So while at the Throwdown I took a bunch of polaroids and film shots of a bunch of the beardos. Here's the curator of all of whiskerino, Michael "Mackle" Eades.

I can't wait to unlease these shots when they are all done.

Whiskerino draws to a final close (sadness abounds) and I thought I'd post a couple of favorites. These are all David and me for now but I'll have another post of shots of Alan and Kevin.

Top left is a shot of David for mug shot day. It's two exposures on one sheet of 4x5 film (for a classic look). To the right of that is a shot of me using said 4x5. David took it but the concept was mine so I'm including it.

Under that is a really wide one for zoom-sneak day (which is where there is extra goodness outside of the normal view such that you have you zoom to see the whole shot). The normal shot looked like him with light shooting out of his hand. The full shot Rob and I are shooting him, for some reason. Or trying, rather.

Next is me trying the flying Mackle. Next to that is David becoming the hunted. This one won king beard.

Last is a shot of David for "flash trash" day which made about as much sense to all of us as it may to you.

I cannot explain how great whiskerino was this time and I'm not even going to try right now.

By the way, these are all basically photoshop free. By that I mean I probably tweaked exposure for effect but we didn't like, add something in or fake anything.

Jason Wallis is a solid dude. This pretty much can't be argued with as his life's goal I think is to provide for his family and be awesome.

I dropped by today for a little advice for an upcoming shoot and I enjoyed the outcome. Here is a random shot of him.

Here is a quick preview of a post I'm going to do on whiskerino soon. It ends at the end of the month and I'll post my favorite shots I've taken / been in for these last four months.

For now I'm at dinner at The Dog and heading toward the whiskerino throwdown and will surface next week. Ha.

Enjoy your weekend.

As a little bonus for this week here's a shot of Caleb from the ole 8x10. I'm heading to Nashville this weekend for the Whiskerino Throwdown. Very excited about that.

8x10 is embarrassingly detailed and it's a shame to see it weblog sized. To see it larger, click here.

I think this sums up the respective weeks of Rob and myself.

Processed the last of the most recent 8x10 stuff. Excited to scan my own. Scanned Jason's today...we'll see when he gets around to blogging them. I'd love to show them to you but thats hardly my place.

HINT: JASON BLOG THE 8x10 PHOTOS PLEASE.

I am pretty sure I've GOT to get on the road soon. I miss exploration and absorption. Meant to do that today actually but a shoot got moved and i had some seriously tedious-ass post production to do.

This weekend: The Whiskerino Throwdown. Hell. Yes.

On the first day I shot 8x10 Caleb really came through with something absurd. He had borrowed my tophat (why on earth do I own one. I barely own dress pants) and apparently some makeup(?) and he produced this look. Chim chim, buddy.

As for 8x10, I'm still figuring out how I feel about it. I clearly haven't shot much so far but I do now at least appreciate the small, managable size of 4x5 (irony recognized). Developing has been the hardest part...talking to a friend the other day I think my development issues may be air bubbles in the fix. I'll be trying to get cleaner negs on the next round for sure. Still haven't run the shots from shooting with Jason the other day.

I shot some interiors this weekend which, much to my surprise, was really fun. Steph hung out with us while we shot this really cool space in the Highland area for the cool local home interior store atmosphere. The great Winslow Taft was around to AD which is always nice. Perhaps I'll feature a shot from that on Wednesday.

Trying to think of ways to collector work into groups and make people see them. Harder than it sounds soemtimes.

Another 8x10 sheet of Rob. I really need to work on my developing process for 8x10, for sure. This one had strange stuff going on so I made it weirder. Took more frames yesterday, as did Jason (his first!). I took some of jason and caleb. He shot me, caleb, and paul. I'll develop those soon no doubt. Wanting to shoot more 4x5. Got out and shot some cheesy crap in the snow today with Rob. Why not right?

I took an office in the Highland Park area with Rob (top left) in an old school (actual school) building owned by David (top center). In the basement there is a darkroom where Rob and Bob (top right) throw down ye olde chemicals for developing and printing. I'll join them down there at some point I'm sure.

Now and then, Kevin drops in to read Walker Percy* books and write some words himself.

