Boca Raton 2021

Took a quick trip to visit a good friend (CJ) at his parents' place in Boca Raton. Jam packed with good eats and lots of film.

4.16.21

Arrived in Boca in the morning and worked from CJ's house during the day. The dude's house is insane. Super big, super nice, movie room, pool, ping pong room, the works. At the time, I was testing out a new Dell XPS 15 and playing Starcraft 2 on it while Shruthi and CJ worked. It was amazing. I'm not much of a gamer but it was the first time getting those kinds of graphics on a laptop. After work we played a little tennis, did some grilling in his backyard, and watched a couple movies to end the day. I didn't take any film photos this day. Still, an amazing way to start the vacation.

4.17.21

Started today by picking up some bagel sandwiches and hitting the beach. Coming from Texas, the beaches in Boca are so nice. Blue water and fine sand. Eating sandwiches at the beach is top 5 favorite things to do in all of life.

The beach was sublime. Some of the clearest water ever and super nice beach weather. Next, we went back home and I walked around CJ's neighborhood a bit grabbing some very Floridian photos. The palm trees and harsh sun really capture the feel of tropical Florida. This set probably would be nicer during golden hour but the timing didn't quite work out.

After photographing CJ's neighborhood we drove down to Louis Bossi's for dinner. My first time in a convertible. Fitting it was in Boca. The food was fine. Not bad but not the best Italian food I've ever had. Being from Houston, I have a high standard for food.

The sun started to go down when we arrived at dinner so some photos came out blurry due to a low shutter speed. But I kind of like the feel. You don't use film for the crispiest photos but rather the character it has. I put in a roll of Porta 800 to deal with the lack of light as the sun disappeared completely.

After dinner we explored this area downtown with some bars and such. Since I had a roll of Portra 800 already loaded, I sat out on the drinks and explored around taking photos. I think the majority of these came out a bit too underexposed for my tastes. I even pushed it a stop during development. For those who don't know, pushing film means to soak the film in the developing chemicals for longer than normal to bring out more detail to underexposed film. This process has its limits. Looking at the results, I either let the chemicals cool down too much during the pushing process or the film was just too underexposed. Perhaps pushing 2 or 3 stops would have fixed them. This just goes to show the variability in the film process. You live and you learn.

4.18.21

Started today with some more tennis before heading out to South Beach. We bumped into a car show on our way to lunch which was super fun to photograph. I've never seen such unique cars before. Everything from vintage cars like a signed Carroll Shelby to futuristic muscle cars. It even had a military tank and helicopter. It was also right next to the docks so I grabbed a few photos of the marina and boats. I always love a good boat on film. Something about boats really fits with the film vibes in my eyes.

We got some tacos and margs before exploring around South Beach. Also bumped in to a drag show on the street.

After exploring around, we headed back to CJ's place where I shot some photos around his parent's incredibly nice house before heading back home.

Overall, it was a quick long weekend trip but I found myself so relaxed and just high on the Florida air that it's been one of my favorite short trips ever. Thank you CJ and Joy for letting us crash and showing us around.