Back in Mobile for a week now, I’ve had time to unwind, decompress, and reflect on my experience of New York and Canada. My little sister said something that aptly describes the experience:

“I’m not taking picture because you can’t capture all this in a picture. You just have to tell people to experience it for themselves.”

That’s pretty much how I feel, too. However, I do believe that photos can move people to go and experience the place for themselves.

The first time I went to New York City, I did take mad photos because everything was new to me. This time around, I opted instead to try to form a narrative of my journey with my photos. I’m pretty happy with the result, except that I didn’t get photos of the celebrities people I saw (Nigel Barker and Talib Kweli).

Still I have some gems in the form of photos I’d like to share, and most of them have stories.

At the B&B in Middletown, NY

Middletown, NY – A squirrel in a maple tree.

Crazy gas prices on the road to Canada. What’s more—as I found out from a young man I met from Egypt—gas is about 40 cents/gallon in Cairo (and it’s getting cheaper).

Canadian Customs – I had to turn over my pepper spray, because it’s illegal to carry it in Canada. The Queen of England has it now.

My little sis actually snapped this since I was driving. The camera settings were wrong so I had to salvage it. I like the surreal quality it has.

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Westbound on Hwy 98.

Well, since I am a photographer, I figure this will be a nice little feature to my blog. Every Saturday, I’ll post my favorite photos from the week.

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me, Laura, and Nicole

Yeah, so I busted a bracket last night, shortly after the above photo was taken. After only 2 months with my braces. I’m going in tomorrow to get it fixed. Stupid holidays. . . my appointment has to be during my class time.

So anyway, last night I went to the house of the Fuenmayor’s with my sister. They were having a little get-together. I just finished a big project for Ellis, so I was in need for a little break. Also, I hadn’t been out in a while, so I figured I’d attempt to socialize.

A out-of-focus photo of my friend, Dean, who gave us a ride to the Fuenmayor’s.

Laura (on couch), Dean and Braxton about to play Spades.

Braxton, who fell in love with my camera.

A clear photo of Dean.

So we played this crazy game called “spoons”, which is like musical chairs, but with cards and spoons.

Then we played another card game called “murder”. Based on the rules of the game, it’s kinda hard to do it with only candlelight, but it was still interesting.

Arianna. Look familiar?

Edgardo. His English is in-progress, and he’s really nice. I danced with him at this party a few months ago. . . I just remembered.

As I said, I wasn’t the only one who had fun with my camera last night. I let my friend Braxton play with it. After showing him the basic functions, he was good to go, and took some pretty nice photos.

See the rest here.

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So school is winding down. Our last assignment involves gum printing. Very time consuming but a cool alternative process. I’m still not sure what I’m doing and contact sheets are do tomorrow. I’ll just go with my original idea. I tend to overthink my concepts on every assignment.

. . .Goodness, I still have sketches to post. I’ll get them up eventually. I need to draw more in general. I also need to practice drawing different things than people, like environments and perspective.

And then there’s graduation, December 9th. Wonder what I’ll do after that. . .

What have I been doing so far this month? Not much, actually. Things kind of build up in culmination at the Soul Powered Show, and now I’m broke, trying to focus and finishing up the last few weeks of school and doing commissions to tide me over financially until then.

As always, I’ve been taking photos. My little sister said something to me a little while ago that I found so funny. I asked me to take a picture of something, and I guess I was taking to long with it, and she said finally,

“Sharon, you don’t have to take a photograph. Just take a picture.”

Laura’s awesome like that.

Salt print in the fixer.

Tongs labeled to use for different alternative photographic processes.

The advanced darkroom.

I haven’t been able to bite my nails since I got my braces. My nails grew out, so I painted them, which I hadn’t done in a loooong time. The color is “Holly Days” a really dark green. I bought it from Bath & Body Works like 5 years ago and it’s still good.

My younger sister Nicole being glamorous.

Another late night or being bored into taking photos of myself.

Commissioned pages with which I will soon part. Done for Arson Entertainment.

Saturday – My sister’s study, waiting to be baptized.

Playing with extended shutter speeds. It’s the lights on the ceiling of the Mobile Civic Center.

We ate at a Chinese Restaurant I’d never been to. I really liked the lanterns hanging outside. I was having trouble with my AutoFocus, though, and this is one of the first shots. I liked how it came out, though.

Nicole, in the outfit she made for the Special Assembly Day.

My hair had grown out of the cut, but I can’t afford to go to the stylist. Saturday night I resolved to trim it myself. I’ve done it before but it’s been, like, years ago. I didn’t cut off as much as I wanted in the back, mainly because I couldn’t see it. I like it though. It looks really good tousled.

The aftermath.

Sorry for the lack of art. I have drawn a few things. I’ll try to have them up in the next post.