Not that it matters too terribly much, but I shot these with the ole Leica on bulk rolled film, rolled by Rob, developed by Rob, scanned by me. Totally dirty scans...some scratches too. Oh well. Tomorrow, another 8x10 shot....maybe two?

*our building was in some way used by Walker Percy WAY back in the day.

Good friend and wonderful contributor to this here bloglog (blahGlog?) BRINGS YOU THIS MIND SHATTERING poptpop from a BOWLING ALLEY HOLY CRAP.

You'll see in the front of the frame (HUGE THING ON THE FLOOR??) that its a birthday party at BRUNSWICK bowling alley style product place. I CANNOT CONFIRM ITS BIRTHDAY PARTYNESS.

What I CAN confirm is that you're looking at the talented Jamie Harper holding a BABYCHILD and as far as I can he is NOT throwing this childperson down the BOWLING LANE. I cannot imagine a small, weak person being a very good bowling ball anyway.

THANK YOU HARPERS FOR BEING AWESOME.

I recent shot a bunch of images for Birmingham Magazine's story called Trivial Pursuit that covered a wide swath of cool things in our town. Some of the shots I was more happy with came from local dining institution Chez Fon Fon. In a rare change, I've posted several images in a spread thingy.

So we are in the final month of Whiskerino and the theme schedule has really ramped up. One from a few days ago was Mug Shots, and this is the photo I shot of David for his.

My description of the process as posted on Whiskerino

This is about as old school as I could ever hope to pull of in one night. Shot 4x5 on a Speed Graphic. I can't sync to strobes so we went even more old school by blacking the room and opening the shutter and popping a light, then covering the film again, adjusting, and doing another exposure.

I would call this my first successful 8x10 photograph. Bob, pictured, perhaps deserves a lot of the credit for doing something weird and letting me photograph it.

it looks fine here, but you really should view it large. If you don't care, feel no pressure to CLICK HERE.

This is the first semi okay scan of the 8x10 I shot. It's still a couple of stops under exposed (there will likely only be one (of bob) possibly properly exposed) but the detail is still amazing. I can't wait to run a perfect negative through. Anyway, I'm tired.

If you're curious what the [dirty] scan looks like a little bigger, click here. It's pretty big.

Over time I've found photography to be a cruel, vile beast on one day and an amazingly rewarding job on the next. I try to be involved in the latter as possible (which helps keeps me humble and thrifty).

One way in which photography rewards me personally is on the shoots where you meet someone with an amazing heart and some magnetic charisma that just make you feel good about being alive. That happened to me in December when I went to Smyrna, Tennessee for Regions Bank to photograph an amazing high school senior named Cody who has a unique place on the football team.

You will like Cody. It's a non-negotiable. He will win you over by sheer force of will and you'll be buddies before you have time to think about how nice he is. He's is a tour de force of team spirit for his Smyrna High School football team and was recently honored by them for his outstanding service as a motivational coach. He gives all of himself to his team and his team surprised him recently by making him honorary captain and bringing him out for the coin toss, and even kitting him out in a proper uniform for the occasion. This may not sound out of the ordinary but it stands out here because Cody was born with cerebral palsy. You'd never know it to talk to him.

He's one of those classic cases of someone "overcoming" an obstacle with an indefatigably positivity and passion. Football and friends seem to be his life and he makes life sound Amazing.

Please read more about him at the See The Good blog.

So in looking through Allison and Adam's wedding for a shot of her to post (to go with Adam, you see) I found this shot and I love it. I love simple.

Here's Adam.

David does really like a billion things and I feel like he's a human version of the game Katamari Damacy based on collecting awesome hobbies and skills.

One of these myriad occupations is his Veggie Oil collection and processing. He and a friend collect oil from all over the city and purify it and run it in their vehicles. This is a random portrait of him with some of the gear used in this process.

Outtake of me for some Whiskerino shots. a bit of a lazy post, for sure. And late at that! Soon I'll be able to post some 8x10. I STILL HAVE FREAKING 5 SHEETS OF THAT CRAP TO DEVELOP.

So this is more or less what I look like right...Now.

So, I KNOW ITS BEEN A DAMN WHILE. I'll work on it, I promise.

For now, here's a shot taken by CALEB CHANCY of ME shooting my friend ALLISON on the day of her wedding here in town.

POPTPOOOOMGOOOOP

CTPOMTPOA (not Cyrillic type!)