lights, camera....

Aaaaaah summer.  So much has happened in the past two months, it's going to take me a little bit to update you all on the happenings, but the good news is that I have a little breathing room in the next couple weeks (also known as two Sundays off minus a trip to Richmond tonight) to catch up on photos, emails and blogging. So if you're waiting on something from me, don't worry, I haven't neglected you, your photos are on their way!

So what exactly has been preoccupying my time? In between the 9-5 job, the weddings and everything in between, I've been making movies! Last year's Koi Keepers reunited for this year's 48 Hour Film Project as A Bad Idea (speaking of ideas, we really should think of a solid production team name, especially considering that we're the same awesome group of people) and I made my directing debut in our little 48-hour post-apocalyptic bar flick.

Before I go on to post our film, I definitely want to give a shout out to our team leader/art director/production designer Chris Curl, our director of photography Steve Strickland, our talented cast (Ethan Marten, Cory Evans, Robyn Meislohn, Desiree Connell) and crew (Geoff, Nate, Derek, Steve, Peter). As I always say after we wrap a production, I would work with you guys any day, no questions asked. Tell me when we're filming our next movie, I'll clear my schedule.

And with that, here's our film, Waste Not, Want Not:


Waste Not, Want Not - A 2010 48 Hour Film Project Submission from Chris Curl on Vimeo.


But wait... there's more.

While I think Waste Not, Want Not is probably our best film to date, we were missing a pretty huge asset on our team, our fearless director from last year, Jon Abrahams. He and his wife, Teviya, were in Taiwan when 48 hour kicked off and spent all of Friday evening through Saturday night flying back from Asia. Yet, even with the added obstacle of traveling halfway around the world, the two of them managed to make a pretty rad film and WIN the Hampton Roads 48 Hour Film Project. I think it's pretty freaking great how they accomplished all that with the given limitations, not to mention the fact that Teviya should win an award for best actress since she had the stomach flu the entire time they filmed...

Anyway, here's their winning film (they also took best editing, best graphics, and best cinematography). I'm completely stoked for them and hope they go far in the competition.


Passion Fruit - 2010 48-Hour Film Project Winner - Hampton Roads from Jon Abrahams on Vimeo.

My Life in Lists: Seattle

1. Revisit Seattle

I'm not entirely sure how this idea got planted in his head. Maybe it was my 101 in 1001 list, which he read before we started dating, or the number of times I may have mentioned in conversation about wanting to go to city XYZ (I have a long list of places I want to go. Seattle was near the top of this list). Either way, it was back in late September when he told me to find my next free weekend, take the Friday before off and plan to leave the area. He wouldn't really tell me much after that, except that he was planning a surprise trip and that I was going to love it.

So fast-forward to the weekend of November 13-15. I had my suspicions along the way, and my suspicions were later confirmed (this is a whole other story), but sure enough, on the eve of November 13th, we were on a plane to Seattle, Washington.

Of course, with both of us being coffee junkies, we had to visit the first Starbucks store, where I ordered a peppermint mocha. Mmmmmm.

Next, we hit up the Public Market Center and drooled over all the fresh produce and fresh seafood goodness.













Then we made the mandatory stop at Seattle's tourist staple, the Space Needle, admired it from below.





After about 5 seconds, we lost interest and headed towards what became one of my favorite museums of all time, the Experience Music Project | Science Fiction Museum, also known as my personal heaven.









Not only did this museum have pretty great exhibits, it really allowed visitors to interact with the different exhibits. My favorite aspect was definitely the Sound Lab, where we got to learn how to play different instruments (see examples 1 and 2).

Example 1: Rocking out on the Guitar


Example 2: Struggling with the Drums


We also hit up the Fremont district, attended a Seattle Symphony performance, went on the Underground Tour and took a ferry to Bainbridge Island to see his old neighborhood (he moved to Virginia from Washington, so really, I was the tourist) and meet some of his good friends. Unfortunately, I stopped taking photos around Friday night, so I don't have many more to post, but I'll leave you all with these...











Thank you, Steve, for this amazing trip.

Virginia is for Lovers

I've been on the move the past couple months, traveling back and forth between my home base in Virginia Beach and the Shenandoah Valley. I've been up there three times in the past 6 weeks alone and I'm planning another trip up to Charlottesville next week to go see the VA Film Fest.

Something I took for granted while I lived up in Harrisonburg the past four years was how ridiculously beautiful the area was. It has so much to offer as far as recreation, camping, wine tasting, and even culture goes. If I had the opportunity, I would love to move up to Charlottesville. There are very few places I feel connected to, and in the few times I've been up to Cville, I've felt that connection.

Anyway, I'd like to share a few photos from my experience up in the Shenandoah Valley. If you live in Virginia and haven't ventured to that area, you are missing out.

Carter Mountain Orchard, Charlottesville. A great place to go apple picking in the fall.


Hess Corn Maze, Harrisonburg. I wouldn't go out of my way to visit this place, but if you're in the area, it's worth checking out.


The view from Skyline Drive.


