Positive Thinking and "Mai Pen Rai" are Paying Off

In a recent article published by Wealth Wire, titled "The Secret to Living a Longer, Fuller Life" it was shown that maintaining a happy disposition can be more beneficial to your longevity than many believe.

Until recently, researchers have largely focused on the genetic components that allow centenarians to reach the age 100.  But researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine as part of their Longevity Genes Project, with the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology of Yeshiva University have found that personality traits like being outgoing and optimistic may also contribute to longer lives.

It has been probably my biggest argument in life. Anyone person that I have ever spoken with on the quality of life, the struggles we face, and the ultimate way to find peace all stem from one thing: positive thinking.
Throughout the years I've written a lot about life and what it means to live life in a complete and healthy manner. I'm no expert. I don't have the answers, but I have my beliefs and what I feel truly makes for a happier, more peaceful life and it all boils down to the idea of keeping a positive mentality.
To get through life's hardest times, it takes the power of positive thinking to get you through it. No matter the circumstances, there is always a silver lining in life, there is always a positive to come from it, it just takes someone who's accustom to thinking that way to see it. Any situation life presents you is an opportunity for a positive outcome, whether it be losing a job, failing an exam, being stricken with disease, having your heart broken, or being insulted by someone else. No matter how horrid those scenarios are, there is always a positive way of embracing them all. The quicker you see it, the quicker it will happen. Positive thinking leads to positive actions. This is true even for things you feel are out of your power.
I've spoken at schools, written articles for various publications, and simply been a friend to those in need and have discussed this topic at length. No matter the occasion, there is absolutely no reason to think poorly on situations.
Negative mentality equals negative energy which in turn leads to negative results. It's a simple philosophy that I firmly stand by. I live by it. So much so it's ingrained permanently in my soul and on my skin.
Back in 2006, after six months of truly discovering the unbelievable things life has to offer through travel, spirituality, and open-mindedness, I decided to get a tattoo.
It seemed cliche, getting a tattoo after studying abroad. But I didn't care. I knew it was deeper, more meaningful than that. I had been living with positive mentality philosophy for many years before that day I stepped into the tattoo parlor directly off the beach in Au Nang, Thailand. And I knew I was going to express my appreciation to living a happy, healthy, peaceful, and carefree life with a tattoo.
My chance to connect with the Thai culture was a success while studying abroad. I saw what life was like in a country where the value of a life was much more than in western cultures. Not in terms of money or benefit to society, but the respect of the body, mind and soul was something you saw more frequently in Asia. I never wanted to forget that.
Specifically in Thailand, people's way of living is slower. Life didn't move too fast, even in Bangkok's vast and hectic metropolis. That is something I connected with. And much of that stemmed from the phrase that you heard very frequently within the language, "mai pen rai" which means "do not worry/it's ok/everything is fine." When I explain that to some western friends, they say, "oh yea, 'Hakuna Matata!'"
Essentially they have the same meanings but it was philosophy ingrained in the culture and lexicon. I can recall hundreds of times I spoke the phrase in Thai to someone -- stranger or friend-- it always resulted in the biggest smile to their face. The phrase 'mai pen rai' is a way of living that you dealt with everyday in Thailand.. Mai pen rai is a way to treat your mind, body, and soul and not get caught up in the superficial, unnecessary and less beneficial way of life. It teaches me to breathe, appreciate and be happy. This is why I got my tattoo on the top of my foot, a place that you only look at when you are looking down. One look at the ink upon my skin and I know that whatever it is that is getting me down, it's not worth sulking about. As they say, "Everything will be OK in the end. If it's not OK, it's not the end."
I guess there are many ways to say it; "Don't sweat the small stuff", "Life's too short...", "Live life to the fullest", etc. All of these a representation of the main idea of living life to it's greatest extent and with a positive mentality and you too will reach old age with happiness in your heart.
As the article explained,

"When I started working with centenarians, I thought we'd find that they survived so long in part because they were mean and ornery," said Dr. Nir Barzila, study co-author, director of Einstein's Institute for Aging Research and chair of its division of Aging, in a press release.
However according to Dr. Barzila, the study found qualities that clearly reflected a positive attitude towards life. Most were outgoing, optimistic, easygoing and considered laughter an important part of life. Many had a large social network and expressed emotions openly rather than bottling them up.

