July 28th • From home in Vancouver, BC
Summer is in full swing and I've been spending as much time as possible outside. The weather has been great for most of the last couple of months, except for those bizarre days all Vancouverites know well when June becomes "Junuary."
I've been spending most of my time having fun with my self-assigned summer project, which is to shoot photos in high-contrast black and white. I've been taking my Ricoh GR IIIx with me everywhere to capture all kinds of scenes during daily life.
I also fell into the rabbit hole of "zines" and will be printing my summer project photos into a zine at the end of the summer. You can find a lot of information online, even webpages that will lay out the zine for you (video and link here). Luckily, I have lovely graphic designer at home, and she created a template in InDesign for me where I can just drag and drop my photos into. I plan to convert the template to Photoshop format (which will also work in Affinity Photo and maybe Canva?) and post it in my newsletter so you can download it and print your own zines.
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And check out my online photo community wherer we’re discussing summer projects, photos from my free photowalks in Vancouver, and much more. Try it out for free for 30 days, no credit card required.
Media Diet
Audiobooks
I'm re-reading "A Dirty Job" by Christopher Moore. It's an urban-fantasy comedy about a guy who gets recruited as the newest "death merchant," basically Death itself, while also juggling being a new dad and running his antiques store. It's funny and has tons of laugh-out-loud moments and sharp humour.
Movies
"The Odyssey" - They don't make movies like this anymore. It's a massive epic with incredible locations and production. Great performances, especially by Matt Damon and John Leguizamo. It's very long, so it's worth paying for comfy seats.
"Obsession" & "Backrooms" - Two horror movies worth checking out (Backrooms is more horror-adjacent and has a very unique premise with many possible interpretations. A fun ride. Obsession is more of a traditional horror movie with outstanding performances by the two leads.
TV
"Sugar" - The second season continues its weird, noir, slow-burn pace, which is not for everyone, but I'm still really enjoying how different it is.
"Pluribus" - Loved this show and its unique premise. Sad it's going to be a long wait for season 2.
"Star City" - I wasn't interested in this show, but with not a lot to watch during the summer, I decided to give it a try, and holy crap, it's so good.
Music
Rediscovered my love for what is now called "Melodic House, Atmospheric Dance" music when discovered Lane 8 and Sultan+Shepard. Upbeat and fun to listen to. Great background music for working or working out.
Honourable mentions: the new Foo Fighters album has some bangers, Daydreamers' pop-indie sound, Bleach Lab, The Temper Trap's new album, and tons of other indie bands.
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