it is freaking snowing here today. WTF, WTF! it�s only the middle of november, this cannot be happening yet. ok i know i am living in new england and that i should accept snow and shut my big whiney mouth, but is it too unrealistic to think that it can hold off until december at least? i do like snow, i just don�t like living with it and having to deal with the slippery roads and footpaths, the dirty iced up snow on the edges of the roads, oh and the months of cold weather that accompanies it.

so tonight is the last photo class for this session ( the next session begins next week), and therefore it is show and tell. i really like this concept. we have spent nine or 10 weeks getting to know the people in our group, or if they are regulars getting to now them better. each week you see a snippet of their work, whatever they may be working on in the darkroom that evening. their work is a reflection of their personality and so i think that if you take an interest in their work you are gaining an insight into their personality. i guess what i am trying to say is that even though i only see these people once a week, i feel like they are becoming friends so some extent, or at the very least they are getting to know me and i them.

anyway, enough of that tangent and back to my point which was that everyone�s photos are mounted and matted and they just look so damn good. we sit around and eat and drink beer and then one by one people put up their photos and we all comment on them. it is interesting to hear people�s perspectives and while no one ever gives constructive criticism it is encouraging to get some feedback. every time someone says �i like that� i want to ask why? i want to know what it is that appeals to the person. is it the same thing that compelled me to take the picture i the first place? or is it something completely different that i hadn�t even noticed or thought about?

speaking of my photography, i have become lazy. not just in not having my camera with me everyday, but lazy in terms of not pushing myself to try new things and take different sorts of shots. last saturday i walked around worcester for a while and i think i pretty much took the same sort of shots that i had many many times over. sometimes i have brilliant idea, inspired by beautifully talented and creative people, but these days i never seem to follow through. one of the guys in my photo class has offered to teach me night time photography, which i really want to get into. i still haven�t made arrangements with him and now that winter is here, i don�t think it is going to happen for a while. i want to take more candid people shots, so i want to go into boston where there are more people, specifically i want to go to chinatown and take shots of elderly chinese people. i think they have beautiful faces and i want to get a series together. i also want to do another series based on skateboarders. i want to take shots of them doing their tricks, falling, flying, goofing off. of course i don�t know any skaters, so i am either going to have to approach some kids in the street (and you know how i hate to do that) or i will go to a skate park and just take photos of them there. the thing is, that the type of shots i am envisioning i would have to be pretty close to the skaters. but anyway, there are a bunch of still lifes i want to try. i want to mess around with filters and lighting. so many things, i just haven�t done, and not just that, i haven�t even started! maybe now that it starts to get dark at 4.30pm i will get some of those still lifes done, and maybe now that i have vented about my laziness i might get to chinatown and i might find a skate park. here�s hoping.