3 inch noodle of slobber

You know how sometimes, you awake to discover with a 60/40 mixture of horror and embarrassment that there is a small wet puddle on your chest, and a drooping length of saliva hanging freely from your slightly slack maw? The drool, slowly descending, a result of your body's relaxed state during a momentary nap in which you've dozed into that dreamlike torpor of half-consciousness where you are vaguely aware of your surroundings, but everything appears as somewhat surreal and grotesque. Sound unfamiliar? Okay, maybe it's just me.

So riding the transit is a big part of my day. Not because I enjoy it, but as with the other bajillion commuters jostling for the finite real estate of the bus in the mornings, I do it because I can't afford parking in downtown Cowtown. Meaning, I often see the same people every morning. The sounds of their jackets rustling, or music leaking out of their too loud/ poorly fitted earbuds, and their occasional conversations serve as my own personal army of bedtime storytellers, while the bus rocks me to sleep on my way to work. Nice, right? Except there's something incredibly shocking, horrifying, and embarrassing about awaking on a bus to discover you are in mid drool, and must make that loud slurping motion to rewind the 3 inch noodle of slobber abseiling from your mouth, threatening to join the kiddie pool sized puddle already glistening on the front of your jacket. Yes folks, in the hierarchy of the medieval bus riding populace, I claim the crown of court jester. If you can't be the elegant dame, dammit it all the hell, I'm gonna be the fool and be it well.

Okay, completely unrelated photos tonight, but I only had time to scan a couple frames of film. These are our friends, Marc and Ana, who live and teach English not far outside of Tokyo. We met up for a day and hung out in Shinjuku and Shibuya, camera shopped, ate Korean food, drank beer, did some more shopping, drank sake from a juice box, ate smoked oysters, and drank some more beer.

First two photos: Kiev 88, Arsat 80mm lens, Kodak Tri-X 400. Developed in Rodinal for 7:00min. Remaining photos - Fuji X100s.


Ana san.


Marcu san.


Fish Pastry!


Regular Marc


Marc-a-marc-a-marc-a-chameleon




Ana decides this restaurant isn't good enough for us. Move on.


We settled on a Korean restaurant.


Beeru!!


Marc's new favourite backpack.


Look at that beautiful light of golden hour.


Sake... from a juice box... bought from 7-Eleven.

Life drawing and more - a week of art in Ottawa

Another round of "Woo!! Naked Wednesdays" - more appropriately known as 'Life Drawing at Sandy Hill' - in cold, desolate, wintery Siberia Ottawa last Wednesday. I was pretty disappointed in my results at this session, but whatever. I blame it on the cold, desolate, wintery climate of Siberia... my fingers were frozen and frostbitten to death. In fact, if digits reacted to cold like other certain appendages, they'd have shrunk to embarrassing pre-pubescent sizing.

Sketches done with the Pentel Pocket brush pen, Shin-han Touch markers, and a bit of white chalk.







While disappointed in my figure drawing, I was happy with how my package of film to the lab turned out. I guess I should just stick to sketching animals.

Selfie Sundays, and Photographing the Pupils - Part V

It's taken a week, but I've started to emerge from the thick cocoon of jet lag. Sorry, phishing telescammers, you had your chance to take advantage of me while I was lost in the fog of timezone disorientation. Too late now, that free cruise has sailed...

I had a couple of frames left on a roll of film to burn, so I shot a couple selfies with the same camera used to shoot the student portraits shown further below. Selfie Sundays!





Rather than ease myself back into the routine, I flew straight to Ottawa a day after coming home, and after a week of meetings, I flew back home to teach a DSLR course. Here are some portraits of my students, taken with the Kiev88 and Arsat 80mm f/2.8, on Kodak Tri-X. Developed in Rodinal 1+24, @ 68 deg. F for 7:00 min.

2litresofsoysauce - season 7

Hello and welcome to 2 Litres of Soy Sauce - season 7. We've just returned from our SE Asia vacation hiatus, and I thought I'd start the year off with a funny little animation, made from a burst series of photos taken of my cousin and two friends. We were at a beach in Mui Ne, Vietnam, where Kushan, AJ, and Vi decided they were going to do a coordinated jumping photo. Except... coordination is not exactly their strong suit. If 'synchronized jumping on a beach' was a sport, these three would barely go home with a participation ribbon.

"Okay, everyone, 1... 2... 3... Jump! LOL! WTF was that?"



Hope you all had a nice start to your new year! Stay tuned for much more goofiness and photo shenanigans in the coming weeks.