Begin again

I haven't posted here since september. Yep. September. The 9/12 month. It's nearly 4 months. Of silence.

To be quite honest, it's not like I missed that much which makes me question the whole point of it.

I love going through your blogs and see your work. It's just I don't feel like posting lately... or producing.

2015 was my Marie Kondo year (have you read her book? It did change your life too?). I applied the KonMari method in all my life, not just my stuff. Does it brings joy or happiness or love? Nope? Then I don't need it. Last year was very complicated professionally speaking. I had to do a lot of things I didn't agree to keep my business alive. I had to shoot in different ways for people I didn't want to. But we got to pay the bills in the end of the day. Makes me question A LOT of things. When I gave up my structured professional life to jump in the art of making photos it sounded so much more romantic. It's not that easy. And it makes you not love that much what you once loved so deeply. I knew that it wouldn't be the same as when I use to do it for fun, I'm not that naive. But, I swear, I didn't know it would be this hard.

So there was a lot of talk to myself. What to do, how to do it and, most importantly, for how long. I don't want to be the girl who spends the rest of her life punching the knife (I don't think there's an equivalent of that expression in english, just realize that. But we say in portuguese "to punch the knife's end", if someone knows a better translation feel free to correct me in the comments, please.).

I hope I can show up a little more in here, but if I do show up, it will be because I want to. Maybe I'll even fall in love with my job again. Who knows. I'm doing my best. But I honestly feel sometimes the things we want the most are not exactly what will make us happy in the end of the day.

Hope I'm wrong. Maybe this is just blablabla because I'm in the astral Hell.

To end this in a happy note, here's a few portraits of mom. I had this roll of Ilford Delta 3200 and wanted to give it a try. We had a good cappuccino on this very nice Patisserie near her house and as I was finishing my roll, later that week, I got this portrait of her in her favorite spot in the city.

* All photos taken with a Nikon F100 w/ Ilford Delta 3200

Let the rain

I posted this on my tumblr, and found it so beautiful I thought "why not post it on the blog?". Haha.

It's from a while a go, when it's still raining in this city! We are on such a drought this year. It's getting worst everyday... I miss this feeling...

Is it still raining where you live? :)

“Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.” 
― Bob Marley



Kodak Gold 100 - expired

Popcorn

One of these days I was walking around the neighborhood and, in my way back home, I, as per usual, decided to buy a bag of sweet popcorn with fried cheese on top. This is something I love since I was a kid (which happened a long time ago). I can't explain how good this is. The salty cheese and the sweet flavor of the popcorn is beyond amazing. I feel like they have a party in my mouth. I tried almost every popcorn cart in the city (there's a lot where I live) and this is the best, I guarantee you! And, for my luck, it is 10 minutes walk from my house. Yay!!!

Do you have any treats you love and search the entire town for the very best?
(aside from coffee, which I know 99% of you are as crazy about it as I am. Maybe I'll show you my favorite sometime).

Nikon F100
35mm f1.4G
Kodak Gold 100, exp

California VI - Point Lobos

I talked about this place so much on other posts...

First of all, I have to say: no pictures in the world will make justice to the beauty of this place. It was probably one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen! It is located in the Highway One, in Monterey County. If you ever decided to travel through this beautiful road, please, don’t miss this State Reserve. And take all the hiking trails. You won’t regret.

Nikon F100
35mm f1.4G
Portra 160 (exp 2014)

California V - Muir Woods

I totally forgot to post about Muir Woods! It should have been posted before Yosemite, haha.

It happens, right?! Before late than never!

It is such a beautiful place. You’ll probably remember it from the new Planet of the Apes series. It is Ceasar’s home. But let me tell you, it didn’t remind me of the movie... One scene I remember clearly was James Franco’s character and the girlfriend having a picnic there. But there are MANY signs informing that is forbidden to eat anywhere in the park. Haha. I took a lot of food and a nice towel and all I did was eat an energy bar in the middle of the trail.

Anyway... I just wished we could have spent more time there. We were in a hurry to hit the road to Yosemite... The sun was setting at 5pm, and we didn’t wanna take the road in a complete darkness (which happened anyway). Even though, we had enough time to take one trail and enjoy what nature has to offer. :)

Funny story: I took this Velvia roll before the Wine Tour we did. By the time we were leaving the hotel I mistook this one, that was expired, thinking it was the other Velvia 100 that is not so expired. I only noticed what I did when I got back from the lab. Now I put a yellow mark in all very expired rolls, so I’ll never mistake them again. Haha, living and learning.

Nikon F100
35mm f1.4G
Fuji Velvia 100 (exp 2009)

Le chat

Boris Becker, always making my days happier...

Nikon F100
50mm f1.8D
Portra 160

Inspirational Wednesday

Anton Corbijn

If you don’t know his work yet, baby, you have to do it, NOW. He’s one of the best photographers of all time (in my modest opinion) and probably the reason why I decided to photograph. His work change the way we (or at least I) see photography in the music business. He started as a music photographer, being friends with the guys and then his talent introduce to new bands and then other bands, then he started to work for a lot of fashion magazines (because he was doing something totally new) and sort of mixed it all. The music shots were more fashion, and his fashion shots were totallly rock’n’roll. And, since he never settles, now he’s in Hollywood! I loved all of the films he directed and can’t wait for “Life” to be released (about the photographer who is assigned to shoot James Dean).

I have a bunch of favorite photos here, but the ones I really, really like are all of the Nirvana photos (I think nobody portrayed the band as good as he did) and the Metallica shots from 95 to 01, specially the Reload booklet photos. They are probably my all time favorite (unfortunately I didn’t find any throughout the web, and don’t have a scanner here to prove my point).

There’s an excellent documentary about his work called “Inside Out”. Sometimes it is on Youtube, sometimes they remove it. You can find it here, but I don’t know until when. Run. :) It is half english half dutch, but comprehensible. 

There’s also a film he did for Leica, with photography tips, which I find adorable! 

Hope you like it! 

California IV - Yosemite

I love mountains. Always did, since a little girl. So you can imagine how happy I was to visit Yosemite National Park for the fist time. The park was all autumn-yellow, like a painting. Cold (there were snow in a few higher points), but not too cold. For me, it was the perfect weather.

The bad thing was that, since it was autumn, and Califa is on a drought period, the biggest waterfall was almost dry, and so was the Mirror Lake. But other than that, it was a lovely time I spent there. When I think about Yosemite, a smile just show up in my face.

A (not so) fun fact: I almost didn’t shoot on film there. My fiancé took my digital and shot almost everything with it, I grabbed the camera whenever I saw something TRULY interesting. And since I was on vacation and didn’t wanna miss the moment, I kind of kept everything inside my head. It doesn’t sound like me, I’m always shooting everything and everybody, but I needed the rest. For the eyes, the mind and the body. Not mentioning the soul.

The half dome. My second favorite (the firt one was El Captain, which, funny enough, I don’t have on film)

Nikon F100
35mm f1.4G
Kodak Portra 160