Opportunity has to be created. Yes, you can be given an opportunity like I have, but for this specific one, I took a chance.

Carl, the taxidermy squirrel. I keep hearing Rick from The Walking Dead saying his son's name, which is also Carl. On a side note, some (a lot) of it was filmed in Atlanta.

I sat down. Wrote a letter; mailed it halfway across the world, only for it to not reach it's destination and eventually make its way back to me four months later. I could've left it at that, but I wrote another and sent it again. It was answered and now I find myself in a very privileged situation. I created an opportunity to be given an opportunity if that makes sense?

So right now as I am typing this I am sitting in Zack Arias' studio (The Lab). I've been sitting in his dining room, in their house, on the deck looking out over the backyard. I get to have beer, talk music, eat dinner and laugh with him and his family. I'm lucky! I am blessed! I get to ask him ANYTHING photography related and I am sitting with my thumb up my ass. Where do I begin?

What do I ask? There's so much I don't know and not enough time. So much to learn still and I am in a very privileged position. Some people would probably give their left big toe for this opportunity.

I'm currently experiencing it like this photo below. In a week a month has passed! In 9 weeks I'll be on a plane back home. It's a blur.

Just a passing thought, a fleeting moment.

Life happens when you worry about this shit; so instead of worrying, I'm just going to let it happen and learn through the experiences and hopefully answer my own questions along the way and maybe have a few answered by Zack as well :)

Thanks for reading

June 4th: Day Three

Day 3 saw myself and Caleb reshooting the XT-1 video. This time with a shoot list, a more solid idea and drawings I had made the night before. The footage looks rad. It's on the editing table/cutting room floor or whatever other analogy you'd like to use.

June 5th: Day Four

Zack currently has a buttload of things up on eBay for sale and my Thursday was pretty much filled with shooting said things for sale. So if you're looking at picking up some gear; from light meters to old flashes and lenses I suggest you hurry coz the auction ends Sunday June 15th.

I received praise for my great photos of the gear coz apparently eBay has very low standards for what counts as good photography ;)

June 6th: Day 5

Zack has this friend, Wes Quarles who has been documenting small town rodeos for the past four years. The thing that's kinda crazy about it is, the fact that there are kids who are like 15 or 16 riding on, I dunno, 1000 or 2000 pound bulls. That's terrifying!

So on Friday night we headed to the Shady Dale Rodeo. It was obviously my first time at a rodeo and I was pleasantly surprised when Meg told me it was her first time too. So Zack and I grabbed the two Panasonic GH4's coz he's been wanting to follow Wes around and document him documenting the rodeo :) So we hopped in the car and headed south or somewhere. (Gimme a break, I dunno the place. People sounded southern, so in my mind we headed south) ;)

Miss America! She's like a female Captain America or something ;P

It was a whole different world just 50 miles away, which just goes to show, you don't need to drive or fly 1000's of miles to experience something new or different. It could be right in your "backyard" so to speak.

My favorite shot of the day. Shot it during the prayer.

Wes shoots all this on film. He uses a Leica M3 and a Hasselblad 500C. He also carries a Fuji X100s. His work is so rad, judging by what I've seen on his Instagram feed. Zack shot a pretty sweet portrait of him a little while ago on DEDPXL.

It's nuts seeing teenagers riding bulls and bucking broncos and I have no idea how their bodies hold up to such abuse or if they even do. I can't imagine that you have a very long career doing this.

Nonetheless I had a good time and the folks were really nice. No one hassled 3 random dudes walking around with video and camera gear.

Thanks for reading