This is what we all must strive for, a more outgoing, optimistic, and easygoing life full of laughter and love. It may sound like rainbows and cupcakes to some. But those who believe that appreciating the smaller, more positive things in life is just a narrow-minded, hopeless-romantic way of covering up the harsher, crueler, and more rigid world clearly hasn't stopped to appreciate the beauty of a rainbow and the deliciousness of a cupcake. And to me, it's sad to know that happiness cannot be as easily accessed to them. Because ultimately it is all about training your mind to believe it. 

12 Days of Thankfulness: Well Made Videos

Sitting at a computer for most of the day allows for YouTube videos and others to land on my double monitors. Sometimes I need a little motivation to keep working through the day. As I am not a coffee drinker, I typically look for something else to give me some energy or excitement.
Very often I find myself watching a YouTube video to grab my attention for a bit. So for this post, I am thankful for videos that produce some emotion and are a cut above the regular Tosh.0/America's Funniest Home Videos/viral garbage out there. In the world of Google and YouTube, there is plenty to be distracted by, so why not make it meaningful and interesting: whether it be well designed/directed short films, great eye catching trailers, interesting music videos, or simply something that you get a truly genuine emotion out of rather than your average "laugh at that person fall off a bicycle" reaction. Just as I look for my photography to create an emotion, I look for artists to do so with video.
So is a list of some of my favorite videos recently:

Bangkok By Night: My friend Cole, who is currently teaching in Bangkok at my old employer, has a knack for catching the everyday nightlife of the great capital of Thailand. He captures the speed yet laid back feel that Bangkok has when the city lights turn on. The nostalgia is incredibly powerful with this video he made.

19 (and 18) Days of Thankfulness

Today I am thankful for two to make up for missing Saturday:
First, I am thankful for water. You often forget how important water is for life (whether it be our planet or our bodies).

We just reached 7 billion people on planet earth and 1/7 of that (nearly 1 billion) people live without clean drinking water. Clean, drinkable water is such a vital asset of life and when you have the great fortune of living in a country with drinkable water highly accessible, you sometimes forget that.

Water surrounds our everyday lives. To replenish our bodies, to bring life to plants and trees, to clean our laundry, dishes, cars, bodies, etc. We rely on water and we can often take it for granted by wasting it.

Sadly, when something is so crucial to life, someone/company tries to profit. One film that I highly recommend checking out --which will forever change the way you look at the bottled water industry-- is called Taped. Check out their website which discusses the injustices and robbery of free municipal water.

But --like everything-- with every negative, like the previously mentioned rich water bottling companies, there is a positive. That positive is the awareness and overall charitable actions of those so lucky to have water and money to donate to a good cause like The Water Project. This great foundation provides information and ways to help those in need of fresh, clean water.

While in Africa, I got to see many people who's lives revolved around water specifically. Their days were driven by the long, grueling trips to water for their families. And their use of it was conservative and strategic. When living in a home where the water was literally looked at as "liquid gold" or one's "life blood" your perspective is changed. I challenge you to donate to such a great charity that can changes the lives of not millions, but billions of people. (Be sure to check out Water.org as well for more information)

The second thing I am thankful for ties into the water discussion and that is charities and being aware of the world around you.

Nostalgia is a Powerful Drug

There is not much in my life that I can say that sends me into a deep nostalgic place more than images of Thailand...
For the almost three total years in the Land of Smiles, I have an ample amount of love and connection with the country which I lived it so peacefully.
Recently, I have been offered another photography exhibit and the curator enjoyed a lot of my "travel" photos. So, in my attempt to gather some of my favorites, I had to dig through my photos, dating way back to 2006 all the way up to today. I have barely scratched the surface of the amount of thousands upon thousands of photographs that I need to look through because most of the time, that sweet sweet taste of nostalgia comes in and sweeps me (and my productivity) away.
But the beauty of it all is that I have images to bring me right back to that time, place, smell, sound, feeling, etc.
At the request of a friend interested in some of my work -- whom I lived in Thailand with for six months -- I scoured through my photos, but only of Bangkok, and narrowed down some basic BKK life shots. In between flipping through folders, I looked at my fellow photographer/Thailand lover/Ajarn Rich's photos on his blog at http://dickmarks.com
...His work is stellar and I highly recommend looking at his stuff and his writing.

Courtesy of Richard W. Marks

I also stumbled upon another talented photographer whom I am a fan of on Facebook named Luciano Mortula. This picture of his brought me right back to Ramkhamhaeng Road in Bangkapi. It was just a rush of memories and feelings when looking at both Rich and Luciano's photos from Thailand.

