My sleeping system now has gone crazy because I don’t have a certain time for me to go to bed. Someday I stay up all night after work then went out to do some photos. Someday, I just sleep in all day coz I am tired from work and from stay up many days all together. This is not a good sign, and I must change it.

         Before I am writing this here, I have this in my mind since lastnight which made me unable to sleep well so I told myself to do it and get over and done with. Then I will able to go sleep again before going to work at 4pm. On top of that it is my MONDAY… not happy hahaha.

        Well, Summer in Las Vegas is very very hot and so tired to get out of the house to do something during the day. This reminds me of animals sleeping through the winter because of the cold and foods. I am about to be the same during the summer time, waking up near the evening for work and foods I wish it could be the other way around because I love cold better than hot, and I can’t wait for summer to be over. Surely soon leaves will turn their colors up on the mountains in Utah. I have some places which must be revisit from past years. This year timing will be better from learning through my own mistakes. I believe that it is a must way of making meaningful images beside sometime luck comes to our sides. So for now, I get my equipments check, my films check,  my car check, and with a good pray for a good year of color.

        Here is the point that’s why I am here writing. This is  an introducing of an ongoing new photographic work project ” Road Trip “. This is a photographic work which has been done, and it is a parallel idea to my typical landscape works. Years before, I passed by these opportunities because my mind was not mature enough to defind clearly about what it is. Nowadays, this is considering from myself that it is now a main body of work that my mind is always looking for. As mentioning here time to time that we all have to follow how we feel in order to find ourselves. So here I am.

        Anyways, someone might have questions about my personal goal about why I make art works the way I do, and what is my point of doing it. Simply, I make art because it is what keeps my life up and makes myself stay positive in my world. It is not easy now to really live life the way you imagine it should be today. Many factors force you to be unable to live the way you want. I do art because it makes me come close to what I want my everyday world to be at least in my mind, and it is for me. No one can change that or take that away from me.  My goal today is that I am thinking that I might be able to call myself an artist. From that I feel that I have a commitment to myself to make something to keep and share MY TIME in some forms, and this case I choose photography. I love every minute of photography. Within my photography world, there are not limitations nor the outsiders forces telling me about how I should to do things. It is all up to me. There are many possibilities within this medium and it doesn’t seem to have the dead end. Things can seems to be different in a matter of light flickrs our eyes. That’s interesting for me.

           The Road Trip is my open end world. It is stimulated by my age and where I am seeing myself at in that particular moment of time. What I see could be meant differently at different moment. Everything never stay the same, and all my subject matters can be everything in which I was given to be able to see it the way it attracts my feeling. That is a hard part of the making. The photograpic part is not too difficult once you know what you want to capture before pulling out a camera. 

      Some of you may notice the shift of my work. It is shifting to new direction on some part. However, I am not limited by that idea. I always believe that there is should not be limited of how we make art from today and the next. All of works can be made with different approch at the same time. I mean I can and still make landscape photos and now I just add the new way of how I see my photography world on top of the landscape. Also, sometime I put them both together, and the result turns out to be very different…as I said about this is and open ending project.

      Here are images I wish to share with you. I wish you would find it someway interesting and enjoyable.

      Thank you for your time and hope you enjoy summer.

       Komkrit.

    Hi everyone,

          Summer is finally here. I usually have a question to myself about how have I managed to live here in Las Vegas over 9 years with the heat of summer. So I am here again at an usual time to ask the same question almost everyday during summer months. It is now about 104-108′f outside during the day. How can I express the feeling of when I was out doing my project to you in order to make you feel as I felt?  Anyway, I don’t think that it is fun. However, I manage myself to go through the summer months alright so far. With a lot of water, short, and T-shirt, I believe we will do good. One thing I like about summer is that the sun sets about 8pm. By the time I don’t have to deal with trafic, and parking space. Also, people seem to enjoy evening outside their houses better than other seasons. That means I will have more opportunities to photograph them in action!!! Eventhough, I don’t photograph too much of people. However,  there seem to be some kind of activities that people do during the summer which I interest in very much. 

         I seem to be quite open mind when I go out to look for my image, and I think that it is important to keep my mind that way. That is a fun of it too. Someday, I come across something very exciting, and someday it was dry and I could not see anything.

