an update

well friends,

I missed my self imposed deadline to start updating in the middle of January. Life happens, I guess. I'm back in grad school full time now so things are very busy. Admittedly, updating this blog every other day is an ambitious goal, one I probably won't be able to meet. But I'll keep trying, nevertheless. Robin and I haven't even gotten all of the New Year's cards out yet, and it's halfway through February!

Though I haven't updated in a while, I have been thinking about the purpose of this blog: here are my thoughts so far:

1. Sharing my photographs
2. Keeping in touch with friends and family
3. Expressing my thoughts about life as I am living it
4. Sharing random internet material I think is worth experiencing
5. Reflecting on the process of making art, both my creative process and the technical aspects of photography
   

I'm unsure at this point how much privacy should be a concern. I like to be open with the world, but I don't want the information here to someday be used against me. At this point, I can't think of a way it would be, but I'm playing it safe for now. So, if I sound a little vague as to the specifics, shoot me an email and I'd be happy to fill in the details.

The photograph above was taken on Valentine's day from somewhere near the Emeryville/Berkeley border along the SF Bay shoreline. I've been wanting to explore shooting some long exposure black and whites (after seeing the work of these two photographers, Michael Kenna and Brian Chapman) and this seemed like a good place. I noticed the ruins of the pier while riding my bike one day and vowed to return as soon as I could.

The softness of the water comes from a 30 second exposure time. I had to wait until just the right time after sunset so that the exposure would be right for this shutter speed. Click on the picture to see some other pictures from this shoot.