Los Angeles has a lot to offer when it comes to creative inspiration. With endless amounts of sunshine, access to the Pacific Ocean, and a more relaxed feel than New York, it’s easy to see why there is an abundance of transplants here. I find the way people dress and how they hold themselves to be inspiring, and it has recently altered my own behavior. But I still find that Los Angeles can be a creative suck.

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Emily got me an A-1 for Christmas in 2011. I hadn't actually used it until we went to Philly for Thanksgiving in 2012. I just got this film processed last week. It is 2014, talk about taking your sweet time.

I want to thank an incredible DP and friend of mine, Sean Conaty for recommending A&I as the place to get the film processed. They are a little expensive, but they do an awesome job. 

The other day I noticed how awesome the light was around 5:00 PM. Even with all of the lighting techniques and styles that I have seen here in film business, it is hard to match natural light.

Photo projects are hard. They can be full of constraints, similar images, time demands, etc. But I used to love that about these projects. Once I finished one, I would also look for the next one to start. In many cases, these constraints allowed me to fall into the trap of shooting similar photos over and over. I should say that I haven't done many, maybe five or six at most, but that includes one successful 365 project, a set of images centered around smoking in London, and until this point, another 365 I got 300 plus images in.

I started this current 365 during my final year at Syracuse and thought it would be an awesome way to look back at this part of my life. For the most part, the images do that. You can see the progression from school to graduation to a trip of a lifetime across the United States to a new home in Los Angeles. However, toward the end it was getting difficult. I would find myself not having time during work to shoot and then I would get home and take a photo at the end of my day. The images became monopolized by our dog, Kevin. Yes, he has become an incredibly important part of my life, but I didn't feel inspired to shoot anymore. If that's the case, what's the point of such a project?

So with that, I am unfortunately ending another project unsuccessfully, but I have learned a lot about myself through this one. Inspiration, creative relaxation, and learning what makes a good image are just a few lessons I've learned.

My family doesn't have many traditions, but there is one that has existed before me and before my father. As long as I can remember, we have celebrated Thanksgiving at my grandparent's home in Moosic, PA. The weekend after Thanksgiving has always belonged to making Polish sausage, also known as kielbasa. The process is often long and can sometimes be very painful. Spread out over three days, there is plenty of work to be done in all stages from mixing the meat, packing the casings, and smoking the kielbasa.

About a week ago, I got a tweet from an account called Dear Syracuse With Love (DSyrWL). The account is part of a project that a friend of mine, Quinton Fletchall, started earlier this year to allow people to talk about what they love most about Syracuse, NY. He has created physical postcards so that people can write messages about their love for Syracuse and send them back into the DSyrWL group.

Since the start of the campaign, he has gotten almost 50 postcards back with some incredible messages. You can check them out here.

The project has a larger goal of connecting Syracuse University with the city of Syracuse. So far Quinton has done some pretty incredible things. I am very excited to go back and visit Syracuse in late December. Thank you so much Quinton for all of your hard work. You have allowed others to see why Syracuse holds such a special place in our heart.

Emily and I both had off today so we decided to do something very LA for the afternoon. We've been wanting to go to the Hollywood Sign since we got here. After doing a little bit of research I found a way to hike there and that is how we spent a good part of our day.

I don't know if there is a better sunset view of LA as a whole than from above the Sign.

- Ted