       I might call this event during this time of my life as a ” an explorer with out a map ” period.

         This has been considered a new way of doing thing by myself. Therefore, I am not so sure of which direction it is going to go. As I mention time to time to people I know and to myself about doing what our minds tell us to do is at least a good start. It has been now the 2nd year of doing that, and it has been great so far. However, there are times that I am in doubt too. During lastnight of July 4th BBQ over at my photographer friend’s, Javier www.javiersanchezmex.com, house, we were talking about what is up with both of our works. One thing he said and it has pull me up from drowning with in my own thought. He said ” An artwork is no needed the explanation by the artist, but the artwork must be an extended part of who the artist is. ” All the doubt now disappeared from me since last night conversation. He said to me that I think too much. He is absolutely right. Being an artist sometime we do need a good friend who is able to mirror who we are back to show us. To remind us of what we were at the starting point because as days has gone by, we might got lost, and seeing unclear of where we are going. Thank you Javier.

         These are part of development images  would like to share with you…

             Thank you everyone for spending sometime here. It’s 5pm. It is almost time to get ready to put cameras in a car and, taking off from a house to look for images of Vegas. If you live here, you might be able to see a man with a big backpack on his back, a tripod on one hand and a big bottle of water, beer would be good haha kidding, on the another walking around by your house. Please don’t be panic. He just wants to make pictures…

          Take care and see ya next month.

             Komkrit.

         The Friday night of June 25, 2010 me and lots of many others were invited to join the openning reception of the exhibition ” Unnatural History “. The artists were Richard Barnes http://www.richardbarnes.net/ , and Don Simon  http://www.donsimonart.com/ . Both are great speakers and works were fun to study.  The exhibition is at Spring Preserves, Las Vegas, NV. I would like to say that if you have time, you must check this out. It is not easy to see the works of international acclaim artists in town. It is great when once in a while we are around by art, especially great arts!!! Here is a PDF of this show so you can study about it more before going there. http://www.springspreserve.org/assets/pdf/events_unnaturalhistory_guide.pdf . There are many 40″x50″ photos by Richard and nice 28″x28″ and biger of Don’s works…. Also you will get to see my favorite ” Musk Ox “ life size on display too… what would you say?   Ok Here are images from last night…

From left to right, Mike Spiewak ( SP’s curator ), Richard Barnes ( the artist ), and myself.

     Thank you for reading, and if you are in Vegas this summer, now there is an another place to check out beside, you know, the Strip….again

  Best everyone.

  Komkrit.

       Hi all for June. How are we doing so far? Well, it is 108′f already in Las Vegas!!! Yeah, we didn’t do 90′f, but instead that we just went over 100′f from 80′f. I just came back home from a long 8 days trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton nation park in Wyoming 3 days ago. This is a quick hello to everyone because I will be out of town very early morning today, a few hours from now. I have to drive to Santa Barbara to pick up my films and drop some off at http://www.colorservices.com/ . This lab is awesome both service and care. If some of you still do film, I would like you to try them out. I am sure that you will not be disappointed, I didn’t. Ok here is just a preview and I will be back for more soon…

   to be continute…

   June 12 at 12:15am.

      Sorry for the wait. I am now just coming to a slow mode. Yes, I went to pick up mu films and drop some off 2 days ago. There are a lot of interesting images coming home with me. It is a matter of time which I need with them. I like to wait and see which image growing in my by time. Soon later I will work with them and I will share them with you here.

    I went out yesterday evening because of the clouds and light for my project, Only Vegas. It was almost happening. The wind was too strong and there was a cloud blocking the last light for my image. I set my 4×5 camera up and only had a chance to watch it to see that the wind would blur my 1 secound exposure. It was about 40 mile/ hour. Well, it will be an another day for this.

    Ok here is an another image I’d like to share with you from Grand Teton… Hope you like it.

After sunset at Jackson Lake, Wyoming.

  Please enjoy the view. It is late now and I am sleepy, not much of sleeping from many thing I have done in past weeks. I will be back and write more about things very soon. See ya.

