following them around with a camera and making them pose for me in antique stores. Framing became of an even greater importance, and I began to pay more attention not only to the subject or portrait, but of the back ground and depth of field. The picture below of the brothers walking down the street is one of my favorites. There is a visible connection between the brothers, so they are not random people walking down the street. The buildings and telephone poles give the effect of convergence that draws the eyes to the socialist book store sign as well as the action of the Bablinskai.
This is the stage of my photographic life occurs in the summer after taking photography classes during the school year (2006). These pictures are from June, and the next five or so posts after this will be dedicated to the first few months or so that I bothered to give a time stamp to. After that, I will be relying on my memory. 
The three different backgrounds are a few of the places I called home during June. They are El Tulare, John's kitchen, Devin's house, and Elizabeth's house. These homes/backgrounds appear too many times to count in my collection of negatives.
Elizabeth and Eric are the first two people I photographed. I took them into the hills, made them wear certain clothes, asked them to do strange things, made them uncomfortable and comfortable with the camera, and hung around a few of their already few band practices for E Squared (in case you're wondering, this is what they sound like: http://www.myspace.com/ericdannerlovesmen).
Elizabeth and Eric, at that moment in time, were the people I saw more than anyone else. I did not realize it then, but see now how I began photography with what I knew and with what made me feel comfortable. For me, comfort meant Eric, Elizabeth, and the town we grew up in.
I began with what I knew. As I have progressed, I found a pattern in older negatives: I begin a roll with something I find comfortable, as a sort of warm-up. The rest of the frames are dedicated to experiments with filters, tilt-shift, developing, fish-eye, Polaroids, and lighting.
