dr jones

Sooooooooooooo I'm better now, for the most part. I'm coughing up buckets of flem, but there's no fever! The past 3 days i've been taking it slow. My sickness really took a tole on me... i still have very little energy and i'm pretty sure i lost muscle mass.

Anyways, Bangalore and I haven't meshed well yet, though. It's super busy here and hard to get anywhere. Even the taxis don't know where they're going. It's exhausting. I did see a bunch of monkeys today, though! i'm going to catch one and name him oscar.

Things will look up. I called my contact today so hopefully i'll have a story to work on tomorrow. I'm really getting restless here... i feel like i haven't shot any good images since Chennai.

I will post some images of Bangalore soon. For now... more old stuff.

These are some pictures from November 6, 2008 in Chennai.














This was the first cat i saw here in india... i freaked out and tried to steal it.


I miss Chennai.

More is soon to come.
Hope everyone in the states is appreciating the food they have there. I would give my left boob for a good grocery store with anything i want in it. I really want to make spaghetti, dammit.

OH! I watched Indiana Jones Temple of Doom last night with Adam and it's AMAZING. For being such an avid movie fan, i'm dissappointed in myself for neglecting to ever see that movie.

I need to start a story.

better.

So yesterday i stayed in all day because i was still sick. It was a good day though, because Adam bought me a box of Kellogg's Chocos Planets & Stars, and Becca let me borrow this Harry Potter 5 in 1 DVD she bought here in india! I think the combination of that and the fact that i finally shaved my legs made me better today!
(So i was in this competition with sam to see who could last the longest without shaving their legs. i could've gone longer, but i believe that my leg hair may have been contributing to my sickness because it was mentally grossing me out and giving me a negative outlook on myself. Is that at all believable?)

Anyways, here's a picture of me yesterday night, happy by myself with Harry and Chocos!



Even though i've been in Bangalore since TUESDAY, today was my first real day out and about. Unfortunately, i didn't have a lot of energy, and there wasn't much to shoot, but i was just happy to be out of the hotel room! It's supposed to start raining tomorrow, but that won't stop me from shooting! I HAVE TO SHOOT.

Now, some real pictures....

textures




These images are from November 4th in Chennai...










My sickness has given me the time to edit. More soon...

maybe it's the drugs...

I AM NOT HOMESICK.

just sick sick.

Being sick in india sucks.
I actually don't mind being sick in the US because it gives me time to relax and do a lot of things i love doing.... such as:
Putting my 40" Samsung to work by
watching ENTIRE seasons of TV shows like: Entourage, The Office, 30 Rock, Scrubs, Chappelle Show, Family Guy. (my mom is going to puke when she reads this)
Watching back to back to back to back movies on HBO/Showtime/Stars
and by playing Super Street Fighter 2 on Super Nintendo.

Being sick also inspires me to cook.
NOTHING sounds better right now then making my spaghetti sauce and spaghetti with garlic bread. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmMMMMmmmmmmm.
Or Korean chicken and rice with miso soup with green onion and mushrooms.
Or scrambled eggs with turkey bacon, refried beans, tortillas, and homemade salsa.
Or homemade mac and cheese!!!!

i'm hungry.

Adam, Becca, Josh, Maddy, amd Sam all went out tonight while i stayed behind to get better....
I requested for them to bring me ice cream brownie thing or cheese popcorn. I hope they bring one of the two!

This past Sunday we saw the new bond movie. I think they cut a lot of the scenes. Also, in the middle of the movie there was an intermission... weird! I was so excited to go just for the popcorn.... and that's exactly what i got. I ate SOOOO much popcorn. okay i'm just talking nonsenses now.

publish post.

sicken it.

First of all, excuse my spelling errors. I write these post spontaneously, and if i didn't, they would never be posted. I try and go over them, but by the time i finish editing, resizing, toning, and arranging my images, i'm all burnt out. Also, i'm sick. I read my posts from yesterday and some didn't make sense. I must have been delerious. I edited them today, so hopefully they are better now.

ANYWAYS...
Being sick sucks. Check it.... Yesterday morning i was all excited because i finally got some conditioner and i blow dried my hair.. so i took this photobooth pic:

How soft does my hair look? It was BANGen.
About 12 hours after that image was taken i started feeling like crap.

Then today i woke up feeling worse than EVER. My throat was trying to kill me and i couldn't stop coughing. I went to the hospital because i still had a fever of 101.2. This amazing doctor treated me, and gave me new medicine that better work. It's funny, this doctor was better than the majority of other doctors i've had in the states. They didn't have the same equipment though... to look down my throat, the doctor put a curved metal thing in my mouth and used a huge camping flashlight. kind of awesome.