            Hello everyone, here we are in May already. Time does fly, doesn’t it?  I usually feel that all those holidays were a week ago. However, the fact is it has been 5 months now since the new year!!! Here is what happen in a time line about my life since January. Before my class at a College Of Southern Nevada which I am a co-teaching started, I was thinking about how would I teach this class. I was thinking about how would I find ways to share what I have been doing on my profesional life to people. Somehow, it has been great for both students and myself. I am able to see my students develop their skills within time of my course which is 16 weeks ( one day a week and some field trips here and there ).  This coming week is a last week. So what I actually want to say is I don’t realize how fast everything around me goes till it is almost over. That’s kind of waking me up and to realize that now it is time to get back to myself again. It is time to get myself going on doing things, such as earning more income, going more on road trips for making new images, saving more money for buying a space ( this case is a house so then I can set up my wet darkroom, and maybe also a dry one ). All these dreams were paused for about 2 years so far because I believe that I must also develop the other sides of my profestional life too, beyond making images is managing of used and direct its future used of my photography. It has been very challenging life style. Sometimes, it brought me joy much more than I ever imagine to myself to have, and some other times it also brought me down to almost tear.

          Within about 2 years while I have been developed this side of my photography, I have met many wonderful people whom of some I call teachers, friends, and brothers. What if I continuted to live the way of life like I did 4-5 years ago, I would not meet anyone of these. I was careless about things around me at those time. I was only thinking about getting out to make images, and more images. I am older now, 34, so that makes me realized about finding a balance to life is a key to happiness. Yes! now for people my age and older, time seems to go fast and faster, but at the same time it makes me see deeper, and the joy of being who we are last a bit longer. I like that. A matter of fact, today I thought a bit of I am 6 years away from being 40!!!!! Ummm 6 more years I will live half of an average human life. It scares me a bit about this truth!!! Wouldn’t it scares you? Well, this gets me thinking though that I have to live my life wiser than I used to do it. I am now surely trying to being open more, Giving out more, Letting go of things more, and seeking out less of what people believe what it should be, but seeking more of what I want to be.  

            Anyways, I would like to share with you these images behind the scenes from this past spring 2010. They are from between California and Arizona. Looking back in time, I have been realistically limited in income, but somehow I made it around pretty good. Also I believe that I have maybe made some special ones, images, along these paths. Once my new job starts which is soon to be, we will see all those films being processed.

           I have a lot of ideas pop up in my head everyday, and I see it much clearer of how to reach to those ideas and make it happen. It is now a matter of time and some saving. Umm I must say that I stay in focus much much more than before. I have to thank to people around me today whose always tiredlessly pointing out ways, cheer me up when I was down, and most important is whose are always be places I can turn myself to when I have gotten nowhere else to go. Thank you.

           I am wondering how the Dogwood flowers in Yosemite would be like right now.It was snowing there yesterday!!! Redwood flowers will be good in 3 weeks too. That’s 900 miles away from me. How about Yellowstone? Spring up there is always fill with ton of wild flowers. It will take 15 hours to drive up there. May I have a chance to be there?  By Monday I should know my chance either yes or no. Let’s pray together.

            Wish you’re all the best.

               Komkrit.

     Hi everyone.

    Here again for April that I am a bit late on writing about my life through photos. Well, it has been a productive spring this year. We all have been offered with a great show of flowers. It is almost as close to the year of 2005, but it is not 2005. However, I have been photographed them at Death Valley np, Antelope Valley area, and on the way to Tucson, AZ for my Tucson 2010 Internaional Association Panoramic Photographers conference which was between April 14-18 2010 at a Hilton hotel in Tucson.

       The flowers were awesome everywhere, and I hope that I did it right when I photographed them. So then I will share with you later on here.  I went on my trip on the 10 and back home 2 days ago with over 2,000 miles only around Arizona!!! I had a great time.

        At the conference, I have learned many more things. I also have met with people which I was only knew by names. It was a great plesure to meet all of you. The things I have gained from listenning and learning from those masters are the best life experince which I might take my whole life to learn it by myself. Thank you to your kindness for sharing your thought with me. It has been much appreciated by me.

       I shot 20 rolls of color films in past 10 days and I have 3 rolls of black and white which I already develop and there 2 images I wish to share with you here. It was taken while I was on the way coming home.  Hope you enjoy them.

