A foggy day a while back on the day some friends had a baby.

So I don't time to edit this properly as I need to get into the darkroom (at midnight. I'm already tired) so I'm just posting it so I can get to work.

Steph at home in Monroe.

I shot more 4x5 today of Winslow at his home. Hopefully I'll get something cool out of it.

[ed] this was misplaced and originally posted on day 106, so im moving it to 108 and posting a new image on 107.

Coupla things.....this is David. His shoe on the left is not in the frame and there is extra room beside his shoulder. I'm pretty sure this is because my tripod BLOWS and it shifted when I put the film holder in place. Oh well.

Either way I'm happy with the sharpness (way to sit still david). It was a half second exposure.

I'm really liking the Speed Graphic these days.

Steph is in town. Chances are my posts will be more brief while she is around.

Oh and I beefed up yesterday and posted two images (oops) so Steph from yesterday (#2) is moving to tomorrow so I can post David today. More shots of winslow, a couple of which I really like.

/boringness

So it seems to be a 4x5 kind of week. Pardon the composition...I was shooting handheld at 4.7 around sunset in the shade WAY under an appropriate distance for ignoring parallax error.

Anyway....can't get enough E.T.

Yay for this one here.

 
So this is my friend Winslow. His house was crushed by this tree in his yard over the weekend during the storm-nasties. I missed the tree still on the house, but I think the point still comes across. Gonna take some serious work to get this thing back together.
 
 
To view this image in more detail, please see the bigger version here.

ALRIGHT!

Here is a PopTpoP from yesterday. REALLY this is a sort of preview-but-its-still-itself-technically-a-poptpop, but thats sort of a mouthful.

I'll post two shots of Bryan during our shoot (well, his, but I shot part of it too) for Portico Magazine.

They are "previews" because they are shot on my phone and are hardly high quality. But also I shot various frames of film during the shoot too.

SO LOOK OUT WORLD. IT'S COMING!

And yes the second photo is clearly the least flattering poptpop yet. Perhaps an award for bryan.

I figured I'd post something here since it is my neglected corner of the internet. (The places I actually update are electric lion, poptpop, and finally I caved in and started using twitter.)
 
 
This year has been a bit odd so far. It started with a bang with a trip to Uganda to photograph for a lovely non-profit called DIG that teaches sustainable gardening skills to at risk people and others who have HIV/AIDS.

 
 
It has been a hard trip to top! What a way to start. Here we are in April and I find myself fighting with myself even more than normal about what it is I want to be shooting and how to present myself appropriately to find that work. I need to get back up to New York and meet more people. I made a few connections when I was there in January for an annual report and have a short list of names I didn't have time to have face time with in my two days off.
 
Anyway, internal dialogue remains difficult. I want to meet the person who has found the perfect match of making a living and shooting what they want. I know it is possible. I guess really I just want to meet more people. It is not a strength of mine (anymore, at least) to intentionally find people to meet. Got any suggestions?
 
 

Oh, hey, also....speaking of suggestions. I'm heading to Tokyo in June with my sister to celebrate her graduating grad school. Where should I go? Do you need anything photographed while I'm there? Can't hurt to ask, right?

 
 
I need to find better ways to manage my downtime. For now, here are some images from this year so far in no particular order. (if you see this in an RSS reader, you'll likely want to view the post at the journal proper.)
 
 

Holger Thoss walking with me in New York. preparing planting and harvesting and resting

My friend Winslow had a tree fall on his house. This is the aftermath. There is an alternate frame that may surface eventually.

To view this image in more detail, please see the bigger version here.

So in a bit of a break from normal stuff here, I figured I would post a random chunk from my studio. It vaguely reminds me of those flickr groups where people post everything they keep in their pockets / bags. Except this is a corkboard of polaroids, prints, and old crap from family archives. So really they aren't all the similar.

Things you see here. The first, most 100% awesome, is the photo of my sister from good old school days. You'll know it by her trapezoidal hair.

