Hope A 11/12/14 Hope A 11/12/14

New Orleans Without Color

I brought a camera to New Orleans, I even checked the batteries before I packed it. And then it stayed in my bag for my entire visit. Most of the time, I wanted to just be with my friends, ride around, not answer the phone, not check my email. Aside from arranging meet-up times with busy friends, mostly it worked.

My first day in town, my friend Matt Runkle made a facebook challenge. Normally I ignore these, I duck in the internet corners so I don't get picked. But this one was about posting five black and white photos in five days. It was a challenge I was willing to participate in. I love color photos. Phone cameras and apps have improved, making it easier and easier to take lovely square images. I used to own a poloroid camera . The colors and instananeos nature of poloroid was appealing. Also the physical photo that emerged, to be tucked into a notebook, or glued to a journal cover. With all the instagram fanciness, it was nice to focus on composition with the same instant results. I took a few photos that didn't work in black and white, but here are the five I chose. I posted them on facebook but I thought they were nice all together. Maybe I will start taking more.

the industrial canal from the end of the world

Hope A 10/24/14 Hope A 10/24/14

city adventure

Most every day I would print or bind books or bake treats but luckiliy sometimes Andy reminds me to leave the house. A few weeks ago, we had a friend's car so we drove across the bay bridge and across the city all the way to the ocean. One amazing thing about California is the way they maintain so much of the coast as public land through national parks. You can be in San Francisco proper, not too far from the Golden Gate Bridge, walk to the ocean. We explored the ruins of Sutro baths, a former public bath house. You may not yet be aware of my love of swimming. More accurately, I enjoy soaking. I like lakes, oceans, public baths, hot springs and my giant clawfoot bathtub. Sutro baths burned down in the sixties, but you can still explore the ruins, listen to the tide crash through the pools, and buy 50 cent post cards. Sometimes you can go see punk shows in the caves, but the day we were there, we only witnessed an awkward german couple and a SF photographer taking boring photos of young women in bikinis.

you can still buy these postcards.  i already sent mine to a friend. — you can still buy these postcards. i already sent mine to a friend.

When you get tired of balancing on concrete ruins between pools of green water, you can hike to Land's End, see where part of Harold and Maude was filmed and see the ocean and the bay from a few amazing different points of view. We sat and watched the fog for a while. I was rooting for it to swallow the whole bridge but mostly what happened is that I sat still for a while, which almost never happens. Not bad for a a day out of the studio.