I also get a lot of things by talking to Amber. She is not an artist but is very interesting. The things she sees and her problems in life feed my work; in fact, if you look over the work I've done since last summer you will see a lot of her influence in them. She has taught me many things, and because of her my work has improved ten times over.

I also draw a lot from music (Moby, PPK, ACDC, FSOL, Arrowsmith, 5th Level, Nickelback, Pink Floyd, Ozzy/Black Sabbath and a lot more) and movies and other art forms. I pick up my models at a coffeehouse called The Artful Dodger where I sit a lot. It's a place I go when I just need a break and where I can sit and talk to a lot of people. I've met a lot of people there over the years.

I also learn from the things that I have lived through, like going to Hallmark Institute of Photography in '96 (graduated in '97), and right after that joining the army. I got out of the army after a year because of a bad leg in '98. (I think the photo school was harder than basic training:  no drill sergeant was as hard on me as the teachers there.)

I have 10,000,000,000 things I could tell you about, but I do not want to write a book. I get a lot of feedback at photo web sites:  Photo.net has all my work, and I put new work up there first. I would like to thank all those people that take the time to look and leave comments on my photos—they really mean a lot to me.

Ok, now for the technical side of how I shoot. I use a Pentax k1000, a  50mm lens, 400 Fugicolor, Kodak 400 or 800, and Photoshop 7. Some of the works in my folders were shot with a 4x5, 210mm lens, Kodak 200 transparency or 200 b&w; Hasselblad 500c, 120mm or 80mm lens, Kodak 200 tri-x, 200 color, 400 or 400 tmax; Nikon 4004s, 30-to-70, Kodak 400 color or 400 Fugicolor.

For the most part what you see is stuff that was shot with my k1000. The computer I use varies:  Mac, Dell, and other PCs: I use whatever I can because I can't afford my own yet. Getting laid-off recently is not helping matters any. As for Photoshop 7, I start with a sort of an idea that I shot a person for ... It never works out, so I just play with the photos till I get something that looks good. So in other words, I just hit buttons lol. Shooting, well I shoot mostly in my apartment. I use the blanket that I sleep with every night and hang it on different walls to get the lighting I want.

I do not have a studio, so I have to use the light that comes through my windows. I have found that at different times of day different walls give different effects. So I find people to shoot who will work at that time of day. I also shoot people in my bathtub. It has a window, and I love the lighting in it. I also use a lamp tree with a 60-watt bulb. Most of those I turn b&w and just use the lighting patterns. Other places I shoot: an abandoned train station near where I live; an abandoned military school that looks like a castle; The Artful Dodger; and the courthouse.

I just go around and keep a mental record of good places and try to match people I pick to them. I get models by asking random people—I just walk up to them and ask if I can photograph them. To get my film and developing and photos on CD, I barter. It would cost me a lot of money to have this entirely done so I worked out a deal with a local film store, King Photo. They are by far the best, and even if I become famous I will have them process my film—they really do my photos the way I like.

I do not use a darkroom a lot because of time and money. The way I am doing it now costs me nothing, so when I have no money (like now) I still can get my film and developing done. How it works is that I digitally restore X number of photos for them for unused film, developing, and all the photos on CD. This saves me time because I do not have to scan or find a scanner, and I do not spend hours in a darkroom trying to get what I want.

Again, I would like to thank Amber. She does not understand how much she helps me with stuff—she looks at me weird every time I tell her, but I learn a lot from her and I hope to learn more.

If anyone wants to talk to me they can e-mail me at smoke4@rocketmail.com or AOL (I'm KGB40427). I would be happy to talk to you!!!