This is the End

Congratulations, we've made it through. This was my last official semester and it wasn't easy. I have been burned out, and sick of any kind of drama or trouble that comes my way. But here I am again, making a post and sticking to it even though many times I have wanted to quit and hang up my camera.
This project started out as a project on its own about the garbage that people leave behind. Now it has evolved into something more, and more of an extension of a project I have already started. I like to think of it as an extension to my obsession with photographing people on the sly. These items were once loved and used by people far and wide of all kinds, but now these items have been discarded for mother nature to try and take care of. each item has a story of how it got there, and where it was before it reached its current destination. Unfortunately we will never know those stories but maybe make up our own through the photographs I have taken. Finding things of this nature is both depressing and exhilarating. For obvious reasons it is depressing because of the amount of people who don't mind living in a garbage dump, as well as not realizing how it affects everyone. However, being the optimist I am, I see these things as an adventure and a treasure hunt. Tromping through soft earth and debris of people past is an intense eye opener. I hope to shed light on this subject and show you, the viewer that even the ugliest garbage site can have it's beauty.

Enjoy.

The not so spring break

This past week has been lacking in the vacation department. All I've done is work, and homework. I think spring break is a joke if you're a full time student because all you're doing is homework-projects and essays! However, there were a few good things about spring break. Mostly the day Val & I went on a scavenger hunt for garbage. A quick stop at the grocery store near her house lead us in the right direction. Considering Val talks to everyone, she was telling the check out clerk what we were doing that day and he said that he knew someone (who happened to work there) that knew where some TV's were. So we talked to that guy for a second and told his where to go. Surprisingly enough he told us to go to Moraga of all places. Neither one of us had really been to Moraga, so we were on a bit of a scavenger hunt for the road he was telling us about. Luckily my amazing direction skills got us to where we wanted to go. It was very weird. So we're driving up this amazing road, so pretty and shaded with big trees-some even redwoods and then Val said, "what's that water over there?" "I don't know" I said, "pull over." So we did, and went to the edge of the road across the street and looked out. I decided to step a few inches closer to the edge and there it was. the MOTHER LOAD of dumped garbage. It was amazing, as well as disappointing and sad. I stood there for a second & then ran to get my camera out of the car, doing a few triumph jumps in the air. We had hit the jackpot. After deciding what to actually do, I just started making my way down the hill photographing things as I went. I think Val and I were down there for at least an hour. The incline was amazing and steep. It's very unfortunate that people think it's perfectly okay to do things like this. Especially in a very beautiful wooded area. I guess they just don't realize that they are actually living in a dump. We all are. And that's sad.

Here are a couple of photos of the area. I didn't want to add too many, because then that would spoil it. :)

Beautifully Abandoned

I have this great friend, who is also a photographer. She is my guide through some of this adventure.

I have this major pet peeve of littering. It instantly makes me crazy, and makes me want to punch whomever is doing it right in the teeth. But I have a fascination for abandoned garbage. I don't mean trash as in food wrappers, those kinds of things just make me angry. But the abandoned household items that so many people just drop on the side of the road, or into wooded areas, or beaches. These things intrigue me. I still hate every single bit of it, but there is something about each item, the way they are placed, and the items they are with that gives me a sense of story. What is the story of the items that got dropped? why aren't they wanted anymore? Who are these people who drop this stuff? and most importantly, why does it seem like it's always dropped in a potentially nice area? It's crazy to think that inanimate objects have feelings, but for a time it's like you can feel they've been rejected. Sometimes I think people get rid of their things in areas where they know there are homeless people, or tweakers so the abandoned items will no longer feel like rejects.
For my final I propose to show the kind of items these people throw away and the areas that surround them. My goal for this project is to make the public aware of how frequent these things happen, but then again how frequent these items get picked right back up and made into home materials once again, for those who don't necessarily have a home.

Here are some examples of some of my most recent work.

Day in the Life

Has anyone else had en extremely long week? I think it has to do with stupid daylight savings time. That whole idea should be done away with. Anyway. Onward.

After having a wonderful cancellation from Organic Pastures, I had nothing to fall back on. So I begged my best friend who is a mostly stay at home mom, but also works about 10 hours a week. Before she had her second darling Faerlene, (or as I like to call her, Faye, because it's much easier to spell) my best friend for years, Corby was a lactation consultant. Now, she still does this but mostly from home. Corby would meet with new moms and help them with their breast feeding infants. Women would go to her if they were having trouble with the baby latching, or even if they were thinking about feeding their baby formula because maybe it was better than mother's breast milk. (I can assure you, it is not.) In any case, she does a lot of phone consults which allows her to be a stay at home mom and still have a small income. Her partner Andy works for the City of Benicia full time and usually comes home to wind up the older of the two girls-Kailey, right before bed. So fun.
I decided to shoot them as a family on a week day, not too much going on at home with Corby and the kids, but what I got, I think shows a lot of what is unspoken. Of course, in some cases it's obvious.
It was hard for me to narrow them down, but I did my best to edit it to what the basics were throughout the day. Enjoy!


