abandoned houses

I love photographing abandoned houses and places. The possibility of ghosts both frightens and excites me, but the solitude of decay is a beauty that really fascinates me.

Things

This is the first roll I developed in Santa Cruz after I moved there, which surprisingly does not contain one photo of the Santa Cruz area. I take a lot of pictures of things in my immediate area and try to make them not look like what they are through macro or composition. I really enjoy the first photograph which I named brachitecture, playing on both the way they're hanging as the shape of a building, and of course, the support they give.

I also take a lot of photographs of trinkets and jewelry, and I'm not sure why. I mean, I do like them, otherwise I would not have them, but is it necessary to photograph them as well? Yes. They do force me to be more creative with lighting, which is always always always a good thing. I have never appreciated lighting more than I did after I began my photography obsession.

This is one of my favorite portraits because of the color, the lighting, and the look in Elizabeth's eyes.

San Jose

I don't take a lot of photos in San Jose, even though it is my home town. These are the few I have taken, of Cahalan road and Vasona park. I have some strange aversion to taking photographs there, mainly because nothing there is knew to me. This of course, contradicts what I've been saying earlier about how photographing what you know is easy and fulfilling. At this point, near 2008, the feeling of photographing that is comforting to me is no longer necessary, unless by my own choice rather than lack of confidence. This also does not mean that taking a picture of the familiar is a bad thing, I just was not to excited about the familiar at this particular point in time. Since that year, I have moved more into macro and the obscure or surreal because I do not want things to look so familiar.