Airport freewrite!

Hey, Steemit friends! I’m cruising at 36,000 feet, en route to Los Angeles for a week of shooting. This is my last trip of the year. For six months, I’ve been whining about the cryptomarket slump and how “...any day now” I’ll be living the easy life, drawing comics with @ghostfish, playing MTG with @caffetto friends and taking a long overdue break from photography and traveling. Around October, I realized that’s not going to happen, at least any time soon. So, here I am. Back on a plane, back to LA; another week of shoots. On the positive side, I have a pretty cool job. I worked overnights at a psychiatric hospital or $10/hr, so by comparison, flying to a balmy 73º climate to take pictures of beautiful pinups in lingerie isn’t the worst one can do. I’ll also be seeing friends who I love and miss dearly. 

This seems like an ideal time for a good ol’ fashioned freewrite. I’m stuck in the middle seat, so what else am I going to do? This is a good opportunity to flex the portability of my new 12.9” iPad Pro. So far, it’s passing the tiny seats in coach test. This thing is SO close to be perfect. With initial benchmarks out from reputable sites like Anontech, this is desktop class hardware in a small tablet. The 1TB 12.9” iPad Pro has 6GB of RAM and an industry leading 7nm A12X Bionic processor. Really, what seems to be holding this device back in the lack of software to take advantage of so much power. Procreate continues to push what is possible for artists, and Adobe is promising a full version of Photoshop sometime next year. Otherwise, this is a very expensive NetFlix viewer.

Coming back to LA always stirs up feelings for me. You must keep in mind, I was born and raised in Scranton, PA. By in large, most people never leave that area, let alone navigate an art career [...also completely unheard of] all the way to the streets of Hollywood. Moving from Scranton to Minneapolis almost ten years ago seemed like an impossible feat, but to now be flying to Los Angeles on a regular basis, being paid to take pictures, is as surreal an experience now as my first time out here in 2013. I came out here with almost no money, after a horrible separation, and a rutterless direction of my art career. I scoff at how millions of people flock to LA with wide-eyed dreams of making it, but the truth is, that’s my story.

Crankiness aside, I’m looking forward to continuing my story in Los Angeles. For the last five years, I’ve been chipping away, leaving my mark with the style of photography I’ve become know for. Five years ago, I first told someone that I shot “dark pinup”, and as satisfying as it is to know I pioneered a style [...even if it is just a sub genre of a sub genre], it’s as, if not more important, to stay relevant. Especially in the last year, I’m seeing more and more photographers attempt dark pinup, sometimes with the same models and locations I’ve shot for years. @vermillionfox and @vintagevandalizm both stay on my case about being present on social media and shooting new work. In addition to paying the bills, that’s also what this is about.

This trip is a big part of why I wasn’t able to make Steemfest 3 this year. Not that I’m bitter. My mom, @bonni, came in to visit during the same dates as Steefest, and I loved seeing her and @guthrie together. I’m hopeful that next year, Steemfest 4 will be in the US. If not, I’m hopeful that the market will have recovered to a point that I can go wherever it’ll be held. I’ve made such good friends here on Steemit and I really need some FaceTime with all of you. I'm on the ground now, and just saw a horrendous crash in the market. Not what I wanted to see, but I just bought in another $500 of fiat. I'm not going anywhere. Thanks for reading! For more photography, art, illustration and stories behind the work, follow me here @kommienezuspadt!