A list of random other things, in no particular order.

Prints from my trip to Uganda, a polaroid of me next to a polaroid of steph, a handful of david, bob miller, bryan's kid noah, my mom, my parents, me and my dad, steph again, celeste, rabbi igber, mr p's, my cousin jamie, her parents looking like they are from that 70s show, caleb, my grandparents, gregory, photobooths of me + nicole and me + steph, my grandmother looking sour, and a couple more. this is constantly growing, very slowly. shot with my half frame.

Long story. I bought an E.T. for my sister for her birthday (nic, if you see this...Surprise!) and to make it operational it required some surgery. Lots of corrosion on some wires. Anyway. There is a whole set of ET getting a serious once over. Here is one.

So it is apparently and E.T. weekend! I also shot 4x5 today, including a portrait of E.T. as well as E.T. with Sadie the cutest ever dog.

Trying to think of other relevant information. I'm having a good time. That's about it.

Also, I've thought about shooting a series of E.T. enduring modern life. Id est, he has his house foreclosed upon or grocery shopping.

Thanks so much to Rob "the rob" Culpepper "The Culpepp", aka DJ Skullpepper.

He leaves us with this pithy description of this long-range, epic Poptpop.

At a campground north of Malibu, Cali.

Indeed, sir.

Remember this text?

Mentone, Ala. is the home of Alabama's only ski slope. There's also the show-stopping Desoto Falls not too far away. The fruit there is ripe for the picking, as I got a double (see the second person behind the tree) and a PoptVop (Pictures of people taking Videos of people), a near cousin. This could also be known as a Multimedia Poptpop or a PoptMpop (Pictures of people taking Motion pictures of people).

Here's the payoff.

ROB CULPEPPER ACTIVATE.

he's got a new website on the way.

random dude. i'm in louisiana.

Mentone Shots:
Mentone, Ala. is the home of Alabama's only ski slope. There's also the show-stopping Desoto Falls not too far away. The fruit there is ripe for the picking, as I got a double (see the second person behind the tree) [THIS IS A HINT FOR TOMORROW'S ROPTCULPEPP] and a PoptVop (Pictures of people taking Videos of people), a near cousin. This could also be known as a Multimedia Poptpop or a PoptMpop (Pictures of people taking Motion pictures of people).

Ladies and gentlemen, Robert Culpepper.

It is still DJ Skullpepper week over at poptpop.com!

So I am not a huge fan of lighting. Part of that is that I have not made a point of acquiring much gear as I very much prefer finding light, you know? So...I guess I won't ever like it more unless I try more things with manufacturing it. To this end, we went down to the basement of the studio and shot around a little bit. Nothing spectacular. Also, I hate vapor lights. The shot was 75% vapor and the color looked like crap so I went with my comfort zone of black and white. Why am I telling you three people this?

I've got to make a push. I just need to figure out what I'm pushing, and who is on the other side of whatever it is I am pushing with. That, my friends, was a really shitty metaphor. Or, at the least, a bad sentence.

So, there is Rob. I post him also to the end of promoting ROB CULPEPPER WEEK over at poptpop.com.

p.s. I'm sure Rob won't be too happy I posted one of him not looking more like a badass. Oh well. All I can say is sorry, boss.

ROB CULPEPPER DAY TWO! Above, a Glorious, glorious Squat Stance. Below is Rob's description of just wtf a squat stance is.

My personal favorite part is the dude in the red shrit.

Squat Stance: One time Caleb and I were at a wedding and he made fun of my squat stance. That is, the posture my body makes when I need to get lower to shoot someone at the waist and keep the perspective right. Everyone has a squat stance and once you're aware of them, it's hilarious to watch photographers make pictures because you're aware of how funny they look. They, of course, are doing what seems natural and therefore have no idea how dumb they look. On a walk to Speakeasy one evening after work, we passed this photographer (and body guard in red) shooting a couple. Check out that Squat Stance!