My city.

Yes I saw The Spirit and that's part of the reason I'm writing this. But mostly this has been a long time coming.

Las Vegas. My city. I love this place. Everyone who isn't here is flying in nightly by the thousands. And everyone who is here is spreading away from here like rats off a sinking ship. Me, I love this town. No place is as alive. No place is as infinitely complex in its mechanisms. This town is every artists dream. A city so riddled with love, sin, hate, decay and glamor. Think about it. It's a city built in the middle of a desert, thriving off the losses of thousands of people. But it's also a city in the middle of the desert thriving in the glow of thousands of both physical and metaphorical light. From miles away you can see it silently humming to itself, it's glow cast into the sky. Every person a book unto themselves. The original voice of Tarzan sitting with his wife in a smoky dive casino diner. Strippers just out of high school who know more about the economic crisis than business majors. Elegant graffiti tucked inside its underground chasms. This city is the greatest subject no one will every really capture.

Snow as finals come to a close.

The first signs of snow showed on Sunday night. A light dusting that would in all probability be so much drain water by the next morning. So I let myself slip into sleep.

Early next morning I awoke only to realize the world was just a bit brighter out. Either I was getting up late or something was different. Turns out a fresh coat of snow was different. seeing as I'm a Vegas kid and I always will be, I grabbed my study gear (wish me luck) and my camera and went on my merry way. I wanted to capture Old Campus with an undisturbed coat of snow. I arrived alone with only two or three others around me hurrying into buildings. The snow made its soft sound. like rain, but softer. And I wondered how many others had seen and heard this event before. The university is old. And as I've said on other occasions, you can feel that history sometimes. I hope through these photos you will understand what I mean.

Old Habits...

Old habits never really die. They just sit around and collect dust like so many forgotten keepsakes. And you guys know my affinity for dusty things. So here is the beginning of a revival of my Behind Doors series.

Behind Doors: Into the Darkness

Instead of tantalizing glimpses of what may or may not be a beautiful adventure. This is an exploration of the adventure itself. You may remember the Virginia Street Gym Tunnels photo. Well, my friends, here's the interior. Good job not exploring it yourself.

A feeling I can't shake.

I'm lost at sea. Not lost in a storm. Not riding epic swells of freezing water. Simply lost at sea. In all directions the horizon is a field of blue fading into a cloudless blue sky. And I have no idea where the closest land is.

also:

Anyone who reads this help would be appreciated.

There is no pain, so I have no idea what this is.

I was watching a movie when I suddenly went to press on the table with my fingers for some reason. No idea what the reason was. I think I was going to use my fingers for some slight levrage in getting up to get a drink.

my wrist didn't support any weight. I can't use it. My fingers are fine. they all flex and form a fist just fine. But it's like a hand attached to a loose hinge. It's getting a little better now. I've been exercising it for about an hour. But it seems like my body is using my fingers to lift the wrist. This is really quite odd.

I'm probably over reacting. has anyone else ever had this happen? Again, I say there's no pain at all.

A quarter.

So last night I was reading a book. And, as most humans are aware, our bodes require liquid from time to time. Me, I run entirely on soda and juice. (Pure water just isn't my thing.) So I got up to get myself something to drink. It's 4 a.m. and I have nothing in the way of liquids. But I do have 55cents in my pocket. You'd think I would have more money to my name than that. But no. I'm like a six year old I have so little money. So I move to my change mug. Nothing but pennies. I shit you not. Not one silver coin. (That's a lie there was some Mexican money in there.) I then proceeded to scour my entire bedroom and living room for anything. It was beginning to move past 4 a.m. and searching for 20cents is a terrible thing to loose sleep over. I sat down on the couch in despair. I'd found a lot of bits of tinfoil, and a number of useless pennies. (Not to mention a boxful of spent film. What the hell did I take pictures of?) I sat down on the couch.

I know what you're thinking. "He must have checked under the couch, it's the most obvious place to look for loose change" To you I say shut up and keep your opinions to yourself. So I hung my head over the couch and to my great relief, under the couch, behind a dirty sock, was a dusty quarter. I felt like I'd won the lottery or something. Everyone was sleeping so I did a silent dance of triumph.

So I went downstairs and deposited all of the money I owned (except for a nickel which is in my pocket now) into a soda machine. Problem. Mountain Dew Code Red, or Wild Cherry Pepsi? Wild Cherry Pepsi became the choice after a quick "eenie meenie miney moe". So I retreated upstairs where I drank my soda quietly, slowly, and read my book.