Faye gets changed about 63 times a day.


Kailey has some asthma and so she has to breath with this tube in the morning and in the night. She really really does not like doing it. It was a very unstaged moment when Faye reached out to comfort her. Amazing how well people can read each other sometimes.


Here Faye is starting to hold herself up, and while Corby is giving praise for a job well done, Kailey seeks attention. Even though she isn't neglected at all.


Kailey was having a bit of a pout day and she did not want to eat her zucchini.


Luckily Corby didn't have very many mom's who called her that day, so she was able to et done relatively quickly.


After working we all walked to the park-a daily activity for Corby and the girls if the weather is nice.


I had to add this one just because I thought it was a bit chaotic. I had a small handful of pictures where it looked like Corby was completely abusing her kids. You know, like dropping them on the floor, trying to break their neck, you get the idea. I can definitely assure you that that was not the case. Just the correct positioning of the camera at the right time. Besides, kids roll around, and they bounce back. No pun intended. :)


Andy arrives home and pretty quickly becomes parent. He loves doing it.


This is a normal kind of ritual each night. Play time, right before bed. The best part of this picture (even this moment) was that faye seemed to enjoy flying around the room chasing her sister. Kailey pretended not to love it, but she was more afraid of getting caught in the game of chase. I love this truncation of her head so much. I can't explain why, and sometimes we don't need an explanation for why we like what we do.

Corby & Co. (as I like to call it) is pretty much my second family and doing this project was rewarding to me. Even though she considers me her personal photographer (which is fine by me!), following her around for a day and really getting to see what goes on in the day in her 'mom' life was a learning experience in more ways than one.
Speaking of babies, there is an excellent documentary called, "The Business of Being Born" you should watch it if you plan on having any kids.

Title not necessary

Ever have one of those days where you're dying to write something but nothing interesting has happened, or you just can't collect your thoughts enough to get them all out. That has been happening a lot.
Anyhow, our fieldtrip was tiresome. But I love venturing out into the world with my fellow photo friends. Only downfall though is with a group of photographers chances are if you see something worth taking a picture of, someone else in the group has already got it. I don't like that. I know that chances are, even though it might essentially be the same shot, it might be from a different view. *shurg* Whateve.

So basically my highlight of the trip was Rayko and it's fantasical 1940's photo machine. I love those things so much and as soon as I'm rich (yes you heard me right) that is one of the first thing's I'm buying. Shoot.

By the way I am totally not kissing Breandan's head.

Here are my favorites, I have 3 because it's a draw. So deal. (My favorite favorite is at the top)





You can see the rest on my flickr page at www.flickr.com/jesbeach

The real choices

After having a chance to look through these a little better as well as the help of Jesse we were able to get a better handle on what works and what doesn't. Here we go.
Chinese New Year Parade-San Francisco February 7th, 2009

Two parade participants watch the sky as balloons are released


Preparation to be a part of the dragon


Brightly colored coats and ornaments await


Girls of the Spring Valley Science School participate in a fan dance during the Chinese New Year Parade

Chinese New Year Parade 2009

Parade volunteer catches a glimpse of the camera while waiting for the parade to start.

As some of you know, I recently have started (in collaboration with some other awesome people) the A500 Photographers club. Our first outing was to the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco. This parade is one of the top 10 in the WORLD to see! I took this time to shoot for the event assignment and it was amazing, and fantastic. I think the best part was how excited Val was to be there. If you get a chance you should check out her photos of the parade because they are much better than mine. I'm perfectly comfortable with saying that because I know my strong points are not shooting events. But Val on the other hand was on fire! She was IN the parade shooting, up in everyone's business. So fabulous. I haven't had a lot of time lately to give to the A500 but it is off to such a great start and it's such a great way to make new friends and learn new things. I'll keep you posted for our next trip!





Gavin Newsom expresses his feelings to friends



These people like to march and play instruments

unexpected

So last class I had nothing in terms of decisive moment. But then I went to SF to shoot just because there's fun and interesting people there, and turns out that there was the Walk for Life rally thing going on. In case you don't know that is the pro life rally/parade that supposedly happens once a year. So of course there were thousands of prolifers, and only a handful of prochoicers. In any case, it was a bit surreal being in the middle of it. Anyway, here are some of my favorites.





And this last one for fun!