I don’t know why I picked this film stock

HOT. JULY. 115 in Palm Springs

The valley of windmills greet its drivers of their enormous structures

John asked me if I wanted to tag along on his shoot with a model

I asked how long will it take and where

He said 2 hours in Palm Springs

As we drove to Los Angeles around 6 a.m., to Pasadena I think, we needed to stop by the model’s apartment to trade cars

Confused and anxious, I questioned John once more

“We’re using her car to drive to Palm Springs,” John says

Me clouded by grogginess to properly connect two and two, I realized he meant it’ll take 2 hours to DRIVE to Palm Springs for an all day shoot

It was already too late as we pulled into the garage and John parked his Mitsubishi Lancer at guest parking

Maybe because it was different Maybe because I thought it was weird Maybe I just felt like spending money on a random roll of film

After 2 hours driving from Pasadena to Palm Springs, we stopped at a Jack in a Box to use their restroom

IT WAS LIKE WALKING ON THE SUN

WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD LIVE IN SUCH AN UNBEARABLE ENVIRONMENT (my spoiled ass from OC does say!)

We found refuge at a botanical garden with a greenhouse

It was a spectacle forest housed with an abundance of different plant species in the middle of a desert

I honestly like how captivating this photo turned out - although the subject is hard to depict, you can still make out a person is sitting center frame and the strong contrasts draw your eyes all around the photo

It me

Finally getting some food after shooting for a couple of hours

The desert heat finally cooled to about 90 something

This was my first time at Joshua Tree National Park

Black asphalt lines the park

The pinkish sunset gradually falls between the rocky hills

I think the heat did exceptionally well to the film - adding a nice rough contrast giving true separation from the land and sky

A trip to San Francisco

Checking out some grad schools with Nina and her friend Danielle when they were applying to different Physician Assistant programs all over California

(they both eventually found their schools, became licensed, and successfully employed as PAs!)

I remember taking the BART all the way to Davis, but my memory is so fuzzy - it was wild going from SF to Davis then WALKING to the campus and making our way back

We ubered to most places around NorCal and used the Megabus for the first time from the ARTIC to Union Square - the seats sucked, ass was sore, but the views were a bit more spectacular

The Mission in San Juan Capistrano

Metrolink had an offer for free train tickets so Nina and I took upon that offer and did a day trip to San Juan Capistrano

SJC train station was literally in between a road that splits the town in half

You can pretty much walk around SJC quite easily - One side had a small park with a neighborhood where most houses had a small shop to buy trinkets, art prints, and other souvenirs

Black & White photos taken with Ilford SFX200

Developed, scanned, printed by The Photo Lab in Costa Mesa, California