• Olympia with Mandy Darling

     

    CAPTION FOR THE VIDEO ABOVE:

    Hi friends! This is the second to last week of these weekly posts! Holy cow! It’s already like… wow February is flying. This week I’ll be sharing a photoset that’s kinda like a mixed photoset of several mediums. I think it’s digital, 35mm, medium format, and polaroid, I think? from Mandy Darling photographing me when I was in Olympia during my cross country road trip in 2019. Yeah I told you I have a whole lot from that trip I’m still posting, and this is not all of it, you’re gonna see a lot more when I do that mass upload in March. But for now, here’s a bunch of photos that Mandy Darling took of me, this was outside of her parent’s house in Olympia I believe? It was her parent’s house, it was a really beautiful place full of gardens and surrounded by woods and it was beautiful. I had a really great time so I hope you enjoy these photos. I don’t have BTS video, but the video from this week I’m sharing is actually a pretty fun video that I made in the spring of 2020. It’s multiple videos, I think it’s like 8 videos. In the spring of 2020 I took a walk in the woods that are behind my house to go to the ponds that are in my neighborhood, there’s a couple of little secret ponds hidden in the woods so it was me taking a walk in the woods and bringing you with me. Some of my favorite parts of this video are when I see little tiny frogs in the grass, there were so many tiny frogs this spring, it was so cute, I’m really excited to see them again. I think there’s a couple of moments when I’m searching for frogs and you can see how cute and tiny they are. So yeah just hanging out in the woods and taking you with me so I hope you enjoy that.

    First look people, I will be sharing the double exposures that I took of Lior Allay during the Backstage Pass event for Going Beyond the Lens that was in December of 2020. It was so great, they were so amazing. I did doubles of them during this event and people that were at the event helped… what’s the word? helped direct Lior for some of the poses. So the last I think 6 poses of theirs that you see were directed by people that were at the event, so that was super fun and exciting, I really loved it. It was really enjoyable to create together as a group. I had never experienced anything like that and it was amazing. These doubles were taken with the photos of Bryce Canyon that I took during my cross country road trip. I hope you enjoy all of those.

    If you are new here I’ll give you a recap of what is happening very soon. February I’ll do weekly posts like this through the end of February, so after this week there’s one more week of these weekly posts, and then starting in March I’ll be doing monthly members-only hangout gathering virtual live “in person” events, and you’ll also be able to get free admission to some of the paid events that I’ll be participating in or leading that are outside of just members only, they’re also for the public but they have to pay, but members will get to be in there for free. That and I will be in March also mass uploading everything from first look and my backlog which first look hasn’t even seen yet because I have so much content. I’m a little nervous about it because it’s a big change, I’ve been doing for the most part ish, weekly posts like this, since 2016 or 2017, so this is a big major change. I’m really excited about it because it’s going to allow me to have more time to create more free resources for everyone and to have more community experiences, which I’m much more interested in, where I’m in a community where we co-facilitate/cocreate an event together versus right now where I’m just like talking AT you and giving you access to stuff. That’s not as connecting for me, and I’m exited to get to know yall a little better and just…. nurture community. I think we all need community, especially during covid. If you have any questions please let me know, you can comment on this post, you can send me an email, you can contact me in another way if you want. Yeah I’m excited even though I’m scared. A lot will be changing, but I’m looking forward to seeing where this is going to go, because instead of talking AT you, I’ll be talking WITH you and that is more exciting to me. I’m starting off with one members-only event per month starting in March because I don’t want to overwhelm myself with too many things because I’ll most likely be doing 2 events per month for Going Beyond the Lens.

    Speaking of, I think by the time this comes out the event is already happening, I think? Oh I can’t look at my calendar because it’s on my phone and I’m recording on my phone! Oh I have a paper calendar too. Yeah so when this comes out it’s going to be on the 20th and the art share is on the 20th, so when this comes out you have a few hours left to sign up for the art share which is FREE! (CLICK HERE TO REGISTER) It’s going to happen at 1pm eastern time, so you have a little bit of time if you haven’t signed up yet, we would love to have you join us, whether or not you share your art with us. That’s through Going Beyond the Lens, I’ll put a link if you’d like more information (CLICK HERE FOR INFO), it’s the collective that I’m a cofounder of. What else? I think that’s all for this week. Change is scary but I’m excited and super thankful for you for being here with me through it. Yeah you mean so much to me and I’m so excited to have more opportunity to grow with you, so thank you. I love you! *blows kiss*

