BRING BACK THE CONCORDE

This Memorial Day weekend was fun. Chilled at home with the fam, got KBBQ (again), went to the Air And Space Museum Udvar Hazy Annex, and ended with fishing.

My mind is drawing a blank here and I don't know what to write lol. There are also some photos from Richmond a few weeks ago. Started a roll of Ektar in RVA, ended at at the Air And Space Museum.

That woman on the bench in one of the photos got all up in my face (literally, a few inches) saying how I can't be taking photos of people on the streets all willy nilly and shit. Lmao. It was pretty wild. But like a lot of homeless people, she was drunk. You could smell the stench of alcohol all over her.

The title says "BRING BACK THE CONCORDE." In case you didn't know where that's from, it's from Jay-Z's "Tom Ford." The Air France plane you see in the photos below is what the man himself was rapping about. The Concorde was retired in 2003. I feel it was a jet that was ahead of it's time. A regular subsonic plane would take around 7-8 hours to get from NY to London. It would take the Concorde 3.5 hours. That's wild.

THE LIVING ROOM

Last weekend, my cousins and a couple friends went out to The Living Room in DC. It's a new up and coming spot on Vermont. Honestly, I think it's already up there. Music was dope, DJPHLIPZ/Chris is always dope, whoever his sous-DJ (haha) was, was really good too. The overall environment was nice. A lot of space. Doesn't get cramped like some other places.

ERIN GRADUATED - ANOTHER GRADUATION AT VCU

A couple weeks ago, Erin graduated. Can't believe with Erin's graduation, everyone from Bainbridge has graduated! It's a dope feeling forreal. That house had a bond that cannot be duplicated. If you asked us on the first day we moved in, no one would have guessed.

Sadly, I don't really have a reason to go back to Richmond anymore besides the occasional pit stop to and from the 757. Also can't forget the Redskins training camp, but that's about it.

That last weekend had a somewhat surreal feeling for myself. Whenever I'm with everyone in Richmond it's always a good feeling. No matter what. Hell, even being in Richmond in general without the friends is a great feeling.

I'll end it here because that weekend was so long ago and I'm to lazy to write. 

I didn't get to take as many photos as I would have liked, but that's okay.

MY BRO GRADUATED.

My brother graduated from JMU last weekend. Yay. 

Harrisonburg is a nice town. The drive wasn't bad at all. It was pretty relaxing, actually.

I'm still getting used to the Sony. I don't really like some of the photos that came out. They just look weird. Nout used to all the dynamic range!

Met some cool people. Nicknamed Teeny's cousin, "Banjo." Destroyed a couch. There was water leaking from the light fixtures. It was fun.

LET'S WALK FOR MILES, SAID NO ONE EVER.

Bruh.  So this past weekend, I went hiking with my cousins/friends (they all cousins pretty much lol). Miguel and Elicea had this bright idea of hiking/climbing Old Rag Mountain... Now let me tell you, had I been in shape, this wouldn't have been that bad.. But BRO, I haven't really exercised since I got injured playing flag football a year or so ago. I know, terrible. I need to get back into shape.

Anyways, the whole hiking thing was AT LEAST 9 miles. We basically climbed up a mountain and circled it on the way back down. There was even a rock climbing portion. There was one point where Demi accepted death LOL. Shit was no joke. If we were in shape, it honestly wouldn't have been that bad. My body was DED at the end. I didn't take any photos of the climb up because I was too busy dying. Had to concentrate on living.

In the end it was all worth it. I was able to spend quality time with everyone and it was good exercise. I'm not even sure when's the last time we all hung out like that. It was definitely much needed. Oh yeah, we even saw a baby black bear cub. We noped out of there with the quickness. 

After the hike, we tried to eat at either Iron Age or Chasin' Tails, but they were too packed. Regina kept suggesting Five Guys since she was craving burgers, but we decided to eat at a buffet instead. Big mistake. Definitely wasn't worth it.

Shout out to Tim for actually pulling through.. If it weren't for him, we probably would have cancelled. Haha.

