Week 28

After being familiar with his work for months, I had the pleasure of meeting Nick Scarpinato this past weekend. We recently started talking more, and after realizing just how many very close mutual friends we have in the flickr world, we managed to get our schedules to line up well enough to meet and spend a day together.

Mantas and I woke up early and took the metro from Glenmont to Vienna where Nick picked us up. We killed a bit of time wandering around Fairfax until his friend, Jess, was ready for us. We headed over to her house and ate a delicious lunch with her and her parents. We talked about photography and art and had a really nice time at her house.

After homemade cookie ice cream sandwiches, we headed out. Our first stop was a park but the weather was so unbearably hot and humid that we almost immediately decided to get back in the car and head to Tyson's Corner to kill some time until Hannah and Scott were ready to meet up with us.

We headed over to Lake Fairfax where we met Hannah and Scott, and we spent a couple of hours there taking photos and hiking through the woods. We headed back, split with Hannah and Scott, went to Starbucks, dropped Jess off at home and then got dropped off back at the Vienna metro station. By the end of the day, we were all exhausted and feeling very fulfilled.

Nick is one of the nicest people I've ever met. He's down to earth, easy to talk to, and so incredibly passionate about not only his own art, but that of other people. He told me all about his shooting and processing techniques that were so original, I have a great deal of respect for him and his multimedia artwork, especially after meeting him and finding out firsthand how fun he is to be around.

This weekend, Evan Walsh and James Evans will be visiting me for a few days. Nick is planning on meeting up with us before they leave, so expect to see more from Nick and me very soon.

Nick taking photos of Jess in a fallen tree

Mantas and I moved ahead while Nick was taking photos of Jess in the tree and this section of tree roots caught my eye. It looked like a hand to me.

Jess, Nick, Scott and Mantas! Oh and Hannah's arm is over there too

Typical Mantas face

Mantas took a couple quick Instagram photos for me before we left. After the top photo, Mantas told us that we didn't look like we liked each other, so we took the second one, in which Nick looks even less enthused haha. I promise, we got along quite well. You can also follow my Instagram account, @stevensites!

This week's film:

• 1 roll of 35mm Lomography X-Pro 100 slides
• Shot on a Canon EOS 630 with a Canon 50mm f/1.2L
• Hand developed in Arista E-6, scanned with Epson Perfection V500