I used to have one, and just looked at all the things I had on it. I realized I now have all of the things that I put on that board. So I decided to put some bigger dreams on there and look at them everyday.

This is what keeps me motivated on getting work done! The best $30 I have ever spent.

This what the original image I started with. Its a long exposure I found of lighting a sparkler.

Another rainy Saturday, and unfortunately I just looked at next weeks forecast and its the same. More rain Tues through Sat. How does Seattle deal? We are so spoiled I know.

(Above a shot from NY’s china town on my last visit, as some elders play chess outdoors in the rain. That’s commitment!)

This was my favorite picture I took of a children’s series I did (I think my freshman year)  in Scottsdale Arizona. To me this photo depicted our “innocence of curiosity”. Although we might never want to actually see whats down there in that dark tunnel or go check it out for ourselves. That curiosity can’t help but wonder…to me this is what brings on such vivid imaginations, and the inspiration for so many stories like Tim Burtons new movie coming out soon, Alice in wonderland. Click for more for some of the rest of the series and some other randoms.

Oh the long duties of filling a bucket with mud. I totally remember those days.

I apologize for the flash off my camera on these, rainy day so no light. All these prints I printed from the dark-room my self and developed the negatives my self. This was so much fun. Except I often had to switch to gloves because the chemicals started eating at my hands. (above) apparently the boy didn’t like the dark tunnel after-all, he wips some tears.

This one is tough to see cause of that damn flash but the kids in the upper left corner are waving from some little fake general store to the kids waving back at them on the passing train below on the right.

This one cracked me up, the son had a train uniform on. The mother is starring at me cause I look like a creepy children stalker. I remember this assignment was difficult because obviously parents are protective of there kids. I thought I was screwed until luckily someone from my class who had kids actually was there at the park. So I stuck with them and totally lucked out. I took this one from the back of the train as it wrapped around the tracks.

The tongue out-bird watcher.

Below these are a bunch of randoms.

This one I actually got a lot of praise because I did the spiral effect in the darkroom (no photo-shop here) I did this by exposing the middle of the picture for a normal print- like 28 secs or so, while letting no light touch the edges. Then I printed the background seperately about 8 times like 4-6 secs each while rotating the photo and dodging the light from the center of the photo. Ya it was complicated and took me probably two days to master.

This was from some Halloween theme assignment, the red stuff to the right is my flash again.

I found these last, They are pretty silly. Thats my sister (right) and my Dad (left) holding the knife. haha I’m sure at the time I thought these were amazing! Kinda of like the Napoleon Dynamite comment “dude you got like 4 feet of air” after Pedro rides his bike off a curb.

This one really made me laugh. Totally forgot I had these. That’s my mom wearing the Jason mask, you creeper you mom! Well we dont do great work all the time. Yes I know. I have done a lot of stuff that sucks ass. But you live you learn and you move on. That’s the beauty of art, especially when you keep it. Any one else with some artwork from there past they are not particularly happy with? Send it to me and Ill post it. Well as always have fun and be good people!

I took this photo somewhere in Nevada before crossing into Utah.  I would like to eventually do a series of pit-stop photos in-between cities. I used to travel a lot when I was a kid. I remember seeing so many odd and wonderful pictures when passing through I often wasn’t sure if I was still car-napping or awake. I didn’t realize there was snow on the ground when I took this, in fact I couldn’t see at all. I also have another question for you. Why do they have condom dispensers in creepy truck stop bathrooms in the middle of nowhere? Is that supposed to help you on your quickie while driving? or help rapists to use protection against strangers?

We had slipped all over the road traveling at 20mph at one point on the interstate because the roads were completely snowed over. And with all the snow pounding the window shield I could maybe see about 10ft in front of the car. Your eyes start playing tricks on you when you are searching for any signs that you are still on the road. It was a complete whiteout. Finally we made it up the last little hill, then we saw the driveway to the house we were staying at. Our rental car, a two-wheel piece of crap Jeep Needed to make it up a 45deg grade driveway covered in about 2 feet of snow. After sliding backwards the first try and sliding almost sideways the second try, managing to avoid a large rock. I thanked myself for buying the $14 a day insurance on the car. I asked the locals. Any tips? They all thought I was an idiot because they thought the Jeep was 4WD. Once they understood it was 2WD, we got a bit more sympathy but the answer was still the same. “Just hit the hill with a lot, I mean a lot of speed.” We hit it at about 35-40. I wasn’t planning on taking another chance of helplessly sliding down backwards, I just hoped I could stop at the top of the hill so I didn’t run into their house. That is not a fun feeling.