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Believe it or not, the next day WE WERE WALKING MILES AGAIN. This time, it was about 2 miles. One mile from Maki Shop to Milk Bar/City Center and back. WHYYYY. We ended up kickin' it in DC then going to Tyson's for Shake Shack since we didn't go to Five Guys the day before. Five Guys would have been a much better choice than that damn buffet.

ALWAYS A GOOD TIME IN RVA.

Last weekend we went to Richmond for FACT@VCU's Culture Night. We though were were done with CN's, but since Erin was one of the Culture Night chairs, we had to go down haha. As always, it was nice seeing everyone again. Especially the older heads. The Alumni picnic was dope. Probably the best one since I graduated. Good company, good music, good food. What more can you ask for! 

The show itself was pretty good. I would consider it to be one of my top 3 Culture Nights that I've witnessed - my first was 2010. Great job, guys!

On Sunday, we went to explore Canal Walk. It was actually my first time. The art there was dope. Would love to shoot over there one day. Before going home, we stopped by Alamo BBQ. Damn, I've been missing out. Unfortunately, they ran out of ribs which was what I originally wanted to try. I can't complain because I ended up getting the brisket sandwich and it was the best damn brisket I've ever had in my life. Best believe I'll be making another trip over there during grad weekend haha.

Demi was hating on my videography skills. Don't hate, girl!

GEAR ACQUISITION SYNDROME

Many photographers suffer from what they call G.A.S; which stands for Gear Acquisition Syndrome. It's a vicious cycle of buying, selling, and/or trading gear. I was lucky enough to trade a few of my cameras (lol) for these two right here. To the left, is a Sony a7RII and to the right, is a Hasselblad Xpan. We'll get to the a7RII another day.

The Xpan is a cool camera. The "pan" stands for panoramic. I'm sure you all know what that means. Each panoramic image is basically the width of two standard 35mm photos. 

I first saw this camera on Youtube and was immediately intrigued by it. I knew that I one day wanted to have it. Well, that day was last Friday haha.  If you're curious, the video is below.

The last one was a bonus. Absolutely love E39's. This one was a plus since it was a wagon. Even had a Recaro car seat in it like Isabel's haha.

BURGERS, BEER, BOURBON, & BONCHON.

This was a fun roll. I absolutely love taking the super-portable Contax T3 everywhere. It's literally one of the smallest premium film cameras ever. Absolutely love it. 

This time, I decided to try out Kodak Tri-X for the first time ever and I've continued with the trend of my previous posts to pushing to 1600. I can't tell what I like more. Ilford HP5+, Kodak T-MAX or Kodak Tri-X. They have their subtle differences.

Anyways, "B" for Burgers, Beer, and Bourbon kinda sucked. I ordered "pink" and it came out well done. Oh well. You know a burger joint isn't really a burger joint if they ask pink or no pink rather than being able to order by doneness; rare, medium-rare, medium, etc.

A DAY IN THE LIFE.

So, I decided to throw a roll of black & white film (Kodak T-MAX 400 pushed to 1600) in the Contax T3 to try it out.  I enjoy shooting color as it's most of what I shoot, but I think I might start to shoot a little more black and white. The thing with black and white is it's literally just black and white (lol). There are no distractions of color. You can concentrate on the scene and the details of the photo without being distracted  by color. B&W puts things into a much different perspective. It's a lot more forgiving than color. It's also a lot easier to develop haha.

I took the camera to work with me yesterday to test it out. The first few frames where from the day before. Sadly, my scanner scratched the negatives about midway through the roll :(

GRANDMA'S HOUSE.

Lauren hit us up asking if we wanted to go to "Grandma's House." I was like what the hell is a grandma's house. Turns out, it's one of the better korean bbq places here in Northern VA. I know it as Oewiggyjibby. It's really Oedagib, but I think Wiggyjibby sounds better. 

I love this place compared to a lot of the other kbbq places in the area. I like it a lot better than Iron Age; Simply, because of the environment. Iron Age is WAAAYYY too loud. If you've been there, you know what I'm talking about. The atmosphere at Wiggyjibby is a lot more comforting lol.

Anyways, popped a roll of Agfa Vista 400 into the Contax T3. Pushed it to ISO 1600 since we were going to be in a low-light-indoors atmosphere. A lot of the shots are out of focus, but whatevs.