WISER Gardener. I forget his name off hand, but I'll find it.

I finally have my 4x5 shots developed from my most recent trip to Africa for DIG. More to come, no doubt. This is Tobias (TOE-bee-us) on the Lwala farm in Kenya.

A while back a few of us took a jaunt to Monroe for a very, very tail end of crawfish season and as I get bored I'll be posting some of those. The Golden Hen shot from yesterday was from the same trip. This is some church in rural northern Louisiana and it seems the designers are pretty into symmetry. Symmetry enthusiasts? I mean, it's not perfect, but it's really close. I'd wager they aren't professional symmetrists, but they are definitely members of some online forums and may one day found /r/symmetryporn.

Down the street from Faith Skate Supply, in the area under US-31, there was an event for Go Skateboarding Day so I went out to hang out and be the requisite poseur with my hardly-ridden and almost scuff-free skateboard. While I was there, this dude, Tyson Miller, was warming on getting as high as he could on the interstate-pillar-cum-vert-ramp. I left right before the competition started, but fortunately Wes Frazer showed up and grabbed an awesome shot of Tyson winning the sticker comp (in which you slap it as high as you can, and you don't have to land it).

Also, this is a poptpop. Note that the kid taking the photo in a sling and just broken his arm a day or two prior and was not just shooting, but skating that during the festivities of Go Skateboarding Day.

The Golden, July 2012.

Stephanie taught our dog, Fin, how to play dead more or less on command. He's not happy about having to do it, but he's highly motivated by food, so if he smells a treat, he's on it. Eventually. After he barks some. Look, I'm not saying out dog is a trick master, but he's damn, damn cute.

Above, Jill holds up a frame from one of our hives.

We ran up into spring this year with somewhat renewed gusto for beekeeping (after last year's defeat learning experience, we were a bit overwhelmed with sanger*) and took on four hives and doled out high fives left and right (mostly to each other). As I may have mentioned, we bought two new hives and had two of my later grandfathers'. This last weekend we dropped by the hive for our almost-weekly check in and found that the hive that started the season as the strongest had been robbed out and had only a few hundred bees left, trying to pick up the pieces. We really thought we'd been doing everything at least sort of right this time, only to find that there may not be any such thing. The good news is the new hives are doing alright and the other established hive is doing very well. We incorporated the remaining bees into one of the new hives and will press on. I didn't really expect to feel as strongly about them as I do, but after my reaction when we got a dog, I don't know how I'm surprised.

*sanger is a delightfully awful mix of sadness and anger.

William in Florida, July of 2012.

I was excited to get an email from DIG recently to let me know they'd added some portraits from my trip last winter to their website. Each portrait links to a story about the subject's journey and connection to DIG. Such a great way to see this organization is impacting lives. I encourage you to check them out and read more about Benta, Mary, and Emily!

Thanks again to DIG for letting me be part of their organization, and Slaughter Group for sending me for the first time a few years ago.

I'm really bad at update my tears, but I had this mental_floss lying about, so I thought I'd put it up.

In the current issue, David very literally poured onion juice into his eyes. The story is about ways to abate crying from cutting onions, but the onions we got were seriously off brand and they couldn't even get me to cry, which normally happens about three cuts in. We tried everything and eventually what worked was BLENDING the onions, STRAINING the juice, and for kicks, putting that juice back into a makeshift onion-cup, and pouring that into his eyeballs. God, I wish this were a joke.

A really fun shoot, per usual, with mental_floss, but partly due to it not being me cramming onion juice in my face.

Above is shot how it ran and below are a couple of outtakes.

As you can see, he was super happy after huffing the onion puree.

Also, we had him on a Margarita diet to fuel his insanity (though, he was fully sober when he agreed to model this for us, I gotta say). Winslow, phoning in the art direction, there on the side.

Stephanie at home, June 2012.

I've been working on a great project over the month or so that's a total rebrand of a local urban farm called Jones Valley Teaching Farm, and I'm excited to be able to talk about it a bit. If you're from around here, you probably know it by its original name, Jones Valley Urban Farm, but during the rebrand they really wanted to go out of their way to let people know they don't just grow and sell produce, they connect with schools to educate students about nutrition and stuff as simple as where their food comes from.

I'm not sure why I'm trying to explain what they do...they do it way better:

Jones Valley Teaching Farm is not just a place where delicious food grows — it's a place where young minds blossom.

Our mission, put simply, is to make our community a healthier place. And our focus is empowering future generations with an education to eat smarter, think healthier—and live better.

Soon, I'll be adding photos from the project to the blog and probably as a gallery on my main site, but for now, the above video is part of their new fund raising initiative that's being matched dollar-for-dollar by Protective Life.

I had the pleasure of working with designer and creative director Kelly Householder and copywriting guru / director Jordan Sowards, and I can't wait for the next JVTF project!

Jill & Stephanie looking into one of the new hives

Stephanie and Jill at the bee yard this weekend.

Another shot of ye olde Dean Dr. George. This is my favorite from the shoot and I can't figure out why, exactly, I like it so damn much.

Article here.

I got a call back in April from Christianity Today to create a portrait of local Beeson Divinity School dean Dr. Timothy George, and, to my delight, they wanted wanted something a bit edgier than one may expect out of such a periodical. Happy to oblige, I decided I'd try to step outside of myself a bit as well and try to make a portrait differently than I had before. I figured there may not be a ton of drama in being a div school dean, so I'd add a bit. Above is the shot they ran and I'll post a followup that has an alternate shot.

A couple of alternate shots of Rufus.

I'm ready for Rob to get off his ass and post his recent 4x5 shots (get on it!). Partly so the world can watch him learn and grow, but also because I have all these behind the scenes shots I'm dying to post, not the mention a portrait of Winslow (setup totally stolen from Rob, but whatever).

I had another history lesson story to shoot for the New York Times last week, about the contentious beginnings of what we now call Memorial day. I spent the day in Columbus, Mississippi, talking with a few people about why their Columbus is the rightful claim holder, including the above Rufus Ward who had a mind for history I can't even understand. Dates, names, stories, implications. Tons and tons of stuff it'd take me a million years to cram in my head (and who knows what memories I'd lose in the process).

Anyway, Campbell Robertson's article is here. Interesting, for sure.

(Incidentally, Mr. Ward told me the guy behind him is his great-great-grandfather, T.C. Billups, who apparently began a school for his personal slaves he freed after the war ended. What a weird time to live, back then. I'm sure someone will say that of 2012 one day too. How quaint, they had to breath air.)

I think this is a CVS? Maybe? It's clearly an important detail