Both images were photographed by A Linhof 6×17SIII panoramic camera with a 90mm lens and Kodak T-max100 film. So now I am exciting about my color work!!!

      Lastly, I would like to say thank you to you to make my trip special more than ever. It would not be done without you.

       Komkrit.

        At the moment there is still time to think about going to Tucson between April 14-18 2010 to join an event ” The Internatinal Panoramic Photography Conference 2010 ” . I will be there the whole time so as many others worldknown panoramic photographer. If some of you are interesting to join the event, here is the link with all the info you might need to know  http://tucson2010.com/

        There will be fees for the event. However, for the fee cost compares to what you will be experinced when you are there, it is almost nothing. For someone who in the future believe that panoramic photography is a life time career or hobby, this is a must join event for you.

       Hope to see you there.

         Komkrit.

       Hi friends.

        I come little late for this month. I have been developpinging lot of black and white films in a past few weeks. Also, I have worked on my class. The good news are lots of great images from 5×7, 4×5, 6×6 and 6×17!!! However, I do still have some 8×10 to do.  You see what I mean when I say developping a lot of films. Also the good news about my students. I have seen the improvements in short period of time. They are good students, and good students need to be pointed out to which are best ways to do what they want to do. I am not saying that I am a good teacher. I am saying that I am glad to be able to share what I believe in to people. Also I am glad to see the way I guide my students are at some point make them understand themselves a lot more. I want my students to experince the decision making when they make their arts. That’s where a meaningful artwork begines its journey. When the artwork goes in a good way, it will fertilize the maker’s mind and soul to keep on making it. 

           This month I have not had a chance to photgraph my ” Only Vegas ” at all. I didn’t have color sheet films yet. So there is nothing to talk about of the project. However, I still have continuted to search for locations for my future use, and I found some interesting ones. Just can’t wait to have films. I also have talked to people about people who live in Vegas for a long time. I found some interesting people for photograph as well as places. It has been a good going even though not yet put these ideas on to films, but someday it will be. 

       At the beginning of this month, Christian, David ( my friends from California ), and myself spent sometime at Death Valley for early spring water, sand dune, and davil cornfield. We were there together for 3 days. It was good time there with dinners which we rotated our turns to cook. Christian did maxican food, David did a curry, indian curry, with chicken over white rice, and I did a stir-fry chinese broccoli with bacon and BBQ red pork on white rice with a fry-egg….ha yummy right? That was fun. We worked in early morning at 5am till about 8am then laid back sipping some beer!!! then work again about 4pm till dark. It was about 65′f-70′f after an awesome storm which was there 3 days stright before our arrivals. It has been a wet year so far for Death Valley. In 3 months alone, it already has broken a record of the rain fall last year all year. Now so far it is more than 3 inches. It will be a good spring year here at DV. So if some of you wish to visit DV, please make it quick and make it here often because it will be gone so fast then you can feel it. For sure I am not the only one who is exciting about that. There were a lot of other photographers, and there are lots out there right now trying to make the most out of it. So you too can do as good as they are. Maybe we will see each other on the trails. Oh!!! I conform you that a cellphone will not work out there, and it is very good idea to buy a phonecard out side the park before going in. There are lot of public phones, but they’re usually full. The phone card is the best way to contact the world outside. Camp sites are great!!!! You should look up to them early because it is fill up very easy at the end of the day.  Well, after all of these…let’s enjoy the park.

       Here are some works from my road trip last December 09 to the Bad water at DV weeks ago… Hope you guys enjoy them.

      Shiprock, New Maxico Dec 09.

     White Sand, New Maxico Dec 09.

    Mission, New Maxico Dec 09

   Bad Land NM Dec 09.

      Buffalo’s farm Utah Feb 2010.

   Death Valley March 1st 2010.

            It’s nicer outside now. Shall we get out a lot more? Enjoy your time friends, and take care. I will be back again soon…

        Best.

    Komkrit.