Titled: C I T Y O F A N G E L S Courtesy of Luciano Mortula

So without any delay, I needed to post a few images that remind me of the life in Bangkok. If you have lived there, I hope the memories come rushing back to you as they do for me. If you have never been there, hopefully you'll get a better understanding of the jai dee life.

*Be sure to head over to my website for more photos in my Nostalgic Thailand gallery and wander around the rest of michaeltirone.com for some new photos.
**If you are interested in some of my photos (whether it be to print, frame, or just have a digital copy) please contact me at wmtirone@gmail.com

Eyes of Self Exhibit Premiering in Mt. Vernon!

Just recently I was asked to showcase some of my work at a gallery in Baltimore just near where I work. Obviously, it’s a great feeling that someone with a good taste in artistic work respects my photographs to give me not only one month of an exhibit but three. I will be setting up for the next few days at Shapiro’s Café and Gallery in Mt. Vernon, Baltimore and the premiere is scheduled for Tuesday from 5-7pm.

The exhibit that I will be displaying first is my older showcase titled Eyes of Self ~ Each Young Eastern Soul Offers a Frame: Southeast Asian Life Through the Faces of the Youth. My book that I made on this exhibit is on sale here or you can preview it on the box to the left of this post. I love this exhibit as it displays pictures from my great time abroad in Thailand back in 2006. The pictures are more thematic than other projects that I work on and it was my very first photography showcase, so it obviously holds a great place in my heart.

 My next exhibit that will replace the Eyes of Self one is still to be determined but I know that most of the photographs will be from my past three years traveling and taking even more photographs with new equipment and experiences to help improve my work. This exhibit will premiere the second week of June and will stay up until around August.

If you are going to be in the Baltimore area during the next few months, I would love for you to come by the gallery and take a look around. Also if you are free for our premiere next Thursday, May 19^th, we are going to have free drinks, food provided by Shapiro’s amazing menu and hopefully some live music or at least some good times to be had.

The gallery right now looks amazing with the set up of the café. There are two separate areas in the café and two very different vibes from the front and back rooms but they all come together perfectly. We’ll have a comment book and my coffee table photography book on the Eyes of Self exhibit where you can read my Artist’s Statement and see even more photographs from my project.

I hope to see you all there on Thursday and stopping in on occasion to take a look at my work—or the other great artists’—at Shapiro’s.

Here are a few photos from the exhibit being displayed. (Pictures from the Premiere will be posted later.)

สุขสันต์วันสงกรานต์ Happy Songkran! ~Travelog Thursday

Songkran mayhem in Chiang Mai.

In an effort to shorten up the writing on my Travelog Thursday, this week I will just give a brief description the special and famous three-day holiday in Thailand called Songkran. It is the Thai New Year celebration and kicked off every April 13th and ends April 15th through all of the regions of Thailand.

Wat Chedimon celebrating Songkran which bases off of the religious holiday of cleaning the temple and Buddha statues.

It is the country's most popular and fun holiday, as the entire country takes the three days to rejuvenate and start a new year on a fresh foot. Such a fresh foot that all of the harmful things we carry with us each day are to be literally washed away with chalk powder and water. A cleansing of the soul in some sorts. So for the three days, the country holds what could be best described as a massive, country-wide waterfight. Several other countries celebrate similar holidays or traditions with water, but Thailand is known for this incredible celebration. Everyone is a target to splash water on, not out of revenge or spite or anger, but because it is to give you good luck and wash all of the bad things in your life away. So when that stranger dumps a bucket of ice water over your head, they really are doing it out of celebration of the new year, AND they are actually helping you cool down as mid-April is the hottest time of the year in Thailand.

Phantom splashes surprise this young girl.

This songtaew (local taxi truck) drove by me and splashed me as it pulled around the corner. When I looked up, I saw a bunch of smiling monks looking back at me with suspecting smiles. That was a really beautiful experience, being involved in the holiday with even the monks finding a little fun in the water festival.