    All members:
    click here to view the 69 image photoset taken by Mandy Darling in Olympia Washington during my cross country road trip summer 2019
    click here to view the 8 videos of me taking you on a walk through the woods from spring 2020
    Click here for access to my archive of 12,500+ photos & 2,000+ videos
    Click here for the passwords, they change the 1st of every month

    First Look/All Access members:
    click here to view the 38 image photoset of Lior Allay doubled with Bryce Canyon National Park during the Backstage Pass event for Going Beyond the Lens with Roarie Yum
    click here to view 31 BTS photos/videos

    Not a member? Click here to sign up for instant access!

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  • With Quinn Sanguine by Megan Ayn

    Photo members now have access to:

    • blog post with the story behind this photoset with Quinn Sanguine by Megan Ayn in Tacoma Washington
    • 50 image complete photoset

    Video members now have access to:

    • everything above
    • 24 minutes of BTS video

    First Look members now have access to:

    • everything above
    • 69 image complete photoset of me taken by Mandy Darling in Olympia Washington

    Become a member to gain instant access!

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  • With Quinn Sanguine by Megan Ayn

    This week’s photoset and BTS video release is from my time with Quinn Sanguine (they/them pronouns) and Megan Ayn (she/her pronouns) in Tacoma Washington during my cross country road trip last summer. I have another set on the way that I took of Quinn and Megan! I stayed with Quinn for almost a week while I was out there, and it was so wonderful to catch up with them again. We originally met a few years ago when they were traveling up and down the east coast before their move to the PNW. You might remember them from previous photosets when they were using a different name (here here here and here if you wanna check those out!). We kept in touch online while they did their own cross country road trip which was also their move from the east coast to the west coast. It was so wonderful to spend time with them again, I consider them a really close friend even if we spend weeks without contacting each other… as soon as we are together it’s as if no time has passed.

    I had been wanting to meet Megan for a long time, I knew of her through social media and it was wonderful to finally meet in person! She lives just minutes away from Quinn, and before we were setting up the shoot they had no idea they were so close to each other! Megan is such a kind person and has a great upbeat personality, it was a treat to be able to spend the day with both her and Quinn. I was exhausted and low on energy that day… I almost didn’t shoot any film because there was almost not enough light, but I’m glad I found the one roll of 1600 ISO film that I brought with me. Those photos are coming soon!

    CURRENTLY: I’ve been reading a lot over the last few weeks, probably more than I have in the last few years combined. As a kid I used to read allllll the time, but then once I became an adult and was working full time and married… I just didn’t take time to myself to read anymore. I didn’t really realize how much I missed it until I started reading consistently again over the winter.

    I recently bought FOUR books by Charles Eisenstein, who has opened up my world and mind to so much more than I ever thought possible. He is the reason I consider myself an ecosexual. Before reading his essay The Ecosexual Awakening I had never even heard of ecosexuality, and now it’s a major part of my life. The label ecosexual gave me the space to be able to fill in and understand a lot of aspects of myself that I didn’t have words for before.

    I just finished his book The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible and I just started Climate – A New Story and wow he basically speaks directly to my heart, and it’s everything I’ve been looking for. Have you ever read a book that shifted your perspective so much that something changed inside you? That after reading it, you’re a different person than you were before? That’s Charles Eisenstein’s work for me. After being in despair looking for something to hold on to, something that didn’t crush my heart, something that felt TRUE and REAL and TANGIBLE, his words are giving me hope for humanity and the future of the planet.

    If nothing else, I highly recommend watching some of his videos on youtube.

    I’m not affiliated with him in any way (though if I was that would be amazing), I just love everything of his that I’ve come into contact with and I hope that his message reaches as many people as possible.

    Thank you so much for reading this far, for your continuous support of me, and for your love. I appreciate each and every one of you so much. I literally could not do this without you. Thank you. <3

    Photo membersclick here to view the full photoset with Quinn Sanguine by Megan Ayn in Tacoma Washington
    Video membersclick here to view the BTS video
    First Look membersclick here to view the photoset of me taken by Mandy Darling in Olympia Washington

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