I spent most of my month-long east-coast hiatus hiding in New Bern, the city in which I grew up and where my mother still resides. After a year of incredible chaos, I was really looking forward to nothing more than sitting down on a couch in bumfuck eastern NC, doing my work in solitude and hanging out with no one except my mother and my cat (I’m a long-distance cat owner until I can justify flying Raphael to SF), drinking Bailey’s and watching Oprah.

Of course, after a day or two I began to get stir crazy and began to contact humanity again, as well as take some photos of all you can really photograph in New Bern during the winter – myself, my cat, bear statues, and whoever happened to wander into my mother’s house. Enjoy.

So I had a rather daunting (+ exciting) task ahead of me over the holidays – shooting my first wedding.

The exciting part – Shooting for the Coleman family, who I’ve known for almost half of my lifetime. Seeing and catching up with wonderful people I haven’t seen in years. Seeing the bride, Molly, for the first time since I was fourteen. Taking pictures of beautiful people + fun times.

The daunting part – If you miss a shot, you can’t go back and retake it. If you miss lots of shots/ don’t present a set of incredible, beautiful photos, you are liable for an eternity of resentment for failing to capture the pinnacle of epic photo days. No pressure.

Solution – I decided to chill out and shoot it like I’m there hanging out and just happen to be taking pictures to accompany a story for my blog.

I flew down to New Bern, NC, my hometown, to shoot the wedding at the church in which I grew up, then the reception at The Chelsea, a whopping block from my mom’s house. It was great to see so many faces from my adolescence. Half of folks didn’t recognize me at first. I guess it really has been a while… 8 years or so for some of them.

Ben + Molly were beautiful, and it was amazing to see multiple generations of married children + parents + grandparents, all still completely happy and totally in love. It certainly gives me hope for humanity.

Here are some of my personal faves from the day.

END!

I took a trip to Durham on Thursday with my friend Danny. It’s about that time where I have to plan elaborate lunch adventures to celebrate the last time I see my friends for a very long time. An especially long time in Danny’s case, as not only am I moving to California, but he is moving to Eastern Europe in a week to join the Peace Corps. It will be at least two years until we see each other again, so I’d be damned if we weren’t going to have something good as our last meal.

I decided on the Federal. Mostly because I love the structure, and the food… and everywhere else I wanted to try wasn’t open for lunch. I had curry corn chowder + bread + butter + half of a grilled cheese piled with roasted tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, and balsamic on grilled focaccia. ALL FOR FIVE DOLLARS. Best lunch special ever?

Conveniently, it also happened to be Danny’s birthday. It was officially on Friday, but he was born in Korea, so according to Korea time, his birthday commenced while we were having lunch.

So we celebrated.

Birthday jump.

Danny actually fell on his face approximately 0.5 seconds after this photo was taken. Maybe he’ll practice his jumping while in Europe.

We had some time to kill, so we asked waitress where we should head next. She advised us to either check out a graveyard down the street (we checked it out for 2 seconds. uninspiring.), or go over to the Duke Gardens. We ended up choosing the latter.

New friend.

Accidental outtake. Turned out halfway interesting.

END!

Just another day of jumping around Raleigh.

I noticed this little gem on the way back from the Bain Project. Never knew it existed. I fell in love with it immediately.

So I brought back witnesses to jump in front of it with me.

Jumpfail 1.

Jumpfail 2.

Jumpfail 3. Seb is winner.

Then off to the graveyard.

Jumpfail 4.

SUCCESS!!!! I really need to get a remote, so I don’t have to deal with this timer hassle anymore.

And then we rest.

Just a hodgepodge of random Raleigh photos from 2009.

I finally graduated from college. I say “finally” as if it took me longer than expected, but I finished in four years. I’ve just been ready to graduate for about 3.5 years now.

Graduation jump.

The day eventually progressed into what became a night of drinks and debauchery with an eclectic group of folks, including my mother.

State Capitol grounds post-beverages jump.

A night to remember.

On Sunday (5/10) I had the chance to explore Raleigh’s historic abandoned Bain Water Treatment Plant (aka E.B. Bain Waterworks). The site opened up to the public to display The Bain Project, a collective display of work by a group of artists in a variety of disciplines, a few of which are friends of mine.

It was Mother’s Day. Mother had no plans, brother was in town… so I figured I’d drag them out there with me with the assumption that they’d find it halfway engaging. I couldn’t wait.

The map says it’s on Fayetteville Street. So I park on Fayetteville near the Raleigh Times and begin walking south. What I don’t realize at the time is the plant is located way down south. Almost-to-the-beltline south.

So the walk continues. No sight of the plant on Fayetteville. (I had wondered why I had never encountered this building before.) Google tells me the plant’s actual location. We are faced with the decision to retreat or continue. We decide it’s nice weather, and the additional walk couldn’t be THAT far anyway.

After about an hour or so of southbound wandering through unfamiliar seedy territory, we finally find Bain in all its glory. I am in heaven. Color and decay and creativity and morbidity everywhere. I came back twice that day.

View my complete set of Bain Project photos on my Flickr.

For more info on The Bain Project, visit bainproject.com.

(Complete Bain Project photo collection on my Flickr.)