Tarren wanted a cool park, and maybe the beach, too.

Thus I returned to one of my favorite spots of the 2010s, the place we used to lovingly call Rattlesnake park (never saw one, but the foliage, so high, it was VERY possible).

I expected, based on my previous visit, years earlier, to see the place neatly manicured, but NO. It was wild, overgrown, the tiny dry riverbed was RAGING, the place had been returned to nature! We went in a bit, forded the river, only to find my favorite spot was unreachable, it was the land of the bees, now.

Went back a bit, ended up taking most of our photos by and IN the river, Tarren’s a real one for that, far braver than I.

Are leeches in rivers, or lakes, or…?

In any event, such a day! As Tarren is a globetrotter, bouncing from the US to Europe to New Zealand and back and back again, I have a very thin window in which to hang out with her. We had to pack it in, driving all across town, taking pictures, playing in the river, eating at the seafood place across from the beach, it was a full day!

I took several Polaroids, this was #2, couldn’t beat it, tried real hard, peaked early, what can ya do!

DO IT AGAIN, NEXT TIME SHE’S IN-COUNTRY, THAT’S WHAT.

Tags:   4.20.24 Tarren Johnson polaroid 680 Los Angeles rattlesnake park

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This was a good year before Polaroid announced it was going to stop selling film.

Which means I felt no compunction about tossing some 600 film into an sx70 camera, just to see what would happen.

Which is how I felt, reaching out to Calethia online, she'd mentioned in a post she was going to be in my part of town...I was emboldened by the Polaroid Nerds Outs from earlier in the year.

Things felt POSSIBLE, I was months away from a big break-up, a big shift in how I thought about work and free time and passions, I can see it all here in these earlier photos, chafing against the idea that I was on one particular path, regardless of whether that's what I wanted for myself or not.

Meeting people on the internet, taking photos with them, it stoked a notion that there was a whole other way of looking at my life.

One that revolved more around having Play than Work, more about seeking a good time than merely existing.

Tags:   5.28.07 Calethia DeConto polaroid sx70 onestep polaroid 600 film portrait Los Angeles

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Back then, I had a whole process, I'd put the medium format image on Flickr, the Polaroid on Tumblr, I was all over the place, spreading my internet...net as wide as I could.

This was around the very beginning of me reaching out to people on the internet, meeting up with 'em, making photos with 'em, becoming friends with 'em.

This day ended up the beginning of eight years of photography, fun, friendship with Laura, before she lit out for greener pastures in a faraway state.

The distance between now and this photo...it feels both immense, so much has happened in the intervening 16 years...but at the same time, I can walk out of my office, into the stairwell, pluck this photo from the wall where I've got it taped up. Go right back to that day, the giddiness of finding someone I knew instantly I'd want to be friends with and take pictures of for as long as she'd let me.

I can take hold of that image in a way that's impossible with any other format, anchored in the moment.

Tags:   9.7.08 polaroid 680 Laura Taylor silverlake los angeles Lou O' Bedlam Lou Noble portrait

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Back in the old old days, I'd see someone whose photos I liked, we'd get some food (usually at a spot very close to me, because that's how I had my life set up), we'd eat, take pictures of each other, become fast friends.

TURNS OUT IT STILL WORKS, ALL THESE YEARS LATER.

Saw Bret "Intothepolaroid" Watkins' work on instagram, great Polaroids, incorporates embroidery into his photos, it's wild! Really dig it.

Turns out the man himself, just as interesting and fun. Of course. Because me meeting people from the internet? 99.9% success rate. STILL.

Our first time meeting up...I liked the photos I took, but I didn't LOVE them, hadn't zeroed in on The Photo.

But this time? This time I was able to get TWO that were on the ol' O' Bedlam wavelength. One, standard photo, close-up, looking right at me, shoulders turned towards me.

Then...this one! Flare I did not anticipate, from slightly below my subject, aiming right into the goddamn sun. Love it.

Between meeting Bret and going on an instant photo walk last week (which I found out about through Bret, how about them apples!)...I'm feeling some of the old energy, some of the old "isn't the world great because there are other people out there nerdy in the same way you are" energy.

Lot going on in the world...but there's still good vibes to be found...

Tags:   3.25.24 Bret Watkins polaroid 680

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The morning of, it was overcast. But it'd been like that the previous day, and I'd ended up having an excellent photo session out in the high desert, so I was confident.

And I was RIGHT.

Soon as we got on the boat, the sun started to shine. Longer we were out there, clearer it got.

Now I'm not saying I Made the sun came out, or that the sun in some way detected my needs and fulfilled them...but I'm not Not saying that, either...

Tags:   2.24.24 Marley Betty polaroid 680 San Pedro TPJ

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