     This evening I exposed my last color 4×5 sheet film I have. From last September I had more than 200 sheet in my freezer, and it is now gone. I have not imagined to myself that I have been shotting a lot till I had a thought back of when was the last time I bought films. It is time to buy new ones. I noticed something very imortant today afternoon while I was searching online. It has been tougher to BUY film now than 8 months ago. A lot of then were out of stock! Also some of them are boxed only 10 sheets instead of 50 sheets as they used to be. This gives me a shock moment, and it made me have a thought of my near future works. The thought is about how long really the film has left.

      I had not been worried about this issue till this year. It is because of seeing the change at the suppliers. The world is now moving away from the film day to something new with a speed of light. As I am a film shooter, of course I am sad. I wish that there are still people who carry it on a bit longer.

      I have continuted to work on my ” Only Vegas ” project. Eventhogh sometime I was busy with something else, I still give myself at least a day to roam my town looking for images I have dream of. It is interesting to see how I feel connecting to locations. I keep finding new spots and it stays exciting for 2 or 3 days at one place then it dies out. Then I felt empty till I found a new place. I also trying to find a balance while I am working. It is the balance between art of photography and a content of the project. I believe that not every images I have made are all fit together. However, I allow myself to explore the possibilities of what I have been given by the way I see, feel and believe when I make photographs. It is hard to do something only you see in your head and believe in your heart. It makes you go very slow. I came to realize that I only can do one thing at a time in order to get the most out of it. So now I spend 2 or 3 days working on something then I leave it a little bit, 3 or 4 days, before I look for something else.  This way I have a chance to be aware of what I have done, and how it relate to my content.

      This is only the beginning of it when you are making a product. Hopefuly, I can continute and I will be able to complete my project with the same tool. This is the only my concern for now.  I used to pay for a 50 sheets box of 4×5 film about $82 for a pro- film. It is now $125 and it’s hard to come by.   Now it is cost about $180 to shot 10 sheets of an 8×10. For people like myself who work about 2-3 days/ week, I would need at least 30 sheets/ month for 8×10 ( this allows me 3 shots/ day ) and about 50 sheets/ month for 4×5. Now that I am limited by the income, only 4×5 is already hard on me, but I still manage to get by. It is because the knowing that soon near future there may not be film any longer. The ” only vegas ” will soon become something special. It has already been special to me because I am spending my life along with it everyday now.

     Thursday morning, I went back to a spot I photographed the evening before for the different light. It was about 6am and the light was just as beautiful as it can be. I made 4 images and it was done. While I was packing up and watching the beautiful light, my mind had gone to many great places where I had seen a similar warm morning light before. I imagined to myself as if I was there. Suddenly, there was a native american man was walking toward me. The warm bright yellow light was on his face. He asked me ” what date is this? ” I replied ” A thursday “. I could smell that he had been drinking through the night. A little bit later he asked me again ” what day is it “ I said ” the 18 ” then I smiled. He said ” the 18 ” and he was smiling. He was about to walk away from me ” thanks ” was low as he was passing me by. He was walking into a bright warm yellow light to the way home…. 

             At the moment, a felt that ourlives is a paradox beauty. What was he doing here in Vegas? What I am doing here in Vegas?

These images are from the evening of the Feb 18 2010.

        Thank you for reading everyone. It’s a Friday. Have a great weekend.

               Komkrit.

   Karl Rabeder grew up poor and thought that life would be wonderful if he had money. But when he got rich, Karl discovered that he was unhappy … so he decided to give away every penny of his £3 million fortune:

“My idea is to have nothing left. Absolutely nothing,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “Money is counterproductive – it prevents happiness to come.”

Instead, he will move out of his luxury Alpine retreat into a small wooden hut in the mountains or a simple bedsit in Innsbruck.

His entire proceeds are going to charities he set up in Central and Latin America, but he will not even take a salary from these.

“For a long time I believed that more wealth and luxury automatically meant more happiness,” he said. “I come from a very poor family where the rules were to work more to achieve more material things, and I applied this for many years,” said Mr Rabeder.

But over time, he had another, conflicting feeling.

“More and more I heard the words: ‘Stop what you are doing now – all this luxury and consumerism – and start your real life’,” he said. “I had the feeling I was working as a slave for things that I did not wish for or need. I have the feeling that there are lot of people doing the same thing.”

       I think this is interesting and we all take this differently. Some might think he is crazy, but some might think he is a hero. What do you think?

       KOmkrit.