Still breaking in the already-too-broken-in Widelux. We had some snow here a while back and I walked around the city a bit. I've shot more since then but here are a couple of snow day snaps.
(click it to see it larger. hard to experience a panoramic photo small, much less small and online)
I'm still on the hunt for a camera that I connect with with a je ne sais pas and have been playing with a Widelux. I'll post a few shots here on the blog as I get to know the camera.
Above is a group of friends at Rob's birthday dinner gathering.
Below is my friend Zack and his absolutely fantastic wife Meg (and her dad, but I don't really know him) right in the middle of them moving into their new home. It backs up to this awesome looking graveyard. Kind of a creepy thing to say but it looks pretty badass.
I am having such a blast digging through the archive. Good memories of my friend Dan. My lovely friend Azurae had the great idea to marry this dude and now they live in Seattle with their daughter.
Dan has a project nearing completion called Modular that sounds great and I cannot WAIT to pay them money to own it after reading about what 51 Eggs is doing for the physical incarnation of this record.
At a base in Qayyarah, this kid used to sell me Mt Dew. He kept all the guards laughing with his English vocab. Cuss words were about 40%. I remember his name, but have no clue how to spell it. My best try is Heis. Anyone know Arabic first names?
From the archive...I'm digging through old photos working on a book and ran across this little gem.
I sometimes forget that I lived in Iraq for a while...it seems so far away now—and to be fair it's been since 2003 since I've been there. The whole experience seems so much like a dream now...we're still there...stuff still sucks over there (how much is up for debate)...all the world has changed in a million ways. I was just milling about at work while future/present world leaders were shooting the shit. What? So strange. Above is Jalal Talabani casually talking at the (now-defunct) Bob Hope DFAC during the 2003 where the President visited for Thanksgiving (side note: his visit sort of blew everyone's mind, but it was pretty obvious...they had massive comm-tanks outside the DFAC for DAYS before he showed up).
I was curious if I could find any video of it still, and thanks to C-SPAN, I found the whole ordeal (video embedded below). If you look up near the podium, you'll see an early-20's Cary with a company hat turned backwards photographing the shenanigans with my Lomo LC-A and a Holga (and borrowed digital camera...long story). I worked for the company that built the dining facility and, for some reason, that meant I almost unfettered access to the place...so you better believe I got as close to the action as I could. If you actually watch the video, you'll notice after he's done talking that he says hello to Mr. Talibani and Ahmed Chalabi. I grabbed a couple of crappy shots of that...also below.
Shortly thereafter, then-Senator Clinton dropped by and gave myself the challenge to photograph her WHILE meeting her. Here's that shot, as well as a photo one of her aids took.
Still surreal to think about. The important part to me is that after all this time I'm still proud of the photographs I made while I was there.
Another outtake from the current Birmingham Magazine. Above is Angela Schmidt who is a local private chef who runs a company called Chef U. Chef U started when Angela quit cooking for restaurants and moved into her own and it's been described as one part catering company, one part catering school, and one part party entertainment. We met the lovely home of one of her clients to photograph for this story and really had a blast, and really, I'd bet that happens a lot. Angela was fun, her client was fun, and clearly her food keeps her busy...sounds like a win-win-win to me.
Read more about Angela and other chefs who quit their day job over at the Birmingham Magazine website.
Also, check out more on Chef U at their site.
Sharing a studio with Rob means I end up with an exorbitant number of photos of him. In fact, if you search for his name on an image search you'll see Loads of shots, mostly of him in embarrassing situations (ie shirtless with a razor scooter over his shoulders). Despite my proclivity to taking compromising shots of him, he still is nice enough to sit in for light tests when I need him. I aslo give him plenty of dirt of me by (accidentally?) pulling a daft face every time he shoots me.
Anyway...that's Rob above.
P.S. Sweet socks.
We got more snow! I'm back at home, of course, but last night we got more snow! We NEVER get snow. We actually got ice and snow so I'm imagining our fair city won't be back in action immediately (which sucks...I have a lot to shoot/schedule this week), but for now, I'm relishing in a day snowed in with Stephanie.
I figured that one snow day is as good enough time to reflect on another...so here are some photos from my Christmas break up at the family farm.
We woke up in awe of the fact that snow fell so my sister immediately rummaged through our grandparents stuff and found an old 72 of Bing Crosby singing Merry Christmas and an LP of Elvis singing all Christmas songs (which reminds me of 10th grade Drama class when I was in a wheelchair for having a broken leg (long story, serious break) and me and this girl Jessica sat together and randomly started belting out Blue Christmas for the whole class).
My grandfather lying down next to my mom (under the sheet...it was cold)
We got mom an iPad. She freaked out a bit.
Another overview of the slopes of Ski Hurric'n Valley.
Here's to more snow!
I posted the a couple of tearsheets of the story I mentioned in the last blog post. I shall post them here as well.
