Spontaneous Moments (#19)

There was a plethora of awe-inspiring photos at boston.com, but the photo that resonated with me the most was this one.

In the photo is a Marrakech traveler riding through the streets in mid-morning. The scene was captured by a cinematographer on the set of ABC's Born To Explore.

The crepuscular ray of sunlight in the photo looks like something out of a dream. The color scheme is rich and warm, the textures and patterns within it enticing, and the use of light. THE USE OF LIGHT. I can't get over it. It's a striking photo. What really caught me was that it was something so ordinary. A very mundane and normal scene was captured as something so much more.
And perhaps that's what I like best about this photo-it's, as the category states in which it won, a spontaneous moment. There's nothing posed or unnatural. It was simply a small moment that someone took the time to notice the beauty in.
I'd love to find out more about the person being photographed. If I could, I would ask him if he was aware of how sublime the moment was. So often, I wonder if the beauty of a moment being photographed is a consciousness shared by the photographer and the person in front of the camera.

Photo Credits to John Barndhardt

Kalopsia (#18)

Kalopsia (n.): a state in which something is perceived as more beautiful than it truly is

At first glance, the scenery outside was pretty dull. Out of the five photos I took, four of them were just portraits of the various uninteresting objects one might expect to find in the area surrounding a middle school in February. But as the sun came out and perfectly hit a bush, I decided to seize the serendipitous moment and document it. Since that's the whole point of photography. I ended up with this.

I'm pretty proud of it. Someone said to me,"You have the ability to take something really ordinary and make it look beautiful". This kind of struck me because the book I'm currently reading talks about the same thing-an art curator takes these paintings and turns them from objects of beauty to objects of value, leaving the reader to wonder if it's truly she who is the object of beauty. Not that I regard myself as an object of beauty but, you know...I do. I'll stop drawing parallels between myself and fictional characters now.

Looking In (#17)

Looking in at my typewriter

I really wanted to capture the delicacy of each hammer within the typewriter. Initially I was thinking I could use my binoculars (The ones my parents gave me for Christmas. I know, I'm still trying to figure out what they were trying to tell me.) but I realized that would be both creepy and hipstery, so I decided not to pull a Suzy Bishop.
On a side-note, I'm really happy with the way the light is hitting the typewriter. Yay for chiaroscuro. 

Color (#16)

Our photo challenge today was color. All of these photos have very bold colors in them that I appreciate. I apologize in advance for how narcissistic this first picture is but I was in the mood for a dramatic self portrait. And as Belle and Sebastian say,"colour my life with the chaos of trouble".

Your Lips Are Red

Organizing your books by color is soooo 2012.

While not recent, this next photo is a favorite of mine for its lightness. The colors of the sun in the background give everything a romantic golden hue.

Eternal Summer

Texture (#15)

I'm still deliberating whether this is overtly pretentious and hipstery or not. 

To preface, I should say that I really don't believe in making up my bed. About 99% of the time, my bed is just a ball of sheets and blankets. So as I tried to look around with an artistic eye, I decided that the sheets on my bed vaguely resembled waves. The natural thing to do next is, of course, make an origami boat and take a photo of the scene. I feel like if there were an art gallery for this picture, Daniel Johnston songs would be playing in the background. Or maybe Come Sail Away? I was going for a Where the Wild Things Are feel.

I call it Wanderlust, or more accurately, Trinity Has A Completely Disorganized Room In the Name of Art. 

Underneath (#14)

In which Trinity tried to take a decent picture to encapsulate the photo challenge: underneath. 

I was staying in the vein of "underneath" as a visual representation of vulnerability; the not-so-obvious things we don't ordinarily see. This resulted in the sharing of a very personal collection of mine-what might look like a random box of junk to anyone else is really a typewriter case holding some of my most prized possessions. 

A small typewriter case holding tangible associations with my memories: lots of letters, photos, hall passes, playlists,  candy wrappers, and plenty of sticky notes. 

RE: What the World Eats (#13)

My family eating a dinner of wild rice soup, corn, and chicken

So, we've been studying what the world eats in Rogate recently, through the medium of photos.

My own family typically spends about $150 on food per week. Staple dishes and food items of ours include burritos, honey wheat bread, lentil soup, tostadas, atole, pomegranates, and baklava. My dad, the health nut of the family, once went on a fast with me wherein we consumed only Macintosh apples for four days-once every month for half a year. This was after he'd read Steve Jobs' biography, who apparently did the same thing (hence the company name Apple). I guess you could say we're a bit experimental with our dietary choices at my house.

Few things I love more than food,  my family, and friends, so whenever we get together and eat with people, it's always enjoyable for me. In particular, we had friends where I lived last that were from Turkey. We had bonfires all the time in summer with them, feasting on dishes with names I couldn't pronounce and what came to be my favorite dish of all time-baklava. There's just something about being with the people you love, eating, and socializing that makes me feel alive. As always, it's interesting to see how my own life and small traditions compare with those of others. In some ways, seeing all the different plates from around the world made me want to venture out to different diets and maybe let go of the questionable foods.

But I'm still not giving up my burritos.

Love//Fear//Pockets (#12)

In response to questions asked throughout Life in a Day, I made this video.

I had a really hard time not talking about all these things that I love, because I really want to talk about everything. But, you know, I'm pretty sure it would've been mainly comprised of me rambling about James Franco.

Life in a Day brought up so many new observations and realizations the second time I watched it. It was such a beautiful celebration of humanity and life. There was a scene throughout all the clips of people talking about their fears-someone said that they feared closeness with people because of the impending idea of losing them. This resonated with me so much; almost yearning not to meet people because of the thought that you'll inevitably have to part ways. Even so, I think I have to get over that fear and enjoy the time that I have. (since when have I been all sentimental?)
Another scene that really struck me was the final one. There were so many contradictions in what the girl was saying, from the surface. But I completely identified with that feeling, the sense of a grander perspective despite your own meager struggles. It may not have been the best day of her life, but it was the best day of someone's life.
With that I bid you farewell. Ciao, kids.