Another day at the beach.

It was the day after the one below.

It started at a lifeguard tower, just like the one with Sean.

But it was in the afternoon and the shadows were very dramatic.





And it costed $10 to get the lifeguard tower shots.

But it was fun. And not as cold.

This shoot was with James and it consisted mostly of running around in the ocean. Waves were reaching crotch level at times. It was pretty cold but I went numb quickly.

There were a fair amount of people nearby. I think some guys were watching with binoculars from the parking lot for a short while.


Just as we were getting into his car, we noticed a sheriff car pulling into the parking lot.

Phew.

The Things People Do For Art....

My fourth day in the LA area, I woke up at 3:30am and was picked up around 4:00am by a nice photographer named Sean. We had talked about shooting a lot before deciding we could actually do it. We were going to a beach N. of Malibu to shoot at sunrise. I took a step outside in downtown LA and realized that it would be freezing on the beach. My breathing was weird, I lost feeling in my fingers and toes, and I felt bad but I was definitely complaining a little. But I got to see dolphins and starfish clinging to rocks on shore and I got to help create amazing images and meet a great person.







I lost my earing while there. My friend, Michelle, who I worked with in Pittsburgh in 2003, gave it to me then. I haven't seen her in over three years and I had been wearing this earing for at least two years straight. It must have fallen out in my sleep. It's in pretty much every photo ever taken of me. Almost.

I need a break so bad.

So, last night I boarded a bus to Oakland, Ca. I found out that Megabus is discontinuing their services in California very soon, too, while waiting. And I just found out. :(.

So, bus to West Oakland BART. Got there at 6am. Great. Too bad I forgot that it's Sunday and BART doesn't run that early. Most buses don't start until 8 either, and I don't know the bus system anyway because I always ride a bike here. So I decided to walk for two and half hours to my old house. I had some mail waiting for me: A letter from my best friend Jonah, who is in an ICE detention center, my first passport!, and some photos I ordered prints of. It was so exciting!!... That I took a 45 minute nap. I woke up and got breakfast and then came back to the house to meet my friend Sarah, who lives here still, and catch a BART train to the city together.

We were going to an all-day Photozella shoot. Neither of us had done one yet, but were kind of interested. They go on outings to beaches and spend all day, it's just hanging out in groups of naked people and having photos taken. Everyone is naked, male and female, even the photographers. Cool.

We were going to the beach, but it was too cold, so we went to the redwood forest and a river that runs through it in Santa Cruz. There were about 15 people there, not including the 4 or 5 photographers. The setting was absolutely beautiful and it was warm there [inland.] We went swimming and sat in the sand and socialized. But I was admittedly slightly socially retarded due to lack of sleep and didn't do very well meeting new people. Haha. It was good to have my friend, Sarah, there, and not needing to try to be extra out-going and friendly all the time. I had never modeled in a large group before AND I had never modeled with a friend before. Everyone was super nice and it was a great day!!

Once the sun started to set, some of the more talented participants played with fire or musical instruments. The scene was a little more hippie burner than I generally put myself into, but it was comfortable and a great way to spend a day.

It's after midnight and Sarah and I are going to fall asleep watching Ab Fab.

No photo shoots planned until Portland. [But I did receive some e-mails about the potential of shoots here.... I'm thinking about it.]

P.S. Please forgive all spelling and grammatical errors, as well as displays of poor sentence structure. I have edited this like three times but I keep seeing more. I'm so tired. You have no idea. Ahhhhhhh.

laLAla

On Monday morning, I arrived at Union Station in downtown LA and I walked around for a half hour looking for a coffee shop to no avail until, finally, this homebum stopped me to say good morning. He asked me if I was a tourist. Oh god. :(. I asked him where there was a cafe and the only place nearby was this very strange restaurant with over-priced yucky food and 9cent cups of watery coffee. I hate coffee, but it was 6:30AM, I had just been on a bus overnight on which I was unfortunate enough to have someone sit next to me while others had empty seats next to them, and it was a little hard to sleep.. And I had two hours to kill before the Metrolink ran all the way to Lancaster. So I drank coffee. It was gross.

Then, a few hours later, I met up with ravens laughter and his friend, nevaehhlleh, who were at the Lancaster Metrolink station to pick me up!! Yay!! They are so nice. Later I got to meet the wife, Miya, who also rules.

The first day, Mr. raven and I created some pretty cool images. This is from the first few minutes. We had wanted to work together for like three years and I was nervous about not living up to any expectations. Silly, I know. Well...

Anyway, I stayed there for Monday and Tuesday and then I was off on my own, trekking all over the LA area, shooting. More later. Today is my last day here and I have a shoot in one hour.. But the photographer has not called me back yet. I wonder if he will.

P.S. If anyone who uses Blogger can help me with posting images, it would be greatly appreciated. Questions: 1. Why does it always appear at the top? This one was inserted after "This one is from the first few minutes." 2. Why is the text on the left like that in this post? When I "preview" it, it doesn't look like that. It's much more balanced.

I am sitting in an empty attic room..

Angled walls echo any noise created over the past two years of my life lived in this room. Laughter, - Yay I just saw one of the mice who live in here! - snoring, crying, boring... Nervous breakdowns, mental breakthroughs. This is the room I lost my mind in. I will find someone else's somewhere else I'm sure.

Tonight at 11:59 I am catching a bus from West Oakland BART to LA. I'll be there in the morning. Hopefully I can sleep on the bus.

But, the first time I ever traveled for modeling, in 2006 to San Diego, I was unable to sleep all night and I then worked for ten hours straight.. I think I did pretty good. Sleep deprivation breads creativity!

I've been so stressed out and overwhelmed with this whole moving thing and now I feel very relieved. There are other things that suck about right now. One of my friends is in a horrible ICE detention center in Tacoma for watching the sunset from a rooftop and having an accent. That's probably the worst ever. The facility he's in is often protested by locals and is notorious for denying detainees basic needs, even to the point of fatalities, and for keeping people who are perfectly legal detained for extended periods of time.

Also I have been emotionally unavailable to all of my friends and lovers as well as myself for the past couple months and some people have given up on me, because my apathy has hurt them deeply. But I feel this all lifting. I feel better than I have in a long time.

I feel bad for not communicating terrific ideas or showing how excited I am to be meeting and working with any and all of the photographers I will be in the company of in LA. It's all coming to me now at once.