New Horizons

As I wake up from a solid night of sleep in my new dorm room, a flood of thoughts sequentially enter my mind. I am reminded of how I went out on a limb by choosing RIT since I was unfamiliar with the school, the people, and the whole state of New York. And yet I am pleased to say that this is already beginning to feel like my home away from home. I have met many friendly people, and I feel that I can just totally be myself. I can't wait to plunge further into this new adventure. I plan on making memories and friendships that will last a lifetime. Cheers to a new chapter of life. I am so blessed to have this opportunity to attend RIT.

Strands of Voices

Life is meant to be a series of pocket-sized dances, rhythmic pulsations flowing in and out of one individual to the next. We were created to be social creatures, every person being a vein in the circulatory system of this planet. We thrive when we find our rhythm because it means less change. These habitual tendencies are often formed when we are with our friends. One could say that when we spend time with a person we are matching their beat or tempo.

As we leisurely stroll down the crowded streets side by side, I notice that our tempos are matched when my right leg advances down the sidewalk at the same time as her left leg carries her. Meanwhile, our voices synchronize and as we converse they weave in and out of each other like a strand of DNA, reciprocating as one unified sound and ultimately giving life to the other.

Hindsight Spectacles

Lately I have been journaling everyday, and as I imagine my 30-year old self flipping through these records of my teenage life I can't help but wonder what will really matter when I am that old and can look back in hindsight. Will the 20/20 perspective of my past be a remorseful experience or an encouraging and pleasant hobby? What will be of interest when I reflect back on these golden years? I am starting to get the feeling that the exact details of what my teenage life consists of will be less important than what my life is about. 

This same vein of thought was present in the mind of the professor at a Brook's Institute workshop I attended who often would encourage us to take pictures about things and not necessarily of things. In other words, that which is implied often times packs a greater punch than that which is explicitly brought out into the open. The word of and the word about are inherently and necessarily quite different in their connotations. In most sentences, the former precedes a material or physical object or place. The word about on the other hand is often tied with a thought, or a feeling, or even a person. 

Do you think about things or do you think of things?

Relive

Perhaps one of the most powerful abilities that photographs possess is to act as a catalyst for the memories of our mind. While I have not experienced this effect firsthand very often (since 90% of the time I am the one behind the camera creating the memories for people to enjoy), tonight I enjoyed reliving the happenings of yesterday by looking through the prom pictures of our group.

No matter how hard one tries to live in the present and to make the most of everything, eventually every experience is archived into the deep library of the mind. By looking at photographs of past significant events, a pungent yet pleasant nostalgic vignette can be resurrected. So remember to hire photographers like me to capture significant events in your life because even Bob Dylan knows that "the times are a-changin'."

Counting Sheep

Every day we seem to get busier. Our days are like an energetic, teenage girl at a shopping mall, often uncontrollable and sometimes even a bit overwhelmed. At the end of the day, when our heads hit the pillow, it isn't always a quick, seamless transition from reality to the dream world. So we compensate. We take drugs, rely on them really, in order for us to fall asleep. By drugs, I am referring to any sort of sleep catalyst, be it sleep pills such as Advil PM or be it drifting off to sleep with the help of calming melodies from your Songza app on your iPhone. Yet how good is this reliance on outside forces? We've become unable to rest, and as a result most people wander around lackadaisically for most of their life, sleep-deprived and desolate. So remember to do the things that will ensure a well-balanced, healthy lifestyle. Shut off the iPhone screen, turn off the tv show, and let your worries set with the sun. Those sheep aren't going to count themselves.

Susceptibly Forgetful

Often times we find ourselves bogged down by tasks and details, making it quite difficult to take a moment to relax, walk outside, and breathe the fresh air. Pressure seems, at times, to define the lives of people in the 21st-century. We harp on ourselves for falling short, missing deadlines, or not arriving on time to various places. Each year we aim to try harder or reach higher, but somehow those resolutions never seem to be fulfilled. Why is that? Humans perform best when given clear incentives, not vague ideals. These cliche abstractions of trying harder and reaching higher are pounded into us from such a young age that they quickly lose all meaning. The solution? Clarify your incentives. Successful athletes don't reach the echelon of grandeur by aiming to run faster, get stronger, or jump higher. The only way to meet ones goals is to construct a concrete game plan that is well within ones abilities. If you want to get back into the habit of flossing, the worst way to go about doing that is to attempt to floss all 28 teeth right from the get-go. You will surely crash and burn in no time with that approach. The only way to reform that habit is to tell yourself: I am going to floss one tooth on a daily basis. Once you have plowed that canal in your brain, thus forming a habit of flossing one tooth every day, then - and only then - can you start flossing two teeth daily. You are much more likely to reach your goals with this approach. So remember: take the sniper approach, not the shotgun approach. Pick off each project in life with minuscule but consistent efforts and you will find greater satisfaction.

