In Norway, it is customary for people to own or share a cabin in the woods or by the sea where they can visit from time to time to get away from the daily grind. To the cabins, you can bring books or magazines, the kids bring Yatzee. You can pick blueberries in the woods. You can go for walks in nature. You can swim in the pond. You can sit and enjoy the feeling of being alive.

Most cabins don’t have electricity or even running water. You carry your food and water in your backpack and you take your trash with you when you go.

The times I have spent in cabins like this have been sacred to me. They have been brief spans of life at its most perfect. Living simply, close to nature.

6:58 pm  •  31 August 2011  •  view comments

Photographers are a dime a dozen these days. Everybody knows that. Give a kid a camera and internet access and he can have a million photography portfolios and just as many followers. That doesn’t make the kid a great photographer.

To me, a great photographer will show you something you’ve never seen, or shows you something you have seen in a new light. A great photographer will make you think and can tell a lot with just one image. To me, a great portrait photographer doesn’t just take a picture of someone, but rather captures a bit of the subject’s personality whether they (the subject) realize it or not. A great portrait photographer gets the image, just when the subject opens up for a brief moment and lets their true self out. Sometimes that moment never comes. Sometimes the photographer misses it when it does.

But when you merge the photographer and the subject into the same person, you remove what I see as the biggest barrier to taking a genuinely good portrait. When the photographer takes an image of themselves, they don’t have any need to put on a different face to suit the person they are posing for. And once they accept the camera as an extension of themselves, the self portrait merely becomes a look within.

If I had a two hour conversation with a stranger and then saw a self portrait that person had taken, I’m sure I’d learn ten times more about them from the portrait than the conversation.

4:21 am  •  10 July 2011  •  view comments

Almost this time last year. We hadn’t seen each other in four months. Noses red from rubbing against each other as we kissed, making up for lost kisses. Our first breakfast together after four months of being apart. Smiles as big as our appetites. We’ll be seeing those smiles again soon. Just over thirty days. Those smiles. Red noses. Appetites. Breakfast.

5:43 am  •  1 July 2011  •  view comments

Today I have the utter un-pleasure of being ‘that guy’ during my 22 hour journey between Europe and America. You know who I’m talking about, the guy who nobody wants to be near. The guy who sweats profusely from under his arms and half the airplane can smell the acrid over-caffeinated acidity of it. The guy who farts uncontrollably as he sleeps. His head lolls on your shoulder uncomfortably and no matter how many times you shove him away he always manages to settle right back on you, each time feeling heavier than the last. The guy who stares idly at you from across the queue without even realizing that he is making you uncomfortable and self-conscious. The guy who stands up—after sitting eight straight hours next to you on the tight airplane seats— and has a large wet sweat mark on the seat of his pants.

I’m that guy for the duration of your trip. Don’t worry, you won’t be him this time because I’ve filled the spot for this trip and my connection flight too. 

1:57 am  •  24 June 2011  •  view comments

Things have been moving pretty fast ever since I finished school. That was almost a year ago now. Wow. To be honest, in the beginning I was afraid that things were moving way too slow. I was always waiting for something. Waiting to leave for Norway, waiting to get my visa, waiting to hear back from jobs.

Now everything is changing. I’ve gotten a job in the kitchen of a local sushi bar and it’s not bad at all. I’ve also been talking to a wedding photographer here and we’re thinking of establishing a trendy wedding video service. We’re doing a test in just over a week. I’ve even applied for an opening at the local newspaper to be a film critic. And I am tentatively helping teach a film course at the end of April if we get enough students. Obviously not all these things will pan out, but I’m really amazed at the opportunities that will reveal themselves when you just start digging.

But the best part is just how much I feel I have changed since coming here to Bergen. For example, when I had first arrived, I was intimidated by everything. I was searching for jobs on just the internet and too afraid to just talk to people. I guess life is just more intimidating from the couch than when you’re out there living it.

So my newest goals are pretty easy. I am going to give this wedding filming thing a shot. I’m going to continue to do writing and photography in my spare time and eventually get published in one or the other (hopefully both). And finally, I’m going to build up my portfolio in writing, photography, and film because they are all very location independent and easily freelance-able skills that I would like to work with.

When I came out here with a film degree, I really didn’t expect it would do me any good at all, but most of the opportunities that I’ve run into were in some way or another related to it. Very strange, and kind of a relief considering how disappointed I would be if it was useless.

Anyway, next step, developing film using coffee. Hopefully I’ll get into a darkroom soon and can post the results.

P.S. Please pardon the stupid title. :)

8:47 pm  •  30 March 2011  •  view comments