'What I'm Reading' series

Last summer I decided to start documenting all the books I read. At the time I was tearing through books (I had read 6 books before I thought to start the project). Here's the first six books in the series. Any suggestions for my next read?

1. Smashed: Story of a Drunk Girlhood by Koren Zailckas
2. Sex, Drugs, & Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman
3. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
4. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
5. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
6. Perfect From Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life by John Sellers

Spring is here! (kind of)

The sun has been peaking its little head out here and there for the last few weeks and this weekend you could definitely feel its presence.

Yesterday my good friend Karen and I went to our friend Rob's housewarming party/bbq in Midtown. These kinds of get-togethers, hanging out on porches in Midtown, enjoying the weather, good food, and the company of good people, mark the beginning of summer.


Karen questioning the contents of her mango-chicken hot dog.


old and new friends!


And today, as Amy and I were about to walk to the grocery store we were caught on our stairs by the cat that goes from apartment to apartment looking for food. Our roommate feeds her when she's around, so the cat usually comes looking for dinner around 5 every day.


Amy is not a huge fan of "apartment cat" because she's super aggressive when she wants something.



These flats remind me of blueberries.



That's about as much sun as were gonna get for the next few days, as it looks like ran until Thursday.

Midtown Hopscotch

Sometimes you can find great things when you just wander around.

First off, I'd like to mention that I'm working on making this my new photography/etc blog. I'm working on a new layout for it as well as putting together some more cohesive posts, so for now it's going to seem a little random and maybe a little scatterbrained, but it's all a process. All posts here (samanthasaturday.blogspot.com) before 2010 have been moved over from my old blog.

. . .

Tonight I was reading some quotes by photographers and came across this one by Garry Winogrand:

"I don't have anything to say in any picture. My only interest in photography is to see what something looks like as a photograph. I have no preconceptions."


(from a walk around midtown Sacramento during Second Saturday Art Walk)

For the most part, this sums up how I feel about my own personal photography. Often I photograph something just because I like how it looks. My mind/memory are driven by textures and bits and pieces of moments. When I photograph something I am usually not thinking about meaning or symbols or anything like that. Instead I typically photograph something and forget about it for days or weeks until I rediscover it on my SD card.

My Senior portfolio was made up of images that trigger conversations and feelings in my memory. Since I was little I've always been distracted easily, but I've come to realize that this is just my way of taking in the world. When I recall some of the most powerful memories in my mind they consist of little bits that I piece back together. A remembered conversation does not just consist of words, but it can also consist of images such as branches being reflected in a raindrop, condensation running down a glass, an intriguing shadow, a nervous tic.

The photograph above is the newest that I've added to this series. Below are images from my original portfolio.

Mail Love

Recently I've been digging through old photos on my external hard drive to test out different ways of editing. How do you decide the right level of editing for your photos while keeping a consistent look throughout all your work? Sometimes playing around in Photoshop is too fun to stop and other times it seems less is more. But how to balance the two? I'll probably be posting more old photos in the coming days and weeks.

Anywho, this is a stack of mail that I sent out sometime during the summer (graduation gift thank yous, mix CDs, etsy orders...). Stacks of mail like this make me extremely happy, whether I am sending them or receiving them. Some people dread writing out Thank You notes, addressing dozens of envelopes, and sticking postage on each of them, but I quite enjoy it!