back from Seattle

Seattle was great. I spent as much time as I could taking busses out to different neighborhoods, walking around downtown, and visiting art galleries and museums. There was a particularly nice selection of photography at the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington, and it was free admission thanks to the Boeing Corporation. The first night we had dinner with Robin's friend from high school who she looked up on Facebook. On day two, I contacted a photographer, Doug Plummer, whose blog I've read for the past year or so. He graciously took the time to have lunch with me and I absorbed all the advice I could over a plate of Pad Thai.

After Robin's conference, we rented a car and drove out around the Olympic Peninsula where we spent a couple nights camping. The Hoh Rain Forest was amazing (this area has the only temperate rain forest in North America), and I always enjoy a drive up the Pacific Coast. If I were to do it all again, I'd love to stay longer; it was our first time in Washington and the Seattle area. Pictures will be coming over the next few weeks.

I've put up some of the pictures from our Desolation Wilderness backpacking trip in July. You can see them here.

There's nothing like sledding in July!
(Thanks to Webb, who's Therm-a-rest pad suffered at least one puncture on this afternoon.)

And finally, a note: this blog will be moving to my own website in the near future. The content will shift to mostly photography information, but I'll be sure to also include the occasional update about what's going on with me. I'm beginning the process of coming out with my identity as a fine art photographer--a plan that is somewhat open ended, but looks to yield some exciting possibilities.

off to the wilderness

Well, first off, I want to say thank goodness that all the loud bangs I've been hearing these past two days are firecrackers and not gunfire. For a few moments last night, I thought there was a gang war going on a few blocks away. Such is how one thinks when living in Oakland, even if this is usually a pretty safe neighborhood.

We're off to Desolation Wilderness for a week's stay. Thankfully the recent wildfire near South Lake Tahoe missed it, but not by much. We hiked through here on our way around Lake Tahoe in 2005, and it was beautiful, so I'm really glad to be going back and taking it at a slower pace.

While you're waiting for me to come back and update this (well I guess no one's holding their breath), here are a few pictures from my 5 day backpacking trip to Ventana Wilderness by Big Sur.

I hope you're having a good summer!

forgiveness

A fellow classmate in my "Mind, Habit, Change, and Conversion" class this past semester did a project on forgiveness. He wanted to expand the paradigm of forgiveness from a way of responding to major transgressions and additionally frame forgiveness as a mindset that we cultivate day-to-day. Ideally, we would all practice forgiveness moment to moment in our lives, forgiving everyone from the driver that cuts us off to the spouse that betrays us.

I find his idea similar to Buddhist notions of mindfulness or the Christian ideal of praying constantly in every moment. Obviously you could take this in the wrong direction and become everyone's metaphorical doormat, but I find some wisdom in what he was doing.

This is even more interesting when you consider his context: as an independent lawyer who often takes on cases involving tenant rights. He says that one of the common expectations that clients have is that he will be a "tool of vengeance" by helping them win lots of money from people who have committed transgressions against them. These expectations seem to go somewhat beyond the system's intent, which is to compensate people for damage and harm done to them.

I hope that today you will practice forgiveness and forgive me, as it's been so long since I posted anything on this blog!

It is now summer, and while I actually do have one more paper to finish by the end of this week before my semester is officially over, I'm looking forward to the free time this summer holds. In addition to much more frequent blog updates, I'm expanding my posting scope, so it's not just my supposed deep thoughts and photographs, but lots of random stuff I run across that you might find interesting, everything from YouTube videos I like to tips on making cheap photo equipment. It will be a little more rough around the edges and stream of consciousness, which will hopefully make it a little more personal too.

So, if you're willing to give me a fresh start, check back every couple of days for some random interestingness in my small corner of the web.

Much love,
G

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.

welcome friends, new and old

For those who've found this site from the New Year's cards we sent out, thanks for looking! This blog has not quite gone live yet, but check back later (probably around mid-January), when my hope is that I'll be posting at least every other day.

My intention for this blog is primarily as a platform to share my photographs and thoughts about seminary, living in Oakland, CA, and finding my identity as I search for a vocation in life. Robin's blog can be found at http://www.xanga.com/rkinney, but she hasn't been updating recently. Given her job and how hard she works at teaching and getting through to her students, I can't blame her--she's very busy. Leave a comment on her blog, and she might be inclined to post more often if she knows others are reading.

We miss all of you! Moving to California has been quite an adventure, and we've left too many friends behind. I hope this will be a way for you to keep apprised of what I've been thinking about and what Robin and I have been doing (should you be interested, that is). Please feel free to leave comments on the posts, even if just to say hi, so I know who's reading. Also, if you have a blog, let me know about it, and you're welcome to link to this one.

Blessings,
Grant