All Narfed Up - photography and words by Bryan Villarin

Depends how you look at it

In Life, Photos on 15 November 2009 tagged adventure, boys, hitchhiker, miracle with 1 comment

Silas and I were supposed to meet up with other photography classmates for long exposure photos from Cow Canyon Saddle by Mt. Baldy Village¹.

That didn’t happen.

Once we got to the turnout on Glendora Ridge Rd, we just saw a sign and a road leading into an RV park. There wasn’t a mention of Cow Canyon Saddle².

We kept driving down the road for about six miles, then three boys walking down the middle of the road flashed their light frantically and stopped us.

I was a bit cautious. I felt like patting them down to check for weapons, but they looked harmless.

The story — their “friends” split up and left them out there. They were supposedly walking for 2.5 hours without any luck of a car. To make matters worse, there was no cell signal.

From where we picked them up, I drove them back to one of their houses in Ontario. By then, it was already 8:45pm. We could’ve driven back up the mountain, but that would’ve been 14 miles and at least 30 minutes. So, I made the decision to call it a night. (Work in the morning, you know.)

Some might call this a failed outing. I call this a miracle.

If Silas didn’t suggest we keep driving down the road in search for another lookout, we wouldn’t have found these boys. They would’ve had to hike seven miles. It was also 45°F at the time and getting colder.

I don’t want a pat on the back. I want their friends to realize that they’re idiots for ditching them.

And their parents? I have no idea. One of them called once we had a signal again, but it was a short conversation. They were probably unaware.

Freddy, Garrett, and George³ from Montclair High School — if you ever read this story, please be careful, don’t hang out with those guys, and take a survival class. (I know you guys were walking on the road, but you should have stay put.)

Below is the route from the RV park, where we picked up the boys, and finally their home. I took the photo when I dropped them off. Besides Silas, it’s the only proof I have that this happened.

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Google Maps link ↩
Once we regained a cell signal, we found out that was the entrance. Fail. ↩
I think those are their names. ↩

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Rx Bandits at The Glass House

In Concerts, Photos on 13 November 2009 tagged California, live music, Pomona, Rx Bandits, The Glass House with no comments

November 12, 2009 — A photo I took of the Rx Bandits rocking out at The Glass House (Pomona, CA). More to come, of course.

Thanks to Cathy and Chase from Sargent House for the photo pass (again)!

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Bill

In Photos on 10 November 2009 tagged Bill Ritter, male, man, people, portrait, smile with no comments

I didn’t ask Bill to pose or smile. I liked his second portrait, but that wasn’t as sharp. Boo me.

Reflections of myself and Bill’s dad (upper left) was deliberate.

Taken inside his dad’s garage, and hopefully soon to be his recording studio.

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A gift of film

In Life, Photography on 10 November 2009 tagged film, Fujifilm, gift, Jon Swanson with 5 comments

Jon Swanson emailed me last Friday and asked if I wanted any color Fuji 35mm film. He didn’t tell me how many rolls he had in his possession.

Most importantly, he didn’t want a dime.

I asked him how much he had, but he persisted that I give him a number.

I requested eight rolls of 200 film¹. To my surprise, I received the box yesterday², opened it, and saw over 30 rolls of film!

The catch is that about 12 rolls expire Feb/Apr 2010, while the rest expire late 2010 to mid-2011. Oh well, I’ll try to take as many epic shots as I can and hope the colors are alright.

Not much else to say, but thanks Jon!

I wasn’t planning on using much film once my film photography class ended. ↩
That’s two USPS business days, Indiana to California! ↩

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One of my first prints

In Photos on 5 November 2009 tagged B&W, blackandwhite, building, film, print with 4 comments

I tried to get this scanned print as close to the real thing as possible. I cropped out the white borders since they weren’t clean. I didn’t write down how I exposed this in the enlarger – shame on me, I guess.

Lastly, since this was our first assignment, our teacher hadn’t shown us contrast filters or dodging and burning. Don’t analyze this to death.

Film: Arista.EDU Ultra B&W 400 35mm
Camera: Pentax ME Super
Lens: Kiron 28-105mm f/3.2-4.5
Paper: Arista.EDU Ultra VC RC Semi-Matte 8×10
Scanner: HP ScanJet 7400C @ 600 DPI

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James

In Photos on 3 November 2009 tagged B&W, blackandwhite, James Corsini, male, man, people, portrait with no comments

This is my favorite shot of James from Halloween night. He’s dressed as Alex from “A Clockwork Orange.”

Taken outside of Four Seasons Hotel Beverly Wilshire (Beverly Hills, CA)

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And the sky became interested again

In Art, Photos on 30 October 2009 tagged beach, California, clouds, Laguna Beach, landscape, ocean, sky, sunset, water with no comments

Laguna Beach, CA

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He’s come a long way

In Photos on 28 October 2009 tagged B&W, Bill Ritter, blackandwhite, male, man, portrait with no comments

Bill Ritter, guitarist and mastermind of The Scarlet Paradigm, and his own side project, William Alden Music. My title for the photo describes Bill as a budding audio engineer.

Caption: Bill recorded some drum tracks from James in the garage. I took this while they were listening to it. (May 24, 2009)

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Sneak peek: Ginger and Joe

In Photography, Photos on 27 October 2009 tagged wedding with 5 comments

I wanted to share a few shots from Ginger and Joe’s wedding on October 18^th, 2009. Even though I wasn’t feeling 100%, I’m stoked with the images we were able to create.