I've got a couple of stories in this month's Birmingham Magazine which is now on newsstands so I thought I'd post a couple of my favorite shots from the issue.
One story I shot is called Church Inc and it's about what businesses can learn from churches about all manner of things like retention and drawing people in. You know, business stuff.
Above is Rev. Van Moody from a church in Center Point.
Below is Steve Bottoms who helps runs a place called Prescription2Fitness.
As previously addressed, our family had a Super classy christmas at the farm by skiing through cow pies and having a 4x4 truck as the ski lift. The brochure is still forthcoming, but here's a taste of some of the Ski Hurric'n Valley action. In this case, it's my cousin Jamie POPTPOPin' James (her dad) and Kent (her husband) on their way to the second...er...slope.
Another from the archive, again found while digging around for stock. This is Malik, grandson of Ruby, the delightful (and super healthy) woman I photographed a couple of years ago for Regions Bank. Ruby then had a plot she tended and she taught Malik and his friends about gardening. She said she only made him meals with Real food (and she herself only at raw veg). That takes serious commitment and strength to pull off!
And speaking of healthy food and local produce, I should mention a new, Birmingham-based project that launched at the new year. My friend (and great-name-haver) Carrie Rollwagen started a new writing/life project called Shop Small. She's committed this year to give up chain stores and only to buy locally. Going into the project, it seems she has no agenda to prove or disprove. Carrie seems honestly curious about the merits of keeping it close to home or saving a couple of bucks by buying big. She explains it infinitely better than I could dream to, so check out her blog.
Never lacking in commitments, Carrie has also teamed up with our friend Elisa Muños (who is, herself, one half of popular bicycling blog Bike Skirt) to produce a weekly-ish podcast called Shop Small, Eat Local. Surely you can guess the topics. I'll add a link to the iTunes podcast directory once it is listed, but you can already subscribe to the podcast at this URL (copy link and add to podcast subscriptions). If you're not into that whole subscription thing, Carrie will be posting Shop Small, Eat Local to her Shop Small blog. Yet another reason to check it out.
I was digging around my archive over the holidays looking for potential stock images for a company and ran across these bad boys. Garrett, in the studio, back when he day-traded out of our office. I miss this man!
Please notice how amazingly ghetto the seamless is, not to mention my budget framing. So crooked. (Sort of frustrating images to look at in some ways but Garrett's face overcomes all technical problems. Sweet sweet Garrett.)
My love of old cameras only grows as I shoot more. There's something about a hunk of metal made to take an absolute beating and still get up the next day for work. The precision and design and craftsmanship and passion get to me every time. I was at this local antique shop (which had a ton of awesome old photos of dudes with AWESOME mustaches) and saw this old Voigtlander Vitessa I wanted to go back in time to watch someone make this. Fascinating stuff!
And speaking of Voigtlander...I tracked down another old camera I've had my eye on. I've been looking for a pocket camera for a while. For years, I carried around an LC-A so I'd have a camera on me at all times. It fit neatly in my cargo pocket (which, like many photographers, I wear almost all the time—despite knowing they are not stylish) and I could grab a shot any time any place. All the LC-As (and LC-A+'s) I've owned have borked on me in some way and all now hang out together at the fallen soldiers bar and grille (aka my gear drawers).
So in looking for a pocket-cam replacement I considered several things:
- Relative portability
- Has an aesthetic appeal*
- Can produce a quality negative
- Easy to use
*I mean mostly that the image it creates has qualities I like. ie the Lomo LC-A has a 32mm lens and vignettes in a lovely way.
The portable part is a tricky one. The LC-A weighs almost nothing (at least the new ones anyway. My first one was still old stock and made from metal..how novel) and is a perfect size for a cargo short pocket. But I also carry a small bag some times for books and gadgetry which could also hold a camera that was slim line. That would, of course, require me to have the bag around all the time if I wanted to be able to shoot as readily as I like.
I love the idea of a tiny, medium format camera. I'd get a much larger neg, and it'd hopefully shoot 6x6 (which is to say, square..and I love shooting square). Not to mention my buddy Jon has been gloating about his new Fuji GF670, for which I have lusted since the camera was announced.
The idea of a slim medium format camera also implies, to some degree, a folding camera..which takes care of being visually interesting.
My quest to find this camera started the end of last year with tracking down a fore-father of the GF670, the Voigtlander Perkeo II.
The Pros:
- Fairly small
- Sturdy, metal body
- Folding camera
- MF & Square format
- ƒ3.5 is pretty quick for this kind of camera
The Cons:
- Sturdy, heavy, metal body
- No rangefinder
- Pain in the ass to load
The upside is that it's square and fairly small and could very likely survive a ride in a pocket.
