I’m incredibly excited for Birmingham’s opening of @citywalkskatepark. We finally have a proper skate park—one of the largest in the country—and it’s a fantastic facility that will undoubtedly have a massive community and regional impact. I’m sure a ton of folks are behind making it happen, but huge props to Peter / @faithskate for being such an advocate for the local skating community for so long and being an integral part of this park.
Opening day was on Go Skate Day and the place was packed with excited skaters, bmx folks, and lookie-loos like myself. I brought my 3D printed 8x10 camera and experimented with shooting xray film for the first time. Plenty of learning still to go with the film stock but getting images at all is a huge win for me, and I’m hoping for the weekend to bring out the crowds so I can make more of these strange photos.
Congratulations to all of us in Bham. @citywalkskatepark is going to be a huge asset.

I love the “Gents Beauty Therapy” hairstyle chart.

Today I joined @jaredragland, @robculpepper_, and @cwnewell on a trip into Manitou Cave in Fort Payne, Ala. (formerly the Cherokee town of Willstown) and it was an overwhelming and beautiful visit. Annette Reynolds, steward of the cave (and founder of the non-profit that protects it), guided us through stalactites, land bridges, and inscriptions from the last two centuries.
The inscriptions included writing using the Cherokee syllabary, created by Sequoyah and recorded inside Manitou Cave. This syllabary system provided the ability to read and write in Cherokee for the first time and it was officially adopted by the Cherokee Nation in 1825.
Huge thanks to Annette.

Below are some scenes from our time in the cave.

Jared also made a post on Instagram about our time in the cave and I thought I’d include his caption here for further context (and better reading).

This week I began tracing the Trail of Tears across north Alabama, and yesterday journeyed a mile underground into Manitou Cave, located at the Cherokee town of Willstown (now Ft. Payne–named after the colonial stockade used to hold Cherokees during the Indian Removal of 1838). Inside Manitou, traces of human activity date back 10,000 years. The cave includes sacred inscriptions written in Cherokee syllabary, which was invented by Sequoyah while he lived in Willstown in the early 1800s. After the Cherokee removal the cave was used as a Confederate encampment and saltpeter mine; by the end of the 19th century industrialists mined the cave for iron and developed the area as a tourist attraction; in the 1920s it was converted into a tourist destination where flappers danced the Charleston in a “ballroom” that featured a wooden dance floor and electric lights; and during the Cold War it was outfitted as a fallout shelter. Through the mid 20th century the site was a roadside attraction but closed after the interstate drew traffic away from Ft. Payne. After decades of neglect the cave is now the focus of grassroots historical and environmental protection directed by Manitou Cave of Alabama, with a mission to “respect, protect, preserve” the cave’s unique geology, diverse biology, and rich history.

I’m always looking forward to spring if for nothing else but the crawfish boil(s). They’re delicious events and also a blast to photograph, and they always make me so glad to have married into a Louisiana family.

I took a new, sorta weird camera out last year to experiment and have a few things that are interesting to me, if far from “perfect”.

We went on a wee road trip around Alabama recently for AAA and got to pet a goat, eat some food, and see lots of pretty countryside. Oh, and I finally got to see Ave Maria Grotto—interesting place.

Here’s a handful of photos from the trip.

One of my favorite organizations in our area is Jones Valley Teaching Farm and they’ve recently opened their amazing new facility called the Center For Food Education and I cannot wait to see it in full swing.

We spent part of last year working on a new media campaign that will release starting this month and I can’t help but share a couple of photos of two of the folks I photographed for this project.

First is local badass and community partner Ama Shambulia.

Katie Davis is another wonderful human and she’s been at Jones Valley as long as I have worked with them. The longer I know her the more fantabulous I think she is. Persimmons, spider lilies, and smiles.

More about her and the Center For Food Education coming soon, too.

Spent some time at Black Bayou with some family this Thanksgiving and I’m glad to have that ability. This is Steph’s dad, William. I’ve been connected to Steph and her family for 15 years now and I’m always learning something from them.
Thankful for all my various parents—biological, in-law, and step.

Worked with Andi Rice again today and I always grab a light test of him—hard to resist, really.

Chef Frank Stitt in the courtyard of Chez Fonfon. Found these unpublished scans from a few years ago. I’m still glad I’ve gotten to witness these folks behind the scenes caring deeply about the food they make and the customers they serve.

We took a trip up to North Carolina to celebrate another year of Stephanie’s life and boy was it beautiful.

We also got to meet up with my buddy Chris Bennett, a forager here in the southeast, about which he quite literally wrote the book. He gave us quite the tour of Black Balsam Knob.

We were looking for petroglyphs in the mountains of North Carolina and got delightfully turned around at one point. Very much worth it.

When the brief says “senior portrait” and you pack to photograph a septuagenarian and end up shooting a pale teen.

Dear friend and phenomenal photographer Jim Lafferty recently made a visit back to Birmingham and we took the opportunity to photograph him with the tintype process. Made for a great sitter and an even better visit.

A while back I made a quick run up to Sewanee, Tenn. to give a wet-plate demo to the student’s of John Dolan’s workshop at Shakerag. We made plates of all the students and some of the instructors as well, but this plate of John is one of my favorite of the day. He’s a great subject and an even better teacher, and inspiring photographer all around. Hell of a friend, too.

I recently started work on an interesting project pertaining some interesting WWII history. This first step in the process took me to a foundry about an hour from home where I met Charles—a man of many hats in the metal shop. I’ll go into more detail down the road, but for now, here are a couple of portraits of him I grabbed the other day.

Some of my favorite humans around, Emily and Roscoe Hall and their kiddos Ruby and Eli.

Last year Emily started slinging her cookies by the dozen (@thebreakupcookie) and the people love it.

(You may have had a fresh one at Church Street Coffee & Books—she was their first baker and bringer of the legendary recipe.)

(You may also have seen Roscoe on Season 18 of Bravo’s Top Chef)

I’ve been busy lately (thankfully) and haven’t gotten to update this space in a while. While going through the archive of a previous long-term project, I have been finding some lovely out-takes and light tests, including this one of my friend and talented designer, Mandy Lamb. I had the privilege to work with her when she was still in Birmingham and grabbed this light test of her up in Nashville for a shoot at the Cumberland River Greenway. At the time, it was just getting started and had a new organization taking care of the Shelby Bottom Nature Park. Years later, my sister would end up living within walking distance of this beautiful place.

I had a project up in D.C. recently and was able to bring in my dear friend Jim Lafferty to help out. It was an intense project and having Jim by my side was invaluable. See Jim’s incredible work here.

We had the great pleasure to photograph Jon Brock on wet plate this weekend. A lovely man and the father of local legend Glenny Brock. Easily one of my favorite plates we have made and I’m thankful for him not getting a haircut or shaving his beard during the pandemic.