singing in the rain

It was that time of the spring semester again. The entire campus came to a standstill for one week (well really for weeks before but professors don't seem to care about that). SPRING SING WEEK! On Saturday nearly the entire student population - granted there are only 1200 of us - with our friends, families, alumni, faculty and basically every single person in California that is somehow related to Westmont College packed into the Santa Barbara Bowl for a night of epic proportions. And by that I mean us students making absolute fools of ourselves and showing off our nonexistent vocal abilities in 8 minute skits. Dorms competing vigorously against each other (guys and girls split except in my tiny dorm) all for a pizza party - oh and absolute bragging rights. 

My dorm, Emerson, has never in the history of Spring Sing even placed. This year we set out to change that. Expectations were extremely high for my dorm, but we were prepared to deliver. As I'm driving down to the bowl, a few rain drop started to fall on my window. Then a few more, faster and faster they droped. By the time I get to the bowl, it's close to pouring. The vast majority of everybody's props and costumes are made of cardboard and water based paint - not good. But, as they say, the show must go on, and go on it did! It poured while we waited in line for over an hour outside the bowl and while we took our seats - the students sitting in the now half flooded pit. By the grace of God, the rain stopped and the skies cleared right before the fist skit went on - and yes because this is a Christian college everybody was praying for it to clear up. I guess God wanted to see the show too, and no dorm disappointed. And honestly, the rain made the night so much more memorable. It was epic.

Apart from some soaking wet costumes, out act went almost flawlessly. We had the entire Santa Barbara Bowl laughing nonstop. When the last dances had been danced, and the last songs sung, it was time for the awards to be handed out. The whisper in the pit was that it had to be Emerson taking home the gold. There had never been an Emerson skit like ours, we could almost smell the gold. When the awards were handed out, we made history but fell one place short of gold. Page Men went home with the gold, Emerson silver, and Armington Women took the bronze. 

I can't deny that I wasn't a little bummed. Page Men were good, but I thought we were better. And I've only heard from students that it should have been Emerson, but o well. We still made history and we had a ridiculous amount of fun in the process. Plus we made the front page of Westmont's newspaper, not page men. 

Here are a few film shots from our soaking wet evening:

 EMERSON TOGETHER! FOREVER! FOREVER!

BW ladies

and now here's some of my favorite women on campus. Any suggestions of what I should do with these 36 portraits?

BW bros

Black and White Portraits

I took a role of portraits before spring break. I'm trying to think of something creative to do with them, I have 36 so far. In the mean time, here are a few of my favorite men on campus: 

nothing is more important

truth.

abandoned pasadena

Abandoned buildings of Ambassador College in old town Pasadena.

more from Huntington Library and Gardens

garden of cacti

My mom and I ventured to the Huntington Library and Gardens this week and boy was it beautiful! If somebody had told me that the Desert Garden was going to be my favorite I would have laughed in their face. I have to say though, it was freaking tight. So many thorns to watch out for, but it was surprisingly beautiful. Check out some of my favorite plants:

spring break

get crunk.

dryScotland

I am very excited to announce the launch of my new photography blog/showcase dryScotland!

dryScotland will be updated daily with black and white pictures from my summer long adventure through the beautiful country of Scotland. For more information, visit the about page HERE.

I'm still working some last adjustments out so expect it to slightly change over the next few days. Any and all feedback is welcome!

Please feel free to like and share my pictures!

home in uncertain times

There are truly few things better than coming home to your own bed after a string of near sleepless nights. That was Tuesday night. My health has been steadily declining for over a week, making a good nights rest impossible. Even now that I'm home, sleep hasn't come easy. By back hasn't been this bad in a long time. I went to my doctor at USC hospital and he's starting me on some new medications and I've scheduled experimental procedure #13 for June.

I ask you friends for your prayers in these uncertain and painful days. Hopefully the rest of a slightly extended spring break will reset my mind, body and soul.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 

-2 Corinthians 4:16-18

I really hate sunset pictures.

That being said, it's impossible to escape the beauty in Santa Barbara and the magnificent and stunning sunsets here. Wesley, Matt and I went down to Butterfly Beach saturday for a few hours and watched the sunset. Oddly enough (and annoyingly) the sun doesn't set over the ocean up here. Since it's a south facing beach, it feels like the sun is setting to the north since I've grown up with the sun always setting over the water. The whole south facing beach thing throws off my entire sense of direction - ocean does not equal west. Butterfly still faces south but it's the only place that gives you a good view to the west.

a santa barbara 'winter'

Santa Barbara in the winter, there's nothing like it. It's just as beautiful as every other time of the year, but with 50% less people! No tourists, no drunk UCSB kids coming down to our volleyball courts, just peace and beauty. Granted a few days it's a couple degrees colder than usual, but it's fairly rare that the temperature drops below 70 degrees.

Monday was one of those rare days that it was kind of cold. It drizzled a few times in the morning but wasn't below 55 degrees. I'm in a 'class' called Fitness by the Sea - basically we go down to the beach for an hour twice a week and I get credits for it (score!) - but apparently this was just too extreme of weather for us to exercise in. So instead, our class walked down to take cover in East Beach Grill and our awesome teacher bought us all tea and hot chocolate.

I freaking love Santa Barbara. I've not seen a lot of beautiful places around this wide world, but there's still something special and unique to this town. Other than the liberal hippies that populate a good percent of the inhabitants here, I love just about everything about SB!

happy birthday to my best friend

Happy Birthday Wesley!

first published photo

I got the exciting news that this picture was chosen as one of only a handful of photographs selected for Westmont's fine art publication: The Phoenix. I submitted five pictures for them to consider, this digital photo and four film. Ironically, this was my least favorite picture I submitted (mainly because it's digital) but I was convinced by some friends to submit it just in case. I am super excited and very honored to have been chosen out of the hundreds of pictures and paintings that were submitted.

The Phoenix will be distributed sometime next month and I can't wait to see it!