.August 2024.

August has been more of a personal month; filled with family, friends, and a trip west mixed with some form of street style. After July I didn’t believe it was possible to shoot more… yet here we are - and loving every minute of it! It was not a mountain mayhem frenzy of endless landscape shots - but of course those are in the mix... Banff is an endless panoramic. Coming out of the pit of Alexisonfire & Blink-182 I woke up and felt the presence of the mountains and experienced the endless allure of nature’s grandeur. With the camera slung around my shoulder on every hike & scramble or wrapped around my wrist on every stroll through the streets of Calgary, synchronicities were firing off; reflective of my authentic-self. However, I did manage to lose one roll, tragically. 

After a raucous night out in Banff with my fellow Spaniard Alvaro (whom I’d previously met in Guatemala) I found myself strolling down Banff Ave early in the morning catching the sunrise as I made my way to back my friends loft. After shooting the last frames I felt the tension give and heard a tear. I knew what had happened. But my impatience and lack of a clear mind had me open the back to inspect the situation in a well-lit  room. There it was - all coiled up on the right side - out of the canister. I slammed the back shut and my heart sank into my stomach. After frantically consulting reddit I found myself in a pitch black laundry room, not a clue what to really do but slowly and blindly feed the film into the canister… it worked, I had done my best but this was going to haunt me indefinitely for the next few days. I was only mid way through the trip. Why did this happen? Why is my Camera experiencing this tension? All the photos of new friends, people I met on the street that I promised photos, shots I wasn’t even sure I had or hadn’t taken on this roll... I put it away, marked with a question and a sad face and moved forward. What is life without lessons. I had one last roll after that for the remainder of the trip, luckily it was my last 2 days in Banff/Canmore and I was off to Calgary where I could investigate and acquire more film. And for whatever reason, I experienced no tension or frame advance issues on the latter half of the trip. 

Given July’s Street Perspective  I wasn’t sure what I would produce creatively in August. Either way there is A LOT to digest here… 17 - ahem - 16 rolls of film! It took more than a few days to curate this Monthly 35mm. But I always like to include all photos I found impactful or interesting. I will never groom or edit the M35 for perfection until I publish a Best Of. I hope this sentiment is appreciated. I do my best to shoot in some capacity of Street because that is what interests me; yet also letting my style reveal itself and unfold as I go. I met some great people along the way and approached many for some portraits; aside from two short but curt negative experiences thus far, it is always a blast making people smile. The camera is proving to be a social magnet - a tool generating positivity, excitement, and conversation. Below we’ve got some Toronto/Calgary Street, my Nephew’s birthday, Banff, Kananaskis and good times with friends! As per the tensions issue.. it did manage to create some accidental beauty via double, triple, quadruple exposures.

Ultimately, August was a month well spent with people I don’t have the opportunity to see very often; and for that, I am grateful. Enjoy!