Week 26 - Part 1

This has been one of the greatest weeks of my life.

Monday, the 25th, was my 21st birthday. Evan and Amy came down to celebrate with me and I had a party at my house. Thanks to our better judgment, very few photos were taken and they were all on Instagram. My username is @stevensites.

On Tuesday, we wandered around with Erin and Jayson and took photos.

Erin knew of this abandoned (or so she thought) horse stable that we went and checked out.

After about 15 minutes, Evan realized that the stable wasn't abandoned as there were horses in the barn. Everyone freaked out and ran away from him, but me, being the person that I am, approached him and convinced him to let me pet him. He was gentle, if not a little spooked by everyone screaming and running from him.

When we finished at the stable, we continued on to our original intended destination at Rocky Gorge Reservoir.

I ran out of film pretty quickly, thinking I was shooting a 36-frame roll, but ending up with only 27.

Wednesday, Jared came over again and we went to Ellicott City where Amy bought a gift for her mom (which she accidentally left in the train station in DC,) and a new shirt. We all got drinks and headed up to an area full of abandoned buildings surrounding the Patapsco River. We were told off by a cop for where we parked so we moved away from the abandoned buildings and moved down to the river.

Jayson used Amy for his Injuries series and I snapped one of her before we left.

Erin had this epiphany and remembered a waterfall that she had been to once before was actually very close by.

I took this of Evan as we were headed over to the spot Erin remembered.

We had to wait a few minutes for everyone to get off this bridge so I could take this. I'm pretty sure I missed the focus but that's okay haha.

By the time we got to the waterfall, I only had one frame left of medium format.

Unfortunately, I learned the hard way this week that E-6 chemicals exhaust much quicker and more radically than C-41 or HC-110. One roll will come out perfect and the next is almost trash. Last week's roll of 120 came out dark, and I thought maybe I had just underexposed the film, but after developing this roll of 120 as well as a roll that Amy shot on my Mamiya, I came to the conclusion that the chemicals needed to go. I have another roll of film that I shot this week that will be posted in a couple of weeks when my new E-6 chemicals come in the mail.

This week's film:

• 1 roll of 120 Fujichrome Astia 100
• Shot on a Mamiya C220F with an 85mm f/2.8
• Hand-developed in exhausted Arista E-6, scanned with Epson Perfection V500

Week 25

Not much happened this week. It was overall uneventful, though I did get to spend plenty of time with very good friends.

I didn't shoot much film this week but Week 26 will make up for that :)

Jayson painted me this for my birthday :)

Austin!

Joanna and I picked blueberries!

I went to Sandy Point State Park with Arieyl and Natalie

Natalie and me, taken by Arieyl

Natalie and Arieyl

This week's film:

• 1 roll of 120 Fujichrome Astia 100 shot on a Mamiya C220F with an 85mm f/2.8
• A few frames of expired Agfa Pro Color 200, shot on a Canon EOS 630 with a Canon 50mm f/1.2L
• Astia hand-developed in exhausted Arista E-6, Agfa hand-developed in Jobo C-41, both scanned with Epson Perfection V500

Weeks 23 and 24

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind for me.

I went to Ocean City with three of my friends on Monday. On the way down, I got in a car accident. I was hit from behind but somehow Nationwide has decided that I was at fault. I'm in the process of looking for a new car now.

We still managed to have a good time at the beach, though.

Arieyl blinked WAY TO GO 

I left on Thursday to visit Evan Walsh in Philadelphia again. I hadn't visited in a few months and it was so good being at his house again.

I arrived Thursday afternoon, we took the train back to his area, and we were picked up by his friend, Michelle. We met up with Maddie and Dana at Bryn Athyn Cathedral and took photos.

On Friday, Evan and I made a day trip to New York City. We met Lauren Withrow, Lissy Laricchia, Lindsay Gray and Kevin Davidson. We didn't get to see them for long but I've been friends with Lauren for over two years now and it was so surreal finally getting to meet her.

Photo by Kevin Davidson on Lindsay's Instax

We left our Flickr buddies and met up with author David Levithan. We met him at his office at the Scholastic building and he immediately gave Evan and I both signed copies of a couple of his books. He told us one of his books had just been signed somewhere in Asia and that our day was going to be a celebration.

We walked to Strand, walked in, and David told Evan and I that he was going to buy us up to $50 in books. We chose, and then he also insisted that we choose a Strand tote bag. I chose The Lost Explorer, a collaboration short story/picture book by Tim Walker and Patrick McGrath and an owl bag.

We then ate dinner at a Ukrainian diner a few blocks away. We all got really delicious pierogies, then walked to Big Gay Ice Cream, for which David also paid. We then walked around Times Square to kill some time.

David snapping photos in Times Square

We then saw Other Desert Cities on Broadway, which was absolutely stunning. I'm not one for theatre but the entire performance blew me away.

On Saturday, we revisited the cathedral with Michelle and took photos again.

After the cathedral, we went to the carnival where I met Evan's friend, Will.

Photo by Evan Walsh

Sunday evening was spent at Michelle's house watching the Tony's with a big group of their friends, all of whom I loved.

I brought Evan back to Maryland with me Monday evening. He met a few of my friends: Katie, Jayson Emily and Erin (with whom Evan has been friends for quite some time and they finally got to meet.)

Tuesday morning, we headed down into DC to meet Brendon Burton. He and his dad were visiting DC for a few days, so we came and snatched him up. We drove back to Great Falls where we took a ton of photos. I shot almost two entire rolls here and ended up with several of my favorite photos that I've ever taken.

Brendon shooting a roll of film with my Mamiya

I mean it's not like there was a 20 foot drop off that ledge or anything

We were walking across a bridge when we found a spot that I really liked. There were railings everywhere but everyone decided that it would be fine if we just hopped the railings and climbed down anyway, so we did.

Jayson is the best for this.

The sand was just as much tiny shells as sand.

Jayson has always been an adventurer, he'd go off on his own for a while climbing and jumping between rocks out on the water.

This butterfly stuck around for almost our entire shoot, flying amongst us, landing on our things and floating around.

Brendon taking his 365 photo

The past week has been one of the most incredible weeks of my life. I am so thankful for photography right now, to be able to share all of this with you and to be able to remember it myself in the future. This week is one that I will want to share for the rest of my life.

We beez in the trap, girllah. Peace, love, and McDonald's.

This week's film:

• Week 23: One roll of expired Fujichrome Velvia 100 RVP
• Week 24: Two rolls of expired Fujichrome Sensia 200 RVP (my new favorite slide film)
• Both weeks shot on a Canon EOS 630 with a Canon 50mm f/1.2L, Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L, and Canon 135mm f/2L
• Hand developed in Arista E-6, scanned with Epson Perfection V500