Blenheim Vineyards, Charlottesville. A nice little winery with probably the most informative and friendly people I've met.


Barboursville Vineyards, 30 minutes away from Charlottesville. For $5 you can sample over 15 different wines.


Veritas Vineyards, Charlottesville. Not my favorite winery, but they did have table service and comfy chairs. Check out the next photo for an interior shot.


Veritas Vineyards, Charlottesville.

Also, for those of you looking for wedding venues, don't write off the possibility of going out of town for your wedding. Most wineries do offer wedding venue services. What could be better than getting married with the beautiful Appalachian Mountains as your backdrop and then cracking open a bottle of Virginia wine during your reception?

Finally, here are a few photos from our hike on a trail just outside of Charlottesville:






I'll continue updating the blog with more of my favorite places, both in Hampton Roads and around the rest of Virginia. Hopefully this will help spur ideas for any of you looking to go on a trip or trying out new activities. :)

My Life in Lists: NYC Labor Day Weekend Edition

Thought I'd give a little September update on my progress on my 101 in 1001.

4. Visit 3 college friends who are located outside of VA (1/3) September 5-6, 2009: Went to NYC to visit Ari and Sean.


Ari (left), one of my closest friends from college, moved up to NYC over the summer. He's currently interning at one of the ad agencies in the city as a graphic designer. I implore everyone to check out his work here; he definitely has a lot of talent and is on his way to doing big things.

Sean (right), one of my other awesome friends from college, came up to visit as well. This was probably our last reunion for awhile since he's about to go overseas for a year to teach English in China. He'll be up in New York all week since he's staying for Fashion's Night Out. If you're into fashion at all, you should go to his blog, Comme Artiste. One of his posts was recently picked up by Fashionista.

Okay. So now that I've plugged Ari and Sean's work (come on. you know you wanna check them out), on with a super brief photo editorial of what went down over one GORGEOUS Labor Day weekend in Manhattan:I basically ate a ton of omelets and potatoes, courtesy of the Sugar Cafe in Lower East Side Manhattan and the Spring Street Natural Restaurant.

We hit up a pub on Saturday night, and I was ecstatic that I could actually touch the ceiling in their basement.

I love it when cities have a good public transportation system, and I love it even more when I don't have to figure it out. Thanks for being the tour guide, Ari.
We walked a few miles to Randall's Island from the apartment we stayed at near Upper East Side and Harlem. Because in NYC, everything is in walking distance.

57. Go to 25 concerts (1/25) 9/6: The Electric Zoo, Randalls Island, NYC

Sunday night's festivities consisted of dancing it out at The Electric Zoo. RAVE.


ATB. I didn't like his stuff as much as I liked David Guetta's. I'm so mainstream when it comes to any type of electronica, hah.

The only negative about NYC as a whole was the sheer amount of trash that was everywhere. Where were all the environmentally conscious hippies? :( On the bright side, the plastic cups at EZ were biodegradable.

All photos courtesy of Ariel Park.

Nashville, Tennesee

Detroit

Going out of state is always like a breath of fresh air to me.

This past week, I spent some time in Detroit on business. Our flight arrived a little bit earlier in the day, so we had the chance to spend a couple of hours scouring the city. I had imagined Detroit as being run-down, rainy, and incredibly blue... my imagination wasn't that far off, but along with the old-town dreariness of the city was some sort of odd beauty. Not exactly history, but it was something along those lines. There were lots of abandoned buildings and lots of good photo ops, but no real time to explore them. I did manage to take this shot from the roof of a parking deck:



We hit up Greektown that evening, where I played my hand at the slots for the first time ever. I could have quadrupled what I put into the machine, but decided to take a chance and double my winnings... of course that didn't work out.



There may be another trip to Detroit at the end of the month (but who knows for sure)? If there is, I'll definitely try to grab more photos if there's time.

Life.

I had originally started this blog with the intention of intertwining my business with my personal life, something that most people try to avoid doing. My reasoning behind this is that I want to capture the relationships between people, not just their image, so why should I paint a static, carefully marketed picture of myself when I could just go on here and show the real thing?

Well... unfortunately life caught up, and I didn't quite get around to updating this blog with as many personal snapshots as I would like (meaning, personal snapshots of my life, not myself... I'm not quite that narcissistic ;) ) So, instead of getting to bed at a decent time, I'm here, catching up on sessions and rambling on my blog.

Here's a little snapshot from a couple of weeks ago... a bunch of my friends and I went out to grab a bite to eat in celebration of my birthday, and this photo op came up. These are two of my friends, Cory and Rebecca. I'm not sure if they were tired, having one of those "lovey dovey" moments, or if they were just slipping into a food/drink coma... but it was definitely something I'm glad I was able to capture on camera...




A final note before I retire for the night... I'll be away on business until Thursday, so my apologies for any emails that go unanswered until then. I'm still working on getting a Macbook Pro, which I so desperately need want. Which potentially means to internet until I get back.

If you don't see your session posted yet, sit tight... I'll get it up as soon as I get back. :)