10 Years Gone

 Not only is that the name of one of my favorite Zeppelin songs, it also happens to be how long it has been since I used, posted on, or thought about this blog.

 

 10 years, 2 months, 26 days to be exact, or 3,740 days, which feels like less time.

The last post was made during my exchange year to Switzerland. I had turned sixteen a month prior and a lot had changed in my life since I started the blog. I stopped photographing as much and found myself asking "why?" too often. 

To the religious-avoidant, "why?" is a dangerous question to ask; eventually, you'll find yourself with only two perpetual answers: "To survive" or "I don't know". 

The innocent things in life became quite stale and seemingly pointless. I often found myself with the thought that if it wouldn't result in a career, there wasn't a reason to do it. That was a fatal blow to any prospect I had of holding a hobby.

Photography brought me joy and purpose and it was the only form of art that I really participated in. I played music too, but not with the consistency or fervor that I photographed. Most importantly though, it enriched my relationship with Gram, who you'll see evidence of in nearly every post I made, and Pop, who I credit for my ability to slow down and observe the subtle beauty of the (natural) world around me. I regret that I stopped but there's nothing like a decade to put things in perspective. Hindsight, am I right?

My life got complicated and difficult when I came back after my exchange. Some Most of the problems I faced were self-imposed, but most some weren't. The problems were there before my exchange too, but when I came back I started having more agency over my problems. Once I graduated high school, things got better and then got worse. Now things are better, a lot better actually.

Since my last post...

I graduated high school

I started college

I went to rehab

I dropped out of college

I experienced a global pandemic

I re-enrolled in and graduated from college

I moved to Oregon

I became a tax auditor (who would've guessed)

and so much more 

 If anybody reading this notices that I've forgotten to include something important, it's probably because of all the weed I used to smoke. Kidding (...?)!  

I've rambled on about the past enough and am running out of typing steam. I'll likely just be posting about my plants but I would love to return to photography soon. Cameras are expensive though. Maybe I'll start saving.

When I thought about who my audience would be, I felt I'd just be writing to myself and to Gram, because that's what it was like before except for the occasional visitor (dad). However, I'm a lot farther away now, and it's possible that others will check in to get a glimpse into my life.

This video is a tour of some of my "work-in-progress" plants from a few weeks ago, but a lot has changed since then. I'm still trying to determine how I want to do these videos if at all. Enjoy!

 

Gorgeous Autumn Trees

     Next to our house, we have a gorgeous forest with a nice trail. At this time of the year, all of the leaves on the trees are a beautiful orange or red color and it feels amazing to be surrounded by them. Here is a photo from a walk in the forest:

Photos from our Cabin in Valbella - Swiss Alps

     A few weeks ago, my host family and I took a weekend trip to our cabin in Valbella, situated in the Swiss Alps. It was a gorgeous cabin with an amazing view right out on our back porch. There was constantly a blanked of fog due to the high altitude, and so every once in a while we would get a really special view of the valley covered in clouds - it resembled a river flowing through the valley in slow motion.

     On one of the days while we were at the cabin, we went on a hike through the mountains and ended up in a rural mountain side with a great view of the alps. We were going to have a picnic, but because of the fog I mentioned earlier, it got too cold and humid to have a picnic. We were literally standing in the middle of a cloud so quite often we weren't able to see a few yards ahead of us! It was really interesting but also a bit creepy especially with all of the cows staring at us...

     The last night we were in the cabin, it was a completely clear night with no clouds or fog whatsoever. Since we were so far away from any kind of large city, there was no cloud pollution which made for great astrophotography weather. The sky was amazing. It made you feel like you could reach out and grab one of the stars - it was incredible. I rushed outside after dinner and I'm fairly satisfied with the photos I got!

Here are my favorite photos from the trip to the cabin:

Warren Wilson College Campus Collaborations Continued

In this round of collaborations between Gram and I, we focused on pieces that we have previously created and tried to put them together instead of making something specifically for this project. Gram had a really interesting drawing of the Silo which featured a very dark and moody atmosphere. We thought that the painting would go well with my eerie photo of the cows that I took a while back. We put them together and voila!

In the second image we used a photo of the inside of an old barn that I had previously taken and a drawing of the sheep that lived below. Her drawing matched my photo and so we decided to put that together and see what it would look like and it turned out to not be too bad!

Brilliant Colors and Flourishing Flowers

     Last Sunday, Gram and I were hiking around the Warren Wilson College campus looking for things to photograph when Gram had the idea of going and visiting some old barn buildings. On our way there, we passed through a gorgeous arcade of trees. There were strange idols of some sort - maybe a senior exit project? Either way, Gram spent time drawing that and I photographed the trees.
   
     On our way back, we saw some flowers and so I decided to photograph those. The three photos below are from that Sunday.

Warren Wilson College and the Beautiful Bull

 
      On Saturday evening, Gram and I went walking through the Riverside Trail on the Warren Wilson College campus to find some places to photograph and draw. We hiked until we got to a big waterhole with a cool rock with lots of graffiti on it. I ended up taking a panoramic shot of the water which turned out 'eh'. On our way back, however, we came across an enormous bull that was lying in a field right next to the fence. It was gorgeous and hulking its way towards the rest of the cows, but not before taunting us with some minuscule lunges and grunting noises. I took a cool picture of the bull and Gram drew a really cool drawing of the bull. We ended up taking a photo that I took, and a sketch that she made, and combining them into a sort of collaboration. She posted a lot of stuff on her blog from that day as well. Here are the photos that I got on Saturday - I will post ones from Sunday tomorrow!

     The bull had tons of flies on its nose and it was huge. His head was probably the size up my entire upper body.

     First time using the Pano feature of Lightroom - works pretty well! Lots of distortion though.

     Finally, here is the collaboration that I did with my grandmother. She sketched the bull and I took the photograph. 

Warren Wilson College Sunrise

     Exams have finally shown their nasty faces and so I have been bogged down with lots of school work and other drama. This post features two photos that I took two weeks ago on the Warren Wilson College campus. We woke up at about 5:00 in the morning to catch the early sunrise and it was worth it but wow was I tired. I went to bed at about 2:00 in the morning so I was functioning on only three hours of sleep (luckily I had the luxury of falling back asleep when we returned).
     Anyways, the first photo was taken in front of the silo that marks the beginning of the campus. The second photo was taken at a small wheat field a ways down the road from the silo. There was plenty of fog and haze which gave the field an ominous and dreamlike feel to it.