May Your Madness be Meaningful... and Mad ~ Travelog Thursday

As I sit in my living room with the patio doors open pouring in fresh spring air, i have two laptops on my desk and our tv on rotation with three of the four NCAA basketball games on every possible way. A mirage of sounds are coming out of apartment 2B; shoes squeaking, cheerleaders making out-of-rhythm cheers from all the 9 teams currently playing , in-depth announcers spatting out the plays, and crowds roaring at various big plays. What is in front of me? My brackets ridden with cross-outs, fill-ins, and highlight marks. A warrior's prep kit sits in front of me; a glass of Crystal Lite to get hydrated before the holiday of drunkenness commences tonight and my St. Patrick's green clothing folded on my coffee table, ready to be adorn shortly. Today is March 17^th. Most would consider this a glorious day for the Irish and alcohol lovers, but for me, that plays second fiddle to the unofficial holiday I am celebrating today. This is bigger than Christmas, it's more exciting. It's more significant than Thanksgiving, it's more meaningful. This is more patriotic than Independence Day, fireworks happen sporadically and not in an organized finale.

My set up for the first day of the NCAA tourney. Two computers, several brackets, HD tv, and a glass of Crystal Lite. Yup.

This is the first day of March Madness. If there has been a consistent sporting event that I have written about throughout my life, it has been the NCAA tournament. I remember the very first time I filled out a bracket for my dad's pool. I knew a little bit about college basketball as a 12 year old, but that moment it clicked. My first tournament pool and my first victory against adults. It was invigorating. From then on I have filled out a bracket; at 13 I made two and wrote a poem about how fun it was, at 14 I had three brackets and spent hours on research, by high school it was a full-fledged addiction. I skipped school and took “sick days” for the first two days of the tourney. At 15 I sat and watched every game with the each timeout break giving live updates on the start of America's war in Afghanistan. It was a memory I will always have, having the thrilling excitement of the first games and brackets being tested but the lows of teenage friends having to watch as our country embarked on war. Once college tipped off, it was not even a question, classes took a backseat.

So I had ten years of pure ecstasy of the tournament and then I left to live abroad in Thailand. College basketball was nearly impossible to find on television in The Land of Smiles and so I did not pay very much attention to the regular season other than my favorite Tar Heels of North Carolina. The regular season came and went and I got my usual college basketball tournament invitations. A tradition is a tradition so I absolutely signed up.

Just Keep Running

It's been nearly nine months since my return back into America and the spoiled life that I lived in Thailand for more than two years has caught up with me. While in Thailand, it's sort of the unwritten law that men lose weight if living there for a significant amount of time and women typically gain weight. This was a great surprise my first time living in Thailand for 6 months back in 2006. But when I knew I was going back to Thailand in 2008, I pigged out, knowing full well that I would be able to shed the weight easily in Thailand. I didn't used to be like this, as my old habits of exercise used to be great and I truly enjoyed the daily physical activity. Now I just feel old and slowly gaining back the weight I lost in Thailand. My last days in Thailand were my thinnest in a LONG time simply because I had just finished ordaining as a Buddhist monk for a month and lived by a strict diet which lost me about 12 pounds in just a month.

Here enjoying my first meal back to Lay life after Buddhist ordination for one month and losing nearly 12 pounds. This is about as skinny as I have been in a long time.

The culprit that brought my love for food back on a vicious track, "chao ping" and chicken with peppers; China 2's specialities. 

Finally the time has come where my old exercising habits are needed, so for the first time since training to climb Mt. Kinabalu back in October of 2009, I went for a run. It was not much of a run, but I mapped out a route and hit the road. Baltimore is still a bit cold out, but the weather was sunny (with an extra hour of daylight) and so I gave it a shot. The brisk chill didn't bother my legs or bare arms but more so my expanding lungs. That tight burning in the chest wouldn't go away. At first it felt great to have it again considering that I only got the feeling the past two years from high altitude climbing but by mile one, the fun was over and the pain was glaring. But just as all my coaches in high school used to say, "just run through it".

Once getting to the last leg of my run, I was unhappily surprised by the one road I did not know of named Concordia Drive. Come to find, Concordia Dr. was not too flat, but rather my own "Heartbreak Hill" of my loop. This mile long road was the final part of my run and although not extremely steep my out of shape body was telling me that what I was doing to it was a sick joke and it wanted to go back to fasting for a month on rice and tea instead of running anymore. And as much as I would enjoy that as well, that is (and was) not an option. I finished the run and it beat me up, but beneath the sore knees and fast-appearing blisters, I sense a small taste of excitement to get back in shape and keep running. 

Photography's Impact

I just recently read an amazing article on Gizmodo.com which discusses the dramatic impact that photography had on the civil rights movement, specifically in the Project C protests in Birmingham, AL in 1963.

