Mr. Thiago Photo

Good news! My lack of preparation today actually paid off!
How so might you ask? Well, I scheduled another meeting with Thiago, finally, and did not use my months absence to create any sort of questions, themes, topics, or anything.
I was going in more unprepared than a native French speaker into the AP Spanish exam, but hey, I was going to do it live, and I did.
I comfortably slid into the warm and inviting booth at my favorite cafe and sports grill, 1873, and posted up to wait. Always fashionably late, Thiago jauntily strode in 17 minutes later, after braving the cold winds from outside. I waved, he waved, it was like nothing had changed, which it hadn't. I immediately dove in, searching my brain for bits and pieces of our previous conversations to draw upon. 
Darts.
What? yeah. Darts. Thiago went to Pittsburgh for a dart-throwing convention last month to help out one of his friends. There are such things as dart-throwing conventions. 
Bullseye, my friends!
So, Thiago spoke to me about his time spent there, and casually mentioned his interest in photography, of which I had previously been unaware. 
I jumped onto that topic and threw myself in. 
We discussed the nuances of film photogaphy, and the time and talent it takes to attempt to capture life on a slip of film. I don't know if you're well-versed in the art of photography, but it's pretty flashy.
Ok that was a terrible pun. Anyway,
Think about life pre-digital, and especially pre-iPhone. I have conveniently blocked out all memories of my life before Apple, and it's for that reason that I don't recall anything before the Christmas of 2011. How would you know if your picture turned out? How would you know if your sorority pose was perfectly thrown? How would you know if your hand wasn't awkwardly placed in an unflattering way?
YOU WOULDN'T.
Not until you took the effort to go through the process of developing your film, which, in my high school photo class, took days.
I "shutter" at the thought(!)
^not apologizing for that one, it's genius.
Anyway, Thiago and I continued to pour our feelings about photography out, and then he let it slip that he had a Facebook page dedicated to his art. I whipped it open in a "flash" (another one, check!!!) and pulled up his most recent pictures from the aforementioned dart convention. After looking through them, I can definitely say that Mr. Franca has an eye for the art. His use of depth and lighting really made his pictures stand out from just those of what the iPhone can take, or anything else. I praised his work and complimented him profusely. I was impressed!
I'm very passionate about photography, and I''m glad I was able to rekindle my obsession.
After that, we simply discussed plans for the future, summer, and everything in between. We're both very "in-the-moment" people, as in we don't exactly know what we'll be doing next, but I know for the both of us, it will be great.
We scheduled our last two meetings and said our goodbyes before he walked out the door into the frigid cold wintery April air, that I am currently procrastinating in 1873 to try to avoid.
All good things must come to an end, though, both this semester, and with this warmth. 
And I think something's burning in here.
Over n' Out!