So there are a staggering amount of books to look through, all recently entered into the Photography Book Now contest through Blurb. 1403 1430 books (and counting) submitted online alone. Countless others submitted in hard copy form too I imagine. I'm so curious how the judging is going to take place given the endless entries and multi-faceted nature of books. They are judging cover, content, sequencing, design, theme, emotional impact, etc. It seems this could take months of non-stop page turning to get through them all. I'm sort of exhausted just looking through page upon page of entries. Have a look for yourself.

Leaning towards August. This Summer is moving way too fast. I need more time to get out of the city and go swimming, hiking, driving and make photographs! This is one of a handful of new images I've made for a project in progress.
I'll not only be doing higher quality scans soon but I'll be in darkroom in the midst of my CCNY printing residency for the month of August. I can't wait to get in the dark.

Tim, Alligerville, NY. 2008

Back from vacation and feeling like it wasn't quite long enough!

That's most likely just due to the fact that the weather in CA was amazing and here in NY it's less than pleasant. Perhaps also due to the fact that they are demolishing a building just outside of my bedroom and construction starts at 7am sharp daily. But all that aside I am indeed enjoying getting back in the swing of things. I'm currently working all the kinks out of a book I am wishing to enter into the Photo.Book.Now contest. Though honestly it is pretty challenging to not only make photographs but to edit them, sequence them, lay them out, perhaps add text, design a cover, ect. It's been a long process and one I could continue to obsess over for quite some time. I'll make sure to write an update if and when I finalize everything. Good luck to all others entering. Seems the competition will be insanely steep.

So back to a tale from my vacation back in my hometown in Southern CA...
On the 4th of July I ended up in the annual Pushem-Pullem parade in downtown Ventura with my niece and nephew. It was totally insane.. hundreds and hundreds of kids in wagons or on bikes, scooters, strollers, skates, etc paraded down Main St screaming and blowing horns and throwing candy to onlookers. Who knew Ventura County had so many damn kids! It was no New Orleans parade but it actually surprised me how many people were in it. Ha. Add a street fair, a couple of bandstands and a family BBQ and the day was chaotic but pretty sweet.

Other funny events from the 4th include somehow ending up down in the beach community that I used to hang out in during jr high and high school and going keg party hopping. Funnier to observe than to dive head first into (literally). Just to name a few funny events that unfolded in a matter of hours... a girl doing a keg stand somehow fell and smashed her face on a keg at one party and got rushed off to the ER. Moments later two guys stole the keg. Later still at a different party every surfer (every size, shape and age) decided it was a good idea to chug beers shirtless. Not too long after a fight broke out and left a guy knocked unconscious in the street and consequently cops came and broke things up. Add some illegal fireworks, some kids that seemed far too young to be out after curfew, cops on bikes, motorcycles, undercover and on foot.. and well let's just say.. It was a humorous place to visit that night but not my place to stay for good. Ha.

In honor of the 4th of July evening that left me laughing for quite a few days I have created a keg stand collage from a google search. Enjoy and stay tuned for more after I get my head out of my post-vacation haze.

(you definitely need to click this to see it bigger)

Been diggin vacation.. and this little one.

When you get together with a group of photographers.... it's pretty easy to have some genuine photo geek out sessions. Saturday Kevin and I were fortunate enough to have a great mix of folks over for a little mexican food and drinks. In the mix was Justin James Reed and his lovely lady Michele Tecco, Will Steacy and texan photog friend Julie Soefer, Cara Phillips, Tim Briner, Brienne Joubert, Summer Kemick and of course Kevin Faulkner and myself. It was pretty much hysterical after a certain hour.

left to right: Tim Briner, Will Steacy, Kevin Faulkner