Alan’s Glorious Mustache
Alan has helped me out a few times over the last couple of weeks and during that time he got to fill the traditional assistant roll of being the light test model. Except the traditional light test model doesn't have a mustache that will kick your ass. Mustache May, get ready for this dude.
A shot I took for my friend Philippe
My friend Philippe Cheng makes great unexpected photographs. I was shooting a factory in Piedras Negras, MX and saw an opportunity to tip my hat to him.
(p.s. the link is to his blog where he posts abstract photographs)
q’est-ce que ça?
Out take of a shot from yesterday. It's a crop but I sort of liked how it looks this way. Still on the road. Ready to be home for sure.
i never win at the LOTTO
En route back from the Whiskerino Throwdown (super blast!) we dropped into a Tennessee gas station and grabbed some Lotto tickets. I think Alan won biggest by getting like two bucks maybe? I lost 10 bucks maybe—but then if pressed I'd say I was still drunk in order to justify it (it'd be a lie but I'd feel 1.3% better).
Anyway...there was light there that was glorious. GLORIOUS I tell you. I grabbed this frame of David and am pleased, more or less, with its outcome. Granted it is just a floating head. BUT I TOOK IT AT A SHELL STATION.
We’re having a FIRE!…sale.
On my way home a couple of weeks ago I saw a HUGE plume of smoke over my city (above).
So I got closer.
Caleb, yet again
Fake cheesy band photo, courtesy of shooting yesterday.
(note him holding the meter)
Caleb’s legs OR Caleb Takes A Nap OR Sleepers, assistants that sleep on the job
Today was really an incredible day of shooting. I was working on a promotional project for a local manufacturing company and I was super impressed with how genuinely great everyone working there seemed to be. There was a dude there who'd be working for them 41 years! And another dude 30 years. Amazing to me.
I can't wait for the project to be public so I can show some of these images...the film goes to the lab tomorrow and I can't wait to get it back. Cannot. Wait.
Caleb was there today helping me out. I left him alone for like 5 minutes and the jerk fell asleep. Pff!
(He was a great asset today, in all seriousness)
Whoa, it’s 2010?
I really cannot believe it is already March. I'd totally planned on making some sort of new-year stort of post (new-year lower case, not like New Years or whatever) but that got done over at my photo blog and never cross posted.
Speaking of annoying cross-posting, I've recruited Winslow Taft to conjure from his mystical cauldron of design witchery a new website for me that will once again show its face at carynorton.com. I think the most exciting part of this is that this site will finally bring together all blog-style units I produce. I'm looking forward to having ONE place to post things and actually have those things be visible just by being at my site.
I most just wanted to say hi to the people reading this. I don't have any scale of how many people that may be, but I promise when the new site launches there will be BILLIONS (literally billions) of blog posts.
I'll show you a photo I've taken this year that I love (see above, or if you're reading this via blog reader, you may have to view it on the site to see the image). It's my friend Bob shot on 8x10 and I consider this my first successful 8x10 photograph. There are some others posted at the aforementioned photo blog, for your fyi.
Another from the vault
Another shot from the vault, around the same time as the last one. This is from a commercial shoot a couple of years. Looking back on it (which I do far too often, I think), I really learned a ton on that job and made a lot of work I'm proud of, most of which never saw the light of day. Makes me want to remind myself to take seriously ridiculous risks on important jobs. I'm trying to remember the last major job I shot Lomo on. Maybe I'll slip it in the bag for my next couple of jobs. We shall see.
Also, I updated the photo wall that lives at my house. I can't decide what to do when the wall is full. Maybe I'll give the prints away and start again.
And the wall as seen in the last three updates (reverse order):
From the vault
This is a hallway from a building I used to live in. It was pretty much this creepy all the time. It didn't help that the place was so busted you had to break into the basement if you blew a fuse (yes, a fuse, not a break) since the sketchy-ass landlord kept all that stuff locked up and more or less refused to come out if he wasn't really close.
A rare semi-glimpse at me POPTPOPPPPPPPPIN’
I feel weird writing in ALL CAPS and super enthusiastically about MYSELF shooting POPtPOps.
Backstory: Whiskerino, bowling day, bowling alley, LARGE FORMAT fest.
Now, technically, I'm focusing here, but that to me falls squarely in the POPTPOP qualifications. Other parts that are more rare, but that I love, are photos of the SET UP and photos of the post-shot REVIEW.
EGO POSTING HOLY CRAP CRAP CRAP!
I found this one, also residual from whiskerino*, of David shooting me shooting HIM.
I PROMISE NOT TO POST ONE OF MYSELF FOR A LONG TIME.
Which means I either need to dig up other shots, OR YOU NEED TO SEND SOME IN
BEARD, Alcohol, PopTpoP, and THE WIRE
The Wire is one of the best shows ever. I'm not sure this one is even up for debate. While watching it at Bottletree, ALAN BARTON grabbed this shot of
WES FRAZER shooting a girl DECIDEDLY NOT LOOKING AT HIM at the bar.
But who is she looking at? I DO NOT KNOW.
GO WATCH THE WIRE!
Whiskerino shenanigans
There isn't much to say. No all caps can sum up the nonsense that was the Whiskerino Throwdown.
I blew through all my Type 72 4x5 Polaroid and it was totally worth it.
Above is a versus between me and Nathan, aka wondermade.
old school photo time
Jason got in touch with me about an old photo of mine from something like 2006. There is an area in Birmingham called Gate City and it is not a place I'd like to find myself after dark, or really near dark. The area is known to me as a place that is not only a set a of Projects, but one with only one way in and out. Anyway...this was nearby said projects and, in fact, it is still around today and just as impacting. So since I dug out the negative and rescanned it I figured I'd post it too.
I still have no idea what the sign is in reference to. I will never ask.
It reads (for the sake of it being text on the page instead of just an image):
WE BEG YOU WITH TEARS IN OUR EYES TO PLEASE LEAVE US ALONE
Sweet hat, sir.
This dude rode his bike through my shoot yesterday so I stole his soul. He totally deserved it, and I'm gonna pawn it for some Leica gear.
Anyway I like this outtake. So here it is.
(Progress being made on the whiskerino front too, btw. May it RIP)