film friday: adventure is calling

Adventure Is Calling from Shane Black on Vimeo.

I had the privilege of meeting Shane about a year ago, and this year he set out on an adventure to create some really fantastic art. On his vimeo page:

"This summer, two friends and myself all left our comfortable jobs of six years to spend two months traveling across the country and teaching photography workshops along the way. We all felt that it was time to take a risk and get out of our comfort zones... adventure was calling us. It was a trip filled with endless hours cooped up in a van, exploring breathtaking landscapes, sharing stories and laughs, meeting some of the nicest people, making new friends, getting to meet old friends from around the country, and sharing our love of photography with others.
This trip was a constant test for me, as we had such short and limited time in nearly all of the spots we visited. In most cases, I'd have to hurry out of the van with all of my gear and find a decent composition in a very short amount of time as soon as we would arrive at the location. It was a constant race against the light.
During those 2 months, we traveled across 32 states , visited 13 national and state parks, and drove nearly 13,000 miles in a (somewhat) trusty old Dodge Caravan... with no cruise control. It was an adventure that gave us many memories that we will all hold onto for many years to come. I think that everybody needs to take a trip and have their eyes opened to just how beautiful this world is and how much is really out there."

Ever since I was little I've wanted to explore like this. Just hop in a car and not know where I'm going and spend months and months on the road. Thankfully my family has been able to do that a couple of times, traveling across America and Canada, but I would love to do it again, just driving along back roads and couch surfing and creating beautiful art and exploring my country. It's videos like this and stories like Shane's that give me hope that that is possible and that I can do whatever I set myself to do.

Hope you have a wonderful Friday!

blog update

You may or may not have noticed by now, but I updated the look of my blog a little bit. Not that I didn't like the old design scheme, but I want a more seamless transition from this blog to my photography website, which meant incorporating the paper crane and crisp whiteness. I may or may not keep the background, we'll see. At this point in time I'm too busy to mess with the HTML (or learn HTML5 and responsive web pages), but for now, this will do quite nicely. Plus I just felt like I needed a bit of a change of scenery, since I've been feeling a bit bleh about blogging recently. In the past I've tried to focus a lot on sponsors and generating some sort of income, and while that sort of thing is always nice, it's something I can't control, so I'm not going to stress about it. For all intents and purposes, sponsorship and advertising are done, at least my advertizing of accepting it (except for the Modcloth ad because I'm part of their affiliate program and plus I just love the company a lot ... so click on the ad and buy something to support me and them!).

Not to say that I haven't done this in the past, but from here on out I want to focus more on the quality of my content rather than quantity. At one point I was posting every day and it was great, but now I don't have time for that and pushing myself to do it no longer makes it fun. Don't worry though, I'm not going to disappear or anything, the whole "diary" idea of a blog is too tempting for me to stay away from for very long. Even now I'm just writing what comes to my mind and hoping for the best.

Love you all so much. Hope you have a great day!

it's a lucky day

dress: Someone like you // shirt/shoes: borrowed // tights: forever 21





This post could also be titled, "The anti-hipster" or something with a similar connotation since I'm the last person in the world to jump on the grand bandwagon that is the Three Wolf Moon Shirt. Matt was all too kind in making fun of me for being such a flaming hipster, he's probably scared that my life will soon be overrun with mason jars, tacky sweaters, and weird music (too late, that's already happened. But in my defence, I was doing the whole mason jar thing long before it became a thing because my parents love to can--easy access--and I love random jars with which to put random crap inside. I can't say anything for the music and fashion choices though ...) But needless to say, the moment I put this shirt on, it truly did become the luckiest day ever. First of all, my class got canceled leaving me with a free evening. That was normal enough, but then I got an email saying I won the European lottery and was immediately given money by a guy who came to my door in a fancy black suit. Then during dinner, the kitchen staff came out and brought me a giant plate of macaroni and cheese and garlic mashed potatoes, a starchy heaven. Then a wizard came to me in a vision, which granted me powers to call upon ancient dragons and harness not only their powers, but themselves. So with my love beside me, I flew into the sunset on the back of a golden dragon. All while wearing the Three Wolf Moon shirt.






So next time you need a really fantastic day, just wear this shirt, and all your dreams will come true.

my week in instagram #59

poetry reading // video game playing // yearbook meeting // concert photographing

This week has been pretty low key as I have been sick (and missed two days of school) + we all got a day off of school. But in between meetings and events, things have still managed to stay busy.