Because I can never get this to work.

That's right. Pictures taken from the window seat of a plane. I'm that starved for subject. Please enjoy.

Random pretty things.

I've been pretty bad about updating this blog lately. In fact I've been pretty unproductive in most aspects of my life. Sad really.

In other news, I broke up with my girlfriend (Juliet) of nearly four years. And I'm pretty torn up.

Anyhow, here are a few shots I've collected over the past few weeks.



Freezer Raptor. Little did you know, there are raptors bred for specific habitats. For example: Dorm Raptors, Tunnel Raptors, Basement Raptors, etc.

Quotes From The Dim

What follows are a few quotes passed on to me by a friend that come from a university photography 101 class. I type them in the manner they were given to me. I have been informed misspelled words represent mispronounced words and incorrect grammar represents terrible eloquence.

"If you don't want noise in photos, you can lower the shutter speed and raise the 'abitured'. You could get really sports photos that way."

- To whoever said this: you are an idiot. To attempt to reduce noise, you alter the ISO. All lowering the shutter speed and raising the aperture would do is cause you to get streaky photos where you really can't tell what's going on.

"Black and white photos are artistic, and landscape pictures are artistic, so I wanna take a black and white landscape photo and be double artistic."

- What? It's like the person that said this is trying to piss off photographers. It's hard to express what's wrong with this statement because it's actually quite hard to determine what the right way to say it would be. I suppose if the person... no. It can't be done.

"All art is better in black and white. It leaves more to the imagination. It's not just photos, even TV. Like, I Love Lucy and I Dream Of Genie. they were so much better and had more depth than modern day TV."

- Yes! A sexually objectified subservient woman who exists for the sole purpose of serving her man with magic powers is much deeper than say, medical dramas, shows that evaluate the morality of how the government operates, or shows that examine justice in today's world but do so through entertainment. And black and white film was certainly an artistic choice when Color TV didn't exist.

Technology hates me.

That's the only conclusion I can come to at this point. My hard drive containing every scrap of photography I've taken for over ten years crashed. My computer containing a 12 page paper due next week and my most recent photos crashed. A computer I was using to write a personal statement for Pi Kapp crashed as I was trying to send it off, the Knowledge center kicked me out ten minutes early and I wasn't able to save the progress in an online class I'm taking, and I'm really sad.

Also, people who stop and have conversations on stairs make me want to commit homicide. It would be way too easy. "Oops. You fell down a flight of stairs."

Please Vote.

If this gets even one person to vote then I'm happy. Google has a polling location..locator. Pretty nifty.

Also:

Ex Terrorists Visit UNR

Two former terorists visited UNR recently. (Website here). (I had a bit of a hard time shooting this event. Not for technical reasons mind you, the lighting was perfect.) How does one convey the feeling in a room full of a majority of lifetime Americans not used to being told that they are unaware? Not used to hearing things yelled out in languages that the media infuses with an irrational fear. I had to strike a visual balance within which the underlying uneasieness and genuinely charged atmosphere became apparent. I feel that I may have found that balance. Please let me know how you feel, especially if you went to this event.

Sorry, I dropped the ball.

And I was doing so well, updating my blog quickly with images. Well, here's some of what I got from DHOP on Friday night/Saturday morning.

Question.

A prize for the person that can find the pholosophy/religion/belief structure/whatever that combines the following principles/ideas:

- An ultimate relative point where all things become objective and thus knowable (not nessicarily known though).
- The cyclical nature of all things.
- Collective unconscious.

Homecoming Bonfire.

I took a lot of photos at the Homecoming Bonfire. When this thing went up all of us photographers scattered like insects. All you heard for a while were shutters and scuffling feet in the dirt. (And the occasional "Get back behind the barricade".) At one point the flames were so intense students retreated quickly in fear.

Controlled Burn gave an amazing show before the event started and lit the bonfire with a flamethrower. This is just a sampling of what I got at the event. Please enjoy.

Viggity Vote

Today I voted early for the presidential candidate of my choosing (and a bunch of other candidates for other positions).

So here are a few photos from the expirence.

(Second Photo taken by Juliet Sweigart)

UNR Homecoming (And a picture of a birdy!)

Today I was supposed to tech a fellow Sagebrusher how to shoot. Long story short, he didn't show up. No big deal. I just snapped a few frames in case the Sagebrush needs 'em. This is what I'll share with you now:






(Oh and here's that picture of a birdy.)