Anyways, this is how i looked all day today:

I'm a sexy beast. HAB, actually.
i haven't had a fever since this morning, so that's a good sign. My throat is still bothering me, but i'll manage.
I'm getting really anxious though! I WANT TO GO OUT AND SHOOT! With all of this downtime i've editing my work, and it's getting me all excited to shoot; but i'm bedridden.

I NEED TO GET BETTER, NOW.

Sooooooo
since i've had all this time to edit... i have more pictures to share!

November 4, 2008
Sheba Temple, Chennai India

We went to the Sheba Temple to shoot. We got there and all of these people are talking about this big event that was happening later that night. I have a terrible memory, and i don't want to get this wrong, so i'm not even going to try to explain in. Just check out the images...












I just realized i couldn't tell the story in 5 images. Well, you'll just have to wait until April 2nd!
I'm really excited about this story because 4 of us worked on it... and we all got a lot of good images and sound!

That's all for now!
Wish that my sickness is defeated by tomorrow!


me.

The Element of Surprise...

So my adviser, Paul PapaSmurf Myers, just emailed the entire crew basically telling us to stop posting all of our images! He's, we need people to be surprised when we get back, or why would people come to our show?

So i'm limiting myself to 3-5 pictures a post.... unless they are funny group shots. That's right, just a taste of what i got. It's going to kill me, but if you want to see more, you're going to have to buy the book, DVD, and come to our gallery openings (April 2, 2009 in Santa Barbara).

I also found out that we're still doing presales. If you have any love for photography, or me, you will buy a presale! It's $40 for a book/DVD combo. This is a good deal because when we get back, the price for just the book will be $45 and DVD will be about $25. Below is a jpeg of the presale form. All the information needed is there, but be sure to write my name, Amanda Reyes aka Amandar Reytard (somehow that has become my nickname here), on the form!

So click it, print it, fill it out, mail it in. NOW!!! *that means you justin... you promised before i left!


So i'll leave you now with this...
November 5. 2008 (In Chennai it was November 5th, in the US it was November 4. 2008)
Taj Hotel, Chennai, Madras, India.

The US Consulate General held an even at the Taj Coromandal Hotel in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, for the US Presidential election. When my group found out about it, we were excited, but didn't expect what we saw.
Red, white and blue decorations everywhere. There was a mock voting booth along with human size cut-outs of John McCain and PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA. Tons and tons of students showed up... the place was packed with a line out the door and around the corner to get in. We interviewed the students and they knew all about the policies that were debated about between the two candidates. Unfortunately, when the students asked us about the election in India, we had no clue what was going on. 5 students covered this story, and we've already started to put together a multimedia video about it. It is AMAZING.

The Taj


This was right before the results were read... packed.


Everyone was anticipating the results.


I was in India, with goosebumps, when i first heard that Barack Obama was elected to be the President of the United States of America. It was my first time ever voting in a Presidential Election... and i'm so happy that my candidate won.

While we were there, we were interviewed by the local newspapers, and made it into a few. Stephanie, Adam, and I were all quoted in different newspapers. Check it out HERE.

i'm famous.

haha jk.

That's all for now... have i mentioned that i'm sick? Well, Adam's been sick for like 6 days and passed it along to me. i don't think it's anything too serious, just a cold with a fever. I went to the doctors yesterday and they gave me medicine, and i think it's working....

Anyways, i just downloaded the new episodes of the office, so i'm going to watch them while i try to get better so i can go out and shoot later!

until next time.....

me.

TukTuk/Rickshaws

This is how we get around in india:

how bad ass are these rickshaws aka tuktuks?!?!

So as the intelligent adults that we all are, we've been racing each other....












In Chennai, we've all adopted our own drivers. Adam and I share Suresh





He is AMAZING.. and the fastest driver. We always kicked ass.

We are NUMBER 1!


Then these are just some fun night images...

See how fast we're going?





I want to buy one and bring it home.

what do you think, mom?

Mamallapuram

November 3, 2008
Mamallapuram
few favorites....

i seriously don't need to saturate my images... everything is so colorful here


This man got really mad at me for taking his picture, but i like it!


there are bikes everywhere


I love animals, but i'm afraid to touch any here.. you understand


This boy was just naked. by himself. no adults anywhere near.


I love everything here.


coconuts are everywhere


I love textures. i cannot get enough.


So this lady hates me. I took her picture, and she wanted me to give her money after. That would normally be fine, but all i had was american $20 bills. I dug through my bag and found one rupee (there are 47 rupees to an american dollar). I gave her the rupee, and she threw it back at me and probably cursed. i couldn't understand what she said.... but i'm sure it wasn't good.


That's all for now!

more soon!