Well we made it. But I was definitely awake at this point. Infact I was just thinking how much worse it was going to be the next day. We had arrived at 6am. As we went to bed all the locals hit the mountain to get into all the fresh powder. All I could think about was, if its continuing to snow this hard tonight, tomorrow ,and the rest of the trip as the forecast said. How the hell were we gonna go anywhere the next day…

I took these pictures on the third day. We slept a couple hours and then were headed off to our movie at 12pm at Sundance. We were exhausted and all the snow had created horrible traffic and accidents. We barely made our bus after taking a short-cut through 4 feet of snow and a little creek. I had no problem with my long legs, but Bernie (as pictured above) took a plunge  head first into the snow. His daughter screamed “Lay off the crack! Dad!” as his pants came down and he mooned the girls behind them. Unfortunately in my desperate attempt to grab the bus. I missed out on all the “issues” crossing the snow. Our movie was great Happythankyoupleasemore. Yes they need to shorten the title. But trust me, if it wasn’t great I guarantee you I would have passed out. I was exhausted from driving all night without sleep.

After sleeping a ton and watching our movie on the second day. We were all to embark on a snowshoe hike up the backside of the mountain behind the house. We were told to each carry wood for the fire we were gonna make at the top of the hill. But more importantly to bring as much Boozes as we could fit in our coats.

Kerri had successfully put on her snow shoes while Patrick takes a swig of Jameson in the background before heading up.

I probably haven’t explained this…Kerri (left) is my girlfriend’s roomate Gracie (right).  Gracie didn’t have any real snow pants so I found a pair of extra ones in the ski bag. She looked awesome in them! he he We teased her a little when she took a plunge after crossing her snowshoes. And I tried to lift her to her feet with that backpack she has on, but I broke it. So I felt bad and carried it the rest of the way. She is so sweet. We had to switch her gloves later on too because the wind picked up on the trail back home. It got really cold. She was such a great sport! She didn’t complain at all. We had a blast!

Here we are looking for the trail posts with headlights and ski poles.

As you come across the hill you can see the olympic bobsled run. I did it 3 years ago with my old roommate Evan Minogue. It was a blast hitting approx 89 mph and 6 G’s of force on the turns. (your hardest roller coaster ride is 3 G’s) it was enough to push the air out of your lungs.

To the campfire!

We had a little birthday toast!

Here is Gracie and I freezing after I tried to get a couple pictures of everyone. That fire was a savior.

Here is the whole party. What a blast. I don’t have any great photos of the dogs because I carried two bags up. But they had lights on there collars. They could smell the path and often lead the way. So much fun until they drool on you. Till the next post! Be good people.

I really liked this portrait. Especially because you can see the water movement on the bottom left corner.

First couple days I was so nervous. He’s all I could think about. If I was at work all I could think about was what was he up to? Am I gonna be a good owner? I cleaned the house ,I set up his room, I bathed him ,walked him and got his nails clipped. (He got me a couple times in the tub). And right now he is asleep in my lap as I write to you.

A couple days ago when I was walking him my neighbors little kids came out to play. So I took him off the leash and let him run around and play catch with them. Over the weekend I received a note on the door that read ” Hi Grant, We would really like to play with your dog Charlie. We really liked playing with him” and a phone number. They’re pretty sweet kids. Its funny how much you begin to learn about yourself when you take on the responsibility of an animal. I can’t pretend like I have it all down yet. But one day at a time is all I can do for now. I will keep you posted as I am sure Charlie will very much be apart of my future creative posts! As always be good people.

This photo was taken at the studio while I met with John, Justin and Jordan. John just got a new pup this week. So we have been in touch as the process continues. After our meeting about an upcoming shoot. I had Justin draw Charlie a dog house on their Meeting room wall.