This year my father and I were asked to participate in this years Medium Festival  over at the Lafayette Hotel in San Diego.
On Friday and Saturday we got to set up in the courtyard and shoot portraits of the patrons that came down this year. I got to see new and familiar faces and meet others that do Wet Plate like I do!
I had Daniel Rodriguez  join me to help my father and take pictures of us working( thank you, Daniel!). 
​Thank you everyone for stepping in front of my camera and a BIG thank you to Scott B. Davis for this opportunity!
Hope to be back next year.

2018 is THE year.
The year that I finally set forth and start building up my landscape portfolio using the Wet Plate Collodion process. Last year (2017) I attended the Photographers Rendezvous group up in King City, CA and while on this trip we took time aside to travel to Monterey. All growing up I heard a small story of how my parents met, which was at the Post Naval Graduate School located in Monterey. We drove around to the different spots they knew and I even got to see the apartments the both lived at while attending school. I also fell in love with the beauty of the area there and especially the weather! Over cast in the morning and also at the end of the day! Perfect for wet plate collodion.
I was really bummed that we didn't have the time to do some plates, so we all came up with a plan to return next year prepared and with a new portable darkroom, one that would fit in back of the car.

Oh Boy, its been awhile hasn't it?
The last time I checked in on this blog was in February and my goal of this year was to at LEAST post once a month and I have not been following through. 

my bad.

To make up for lost time, here is a recent digital photography adventure that I had. 
My friend, Daniel, is leaving to live in China to learn Mandarin and will be gone for a good part of a year! We have both been interested in getting better when it came to astrophotography and we both have never been to Anza Borrego which is located 2 hours outside of San Diego. So we picked out a day where there was a New Moon and made our way out.
Anza Borrego is a true Dark Sky community, so I was very excited to see how bright the stars were. Its also a hot spot for viewing these giant metal sculptures by Ricardo Breceda , a local southern California artist. From giant Sea Serpents (stretching to 15 feet long and across a road) to turtles and grasshoppers, there is a sculpture for everyone. Back when I was in college I would alway see other students photographs of this place - so now years later I finally got to go! Daniel and I did research on which sculptures we wanted to find and made a plan to arrive a little before sunset. This article by Jim DeLillo was a big help for me on what to expect going out to a rural area and photographing the stars. 

Arriving in the desert right before dinner time worked out perfectly, we drove around and picked out some easy sculptures to get to once everything was dark. We ate at a local food place and went to our first location. The photo on the left was taken by Daniel (Thanks again!)

I do have to say, I was very thankful to think to bring camping chairs and a flashlight and good company (and apparently a good book) 

As the night went on we moved on to other sculptures. We didn't plan on camping out there in the heat so we had limited time before we became too tired to drive home. 
I was really enthusiastic to see the Scorpion and the Grasshopper! 
(entomology is cool!)
One part of this trip I enjoyed was seeing other photographers out there doing the same thing that Daniel and I were after. It was interesting to see everyone else set up and making small talk and hearing how far people have come to see this place. 

Of course, we could leave the area without seeing the Sea Serpent. Unfortunately, we didn't get to stay long and I only got one photograph that I really liked from that spot. I blame the faint howling of coyotes for scaring us away. Makes for a great story and memory! Who knew a pack of coyotes sounds like people laughing (in the distance)....we didn't. 
Daniel bought these foam light up wands and he let me use one to try and spell out my initials.

Hoping to return again next year when the weather is better and pick out some more sculptures to go to. I'm even interested in trying to do Wet Plate out there. 

​You can check out Daniels work HERE 

I have finally bitten the bullet and went for it! I willow be selling original prints from my first solo show, Collodion Obscura, on Etsy.
As much as I love these prints, they deserve a good home.
Click the button below to find my shop.

Here below art my first two prints for sale.