Munch PeeMachine Masters-Norton

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We've added a pup to the family! Welcome Munch! (He's on the right, with the white paws)

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(I posted this to tumblr and facebook a couple of weeks ago. Here's what I said there:)

Partners in crime fighting, heres Fin and new buddy Munch hanging out in the hood / backyard. I think they are slowly coming around to each other and will make a great pair. Fin is on the left and Munch is on the right.

(P.S. Fin’s whole name is Odafin Benson-Stabler Peppep Masters-Norton, and Munch’s name is Munch PeeMachine Masters-Norton. They are named after Ice-T and Richard Belzer’s characters on Law & Order: SVU. )

Festivus party shot

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Festivus

Lots of people have holiday partys. At our house we don't really get into the holidays at all (though, the family gathering portions we totally love), with one exception. Festivus. But in what I expect is the true spirit of Festivus, we totally half ass it. It's always last minute. We put in some effort into the guest list, but, like, just some. We phone in the snacks (our friends tend to out-do us on the food, which clearly we accept). We make up a theme-drink the day of. And the gift giving is the worst, dirtiest dirty santa I can think of. (Seriously, last year a brass Bull, that in explicably had removable testicles, had said testicles stolen. That's dirty, you guys. (It's also a bit of a long story.))

But I thought this year I could at least put some effort into documenting some part of it. So I broke out the 8x10 and forced some people to stand uncomfortably close to each other while I took some bad photos of them. Above is the "best".

Holiday Panoramas

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Our first married holiday season was spent with family in two states and at various levels of activity. Above, my cousin's son Michael shows his interest in our family Geocaching adventure.

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A generation at home in an electronic stare.

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And what is clearly an amazingly lively game of dominoes.

Recent Legotron portraits!

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Speaking of Slim J, here's an alternate portrait I took of him on the Legotron. I tried to take the weirdo Lego camera with me on shoots to try to document some people while on assignments.

Here are several from a Birmingham Magazine assignment.

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Anna Newsome of Ollie Irene

 

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Leah Harrigan of Stone's Throw Bar & Grill

 

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Maureen Holt of Little Savannah

 

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Amy Hansell of Veranda On Highland

 

And my dear friend Rashel got married this year and asked me to make some bridal portraits of her. This was clearly a time for some homemade weirdness! (I shot the Legotron and the Foam Core 8x10).

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Rashel in the studio

Slim J - Wrestling (yes, that kind) Instructor for mental_floss

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A while back I had to great pleasure of getting lost in traveling to remote Georgia to photograph Jeremy "Slim J" Boyd at the home of Anarchy Wrestling, where he not only wrestles, but also instructs others on the sport. Talk about interesting. I've had mixed exposure to professional wrestling throughout my life (mostly in the form of high school and college friends enjoying it and me getting tangential info by osmosis), but never anything quite this direct. It was a bit like stepping behind the curtain only to find that the wizard is actually really fit, hard working athlete instead of a play actor in tight pants.

Many thanks to Winslow and Rob for providing me an opportunity to have sweat splashed on me. Find this story in the Jan/Feb issue of mental_floss!

8mm film from our elopement!

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Stephanie & Cary Homemade Films from A Bryan Photo on Vimeo.

So when Stephanie and I slipped away to Europe to elope (under the legitimate guise of me having work in France), we also grabbed the 8mm Homemade Films kit from the guys over at A Bryan Photo to document our journey. They had no idea we'd be getting married but we really couldn't have picked a better way capture out trip. Branden did such an amazing job of turning our footage into a story, which, I've got to say, is extra impressive because I'm sort of all over the place when I travel. Everything is like a new shiny toy, even if I've seen it before. Going places makes my head spin and Branden managed to make sense of it all.

But more than anything, they managed to sum up how the trip felt to me. It was such a happy time (I mean, come on, how could it not be?) and now we have such an amazing way to remember it. (And this is coming from a guy who isn't typically overly sentimental about stuff. I've watched this thing a billion times already.)

Can't say thanks enough. Really looking forward to another excuse to make a Homemade Film.

More DIY camera stuff

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I got an old Calumet Green Monster (C1) 8x10 camera a while back and hadn't used it yet because I was waiting on parts directly from Calumet and because I didn't have a lens board. I visited my buddy Zack for his 40th birthday party and he had also recently gotten the 8x10 bug which inspired me to finally make an lens board so I can use my (proper) 8x10.

I found some culled luan wood paneling at Home Depot (51 cents plus tax) and cut it down to size (two layers) and then (with William's help) trimmed it down to accomodate the lens housing and flange. Now I just need to sand it and finalize everything and I'm good to go.

Here it is with the lens on the camera.

Union Square walkers

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Digging through old photos working on a project and found this one from June 2011 at Union Square in New York. I'm drawn to it now but still haven't decided if it's boring or just right. Whatever...all the walking around makes me happy.