Last Summer Hurrah (in Napa, CA)

From a technical, Western standpoint, summer is still here. The autumn equinox isn’t occurring for another seven days. A week. Yet it already feels like fall. The days are crisp, and the everything feels fragile and delicate. I grow melancholy in the evenings as the shadows grow long too soon. Long days shorten. Nights grow […]

Climbing a Mountain (Figuratively)

I think it’s the 79th anniversary of Golden Gate Bridge. Happy birthday, dude. You rock. Keep on going. This used to be my view every. Single. Day. I miss it. It probably still could be my view, if I didn’t mind paying an arm, a leg, and my firstborn (and possibly my second) in order […]

Roses in Napa

Somewhere along the way, I was lost. But then I found myself. Or, at least, pieces of myself. Step by step, like Hansel and Gretel picking up the crumbs they left behind, I am following the crumbs of who I am. I’ve gone through many iterations of “me-ness.” My haecceity. (That’s a new word I […]

Taipei Cafe Dreaming

Every now and then I have an out-of-body experience. This isn’t to say that I actually leave my body and experience the supernatural. Rather, I am suddenly thrust into the realization that the life I live is truly what I’m experiencing. It isn’t someone else’s story that I’m reading or watching pass by. No. […]

Someone Else’s Childhood (in Taiwan)

There’s something unsettling about nostalgia that doesn’t belong to you. The bittersweet melancholy of realizing you’re witnessing someone else’s memories is poignant. Stories others have told have painted hazy images in my mind’s eye, and I can recognize snapshots from their memories as I go about my adult life, but it’s just not the same. […]

Taiwan in the Winter

In those rare opportunities when I get to experience something from a different perspective, I am always pleasantly surprised. A few months ago, I had the opportunity to spend a few days in Taiwan during the winter. A January Taiwan is a very different experience than a July or an August Taiwan. Some background on […]

Biosphere 2

Last month, Chris and I went flew in to Tucson, Arizona to shoot my cousin’s family portraits. Landing early Friday afternoon before my cousin and his wife had gotten off work, we tried to go to Kartchner Caverns to explore and see cool caves. Unfortunately, I forgot to make advance reservations for tickets, and they […]

Ending a Roll

Shooting film means shooting in sets of 16, 24, or 36 frames. What ends up happening sometimes is that I don’t quite finish a roll, and then I’m left with a few extra frames to shoot before I can bring the roll in to be developed (I hate waste!). Last time this happened, I grabbed […]

Preview: BioSphere 2 in Tucson, Arizona

Arizona is a fascinating location. Saguaros run rampant, and people wander in full cowboy gear. Like, that’s their normal outfits! Whaaat . . . ! Needless to say, I was extremely excited. We flew in to Tucson, Arizona over President’s Day Weekend to shoot my cousin’s family portraits. I’m still editing them, but I figured […]

Littles

This is Skylar. She’s my niece. To clarify, she is not one of my brothers’ children. Rather, she is one of my cousins’ children. If you ask her, she will tell you that she is four years old. She will also let you know that her favorite color is pink. Sometimes. Other times, it’s purple. […]