The downside is it's just a bit too heavy to ride in my pocket without it being a little awkward which means it'd really live in the bag. The biggest con is that, in my haste, I didn't realize that this is sans rangefinder. I could get one to fit into the cold-shoe but it would STILL be uncoupled. Uncoupled ranger finding is a bit of a pain, at least given the "quick dude take a picture" nature I have in mind for this camera. You use the RF to see how far away something is, then take that number (say, 9 meters) and turn your focus ring to the 9m mark. Just an extra step that slows me down. Granted, the LC-A is also guess-the-distance, but I've focused it so many times I don't even think about it any more. I imagine I'd get used to this system too (I'd just guess, and not spend more money to get an uncoupled ranger finder) but I think it will ultimately lose the fight.
Still, it's super fun to experiment with new gear. Not only does it broaden my knowledge of cameras (using, loading, history, etc) but it teaches me even more about the way I shoot. Figuring stuff out about different cameras only helps to know what I do and don't like when shooting which can't help but inform me about the method I use when shooting (which I don't always really understand).
Here are a couple of shots from the Voigtlander Perkeo II. Pardon the dust/color.
Like many people who keep a journal type thing, I have grand plans of looking back at the previous year and trying to figure out what I learned and give proper respect to the people in my professional and personal life that keep me moving.
But I'll have to get to that when I can. For now, I'll post a couple of out takes from today's shoot, the first of the year. I made some photos for the blog See The Good, which is a blog for Regions Bank that reflects the positive life events and people surround their employees, partners, and customers. I can't wait to talk about this project (or get the film back!) once it is posted. It's another amazing story of human strength and the love of family. I'm truly going soft with age. Oh well.
Today's shoot was in this awesome old Masonic lodge and Rob came along to help. As such, he get light tested. Sucka! These are the shots I like the most of him. There are plenty that are in some way embarrassing, but for now I'll keep those in the arsenal.
Christmas Skiing on the farm.
There is no classy way to explain this. I'm bored and my family is occupied playing Bananagrams so I'll explain this nonsense.
What you see is not fake. The man skiing is my cousin (in law) Kent literally skiing down a slight incline on a cow pasture. That cow is really standing there thinking, "what the hell is that moron doing." We roll it right here in Alabama.
In short, we finally had a white christmas and my family was not about to let it slide. My uncle James is an avid skier, though his opportunities to hit the slopes are slightly less as we all get older, so having snow ON OUR PROPERTY is not a thing to waste. We've now created a company called Ski Hurric'n Valley that offers such things as: dodge-the-cow-pie while skiing the Mooguls (wah wah), panoramic views from the top of the main, double-black slope, and personal ski lift by way of a 4x4 truck.
My sister and I are in process of creating a proper brochure (seriously) and I'll post that when it's done.
Keep in mind the slopes are only open when we have snow on or around christmas here in Berry Hollow, but a 10-year lift pass is only 75 bucks.
(These are phone photos, though I did take some proper film shots too. Will undoubtedly post those when they are ready)
Below, my uncle James—primary proprietor of and part-time-ski-lift-driver for Ski Hurric'n Valley—sit atop Cornelison Crusher ( ♦ ♦)
I've got a few stories in the December issue of Birmingham Magazine and thought I'd post some of the images that didn't run that I like the most. Above is a poorly scanned tear from the issue and below are some outtakes. I tried to do things a bit differently on these shoots..the biggest change was lighting. I've been lighting more and more for editorial work (despite my heart's protest...so in love with available light) and it's certainly growing on me.
The images in this post are from the story GENEROSCITY about different local charitable organizations doing good work in the community which also provide opportunity for every day people to volunteer. The groups covered in the story cover a vast swath of needs—from medical care, food, housing, and even help plugging people into the community for work.
Seen above is Drew Langloh, president of the United Way of Central Alabama, along with just some of the volunteers who help raise money for the United Way's annual budget.
From the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama (HICA) is Johanna Alvarez.
Scott Douglas of Greater Birmingham Ministries with an additional outtake of Drew Langloh.
George M. Thompson, Carolyn Foster, along with Scott Douglas, all from Great Birmingham Ministries.
I've been shooting some of my friend Matthew Mayfield's promotional material off and on for a few years and we got together again over Thanksgiving to make some more images.
I couldn't be happier with what we created. He has some ideas about the mood he wanted to create for the images based on the sound of the upcoming album we were shooting for. I brainstormed a while on how to capture the ideas he'd talked to me about and we ended up jumping in the car and heading out to the ole family farm. We shot there most of the day and did a couple more locations when we got back into town.
I always feel like there should be some super cool story or behind the scenes video or something but the reality is, the whole process was simple and straightforward. Go to place. Figure out what place has to offer. Make photographs. Leave.
Yada yada yada...on to the photos.
Above is a shot of Matthew shooting pool at the Plaza here in town. Below is another shot of the disgusting bar (aka perfectly nasty) and one from the farm.
Really excited about everything we made. I'm splurging and posting these but the rest will have to wait til something like March when the record comes out.
