Last Friday night I stepped out of my old lady tendencies and went out after dark (note: v proud of myself). I ventured out to Ruhstaller for an event put on by City Scout. This series is called Basement Sessions, and every couple months Ruhstaller and City Scout come together to host local music and a chance to build community.

I was able to shoot the event and felt all kinds of awkward while doing so. I usually love going out to dinner or coffee shops or road trips by myself. But there's something different about going to an event specifically for socializing yet riding solo. Never mind the fact that my social anxiety is heightened when I go out in Sacramento, where it's possible that I could run into someone I used to know.

I found myself stepping off to the side to try to hide, and then calling myself out for it and then basically doing laps around the event like a weirdo until Inland came on. (Side note: the worst part of going out to a bar/event like this alone is that suddenly you become a glaring target for strange and/or drunk men to come hit on. It's so frustrating that seemingly every attractive man is either there with an even more attractive woman, or is too chicken to come up and approach me...which could take this on a whole new tangent about how I want the attractive man to approach me but also have a hard time reconciling that with my feminist beliefs...LETS DIGRESS.) Please enjoy these somewhat good quality photos of a phenomenal duo:

Also, holy crap it's a way different ballgame shooting in a dark indoor area. I tried to stay in manual as much as I could, and the editing process was far more nuanced than the shoots I've done outdoors. But this was pretty much the whole reason for me shooting Basement Sessions: to get more practice and work on my craft.

Feels good...

xxo