Tonight was the biggest night of the year for my hometown of Monmouth, Illinois, a small college town located somewhere deep in the center of the American agricultural heartland. I took my new Nikon D3100 along with me, and snapped about a hundred or so shots of the gorgeous wheels parked along the length of roughly eleven blocks of Main Street (north and south), with cars parked along most adjacent side streets as far as two blocks east and west from Main. Needless to say, there was ample eye candy for the sports car junkie.

Began shooting for my Photography class portfolio today. It was cold, it was rife with bouts of frustration and self-doubt, but above all, I believe it was a fun, productive learning experience. I basically journeyed about my hometown’s neighboring city of Galesburg (after picking up some sweet art supplies at Dick Blick, and then grabbing a bite to eat) in search of interesting photo opportunities, and then eventually made my way back into town to survey the college campus for inspiration. Like the fresh air-loving, TV-deprived Leonard Mead from Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Pedestrian,” I was approached by a campus security guard for looking suspicious when seen plodding about the campus late at night with a camera. Fortunately, no robots sent me to jail; but seriously, give a guy a fucking break, will ya?

Anyway, I think I managed to snap a couple fairly artful photographs:

More photographs and artwork will be posted (not all of it, but the stuff that’s truly worth sharing) in the months to come. Expect a lot of creative nonfiction essays, philosophical musings, and other fun stuff, as well. In the meantime, I’ll be doing a lot of freewriting, homework, and drawing. This semester looks to be a challenging one, but it will also be artistically fruitful; can’t really ask for more than that in this life.