Things I have learned recently:

> Tazo Spiced Chai makes my mouth feel weird, but not in the good way, more in the “why does my nose hurt now?” kind of way.

> You are never too old to wake up covered in a fine film of whiskey and cheap lipstick.

> The last word from the Hallelujah Chorus has the same notes as the last line from Grease’s Summer Lovin’, but you definitely shouldn’t tack on, “Tell me moooore, tell me moooooore!” to the end of Hallelujah unless you want to incur the wrath of angry churchgoers.

> Andy falls asleep way faster than I do lately.

I got my first camera when I was 6 years old, my second when I was 14, my third when I was 17, my fourth at 19, and my current one at 22. For the majority of those years, I have had little access to any sort of professional lighting rigs, meaning that while I do know how to use giant fucking lights with softboxes the size of my torso, I’ve spent most of my time learning how to use any goddamn light source I can find. This is particularly funny when people compliment me on my lighting and I have to refrain from explaining to them that I used a desk lamp, a sheet of watercolour paper as a reflector, and eleven candles to get that look. Sometimes, I just want to say that I had [EXPENSIVE LIGHTING RIG] and a big white infinity backdrop at my disposal, but I don’t. Instead, I’ve learned how to turn my kitchen into a studio, my bedroom into a boudoir, and chocolate syrup into blood. Sometimes I don’t feel like this counts for much, and I know that if I ever got the chance to do some professional studio work that they don’t care that I can makeshift a rig with two bare bulbs and some gampi, but I take solace in the fact that I’ve made the best with what I got. That and beer. God, I love beer.

PARTIAL LIST OF THINGS I’VE USED TO LIGHT SETS: An emergency lamp, an iPhone, 4 flashlights, a desk lamp with a 150 watt bulb in it, fluorescent tubes, a fridge light, stadium lights in an empty field, and the sheer light produced by my undying anger.