Alright... I've done it. I jumped in with both feet and now I'm not turning back. For years I worked with SD video cameras and hated that low resolution, cheesey feel of the motion pictures they produced. I struggled with three cameras failing as the tape drives malfunctioned on important jobs only to leave me with 60 minutes of glitching video and dropped audio. Granted I didn't do anything ground breaking with my videography skills or lack there of but I tried.

Just recently I was able to do some work trade in exchange for a Canon 5D Mark II and I've seen the light! From the huge rear lcd to the flawless low-light 1080p HD video, I've fallen in love. This camera is the culmination of all that I've dreamt possible in the world of images. Massive pixel power in still mode, incredible battery life, apparently dust free and, for those that can remember, scratch free image making all boil this down to one hell of a tool.

The barrista tossed the box of stirring straws into the air and squealed like an animated piglet as it just missed the whirling ceiling fan. She must be jacked on the feine I thought to myself. I was sucking down chai (decaf) during her performance before meeting ND at the Himalayan Kitchen for some web stuff. Ironic, since they have the best chai in the four corners, that I was getting it at the Steaming Bean instead. Over the years of pounding multi-shot espresso drinks and half-a-tanker of coca cola my body has said "absolutely no" to any more caffeine. If I even try to drink decaf coffee I nearly spin out of control and get the ugly visit from the migraine man in the morning. It took me years to figure out it was the caffeine.

What i'm thinking....

As i sit here wondering what to spew onto this page about myself, the fog lifts on a small dark corner of my brain. The dank, musty corner that realizes what i am and how all of this is playing out. A few years ago, let's just say about 15 sets of 365 days in the past, i realized what my job was and it frightened me. While processing a batch of 10 rolls of 36 exposure t-max 400 pushed to 3200 in hc-110, my mind reeled. Maybe it was the chemistry wafting up into my nasal cavities and seeping through my blood brain barrier, but i had the intense realization that what i did was make little pieces of plastic.

Everything about photography in my early phase was plastic and chemicals. So here i am, working at a newspaper, huffing vast quantities of cyanide gas (stop bath and potassium ferricyanide don't play well together) realizing my job is to stick time onto these plastic slices in some sort of orderly fashion. The horror of working in a factory, methodically stamping out formula based images made me cringe, but i got over it and shot more plastic till plastic turned to nothing.