Veil of Separation

A man confronts the veil of separation between the kid's world and the adult world. In the former, a pungent array of hues soaks the canvas of life. In the world of grown-ups, monochromatic drear envelopes every last pigment.

Sweet Disillusionment

“If anyone is going to start finding his way in the world, he has to admit that he doesn’t know where the hell he is.” -Stellan Skarsgard, playing Dr. Erik Selvig in the film Thor.

     When a person looks at life through the lens of complacency, with the self-appointed crown of penultimate understanding and knowledge, he is blindfolding himself. If one desires to begin scraping at the surface of the permafrost called life, he cannot successfully break through ice without first opening his eyes. If man is to learn, he must realize his place in the whole scheme of history and of eternity. If humans are to grow, they must start asking the right questions. Humans are pupils, apprentices of Time. As Einstein once said, “Time is the greatest teacher, but unfortunately it kills all of its students.” Cultivate a garden of apprenticeship in your mind; learn to be a life-long learner.

Pointillism

3 plastic pears sit on a table in front of a
white backdrop.

While most photographers seem to always be avoiding grain at all costs, I feel that it can be utilized to make a beautiful image everyone now and then. Note that there is a difference between noise and grain. Noise is the unattractive look that reminds you of your television when there's no signal. Grain is an antique, desirable look that originated from high ASA films, but the look can be reproduced with modern programs like Adobe Lightroom.

Carpe Diem

     "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.' ... 'I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion." -Thoreau, Walden.

     If you're a student like me, you probably feel that there just isn't enough time in each day. I think most people feel that way often times, especially with the prominence that technology -TV, video-games, the internet, etc. - plays in our lives today. The truth is that there are pockets of time, hidden underneath the busy schedules which we all juggle each and every day. If you really search for those time-consuming intervals in your life, you will find them.

San Francisco, CA

    To be honest, I'm not the most productive being out there, but the fact is that I am moving towards that ideal lifestyle which resonates the phrase Carpe diem with each passing hour. Some ways which I have "reduced life to its lowest terms" include not watching TV or playing video-games (In fact, we don't even have a TV in our house, which I'm grateful for), and deleting all the apps from my iPhone that tended to waste my time. That said, I still am a strong advocate for balance. As A. Huxley said, "Too much enjoyment blunts the fine point of seldom pleasure. Unrestrained indulgence kills not merely passion, but, in the end, even amusement. Too much liberty is as life destroying as too much restraint." This past weekend for me was perfectly balanced; in my mind, its more benign to have a weekend with some work and some leisure, than solely one of the aforementioned.



     I'd like to give a shout-out to Steve Jobs, who truly had such an impact on our world and its future; he will be greatly missed. Somewhat recently, I have found ways to incorporate my iPhone into the battle for productivity. Right before I jump in the shower, I start the timer and try to be out before 5 mins. The night before a quiz, as I'm reading the content aloud, I record myself so that I can listen to it the next morning as I drive my scooter to school. Earlier this year, I started taking photos of the homework for some of my classes, since it can take so long to write it all down. Now most of my class follows suit. Trendsetter? I think yes.

Trumpets of San Francisco

     One of the things I love about cities is the creative and talented people 
who inhabit them. I feel that a single image of a native does more justice in 
portraying the vibe of a city than a plethora of snapshots, void of people, could ever bring to the table.

     The bright colors of this trumpeter's outfit caught my eye, and the festive noise that ensued from the combination of his trumpet skills and his tap dancing hit my ear-drum. I talked with him for a bit, and he seemed very mature for his age. He's going to go far, and already has (Apparently he's playing the trumpet at an upcoming Giants game!).

Check out his blog @   gabrielangelotrumpet.blogspot.com