Please read this article, as it addresses the overwhelming influence of the photographs portraying the despicable treatment of African-Americans in the streets of Birmingham.

http://gizmodo.com/#!5763793/sound-familiar-photography-and-americas-civil-uprising

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I look at this article and make many comparisons toward recent events and/or social conflicts that I have lived through. For instance, the Coup De Tat of 2006 in Thailand, the hidden societal slandering of the Chinese government of the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising, and the violent protests of Bangkok in 2010.

Thai, "Yellow shirt", protestors take over the Government House in downtown Bangkok, Thailand in August, 2008.

The affect of today's technology has obviously played incredible roles in all of these issues, with Twitter, Facebook and other social networks being the face of modernized uprisings and protests (as seen in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya). So much so that even one Egyptian man named his newborn daughter "Facebook" after its largely influential impact on democratic overthrowing of Hosni Mumbarak just a few weeks ago.

But what has remained constant, over time, through struggle and discourse, is the element of images. Whether they are moving or still, colored or gray-scaled, focused or blurred, being able to capture the essence of a society, emotion, movement, or event is something any photographer strives for.

The beauty of capturing significant moments in time can only be as valuable as to document that moment accurately, justly, and appropriately. To skew a reader/viewer toward your bias or perspective is what some say is the right of every artist. But in a time of important change or struggle, say within a country's political system like Egypt's, putting your own spin on the situation is disgraceful.

I mention the Egyptian revolution specifically as my friend, Ghazala, has recently taken what is said in Gizmodo's article on the impact of photography during the civil rights movement and morphed it with the modern-day necessity of technology. Ghazala, a former fellow teacher of English in Thailand with me, has recently moved to Cairo for graduate studies. Upon arriving, the push for a change in power within the country occurred right before her eyes. And just like she did in Thailand during the protests of downtown Bangkok, she went into the heart of it like a good journalist would do -- not to mention a courageous journalist. And with risk comes reward. After snapping hundreds and hundreds of amazing images. Instead of concealing them for her own portfolio, she announced them with backstories and details into every incredible moment on Facebook and Twitter. Without bias, without prejudgement, but allowing for the photos to speak for themselves. With excellent photos comes emotion and reaction and that is precisely what happened with Ghazala's work. She was constantly on Facebook updating statuses and photographs, and on Twitter communicating with every person she knew about the crisis in Egypt but also informing the world of a fellow young adults view of the action. There were no CNN reporters standing on pedestals in front of crowds dressed in newly pressed shirts or even video of the chants echoing from Tahrir Square, but rather just raw images of struggle and hardship, all for one cause -- freedom.

After a few days, Ghazala's images reached a larger scale than her Twitter followers, but the Al Jazeera network, then featured in photography blogs, then publishing companies, then Egyptian individuals that simply want to document this revolution accurately for their children. The work of an inspired individual, foreign to the country, has passed inspiration to others, by being able to capture change and emotion.

You may not know Charles Moore of the Black Star who has many important photographs during the Project C protests in Birmingham in 1963, and perhaps you may never had the privilege to know Ghazala Irshad, but there work and their freeze frames in time -- in history -- is what you will remember. That's the beauty of a photographer. Being behind the camera may seem less glamorous to some than to me be in front of it, but all is relative. In a world where images of people are absorbed in and spit out by the hundreds a minutes, with advertisements and "famous" celebrities providing eye stimuli, the genuine nature of good images by a talented photographer is what matters in history. Fame may make the front page of newspapers and the back page of high school yearbooks, but photography makes all of the pages in history books.

Because when all else fails, when news networks can't get there, writers lose their words, and stories become misconstrued, truthful, compelling images will always prevail.

Bodhgaya, India ~ Travelog Thursday premiere!

Every Thursday I will be posting short stories about my travels and adventures and post photos to support them. This week's Travelog is from one of the holiest (if not, the most) places in Buddhism, Bodhgaya, India.

~Bodhgaya, India

The other day I was driving through Pennsylvania after a icy storm hit the area. The road conditions were fine but on both sides of the road were beautiful images of rolling hills covered in shear ice with a lonely, leafless tree sitting in the distance atop the hill. Seeing it through the fog hovering over the open fields was almost eerie but still calming. Those multiple scenes continued to stick in my mind miles further down the road. I kept thinking to myself, “I should have stopped and taken a photo of that scene.” I even was angry at a car pulling off to the side of the road whom I believed was “stealing my photo!” My sense of entitlement might seem a bit egregious but I struggle with the idea of a photo or scene not being captured the first time.

