Cross Color Processing

I have been working on a bit of cross color processing. Here is a short clip of some of my recent work.

Time Lapse Video

This post is all about photography. Well specifically it is about 1,200 different pictures that when compiled turn into a video. I took these shots at the Piazza Republica in Firenze, Italy. It took me about an 30 mins of shooting to capture less than one minute of video.

Europe and its treasures

So it has been almost two months since my last post and I vaguely remembering making some sort of declaration of a daily post. Well that did not work out obviously but thats only because life has been absolutely insane. I have spent time in airports all over Europe recently with the best stops occurring in Paris, Barcelona, and my personal favorite city in the entire world, Amsterdam! I traveled with roommates and an ex-lover which proved for fun, interesting, and at times painful moments that I wouldn't trade for the world. While doing all this traveling, I have been doing my absolute best to catch up with my semesters worth of work which has become quite pilled up. Its not that its hard and in fact certain classes I am sure I have done all my work purely because I find it really fun. This is mainly my advertising homework and for whatever reason I find this super fun.

 

Amsterdam

Barcelona

Sienna

So now to the important part of this blog. These two months have spoken very loudly towards me and I have been doing my best to listen to what life is trying to teach me right now. This is essentially what I think life wants me to understand right now.

1- Destiny is what brings you to where you are. When you are there you have two choices. Good or Bad? Left or Right? Straight or Backwards? Destiny will take you places in life that do not make sense and will teach you some valuable lessons.

Destiny in a Box

2- People will always come and go in life. If they are meant to be in your life then they will. If not, it will be ok.

Don't be Sad

3- Do not be afraid to enjoy life because the window of opportunity is closing a bit more each day.

Don't be Afraid

4- Don't be afraid to talk to strangers, they might become friends.

5- Most of all, enjoy the fact that you are alive right now and capable of doing things other can only dream of.

I am not sure where my Destiny is taking me but so far it has taken me from Los Angeles to San Diego to San Francisco to Florence. I wonder what is coming next?

The end is also the beginning

It has been nearly two weeks since my last blog and thats because quite a lot has been happening in my life. Let my start with one realization, "The end is also the beginning."I came to Italy on a search for something. Something different, something epic, something life-changing. I just realized I found all of that in one quick and unexpected moment. Four days ago my girlfriend broke up with me. That was the moment that ended something just as quickly as it began something new for me. If we had made it to the end of October, we would have been together for four years. We made it to 3 years and 11 months. Now the catch of this all, I did nothing wrong, In my opinion and hers. She gave me the classic lines of all lines, " I love you but I'm not in love with you."

OUCH! We have all either heard that or said it at least once before but damn it stings when its directed right at your heart. He reasons were at best comical. That is neither hear nor there really but what really matters is that even though we are broken up we still share a room and a bed for the next 3 months until our lease is up. Well now the fun part begins I guess. I am going to refocus on myself again and start looking for people who actually appreciate me being around.

My brother just told me something the other day, "If they aren't worth dying for then they aren't worth crying for." Well I gotta say that hit a chord with me because she killed a piece of me once before and I can't help but think that was a piece of me that I could be loving now. Life is a cruel mistress because she is warm, loving, terrifying, and confusing all at the same time. I am not sad about this as much as I thought I would be because all she is doing is making me stronger. I am absorbing the pain that life is throwing my way and will walk with my head held high because no person can break me down. I will not allow it.With that said I will be attempting to add another dimension to my blog. I will be posting one image a day from this point forward. It will be the sum of my daily experience and help me realize that there is so much beauty in the world that one narrow minded perspective is nothing that will stand in my way to happiness because after all, "Love is Everything." Truly it is.

                                                   

Confused in Italy

If I had to choose one word to describe this week it would be, Confused.  I learned this week that the person I traveled half way across the world with is still dealing with ex-boyfriend issues. We have been dating for almost four years next month yet she can't get over whatever he did to her in her past. The lesson I took away from my breakup of my right year relationship is that you have to move on and stop dwelling in the past. I seem to learn that lesson over and over in life but sometimes I wonder if I am the only person looking at life and taking each day as a lesson. You have to learn and grow each day otherwise you will never develop into the beautiful butterfly life wants you to be. We all start life in our own caccoon because its the safest thing for us. Yet you must grow and develop day by day before life passes you by. I have always been a deep thinker so much so that I can say that is my biggest flaw, I live inside my head. I judge people the moment I meet them and live with a predisposed idea of what I expect out of life, however the biggest flaw with this is that life loves to mess that up by showing that there are many layers to each person. I truly want one thing, a love that will last a life time. I came to Italy thinking I had found that and not even a month into being here I'm starting to realize that I will probably leave Italy single and more confused. I just wonder why it's so hard to meet someone who can appreciate me for me? I will keep my chin up and keep it moving because that is literally my only option but every once and a while life needs to throw me a bone.

Well it has been a long week . . .

I have been in Firenze for a bit over a week now. The range of feelings I have experience has been all over the place but the one constant feeling has been lost. I have teared up every day that I have been here for one reason or another. Either the immense beauty that I have seen or the extreme pain I feel from being so far away from my home. I think the shock and awe of this trip has already fizzled and now I just feel trapped here amongst strangers. Never have I felt so alone while being around so many people. I even have six roommates but its still odd to me because I am not used to living with so many people. I think this is going to be a long ten months.

I am glad however that school is starting soon and that will redirect my energy and my spirits. I need something to do rather than just wonder and work out every day. Its fun but after a bit it becomes lonely just like it was back in the states. I realize more than anything I am the constant in this scenario and if any issues like this its because I continue in the same patterns way to often. I find myself clinging to things from home but I just paid 8 Euro for a small fountain coke. Lesson learned, ask for the price before ordering anything! I am living on a budget and am not used to it at all.

I think the oddest part mainly is that all the people I am around are all babies and it makes me realize that I am to old to be living with 20 year olds and people who act like they are. I thought I was immature but I realized by association that I'm not a kid anymore. I need to get my shit together and quickly before life leaves me behind.

So I live in Florence now, no big deal!

I have been in Florence for about 4 days now and I have accomplished more than I would normally back in the states. I walk every where, drink mainly water, and am feeling fantastic. I think for the first time in my life I feel like I am doing something productive with my time. I know this is the beginning of a different way of living. I can not and will not go back home and fall back into my daily routines. I haven't smoked for about a week and I feel GREAT!!!! I thought it would be rough but oddly its easy when you have hundreds of years of art to distract you. I have always considered myself artistic and yes I have a degree that says others agree with me but I am more than an artist, I am a student. I am always learning and I realize now that college was nothing more than a great way to learn.

I have so much more to see but here is a quick glimpse of what I have seen so far.