Slimfast update: it worked!

Posted by melee-master on March 12, 2023, 6:39 p.m.

Just kidding, I was never actually on slimfast. But it was a legendary meme and I did discover this wonderful thing called the outside world, which was pretty foreign to me back in the days of grinding code and nerding out on video games like Super Smash Bros and Halo. So you could say that the outside world was my slimfast.

Anyway, I figured I'd pop in and give a life update. It's cool to see so many of the same faces from back in the day, and even cooler to see that so many people have become industry professionals. In my programming days I thought this would be my route as well, but about ten years ago I started to hate writing code. I completely burned out on it after some personal projects and getting a side job programming at a local startup. This occurred not too long after I got into photography and started working in the restaurant. So I said fuck it, completely stopped programming and just grinded restaurants and photography.

I probably stayed in the industry too long… 8 years, which felt like forever. But it taught me a lot of important lessons and really helped get me out of my shell with social interactions and food. It's now 2023 and I've been doing landscape photography for 11 years and full time since September 2020. Of course, I had to move back into my mom's basement because it's incredibly difficult to build a business in this industry and Vancouver is crazy expensive, but I'm getting there slowly but surely.

Today I don't want to risk getting too wordy, so I'll share some videos and photos below of what I've been up to. My focus is on the forests and mountains of British Columbia. I'm always searching for new places to see, whether that be in the forests in my backyard (relatively speaking) or by scouring maps for cool places in the mountains and then figuring out how to get there. Often that means using helicopter assistance due to the sheer remoteness of these places. I also run adventure style photography workshops where we take people into the mountains for a few days and teach them landscape photography.

This video shows some fun stuff from the last two summers.

It's my only proper 'film', as the rest of the stuff on my YouTube is random videos of cool places and helicopters. Will hopefully get a GoPro soon to properly document future trips!

One of my favorite recent photos:

Collage of some of my rainforest canyon work:

What have you all been up to? Don't hesitate to say hi in the comments. And if anyone wants to keep up with my photography, feel free to follow along on my social media or website :)

https://www.tristantodd.photography/gallery

https://www.instagram.com/tristan.todd

https://www.youtube.com/@tristan_todd

Comments

Astryl 1 year, 8 months ago

Welcome back!

Those are some absolutely amazing photos :O

OBELISK 1 year, 8 months ago

Quote:
the outside world was my slimfast
poetry

I'm in shock that you're not over 9,000 lbs (sorry I forget you're Canadian, that'll be 4082.331 kg) anymore, but even more in shock to see an ancient bean post again

Man, any one of these photos would be a sick wallpaper! Just followed you on Instagram

Moving away from coding…can't say I blame ya. In a lot of cases it's a profession that requires committing yourself to learning a superpower as a child (that's most of us) then making a pittance to show for it. Being one with nature will also do you dirty, but it's a bit more fair

Don't forget about the inside world though! There are still plenty of awesome games coming out. Got Smash Ultimate?

And, most importantly, are you still a metalhead?

melee-master 1 year, 8 months ago

Thanks Mega! Glad you love the photos :)

melee-master 1 year, 8 months ago

Nice to see you again Obelisk! And thanks for the follow :)

I do still enjoy sitting down and getting some gaming in. I recently bought a Sony Trinitron CRT for all my retro gaming needs (just need to pull the plug on some Everdrives and s-video cables), plus I still play Smash, Halo, Minecraft and other stuff like The Forest. Ultimate is definitely fun, although nothing in that franchise will beat Melee for me. Although somewhat ironically, I love Halo even more than Smash and am like 100x better at Halo than I ever was at Melee.

And yes, there will never be a day where I'm not a metalhead. I even still scrobble on lastfm (https://www.last.fm/user/melee-master). I have branched out though and now have a healthy appreciation for classic rock, synthwave, punk and other random genres.

Ronnica 1 year, 6 months ago

Happy to see you thrive!

Josea 1 year, 6 months ago

Those photos look great! I'm glad you're doing ok.

JoshDreamland 1 year, 6 months ago

Holy shit, you're alive! And well! Nice to hear from you. I just kind of popped in and saw a name I recognized and had a moment.

KraZKat 1 year, 6 months ago

I just got back on here, finally remembered the email and password. I haven't been on in over a decade and seeing this post just made my day. I'm glad to see you, as well as so many others, doing well! :)

RC 1 year, 5 months ago

Absolutely stunning photos and video. Glad to see you're doing well!

Mush 1 year, 3 months ago

Awesome photos.

I've been wanting to transition from coding to something food related. Do you have any advice for someone making that transition?