Once getting home, I thought of other times in my travels where I saw a scene that would have been a spectacular photograph, but missed it. I was going to write about such stories, but realized it would only frustrate me more. I pondered on the many times where I caught myself saying, “man, I missed a great photograph there.” But then recalled that many times, I did actually return to the scene with my camera in hand and got the photo I was looking for.
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Below, you'll see a photo I took at the Bodhi Tree (Tree of Enlightenment) in Bodhgaya, India. The actual tree and place in which the Buddha reached Enlightenment after meditating underneath this tree for nearly seven weeks. This is the holiest of sites in Buddhism, as this is the place Buddhism began.



My time in Bodhgaya was one of many emotions. It was my first time seeing my friends whom I left in Varnassi two weeks prior to set out on traveling by myself. Solo traveling in India is not the easiest venture and it resulted in some truly difficult and frustrating times, but also very memorable moments as well. So upon my arrival, I somehow found my friends after staying awake for nearly 25 hours traveling and shared stories over some palak paneer. It was comforting to not have my guard up the entire meal and simply relax a bit with close friends. The restaurant we were at was very interesting. The entire menu gave two set prices; “cheap price” and “caring price”. The idea was you received the same meal but the caring price gave the additional rupees you paid toward a local charity and/or paid for the same meal to be served to a starving child. I obviously chose the caring price and had myself a fairly tasty meal.



Unfortunately, I had to say goodbye to my friends once again as they were off to their next city and I was about to head to one of the most amazing places in the world, Mahabodhi Stupa where the holy Bodhi Tree sits. As I got to the entrance I was completely in awe of the massive stupa and the tree beside it. I actually was beside myself. And sadly, my stomach seemed to be just beside itself as well. I walked around the stupa snapping hundreds of photos and praying, all the while my stomach began to tie itself in a knot. The “caring” meal did not live up to its name. I slowly contemplated heading back to my hotel room as my stomach was killing me. So I decided to pack up my camera and see if I could wait it out. After resting a bit longer, I needed to leave the stupa for the day and rest up.

Here is when I saw a photograph that I had to have. It was one of the very last leaves left on the Bodhi tree as the rest had fallen down for the season, wrinkled and brown. But this leaf sat against a blue sky with pink and red shades, completely unaware of its surroundings all falling toward the Earth. I had to get this photo, especially as it was a timely photo. The urgency in it was extreme because if I missed it today, who knows if it would be there tomorrow but with my camera already packed in my bag and my mission to head back to my hotel, I decided to ignore it. As I walked passed the fruit vendors with hundreds of flies around each basket on my way home and the random fires kicking up smoke and dust from the unpaved roads, I began thinking to myself, “If I take my camera out now, my point of ignoring that photo of the leaf at the stupa is meaningless.” Well, the brief seconds it took to simply pull my camera out and snap some photos did not hinder the status of my stomach bug but rather fueled my anger in leaving the photo "back at the alter" per se.

I stopped to get some random medicine at the shop near the hotel and finally got to my hot and sticky room to lay in my bed and turn the television on. Without too much detail, my peaceful time was constantly interrupted by bathroom visits and cold sweats. Once my fourth round passed and last roll of toilet paper expired, I tried to get some sleep. I turned off my lights and closed my eyes until I had a little visitor, and it wasn't an evil stomach. As I was sleeping, a small mouse had somehow hopped onto my bare chest, then onto my head and back into the darkness. I sprang out of bed, flipped the lights on to see where the rodent went and saw him on the window seal as he stared back at my near naked body. I had no idea what I was going to do with him, and by this time, it was far too late to ask anyone for help to rid this creature out of my room (plus the smell coming from my bathroom was something I did not want anyone else to have to endure). So I scared the little mouse into a corner, but it escaped all of my traps, even hopping back onto my sheets and pulling a Jason Bourne by jumping from the bed in the air and onto the window curtain, sliding down it vertically onto the floor. I am not joking. After about 45 minutes of frantically running around my room in my underwear to get this mouse out of my room I finally got it to scamper out underneath the door, where I toweled the bottom of the door on both sides so he couldn't come back in. I finally got to sleep with the mouse out of my mind, but then that photo that I missed began to fill the void. For the rest of the night I thought about how I would shoot the scene if it was still possible.



The following day, I woke up feeling much better after a lot of rest and was fortunate to find that the photograph that I was thinking about all night was still there and I could capture it exactly how I planned. These photographs are from my second day of shooting. Take a look at some of the shots I got from that day here