More mosquitos / Awkward picnicking

HELLO! I did the following shoot on Wednesday and have been trying to juggle various art tasks so I'm only posting them today. Ms. U, the photo teacher, usually dumps her camera corpses on me, knowing I will hoard them with delight, but she has kept a particular box of dysfunctional lenses, mostly for enlargers but including some glorious 50 mm Nikkor lenses, to be used as props. She hasn't figured out what to do with them yet, so I asked if I could take them on a shoot (in the forest, of course. Inspiration only strikes in the forest).
I've had an image in my head for most of the year, and it requires hanging these lenses from trees with a model standing in the middle of them, partially holding a magnifying glass over their face and thus enlarging one of their eyes. However, the more I thought about the effort of finding an area with enough overhanging brancehs, tying clear cords around these lenses, hanging them from trees, all while battling the Whining Exsanguinators, the less I wanted to carry that out. Maybe someday, but here is what I came up with. I didn't have a clear idea of how every image was going to turn out after editing, but I ended up with photos evoking wanderlust and mystery (hopefully!)
ANOTHER THING: There were mosquitos here. Swarms, clouds, legions of mosquitos. We didn't have any functioning bug spray for me to bring, so I give ten million thanks to Sarah for modeling for me for the umpteenth time, this time in extremely unsavory conditions. Due to the amount of bugs invading her facespace in conjunction with an extreme hatred for insects, Sarah screamed so loudly and so frequently that any nearby hikers probably thought I was murdering multiple women and/or boys who have not hit puberty.
For the love of art.

The picture of the lenses in the briefcase is probably my favorite image that I've created to date. It wasn't that difficult to make, it just involved a lot of layers and changing the perspective of the individual pictures of Sarah's eyes. Hopefully they look realistically proportioned, which would add to the surrealism.

Next up, I'm going to recap my Fourth of July which will probably mortify its participants, Vicky and Dante. 

These are soon-to-be-sophomores who knew who I was before I knew they existed. That is to say, they noticed me from afar around 'Iolani and developed admiration for my ostentatious fashion and disposition, and then I instilled fear in them when I actually made social contact with them. This amuses me, and I'm mentioning this not from the mindset of an egomaniac, but from a sympathizer. I constantly fan-girl over my peers, and I only end up actually talking to them half the time, and when I do that familiar cycle of anxiety over the nuances of my conversational skills sets in and I feel like peeing myself.

So I forced these dudes to go on a picnic with me at Pu'u 'Ualaka'a Park (I never attempt to say this out loud) on top of Tantalus, partially to make friendship, and partially to show that I am a normal neurotic teen and not someone to idolize (or fear, I think they are still afraid of me after this, perhaps because I chose a park that can only be reached by driving up the windiest and narrowest road on the island, slightly over the speed limit, seriously thanks guys you were troopers).

This was an intense picnic. There was prosciutto and goat cheese and pâté made from chicken liver, courtesy of Dante's trip to Safeway. And the three of us were atrocious at making conversation, probably because I forgot to make convo topic flashcards (this is the private school way of socializing, obvi). Our topics ranged from cannibalism to the fact that the forested areas on Tantalus are perfect for discreetly dumping a body. I am excited to have new friends, and next time we'll do something that doesn't include skirting the edge of a precipice in a Prius.

I didn't think he would actually wear my DIY flower crown for the duration of the pique-nique

"Can we camera-whore the entire time," Dante asked. Yes, of course. That is the only way. But Vicky was not very compliant

"NO"

"Why is this happening"

I did get a moment of clarity, though!

Maybe not here.

Thanks for trusting me enough even though it might have seemed like I was going to murder you guys deep in the pit of nature and harvest your organs for the black market. 

And thank u for readin' this. I wrote a shitty thing in my journal last night, although it was my first entry in a while. Maybe I'll come up with something interesting to post soon.

Until then,

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